While nerdlebrity comics lines are common now—from Shia LaBeouf to DMC—a pioneer in this regard and still one of the best in terms of quality is Burlyman Comics, which is owned by the Wachowskis, the directing siblings behind The Matrix, the much beloved Speed Racer and the upcoming Jupiter Ascending. The company has been around for about a decade and launched about a decade ago with Doc Frankenstein by the Wachowskis and Matrix storyboard artist Steve Scroce, and Shaolin Cowboy by the all around genius Geof Darrow. Burlyman put out 7 issues of Shaolin Cowboy before fading away—the seriesfollow the adventures of a nameless Shaolin and his mule in an apocalyptic American West—a concept that seems maybe too simple until you know that Darrow is drawing it with all his hallucinogenic detail. The tagline “A buddy picture with a body count” explains it all.
When Burlyman more or less disappeared, Dark Horse picked up the series, starting last year. But now the original 7 issues, long out of print, are coming back in a collected edition…from Burlyman. According to pr, the issue includes “ass-ologues by the Wachowskis” and many other extras—including art and alternative covers (what they used to call variants‚ by Moebius (Jean Giraud), Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, Ricardo Delgado, Scott Gustafson, And John Severin. At a mere $19.99 it sounds like a bargain.
Retailers note, the FOC on this is the 23rd, order code OCT141229. On sale date is December 3rd.
And in case you need any more persuasion here’s a preview—to say it is mind-boggling does not do it justice.
Burlyman put out a new collection of DOC FRANKENSTEIN in July:
http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/941?articleID=147363
Also, the text in this article appears twice :)
Very cool comic. Weird, but you have to love it and the phenomenal art. $20 does sound like a great price.
So is Darrow completing this storyline, here or anywhere else? Issue 7 ends mid-story, and the recent Dark Horse mini is a separate story picking up later.
It’s great for Burlyman to get these fun and fantastically drawn series back in print, but as for the Doc Frankenstein stuff, I wish they’d taken a hint from what David Lapham did with Stray Bullets–that is, publish a nice collection for new readers, but also publish the new material individually for the benefit of all the readers who bought your single issues back in the day and maybe don’t want to rebuy that stuff.
I knew if I waited long enough, this would be collected. Truly, we live in an Age of Wonders. :-)
I’ve not read the new Dark Horse issues, so I’m not sure if Geoff Darrow continued the same storyline there or not, but since the individual issues of this first series are impossible to find for reasonable prices, at $20 for the collected edition, is a must buy for me.