The work of comic artist Geof Darrow has long been unattainable for those who missed the initial band wagon. With his original run of “Shaolin Cowboy” self-published with the Wachowskis never collected and most of his famous books out of print or only available overseas, at most all you get for being a fan of Geof Darrow is a variant cover here or there and last year’s “Shaolin Cowboy” mini, featuring four straight issues of zombie murder mayhem.
Well, as revealed over at Comic Book Resources, today is a pretty big day for fans of Geof Darrow.
First off, in celebration of the return of Big Guy and Rusty in the pages of “Dark Horse Presents'” upcoming relaunch, Dark Horse will be releasing a new Gallery Edition of “Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot,” which isn’t quite defined (I would assume it is oversized with big, wonderful, juicy pages) but never the less exciting. The prospect of new “Big Guy” stories was fine in its own right, but a giant version of the original already over-sized comic? That I could get down with easily. The original run is also being re-colored by Dave Stewart according to Darrow, who was unhappy with the original release.
Next, for the first time ever, “Bourbon Thret” will arrive in America. Originally released as a French comic that also serves as Darrow’s first public work, it has never been translated properly and released in English. While the character was featured in Dark Horse Presents, it is nigh impossible to get a copy of the 1996 release of the graphic novel — until now. Which, for someone like me, is incredibly exciting; as a fan of both Darrow’s work and the French comic scene, this is like a dream come true (unless we’re talking about the dream in which I finally use this copy of Rosetta Stone I have and learn French).
And last but certainly not least: not only is Darrow working on new “Shaolin Cowboy” comics, but the original run from Burlyman is being collected alongside the recent Dark Horse mini. Darrow has big plans for what is to come in the world of “Shaolin Cowboy,” as Darrow notes,
In general, when it started out in Burlyman, it was a really long story. I think that is coming out before the Dark Horse one. But I wasn’t really able to finish it for reasons that I won’t go into, so it’s just kind of out there. There’s a lot that goes on between the end of that one and the one I did at Dark Horse. If you read the last issue of the Burlyman one, you can see where all those things came from — those creatures, those zombies. Not that there’s a lot going on, which I’ve been criticized for. [Laughs]
There’s no word on any kind of “Hard Boiled” re-release, but I imagine that that is still fairly in print. (“Big Guy and Rusty” as well, I think, though the Gallery Edition still sounds super awesome.)
Being a fan of Geof Darrow’s work can be a mildly frustrating endeavor, as he’s a brilliant creator and a talented artist who just happens to be a bit slow. It’s understandable and I certainly wouldn’t fault him for it, but it’s sort of like having a favorite pizza shop that takes hours to make the pizza; you’re annoyed that it’s not 30 minutes or less because you could get that elsewhere, but man oh man, that pizza is worth the wait, right?
So while Geof Darrow may be pizza, these announcements are all pretty excellent. For one, it’ll be exciting to see an accessible edition of the original “Shaolin Cowboy” comics (all of which I can confirm are excellent), and “Bourbon Thret” in America? Man oh man. I am ready.
No release dates on any of these yet, but keep your eyes peeled in Dark Horse solicitations of the future.
