No one does crazy, chaotic, hyper-violent action sequences like Geof Darrow. This book and especially the fight sequences are insane. Don't focus too much on the story. It's more or less just an excuse for the fight sequences. His imagery and attention to detail is second to no one. This is part of an 8 page sequence showing all the people who've lined up to get revenge on the Shaolin Cowboy.
Some of his ideas are just insane like fighting sharks in the belly of a kaiju with chainsaws mounted to a polearm.
9781932700404 This is a rambling account of Darrow's career leading up to the recent 'Shaolin Cowboy' releases: the newest, 'Shemp Buffet', a Dark Horse hardcover collecting the 2014-2015 4-issue series, and the eponymous book the review is technically devoted to, a softcover collecting the original 7-issue Burlyman series published between 2004 - 2007. This babbling is inspired by my long appreciation of his artistic prowess, and his unusual career. Tintin was my favorite comic as a kid, although X-Men and Batman were close. Moebius completely rewrote those isolated strands of DNA in charge of art appreciation, as did Schuiten, Manara and Giardino, after catching a few tantalizing glimpses in old issues of Heavy Metal. Mike Mignola's art in Gotham by Gaslight', Marvel-Epic's colored reprints of 'Akira' and First's prestige format sampling of 'Lone Wolf & Cub'... these were the last blocks in the foundation, so to speak. Coming back to comics years later, clean-line BD, chiaroscuro noir and dark gekiga/shonen manga were what I gravitated towards. Darrow's 'Hard Boiled' came shortly after Sin City, and I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen.
From the variant cover to the final issue of Conan the Cimmerian; Shaolin Cowboy - Shemp Buffet; a poster for Fantastic Fest:
The 5-Star rating applies to the material -- Shaolin Cowboy is like 'Kill Bill: Part 1', a comparison I'm sure other people have already made -- the story is a surreal farce that functions as set dressing for the greatest battle in sequential art history. This 200-plus page book is a celebration of artistic violence and violent art, a gloriously fucked-up masterpiece of ligne-claire carnage that examines the infinite possibilities of sword, gun and chainsaw-related damage. The Dark Horse book, which collects the 2014 4-issue series, will be released shortly. It takes Darrow's unique premise from the 7-issue Burlyman series collected here, and follows it down the rabbit-hole of logical absurdity, creating a wordless, plot-less battle between the Shaolin Cowboy and a horde of decomposing zombies. For everyone who doesn't give a shit about the background, I'll just summarize by saying that the material is a must for Darrow fans, but this standard-sized, high-quality softcover should have been a hardcover, and it should have been bigger to properly display the art. The 9 x 13-inch French albums from Panini are a better way to experience the artwork, but each of the three hardcovers collect 2 issues each, leaving the final 7th issue uncollected. Without an eighth 'epilogue' issue, or perhaps old 'Bourbon Thret' reprints, Tome 4 will likely never appear. This is the only complete edition, and it took eight years to get here.
Early Darrow -- East Meets West and Bourbon Thret:
A holy grail of mine -- 'Cite du Feu', the legendary mid-80's portfolio collaboration between Moebius and Geof Darrow; there's never been a better comic art collaboration:
It's about time. After leaving animation for comics, Geof Darrow debuted with a French album called 'Bourbon Thret'. It collected his short stories for various bande dessinee periodicals, and featured an unlikely hero who would later be known as 'The Shaolin Cowboy'. His purist approach to the 'ligne claire' style and ridiculously detailed, meticulously plotted compositions made him something of an artist's artist, and collaborations with the late, great Moebius and Frank Miller followed. 'Hard Boiled' and 'The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot' were -- in retrospect -- gifts of a sort from Miller, and tokens of his esteem. Darrow was unknown to North American audiences, while Miller was already a comics giant, in the midst of his now classic 'Sin City'. Miller's respect for Darrow's prodigious talents prompted him to use Darrow as the physical model for the silent, deadly cannibal named 'Kevin'. With 'Hard Boiled', he imagined the most outrageously violent, darkly humorous and visually complex science fiction story possible; something that would challenge and showcase Darrow's abilities to maximum effect. It was not a challenge Darrow took lightly, and it took over three years to complete. But the results were fucking spectacular.
From Hard Boiled:
'Hard Boiled' and 'The Big Guy...' featured the most intricately rendered, beautifully imagined line-work in comics history. Miller's name alone was enough to generate significant interest, but Darrow was unquestionably the star of the show. 'Hard Boiled' in particular was an eyeball-melting extravaganza of choreographed comics chaos -- Miller's story was an inspired blend of 'Blade Runner', 'Total Recall' and 'Robocop', with the straight-faced satire and violence of Verhoeven multiplied exponentially. Dark Horse published European-format oversized albums collecting each series, with European-style painted coloring that 'clear-line' art is made for. They also set a precedent with something that seems almost typical now, releasing two 12-inch wide by 16-inch tall black-and-white collections: 'Big Damn Hard Boiled' and 'King-Size Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot'. Anticipating the stunning Sunday Press reprints of 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' and IDW's excellent 'Artist Edition' facsimiles, they were black and white reproductions of Darrow's original art, without any of the dialogue or captions obscuring details. The multiple editions and formats were unusual for the time, before comics had committed to collected editions and claimed their place on bookstore shelves (it's ironic, considering how late this volume is, and how difficult the material it collects was to find -- in any format -- for several years; I bought the French language hardcovers just before the price jumped, since the comics still available were far too expensive; the French albums are nicely produced and oversized, but reprint only the first six comics, missing the final seventh issue).
From The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, including new material (top):
Then, not much happened. Reports of 'Shaolin Cowboy' started in the late nineties, and Darrow did the occasional cover or pin-up. Most of his efforts, however, were devoted to his conceptual designs for 'The Matrix'. His friendship with the Wachowski brothers led to various film-related projects, but 'Shaolin Cowboy' remained an enigmatic title with a perpetual 'coming soon' status. When issue number 1 finally appeared in 2005, it was published by Burleyman Entertainment, the Wachowski's boutique label, established primarily for the purposes of showcasing the work of Darrow and other Wachowski favorites like Steve Skroce. Burleyman released seven issues of 'Shaolin Cowboy', and six of them were collected in three hardcover albums in Europe. The decade-long gap between 'The Big Guy (...)' and 'Shaolin Cowboy' had not diminished his illustrative prowess, earning Darrow yet another Eisner Award for 'Best Penciller/Inker'. The silent master of Kung Fu -- a.k.a. 'Bourbon Thret' -- had returned after twenty years, this time astride an incredibly verbose talking donkey. The story is a surrealistic pastiche of Hong Kong action flick, the comedic fantasy of John Carpenter's 'Big Trouble in Little China', and post-apocalyptic zombie horror; there is no real 'plot' to speak of, just a series of hyper-kinetic battle scenarios that recall the cinematic celebration of violence in Tarantino's 'Kill Bill'. The comparisons to film are intentional; the pacing in 'Shaolin Cowboy' has the movie-like momentum of Japanese manga, reading almost like story-boards.
From the original Shaolin Cowboy series, 2005:
Unfortunately, Burlyman Entertainment was (and is) a part-time project for the Wachowski's, and the 'Shaolin Cowboy' comics didn't get the promotion or distribution they deserved. The notion that the work of an artist as important as Geof Darrow could languish in out-of-print limbo for several years is insane, and testifies to the low priority the Wachowski's placed on comics. Burlyman might have been a way of placing their proprietary stamp on another person's intellectual property; the growing number of comic-related film adaptations has led to an influx of small press titles associated with actors, directors and producers, following the example of very successful comic-book-writers-turned-Hollywood-heavyweights like Mark Millar* and Robert Kirkman. Too many titles have become film pitches, as if the entire medium is just the Movie Industy's developmental candy store. I didn't really need much excuse to dislike them after 'Speed Racer', but dumping over 200 pages of finished Geof Darrow artwork into a black hole for seven years is grounds for war (especially since it amounted to something like 30-35% of his comic-book output to that point). Well, Burleyman has finally collected the seven-issue series, and released it a couple of months before Dark Horse unleash their collection of his recent four-issue 'Shaolin Cowboy' tale. After a long drought, it's a superabundance of immaculately rendered carnage. Pick up the Burlyman trade paper-back while you can, because there's no telling when a second printing will appear.
From the recently released Shaolin Cowboy - Shemp Buffet HC:
My suspicions about Burlyman's priorities are confirmed by the format. It's a nicely made standard-issue trade paperback, printed on glossy stock that shows off the details nicely. But it's small. It's the usual 7 x 10 inch book, and the famous Darrow details are not given their due. This should have been AT LEAST a 9 x 12-inch hardcover, and preferably a 12 x 16-inch deluxe hardcover beast of the kind Humanoids do so well. Come to think of it, why didn't Humanoids publish this book? Darrow was hand-picked as the successor to Moebius by the late legend himself, and his only serious threat as Heir of Jean 'Moebius' Giraud is Ladronn, or perhaps Das Pastoras. His time spent working in film follows an eerily similar course: Darrow's essential role developing the Matrix trilogy echoes the work Moebius did on Blade Runner and Alien. Now he needs to find his own Jodorowsky-type partnership, and produce his own 'Incal'... because Wachowski does not equal Jodorowsky. What about an Aronofsky? 'Noah' kind of sucked, but he's got a '-sky' and a propensity for mystical, Jodo-rific SF epics. AND he's already embraced his inner Jodo by collaborating with artists Kent Williams and Niko Henrichon on the beautiful graphic novel versions of 'The Fountain' and 'Noah', the latter of which was far better than the film, IMO. Until such an unlikely partnership begins, however, there's 320-pages of premium Darrow hitting the bookstores, and I think it's fair to say that 'Shaolin Cowboy' is Geof Darrow's very own 'Airtight Garage'.
Legend of Korra illustration; Wolverine illustration; a page from King-Size Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (one of two giant-sized reprints -- the other was Big Damn Hard Boiled -- showcasing the original art in black and whit, minus speech balloons and captions):
P.S.: *Mark Millar in particular has used his ever-expanding list of R-rated indie superhero films to make his comicbook projects the job every artist wants in on, leading to co-creator status and the kind of money DC and Marvel won't come close to paying. Steve McNiven, J.G. Jones, Frank Quitely, Dave Gibbons, Leinil Yu, Goran Parlov, Bryan Hitch, John Romita, Jr... No other writer has attracted the same kind of pure artistic firepower; artists will hang up on the Marvel Editor-in-Chief/CEO/Disney Overlord if they get Mark Millar on the other line. His books are fast, entertaining head candy, but they also serve as gloriously story-boarded film pitches, complete with script and sometimes casting (you can thank Millar and Bryan Hitch for the casting of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury)... and they get optioned before the first issue hits the stands.
9781932700404 I should have realized that a title of Start Trek suggests this Shaolin Cowboy volume is first in the reading order. Alas.
The first 30 or so pages are sublime Shaolin Cowboy nonsense. The cowboy battles a mob of degenerate humans, plus King Crab, a violent talking crab with an elaborate backstory. The cowboy's donkey adds some oddly enjoyable Robert Mitchum-related humor. It's weird, gruesome fun.
Then the cowboy battles a deeply racist skull, plus two floating...demons? And the donkey shits and the Robert Mitchum humor grows wearying. The banter between the demons is nonsense. A giant city on the back of a lizard rises out of the ground. Eventually, we reach the beginning of Shemp Buffet. I'll admit to skimming most of this part of the book. It was weird in an unpleasant and annoying way, unlike the fun first part. 9781932700404 Good action, relatable protagonist despite him not speaking much (it's the body language that does it, I think), and if there's a little too much talk and explanation and such things, then at least it's usually well spoken and full of wit. 9781932700404 Najpierw zaciekawienie, bo grafiki jak u Moebiusa i stężenie abstrakcji i absurdalnej przemocy takie, że musi robić wrażenie. Gra z czytelnikiem na etapie historii z krabem bawi i zachęca do dalszej lektury. Później miałem jednak poczucie coraz większego bełkotu i improwizacji. Niby nadal ok, ale w tym stężeniu i przy tej objętości zaczęło męczyć. Ciekawe, choć w moim przypadku jednorazowe doświadczenie 9781932700404
Ready for the HOLIDAYS! Over 200 pages! The COMPLETE BURLYMAN SERIES! Not the same as the hardcover (from Dark Horse), no overlap in ART or STORY or REVEALS about the Cowboy's MULE! In this OVERSTUFFED volume, SEE the Shaolin Cowboy FIGHT demons, sharks, and maniacal crustaceans, and GAPE, as the Cowboy continues his trip across the pockmarked landscape of the American psyche. PLUS, an abundance of EXTRAS, showcasing all the alternative covers with art by such peerless luminaries as MOEBIUS (JEAN GIRAUD), MIKE MIGNOLA, KEVIN NOWLAN, RICARDO DELGADO, SCOTT GUSTAFSON, and JOHN SEVERIN. MORE pages than less!!! You'll want to SEE the Cowboy confront his nemesis, KING CRAB, grapple hand to fin with a GREAT WHITE, and dance with an army of the UNDEAD! Get a full dose of Kung Fu, chainsaws, and wit, in this nonstop treasure of art and color. And a mule. It's a BUDDY PICTURE with a BODY COUNT! Collecting SHAOLIN COWBOY #1-7. The Shaolin Cowboy
The fantastic art is The best part of this book. The plot (what plot there is) isn't great and the humor gets stale very fast. 9781932700404 Compleet absurd, droge conversaties, geweldige tekeningen, zeer stijlvol, spelend met camerastandpunten. Nog vreemder dan Moebius. Voor de fijnproevers. 9781932700404 There is no way to effectively convince you that this remains my favorite comic of all time since it came out in 2005. Who would believe me? Why would I choose this book?
But I whisper to you with the eyes of a child and breath like starlit dreams. It's true, I tell you. It's all of it true.
And somewhere inside a dragon that walks through endless deserts, in the city of the dead risen from the dragon's belly, a monk slices a rapping shark in half with a chainsaw.
Somewhere a talking donkey projectile-poops. 9781932700404 El dibujo es tan acojonante como surrealista su argumento y absurdos sus diálogos. Como tebeo roza lo ridículo mientras que como libro de ilustraciones secuenciadas es maravilloso. Supongo que por eso miraré con sumo deleite las viñetas del resto. 9781932700404 Darrow's draftsmanship is impeccable. The plot and dialogue, though, are inane and to be avoided. 9781932700404
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