Geof Darrow

The first time anyone reads a Geof Darrow comic, I can only imagine them having the exact same experience of their head exploding in some over-the-top, ridiculous way that only Darrow could illustrate. His brand of hyper-detailed hyper-violence is hard to replicate, and even just seeing a single panel of his work is enough to know that Darrow is unlike any other. So it's definitely a Good Thing that Darrow is heading back to comics this year with a new mini-series of Shaolin Cowboy.

If you've been suffering from a lack of Geof Darrow in your life, then folks, I have some very good news. In addition to the current Shaolin Cowboy mini series Who'll Stop The Reign, for which we have an exclusive look at the cover for issue #2 below, Dark Horse is publishing an oversized 128-page art book in July reprinting some of Darrow's best wort. But unlike most art books, there's a bit of a twist. Rather than presenting readers with finished pieces, Lead Poisoning: The Pencil Art Of Geof Darrow is stripping away inks and colors to show Darrow's intricate, incredibly detailed pencils, lifted from the work he's done at Dark Horse for over 20 years.

I like to think that my tastes fall into pretty broad categories like "superhero" or "adventure stories," but if you get right down to it, my favorite genre of comics has to be "a comic where someone fights a shark with multiple chainsaws." The ambiguous clause there is intentional, I'm equally interested if it's the person or the shark who has the chainsaws. Either way, that extremely narrow, extremely awesome genre is exemplified by Geof Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy, a book that's light on plot and heavy on atmosphere, style, and highly detailed and extremely over the top fight sequences. And now, after a few years absent, it's finally making its return with a new series: Shaolin Cowboy: Who'll Stop The Reign?

Though the floor presence for ThreeA was much more condensed at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, there were still some very nice surprises hidden away in the Lucite displays. During the show, ThreeA announced new partnerships with Hasbo, Geof Darrow, and Giannis Milonogiannis, as well as debuting an all-new Spider-Man figure for Marvel. The 2000 AD license is still rocking and rolling as well, with new products digger deeper into the British comic magazine's history. ThreeA is still focused on its own original ideas, but the injection of these outside brands has given the company some new ground to explore with its signature style. "The bottom line is it’s fun. As ThreeA grows, it’s fun to bring people in," said Ashley Wood, co-founder and designer at ThreeA. "Geof Darrow, Paul Pope, even the Hasbro stuff, it’s all exciting. This is my way of being a fanboy. The nostalgia of the Hasbro stuff is exciting, and I’m a fan of the artists. I know them. I’ve known them for years. To be able to create these totems, these 3D abstractions of their ideas, it’s a very difficult process, but it makes it fun. With the Hasbro stuff, the idea is to twist it, maybe push it to the edge a bit."

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

Each and every week, ComicsAlliance puts the spotlight on some of our favorite pieces in our regular Best Art Ever (This Week) feature. Every now and then, though, something comes along that deserves to take the spotlight all on its own, and there's a new art print that definitely fits the bill. In this case, it's because it combines two of our favorite things: Artist Geof Darrow and The Legend of Korra.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

Geof Darrow made a welcome return to the pages of the Dark Horse Presents anthology recently, in the first issue of its latest relaunch, with a new Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot story. Missing was Darrow's collaborator on the original 1995 comic, Frank Miller; in an interview prior to the release of the new short story, Darrow said he'd talked to Miller and hoped he would still come on board to write some dialogue, but it didn't read as overly convincing, so it wasn't a surprise to see him listed as the sole author in this edition. Needless to say, a Miller-less Big Guy makes for a very different reading experience.