A comiXologist recommends (a Dark Horse comic)... |

A comiXologist recommends (a Dark Horse comic)
Shaolin Cowboy

Over the course of four issues, Geof Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy plays out not so much of a story as he does one extended scene, a battle portrayed moment by moment, each panel crafted with detail and wit. As anyone who has seen Darrow’s work in Hardboiled, Big Guy & Rusty the Robot or the other volumes on Shaolin Cowboy knows, he is a masterful artist, but more than just being able to create compelling images, he also a master storyteller. Each panel in Shaolin Cowboy is a story unto itself, and though the images are static, they are so teeming with detail that they seem to come alive, to teem and writhe with activity, with action, portraying a larger moment within the series itself but also dozens of smaller, self-contained moments.

Despite its vibrancy and its extremes (the extreme detail of the images and, on occasion, extreme gore), Shaolin Cowboy never feels excessive. Issue two, for example, is 30 panels of the titular character swinging a chainsaw through an army of zombies, and though the blood and viscera flows freely, the feeling of the issue is almost meditative. It’s a moment that might take up a few seconds of screen time in a film, but her it’s given room to breathe. By issue four, Darrow moves from larger panoramas of carnage to smaller, more contained panels (as many as 30 on some pages) of one-on-one battle, ratcheting up the tension of each moment.

Shaolin Cowboy is a pop art masterpiece, an enigmatic comic that satisfies on an action/genre level while exploring the full possibilities of the medium by using visual storytelling in imaginative and innovative ways. It is not so much read as it is experienced, and what an experience it is!

-Harris Smith