Starline Trucking
An illustrated science-fiction action thriller
A desert-blasted revenge story
with a cosmic twist.
Jayson Rothwell
Art by Victor Santos
Based on a story by
John Schoenfelder & Allan Guthrie
Illustrations © Victor Santos 2025
The story
Red Newman was ten when his father was gunned down in a roadside diner. He makes his living driving freight across the Southwest, but his real purpose is to kill the man who took his father from him.
Now he has a delivery route into High Desert State Prison, a stolen guard’s uniform and a set of knives.
Vein is waiting in his cell.
An unexpected arrival
Red is moments from death when a spacecraft tears through the prison wall.
In the wreckage, he finds Vein alive. Changed. Something from the crashed ship has taken control of his body—and it needs Red’s truck.
The man Red came to kill is asking for his help.
A very different delivery
A damaged alien craft is strapped to Red’s flatbed. His enemy is in the passenger seat. And Commander Jenkins is closing in.
For Jenkins, recovering extraterrestrial technology is a lucrative business. An intact craft and a living pilot could be the biggest payday of her career.
She has no intention of letting a trucker drive away with either.
Beyond revenge
Before the diner, there were nights on the roof of his father’s truck, a telescope and the promise of worlds beyond this one.
Now Red is hauling a stranded traveler through the desert, with armed pursuers behind him and something he never expected ahead.
A reason to look up again.
From page to screen
A revenge thriller collides with first contact on the back roads of the American Southwest.
Red’s forced alliance with the man he wants dead turns a desert pursuit into a test of the hatred that has defined his life.
The visitor is an interstellar freight hauler using Earth as a supply stop. Two truckers, worlds apart, discover more in common than either expects.
A spacecraft smashes through a prison. An eighteen-wheeler carries an alien pod into hidden canyons. Black-ops pursuers close in by road and air.
Commander Jenkins sees a fortune in the wreckage. Her pursuit gives the story a formidable female antagonist with a personal stake in the capture.
The illustrated novella
Get behind the wheel.
Starline Trucking pairs Jayson Rothwell’s desert revenge thriller with Victor Santos’s stark black-and-white illustrations.
The creators
Written by
A writer, director, and a big fan of brevity.
Based on a story by
John Schoenfelder & Allan Guthrie
Illustrated by
The Eisner and Harvey Award nominee behind Polar, adapted by Netflix into a film starring Mads Mikkelsen and Vanessa Hudgens. His graphic novels include Rashomon, Against Hope and Violent Love.
His work spans comics, film and television, with collaborators including Netflix, Porsche and Deadmau5.
Illustrations © Victor Santos 2025