Geof Darrow Promises Zombie Massacre in New "Shaolin Cowboy"
Mon, August 19th, 2013 at 1:58pm PDT | Updated: 1 hour ago
Comic Books
Albert Ching, Senior Editor
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In late 2004, Geof Darrow -- already a revered artist for his Eisner-winning collaborations with Frank Miller, "Hard Boiled" and "The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot" -- debuted "Shaolin Cowboy," featuring a wandering Shaolin monk engaging in surreal, violent escapades.
Darrow both wrote and illustrated "Shaolin Cowboy," and won his third Eisner in 2006 for the series. The book ran for seven issues under Burlyman Entertainment (a publishing company founded by filmmakers Andy and Lana Wachowski, who Darrow worked with on the "Matrix" trilogy), but had been absent from stands since 2007 -- until the release of "The Shaolin Cowboy Adventure Magazine" from Dark Horse Comics last fall.
Darrow is back at Dark Horse for a new four-issue "Shaolin Cowboy" miniseries starting in October, and CBR News talked to the creator about his latest output, working in the movie industry, what he likes about current comics, his recent Deadpool covers and the uniquely high severed head content in his upcoming books.
CBR News: Geof, "Shaolin Cowboy" is a series that you've been doing in one form or another for about a decade, and you're coming back to it in a big way with this new miniseries. From your perspective, why was now the right time for a new series of "Shaolin Cowboy"?
Geof Darrow: Because I had it done. [Laughs] I had went away, I was living in Japan for about a year working on this animated film, and then when I came back, I just had other stuff to do. I finally came back to the comic book. Every once in a while I get calls to work on some movie; it takes me away.
And I've always liked the character, because he can do anything that I want him to do.
It seems like a good vehicle to tell different types of stories.
What little story there is. [Laughs] It's more like an excuse for me to draw whatever I want.
Which has to be nice!
Yeah! I was talking with Mike Mignola about it. I think that's what he's kind of doing, although with much more depth and profoundness than I am, in his "Hellboy in Hell."
Did you miss doing comic books, and working in the format? After time away working in other areas, was that another motivating factor?
Oh yeah. The thing with comics is, when I draw them, I can draw whatever I want. When you're working on a movie, you're drawing what they want. Sometimes it's a lot of fun; sometimes it can be kind of tedious.
For me, it's always nerve-racking, because I'm always hoping I'm doing what they want, and trying to put myself in the head of the director, the producer; trying to not disappoint them. And that's not always easy to do.
And there's always more people involved in movies, and changes that can happen in the process.
I've never really cared about the changes. People always say, "How do you like the way they treated what you did on blah blah." I don't care. Because it's not my movie. It's the director's movie. If he is happy with what you've done, then you've done your job. "I drew the Annihilator Machine to have seven arms, and they only put four of them on there, that's just not right!" I'm not like that. You're working for someone. It's not your vision, it's their vision. That's my perspective on film work.
With the new series of "Shaolin Cowboy" -- going into it, were there some different things that you wanted to do with this miniseries, artistically or story-wise, or are you mainly sticking with what works?
I'm always just trying to draw better. [Laughs] That's all. I'm hoping every drawing I do is a little better than the one I did before. I try to come up with more interesting compositions, and hope that the storytelling is a little better.
But I don't [think], "******, I'm going to blow the hinges off storytelling, and I'm going to bring a whole new thing to comics!" That's not me. I think guys like Frank Miller and Mike Mignola have done that, and a lot of other guys I'll forget to mention. Darwyn Cooke. But I'm not one of those guys. I just draw pictures. If the pictures look good, then I'm not too embarrassed. Then people will want to look at them, and they'll say, "Oh, that guy drew a pretty good severed head there. It looks like a severed head." [Laughs]
I'm looking at the cover to #3 right now, and there appears to be more than a half-dozen severed heads on it.
There are more severed heads in this series than I think any comic in history. When you see it, you'll see what I mean. [Laughs] It's basically a hundred pages of zombie carnage. I wanted to do my zombie massacre.
I'm a big fan of the Romero movies, and "The Evil Dead." Sam Raimi, I think is just great. I can always watch "Evil Dead 2" and ["Army of Darkness"]. Even the dialogue just really cracks me up. Any man that can take a phrase like "groovy" and make it work in a movie -- now there's a profound fellow.