SHAOLIN COWBOY #2 REVIEW

[James Groves]

<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/shaolincowboy2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/shaolincowboy2t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="Shaolin Cowboy #2"></a>Reviewer: James Groves, JamesandtheDragon@hotmail.com
Story Title: The Shaolin Cowboy

The Shaolin Cowboy fights a crab.

Colors & Letters: Peter Doherty
Everything else: Geofrey Darrow
Page 1 (ass-ologue) written by: Andy & Larry Wachowski
Variant Cover drawn by: Mike Mignola
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Editorial: Spencer Lamm
Editorial Assistance: Sharon Bray
Shadowy figures behind the scenes: Andy & Larry Wachowski

The second issue of Burlyman Entertainment's Shaolin Cowboy is a pulpy comic book delight; characterised by graphic scenes of violence, shocking amounts of blood and gore, sensational subject matter, and a script where twisted humour is very much to the forefront. And there's a crab in it too; a maniacal, self-obsessed, ju-jitsu trained, talking crab. And herein lays the beauty of the storyline. The concept of Shaolin Cowboy fighting a crab--not any old crab mind you, this is the King Crab we're talking about here--with a screw loose, is one of the best ideas I’ve seen envisioned and implemented in a comic book. It’s absurd, it's bizarre and it works. And it's not just within the central scene of a cowboy-monk fighting a vertically challenged crustacean where we see all the nonsensical elements of the storyline here either. We have a talking donkey (complete with mandatory naked chick for titillation purposes), repressed revengers, the Shaolin monastery training a... crab, and even a crab that manages to hurtle through numerous rock boulders and human torsos (and even a car)... still intact! But aside from the cool concept and disturbing comedy elements, what really carries this book forward is Darrow's hyper-detailed and vividly realistic artwork, which puts to shame many of the other comic books you can find on the stands.

Darrow's artwork fits in with the humorous tone of the script. It's bright, light in tone, and features a number of scenes which are visually hilarious. From seeing King Crab puffing on a cigarette as he recalls how he gained his martial arts skills, to the sight of King Crab performing various training routines in unison with other monks, to seeing the sheer terror in his eyes (do crabs have eyes?) as Shaolin Cowboy eats King Crab's mother, father, brothers and sisters at the local crab buffet, the reader gets a truly unique visual portrayal of Shaolin's new adversary--complete with slap-on swastikas on his shell. The artwork is amazing; meticulously detailed and beautifully designed. The use of small, square panels surrounding one rectangular panel to focus up close on Shaolin Cowboy as he renders King Crab's family claw-from-claw with relish, was well done, as it created a real claustrophobic sense of terror--which obviously sent King Crab over the edge. The fighting is well choreographed, with the obvious highlight being the Matrix-esque finishing move towards the end of the book.

There's not really that much substance to the storyline here though. It's more about hitting the reader hard and fast with the comic book referenced humour, sexual innuendo and visual gags, rather than anything more in-depth. It's all about providing style over substance to some degree and although that rarely works, Darrow pulls it off with some aplomb this issue. King Crab comes off as particularly convincing in his motives, as we see a mafia revenge vibe flowing throughout the issue, but unfortunately, the same can't be said for Shaolin Cowboy, who we don't really learn anything about in the entire issue. This is where the underlying fault of the issue lies. The reader needs to learn more about Shaolin Cowboy in order for his adventures to actually mean something; otherwise, no idea--however inventive or uniquely imagined--will be enough to keep me reading the book on a regular basis.

Shaolin Cowboy #2 is a beautifully crafted comic book with a cool and unique concept which just manages to avert the reader’s attention away from the loosely defined central character and the nondescript world he lives in.

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''Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save!’

[Dirty Harry]

Good review!

This book is fantastic. The entire scene with the crab telling his "origin" was brilliant and hilarious. I hope more people try this out!

[Dylan McKay]

I think I'm going to need to track this book down just for it's wierd wild nature. Seems to at the very least be imaginative and messed up.

[Jon Hancock]

Is this any better than the first issue? Save the art I found that to be a bit lacking.

[James Groves]

Originally Posted by Jon Hancock

Is this any better than the first issue? Save the art I found that to be a bit lacking.

Read the review.

Shaolin Cowboy fights a crab. And it's funny. Depends whether that does anything for u.

[Jon Hancock]

I've read the review and it's lacking :p (JTMP...)

What I mean is that is this issue a similar style to the first issue? Not bothered about the plot so much as if this'll only have three pages of dialogue or some such.

[NMBradbury]

Both Burlys, Shaolin Cowboy and Doc Frankenstein seem to be suffering from the same problem at the moment, that the art is top-notch high-class arguably best out there stuff, whereas the plots are somewhat...lacking. This one seems to be worst for that, in that the art is better but the plot is worse. Maybe it'll make more sense later on in the series. Until then, I'm not as sold on this as Doc F.