Advance Review — Darrow Treats Readers To A Visual Extravaganza In ‘The Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I.Live’ #3

Chances are you’re not picking up a Geof Darrow book for the intricate story.

That’s not a knock on the auteur. He’ll be the first to admit that many don’t even consider him to be a writer at all. His stories are basic and sophomoric. The plots, such as they are, serve almost exclusively to serve up the action.

But boy can this man draw!

Darrow once again shows off his skills and attention to detail in the third issue of The Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I.Live. The book is crammed cover to cover with highly detailed battles, cityscapes, and inside jokes making fun of nearly every conservative icon.

Let’s start with the battles. The Cowboy finds himself battling the minions of the Cola-Cola Company. And by minions, I mean AI-driven vending machines. That is pretty much the entire issue — and largely this whole limited series. The Cowboy fights and fights. If that doesn’t sound all that exciting, you probably aren’t familiar with Darrow’s illustrations. They are truly works of art that leaving you spending minute after minute decomposing exactly what is happening on each page.

Darrow employs an effective mix of half-splashes as well as tiny panels to illustrate the fight. One memorable double-page spread has a large scene that covers one-third of the real estate while devoting the rest to an incredible 46 minuscule panels all showing the Cowboy battling the evil machines.

Then there are Darrow’s elaborate cityscapes. For most artists, one or two pages of detailed backgrounds set the story up and allow them to focus on the characters. For Darrow, there’s no choice involved. Nearly every page is set again a detailed backdrop and yet it still features the characters fighting. The attention to detail and love he puts into every page — to say nothing of the time commitment — is astonishing.

Part of the detail he puts into those pages includes his many — many — inside jokes. There are a couple of dogs who keep saying: “Six. Seven.” There are Kung Fu-like flashbacks to the Cowboy’s master — naturally presented in black and white — as well as similar flashbacks with John Wayne.

And, of course, there are the over-the-top businesses, whose signs clutter up the cityscapes — including T+A Mobile, Liquor Often, Guns R Us, and Jesu$ Money Exchange. This is not high art, but it sure is fun art.

The chapter’s main downside is that there is only one more issue left in this miniseries. Hopefully the next one isn’t far behind.

The Shaolin Cowboy: Staying A.I.Live #3 — written and illustrated by Geof Darrow, colored by Ian Herring, and lettered by Nate Piekos — will be available Wednesday in comic books stories and on digital platforms from Dark Horse Comics.