Release Date: December 11th, 2013

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Written By: Geof Darrow

Art By: Geof Darrow

Price: 3.99

Review:

Shaolin Cowboy is some of the most beautiful insanity I’ve ever seen in a comic book. I still don’t know why this badass monk is slaughtering walking corpses, where the zombies came from, or why he carries a bow staff with little chainsaws on each end but I love every bit of it.

The storyline is there and it’s not. The first two issues had exactly ZERO dialog in it but you could tell the walking corpses had to die and this monk in the cowboy outfit is the man for the job.  This is obvious since there is an unlimited supply of dead meat scattered around everywhere he goes. In this issue we finally see the warrior cowboy monk utter a single line of dialog as he faces down an unending army of walking corpses coupled with his own fatigue. I did some research on the awesomeness that is Geof Darrow and found that this isn’t the first iteration of Shaolin Cowboy. I haven’t had the opportunity to check out the original so I don’t know if his origin is discussed or why he is a Shaolin cowboy in the first place. Even still, if you like chubby, elderly kung-fu masters dishing out an infinite zombie massacre, then this book is for you.

The art is above and beyond as far as detail goes. I lost track of how many zombies are in a given panel but there are plenty. Each one, along with the monk, are littered with an insane amount of detail. It’s eye popping and almost a strain to take it all in. Even the environment, the rocks, and the desert look alive. Shaolin Cowboy’s facial expressions are priceless and offer a nice contrast to the blood and guts being strewn around in abundance. The only art I’ve seen recently with this level of detail is Juan Jose Ryp’s stuff.

As a whole, reading Shaolin Cowboy is like reading a movie storyboard. It’s anything but conventional graphic storytelling. Even the panel layouts are strange and unique but that adds to the cinematic approach Darrow takes in telling the story of this pudgy-faced old butcher of evil walking dead things. Even if I have no clue what is going on, every page is amazing to look at. A strange thing happened as I “read” the panels. I started to narrate the story in my head as I stared in disbelief at some of the best looking artwork in comic books.

Check this out:

Pure awesome!