Filed under: Archaia, Comic Reviews | Tags: Archaia, Bounty Hunter, Chris Eliopoulos, Cow Boy, D.I.C.E., Nate Cosby
A recent addition to my ever-growing “to read” pile was Nate Cosby’s ‘Cow Boy’ from Archaia and this jumped to the top of the pile after meeting him at Dublin International Comic Expo (D.I.C.E.) last weekend and getting a signed copy (summary of D.I.C.E. should be up soon :D)
I’d managed to get hold of the Archaia hardcover release for Free Comic Book Day back in May which had a glimpse of what to expect from the title…..but even with that teaser, I was still pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed this. As previous reviews of mine have shown….I have a fairly broad range of genre’s that I like and enjoy and although I enjoy the vast majority of what I read….there’s very few that I feel I can return to again and again……yet this falls into that category with ease.
The basic premise surrounds 10 year old Boyd Linney – a cowboy and bounty hunter trying to track down the different members of his outlaw family…and even though they’re family……wrong is wrong in Boyd’s eyes…..plus he’s aiming to collect the bounty on their heads too. It’s got a great opening that eases us in with a laugh and I actually think I’ve read it about three or four times now and giggled at the same parts each time – a win for the writing in anyone’s eyes.
Couple that with art from Chris Eliopoulos and it’s got a style of it’s own – true it manages to capture that all ages feel by cutting out any brutality but I think we’ve become numb to the titles that exist on the back of violence & blood-filled pages. I for one, am glad that these types of books can still be found and that Archaia/Nate/Chris have managed to capture the same type of feeling that Pixar has brought to the movies. Giving us that “all-ages” appeal in the truest sense and the mix of Calvin & Hobbes, Woody from Toy Story and Clint Eastwood’s ‘man with no name’ seems to exist in this as a fresh, new and fun book.
It’s also worth mentioning some of the shorter stories that appear between chapters, acting almost like interludes while we gear ourselves up for more laughs. These too capture that cute, quirky & funny feel of the main story with an appeal to adult and child alike. A host of different characters and separate situations are dropped into the mix but it all works given the smart pacing of the bounty hunting from Boyd.
You’ll laugh like I did…..and maybe like me you’ll annoy your wife/partner with interruptions of “read that bit”….”read this bit as well”……..an infectious giggle-fest for me and surely one I’ll read again and soon and one I’ll most likely encourage others to buy/borrow/read as well.
9/10
G-Man
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