Review – Shaolin Cowboy #3 (Dark Horse)

Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Geoff Darrow
Artist: Geoff Darrow, Dave Stewart
Release Date: 11th December 2013

The Shaolin Cowboy has clawed his way out of hell and has brought a hoard of festering zombies with him. Luckily, he has a bamboo staff with a chainsaw on each end and some experience of getting out of a tight spot. So begins the most epic fight scene I’ve ever seen in comics.

This fight has been raging since issue #1. With virtually nothing in the way of dialogue, there is only the well captured sound of revving chainsaws and some wonderfully imagined and very fluid choreography. Every zombie is impressively detailed and the scale of the scene makes any word I can think of seem small.

Having a fight scene that is three issues long (at least!) is, needless to say, a bold move. No patter, no wit, no one-liners – just a double dose of death to any zombie that gets in the way. There are so many severed limbs and heads lying about and enough blood so that the desert will never be dry again. This must all sound like the work of a self-indulgent, virtuoso artist – all style and skill with no substance – and there were times where I thought this was the case. I was wrong. The last page of this issue was where it all clicked into place and I realised what I’d been watching…

This is some uncompromising and fiercely original work by Darrow.