Advanced Review — Darrow Raises Sophomoric Humor To New Heights In ‘The Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I.Live’ #2
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
If flinging boogers as deadly weapons and making fun of ICE is your kind of humor, this is definitely the book for you. Both are featured prominently, along with lots of other inappropriate humor. Plus there’s a killer chase scene.
Overall
9.5/10There’s a pretty simple test to know whether you would like Geof Darrow’s approach to storytelling. Read the opening pages of the latest issue of The Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I.Live.
If the sight of the Cowboy picking his nose and flinging a booger at near-supersonic speeds — enough to piece a cell phone and still nail the caller in the back of the throat — makes you giggle with joy and hurriedly flip to the next page, you’re a fan. If not, this series and Darrow in general is not your cup of tea. Try My Little Pony instead.
That opening snot-shot is only the beginning of Darrow’s descent into sophomoric humor. (I saw descent, but he really raises it to an art form in and of itself.) There are plenty of dogs lifting their legs to pee on streets that are filled with inappropriately named restaurants like Cum Inn and salons called Nail Her. It’s Darrow at his dirtiest and finest.
The rest of this issue, which Darrow writes and illustrates, features a run in with some racist hicks (complete with the Confederate flag and NRA slogans) helping ICE out by trying to send the Cowboy back to wherever he came from. After an extended, expertly depicted, and still hilarious chase scene, the Cowboy finally meets this limited series’ true enemy – the Cola-Cola Company. (That it’s taken nearly half the series before we meet the big bad is fairly typical for Darrow. He doesn’t consider himself much of a writer, but fans will beg to differ.)
I had a chance to talk with Darrow about the series a few months ago and know where things are headed. Spoilers prevent me saying more, but let’s just say that if you’re a fan of Japanese vending machines, you will neither be surprised nor disappointed in what he’s cooking up. We just need to wait another month or so.
The Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I.Live #2 — written and illustrated by Geof Darrow, colored by Ian Herring, and lettered by Nate Piekos — will be available Wednesday in comic book stories and on digital platforms from Dark Horse Comics.