By Eric Buckler
Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin by Geof Darrow was launched as a hardcover graphic novel by Dark Horse Comics in August. The graphic novel features a visitor cowl artwork gallery and sketchbook.
Shaolin Cowboy tells the story of a wandering, taciturn monk who’s a supernaturally gifted kung fu fighter and wields a cool parasol sword and decapitator hat. The cowboy is the fixed goal of violent crime from grotesque sci-fi monsters and the like, generally for no actual purpose. Occasionally, they need revenge due to his earlier violent reactions to their preliminary assaults.
Cruel to Be Kin introduces Komodo dragons, big steampunk squids pushed by tremendous tiny supervillains, and racist fool hitmen to this already crowded and wildly imaginative universe.
Darrow was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, IA, and began his illustration profession in promoting and animation after graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He burst onto the comics scene with Bourbon Thret, which was initially revealed in France, after which Hard Boiled, a violent, detailed collaboration with Frank Miller that launched Darrow as probably the most memorable cartoonists of his era.
Stated merely, Darrow is a particularly fascinating individual. He gives relentlessly distinctive, fascinating anecdotes, and weird esoteric trivia in response to any questions or conversational alternatives put in his path. The humorousness behind his timing and materials is simply as distinctive and weird; it virtually appears too brash to work, but it surely’s truly filled with refined orchestration that works like a dream. His inventive and storytelling creativity are direct manifestations of that very same fascinating persona. It is a thrill to be contained in the creativity that made the identical wild worlds on his pages.
By Luigi Novi, CC BY 3.0,
Poetic efforts apart, it was simply superior speaking to somebody who has labored with an all-star menagerie of comedian e-book royalty (the place he holds simply as a lot legendary provenance), together with Jack Kirby, Moebius, Frank Miller, Steve Skroce, and Dave Stewart.
Darrow may truly outright dismiss any of those compliments. Is it humility? No, he simply thinks he attracts too slowly and has goofy characters. — Geof Darrow in Bretagne, France. Eric Buckler in Seattle, WA. June 4, 2023:
Eric Buckler (BUCKLER): What a part of France do you reside in?
Geof Darrow (DARROW): Ahh, it’s a little bit south and really west of Paris, in case you look on a map, the truth is, it’s the farthest western level on the European continent. It stands proud within the ocean. The space’s known as Bretagne, I don’t know in case you’ve seen Asterix?
BUCKLER: Yeah.
DARROW: That’s the place his character’s from.
BUCKLER: Oh! Neat. I used to be in France for the primary time a couple of years in the past. Didn’t make it over there.
DARROW: I’d be stunned in case you did [Laughs]. The place I stay, the boulangerie, has a tiny little bar connected that possibly 4 individuals might slot in? [There’s] a little bit grocery retailer, a magnificence salon. I believe there may be somebody who cleans up cats and canines, it’s like a grooming place. And a church.
BUCKLER: That’s an fascinating mixture of issues.
DARROW: Very. I’d have the ability to get my haircut and my canine cleaned.
BUCKLER: [Laughter] Then cease and get some groceries. How lengthy have you ever been dwelling there?
DARROW: Three years. Wait… 4 years! I’ll be damned.
BUCKLER: Where have been you earlier than that?
DARROW: Oh, I’ve lived in France earlier than. I lived in Paris for some time. Went to Normandy after which again to Paris. Then I went to Chicago. I lived in Chicago for 13 years. I left there in 2018 to return right here. Grew up in Iowa. Lived in Los Angeles. I’ve lived throughout.
BUCKLER: You began illustrating in promoting in Chicago, appropriate?
DARROW: I labored for an audio/visible firm. They did like inter-company promoting. Once a yr, [companies] like McDonald’s would have these gross sales conferences. They’d choose some space the place they might get all their gross sales reps to return to, like San Francisco or LA, throughout the winter. Then they’d have a gross sales presentation like, “This year we’ll sell even more hamburgers!” [Laughs]. They would have these speeches and I drew loads of cartoons for that. You know, like gross sales graphics. They had these 35mm slides they usually needed to be simply so. They have been so annoying and time-consuming [Laughs]. They needed to sync up on a regular basis. It was simply not a spotlight.
BUCKLER: [Laughs]
DARROW: But, it was a job.
BUCKLER: Whatever can get you into the sphere?
DARROW: Yeah!
BUCKLER: So when was the primary time you created a comic book of your individual?
DARROW: Oh, once I was a child I attempted to do comics. I believe I had one known as Dave Danger? [Laughs]. It would all the time simply be like one drawing; Oh now he’s being attacked by a large vulture, now he’s fallen into quicksand, now he’s combating a large snake. That form of crap. I used to be shopping for comedian books. Then, I assume I’d have been in sixth grade, I found Marvel Comics and would attempt to copy them. I’d attempt to copy like a Jack Kirby comedian, however you already know, actual massive! I by no means completed one [Laughs]. It wasn’t ’til I went to artwork faculty that I completed a single comedian. Well, I did end one story. We did like a fanzine my senior yr, it had like a three- or four-page story in it.
BUCKLER: You went to Hanna-Barbera in LA after Chicago, proper?
DARROW: Yeah. I moved on the market as a result of I kinda figured that these Hanna-Barbera cartoons within the ‘80s were just so bad! [Laughs]. I figured even someone with a limited ability could probably get a job at that place. I actually just figured, it wasn’t simply that Hanna-Barbera was unhealthy, however there was simply loads of animation on the market like Filmation and Hanna-Barbera.
I truly began at Filmation. They fired me after the three weeks. They had us do, or attempt to do, storyboards. I had by no means carried out them earlier than, and on prime of that, they did loads of inventory animation at Filmation. They had all these key items of animation and also you have been speculated to plug that in at any time when you might. It’d be like Flash Gordon operating throughout the display, or leaping, or some bullshit like that. They gave us these large thick books. I imply tough, they have been like 4 inches thick with all of the inventory animation photos. So, while you have been storyboarding, you’d look by that to seek out a picture so somebody wouldn’t truly must animate it. We simply weren’t quick sufficient.
So in the future, almost everyone that obtained employed, all obtained laid off as a result of we simply weren’t quick sufficient. One of ‘em who truly left was a man known as Paul Smith, he truly left to go do the X-Men!
BUCKLER: Didn’t know that!
DARROW: Dave Stevens was there at the moment too.
BUCKLER: Oh, Rocketeer!
DARROW: He was within the format division, that was the place I first met him. My boss there [at Filmation] was a man named Will Meugniot who drew comics for Eclipse. He did fairly a couple of comics truly.
BUCKLER: Numerous cartoonists!?
DARROW: Oh, there have been! Then after that, I went over to Hanna-Barbera. They had loads of Filipino artists. That’s the place I met Jack Kirby. I’d met him earlier than, however not likely. Some of the fellows simply labored for newspaper comics. One of the fellows, oddly sufficient, I didn’t realize it on the time — I didn’t cross the t’s and dot the i’s — the man the Hernandez Brothers liked a lot who was drawing Dennis the Menace, he was working there! His title was Owen Fitzgerald.
He was a format man, an actual good man. I used to be actually stunned when [the Hernandez Brothers] have been speaking they usually have been speaking about this one man, and I used to be like, “Oh! Owen!” [Laughs].
There have been among the guys who did like Garfield. There was a man named Mo Gollub who painted all these stunning work for all these previous Dell Comics. He painted the Tarzan covers and painted loads of the Westerns. He was simply sensible at portray animals.
There was a lot expertise at Hanna-Barbera and it very seldom ever made it onto the display cus they might simply crank that stuff out as quick as they might. Just to make a revenue.
I imply, they did some great things. I all the time appreciated Johnny Quest, the designs have been fairly good. But the tales have been simply… once I was engaged on Super Friends, these issues have been simply so horrible.
BUCKLER: Yeah, trying again on a few of that form of materials today…
DARROW: I imply yeah. Kirby was doing character design. God, among the stuff. He would even do some for Scooby-Doo they usually have been hilarious! He would simply draw the stuff so fast. It wasn’t what you’d name, “On Model.” He was actually good. They must do spaceships and monsters. But on the time, the division I used to be in was character design and all of that shit, it didn’t appear to be Kirby.
It wasn’t till he went over to Ruby-Spears the place he labored on Thundarr. You can see his contact on Thundarr however you might by no means see what he did on the form of stuff that I used to be engaged on just like the Super Friends stuff or Space Ghost. It all obtained like, “Hanna-Barbera-ized”.
Mike Sekowsky, who drew like the primary 60 problems with Justice League, was there [too].
BUCKLER: Oh, yeah, he’s nice! What was it like transitioning into that world with all of that expertise? Even although it feels like loads of the illustrators have been simply cranking out the simplified artwork such as you have been.
DARROW: I imply, I used to be actually not superb on the job. Numerous the stuff that I did was the stuff that no person else needed to do; which was like a pie, a mannequin of a pie, or a automobile, or a truck, or a weapon, or a hockey stick or like when Scooby-Doo needs to be carrying a sombrero.
Numerous it was like fundamental stuff they usually have been simply altering it a little bit bit. Like once we have been there, they introduced within the Wonder Twins. It was just like the Wonder Twins appeared right into a bucket of ice water or one thing. Like you’d draw their faces, mirror-like, in a puddle. I used to be all the time on the sting of being laid-off and fired, I simply wasn’t good at it.
I labored there for a couple of years and I simply kinda saved out of my bosses approach. I labored for this actually stunning girl, Sandra Young, who was a very nice artist. Everybody was in love together with her and I used to be form of her assistant. I’d give her my drawings after which [Laughs] she would go in and take ‘em to the boss [Laughs]. Because if I took the same drawing in, he would disapprove of it. But if I gave it to her, and she took it in, it would be okay [Laughs]. I mean, she was like Marilyn Monroe, literally. Her mother was a ’30s film star.
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BUCKLER: That’s a fairly charming story.
DARROW: I used to be simply amazed on the folks that that they had there. Most of them have been actually candy.
BUCKLER: So, to type of change gears, so far as Shaolin Cowboy goes, does that character have any autobiographical parts in it? Do you base any of your characters on your self or your life?
DARROW: Not actually [Laughs]. I did put one factor in one in every of ‘em that truly occurred to me. The title of the e-book was Shemp Buffett. There was all these zombies in it. There was a scene when this automobile is driving by and these guys shout at him.
BUCKLER: Oh yeah, the scene the place they’re calling him homosexual?
DARROW: Yeah and that truly occurred to me. I used to be on Sunset Blvd. and I used to be engaged on The Matrix on the time. I used to be with Steve Skroce, who storyboarded most of The Matrix. By the best way, he’s doing a BRZRKR comedian that comes out subsequent month (BRZRKR: Poetry of Madness, Boom Studios), truly.
Anyways, we have been going into this Sunset Blvd. place the place there was once a Tower Records. As we have been getting into there, this automobile of youngsters goes by they usually yell out, “Hey, you’re gay! And he’s your lover!” [Laughs] And they’re laughing! You might inform these children had been consuming. I rotated and checked out ‘em and I am going, “What?”
And they go, “You’re gay!” And they thought it was just like the funniest fucking joke that they had ever heard. And I mentioned, “You can tell that all the way from there?” And they mentioned, “Yeah!” They have been laughing and so I mentioned, “Enjoy that first beer, boys.”
They drove off and that simply caught with me. The stupidity of it! I don’t know if you already know what the Algonquin Table is, however these guys simply thought they have been so witty! I simply put it within the comedian as a result of it all the time simply caught with me. God, they thought that was humorous. I wager they’re nonetheless speaking about it, 20 years later. “Remember when we called those guys ‘gay’ on Sunset Blvd.?” [Laughs]
BUCKLER: What yr was that?
DARROW: Must have been round 1997 I believe? ‘Cuz I labored on all of them [The Matrix movies] they usually form of run collectively, however yeah.
BUCKLER: Nice, that’s some mature joke telling.
DARROW: [Laughs] Yes, yeah, precisely. George Carlin! [Laughs]
BUCKLER: Can you speak in regards to the genesis of Bourbon Thret and the place that character got here from initially?
DARROW: He got here from… I all the time appreciated Japanese samurai movies like Zatoichi. I additionally appreciated spaghetti Westerns. I simply mixed the 2 of them. I imply not precisely, however he form of is a little bit bit like Zatoichi. I imply he’s obtained the sword that’s comparable. Not certain in case you picked up that, however Shaolin Cowboy is Bourbon Thret.
BUCKLER: Right! That’s why I’m asking.
DARROW: Yeah, I imply at one level within the third e-book, there’s this level the place there’s this messenger from Hell that’s come as much as declare him [the Shaolin Cowboy] and take him again, however he can solely take him again if he calls him by his actual title. And he’s rattling off all these names and I believe one of many final issues he says is “Bourbon,” after which that character kills him.
You’re the primary individual to note that, not less than that has mentioned that to me.
BUCKLER: The characters are very comparable. There are some variations. He’s virtually extra jovial, initially, as Bourbon Thret.
DARROW: Yeah. He’s gotten extra… As I’ve gotten older, particularly with the world we stay in, he’s gotten increasingly more brutal. Even in case you have a look at the primary collection that Burlyman [Entertainment] did, he’s a little bit extra… because it’s gone on, he’s gotten increasingly more cynical about individuals. I assume… like me.
BUCKLER: So, talking of the evolution of the character, the cityscapes you do in Shaolin Cowboy, Hardboiled, and even those in Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, there’s that dystopian aspect. Do you see your cynicism constructing in that too? Like a touch upon society?
DARROW: Yeah, I assume so, yeah. I’m not making an attempt to… effectively possibly I’m. I don’t… effectively, I assume possibly I do, particularly that final one [Cruel to Be Kin]. If individuals discover it, they discover it. If they don’t, they don’t. I by no means have him [Shaolin Cowboy] cease and look within the digicam and hold forth in regards to the ills of humanity (*1*).
DARROW: Yeah! It’s all the time been like that, they discover some group that they’ll bully to clarify why they’re sad. It’s like, you don’t personal this automobile or that home or don’t have this girlfriend or that boyfriend. It’s jealousy. It’s anger.
BUCKLER: This is one other bizarre transition, however talking of automobiles, one other query I had for later that I’ll throw in now: Every as soon as and a whilst you prefer to specify a automobile in your work, just like the Renault 4L ’64 or the hatchback later in Cruel to Be Kin that he lands on and the man’s offended about as a result of he simply washed it…
DARROW: I believe that’s a Gremlin!
BUCKLER: Yeah, it’s!
DARROW: I simply all the time keep in mind these automobiles. I appreciated the brand, it’s a little bit gremlin. I simply pull ‘em out of my ass [Laughs]. I just think it’s humorous when persons are particular about issues. I don’t know something actually about automobiles. I was mates with Dave Stevens and he knew all about automobiles. I believe he thought I did too [Laughs]. I like ‘em, you know. Adi Granov, another friend of mine, he knows all these sports cars and stuff. I’m all the time giving him a tough time when he’s like, “Oh, that was my Porsche,” and I’m like, “Oh, I had my Renault.” [Laughs]. “I got it up to 60 kilometers an hour today.” [Laughs]. I like previous automobiles although. I similar to to attract ‘em, they’re odd. I simply assume the newer automobiles… they give the impression of being neat, however I’ve a tough time telling them aside. Frank Miller and I used to speak about them. He mentioned all of them, this was within the ’80s, appeared like electrical razors! [Laughs].
BUCKLER: I seen on the duvet of, not less than, Hard Boiled and Shaolin Cowboy, [colorist] Dave Stewart’s title is true up there along with your title [and Frank Miller’s].
DARROW: I imply [with] all of ‘em, [Dave] puts so much work into these things. I look at ‘em and I’m like, oh my God, he actually knocks himself out. For me, it’s an ideal pleasure once I take these pages and have a look at ‘em and I can’t wait till I see some extra. I imply he drops out the road and he places within the corrosion marks on the automobiles that I drew. I used to be actually dissatisfied that he didn’t get nominated for an Eisner [for Cruel to Be Kin]. He’s received loads of ‘em, but I really would have liked to see him at least be nominated for what he did on that comic. I thought, “Man, that’s a hell of rather a lot that he put into that factor.” And, the individuals who did the flatting as effectively.
BUCKLER: He is absolutely multi-faceted. Even evaluating the work he’s carried out with you to the work he does on one thing like Hellboy.
DARROW: Yeah! It’s so odd, it’s like two separate… it’s like from one excessive to the opposite. Like from a grasp of simplicity to this goofball that attracts a bunch of cigarette butts and shit [Laughs].
I barely change something. I don’t give him any directions. I by no means have. Occasionally, if he asks me, I’ll say one thing. I all the time let him have his hand in it as a result of I consider he is aware of what he’s doing. At the very starting, I despatched him some Japanese woodblock artists. I appreciated the palette that they used. I mentioned, “This is the colors that I’d like on this thing.” That was it. Then he simply does it. Occasionally, I’m like, “Can you put some more blood on like his face?” ‘Cause I think at one point in the comic, [Shaolin Cowboy] comes through that monster, he swings through it, and when he comes out the side, he is fairly clean. [I said,] “You know, he’d in all probability be fairly bloody, he simply got here by that factor.” [Laughs]. I believed it was fairly humorous.
BUCKLER: As far because the title goes, Cruel to Be Kin, is {that a} nod to Nick Lowe?
DARROW: Oh, yeah. It’s my favourite tune. I like that tune.
BUCKLER: It is a favourite of mine too. It’s an ideal tune.
DARROW: I used to be making an attempt to think about a title, the final one was a musical title.
BUCKLER: Oh, Who’ll Stop the Reign?
DARROW: Yeah, initially it was going to be, actually, Cruller to Be Kind. [Laughs] Yeah, it was going to be a doughnut. Then I believed, “Oh, that works, I should drop that ‘d.’” I don’t know if it actually works, but it surely works for me.
They renamed the primary e-book. When they put the primary e-book out once more in a set, I gave it a title, Start Trek. The purpose I gave it that title, Start Trek, was I believed that if any individual put it in on Amazon, [Laughs] possibly it might get any individual off the crushed path to check out it!
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Below are some Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin preview photos:
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