The Shaolin Cowboy: Beginning of the End Results--21 Years of Blood, Sweat, and Chainsaws Hardcover

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]here from Near Men Condition, the home of collected editions. And check out that eye. That's exactly what we want to see. Woo! Look at that panel, baby. And that, as they say, is that [music] How's it going all you mentioned, the home of collected editions. Join me today for my overview of The Shaolin Cowboy Beginning of the End Results: 21 Years of Blood, Sweat, and Chainsaws, hardcover from Darkhorse Comics.

[00:00:42]And welcome back everybody. Before going any further, a big thank you to the folks at Darkhorse Comics for sending us a copy of this hard cover.

[00:00:50]So, this is the latest of the Shaolin Cowboy hard covers by Jeff Darrow, of course, but this actually works as a reprint of the uh original Star Trek series, which was published in this very format, too. Plus, it has some extras that have never come out here to America. We have a cover here by Jeff Darrow.

[00:01:15]And then of course the same spine they've been using for years for these particular books. The Shaolin Cowboy beginning of the end results, Jeff Darrow. And then the Dark Horse logo.

[00:01:25]And then the back of the book. Happy anniversary. I do love the fact that it's the 21st anniversary for the series. No dust jacket. It's just the art on board. Then of course this right here spine area feels more like a like a cloth finish to it. So let's go ahead and open this up. And I don't even know how I can talk about the stories. I'll show you the stories in here. And you'll see what I mean when we look inside the book.

[00:01:57]Okay, let's go ahead and get this opened. And there's your end sheets here. And then the reverse on the end paper there towards the back. And it is a silhouette of our Shaolin cowboy. We have our title page right there with artwork by Jeff Darrow. And over here are the credits. Of course, this is all created, written, and drawn by Jeff Darrow. But the stuff that has been translated, we do have new colors for over here. And then over here, you have colors and letters by Peter Doherty and Nate Pekos of Blambod for different stories. So, you'll have stories in here that were originally published by Mobius's publishing company, Adena, that have never been available in America.

[00:02:42]And then, of course, the reprint of the Shaolin Cowboy Star Trek, which kind of kicked it all off. 288 pages, $34.99.

[00:02:52]Now, this is really interesting because this is bourbon threat and it's kind of like the prototype or I guess who the Shaolin cowboy will become.

[00:03:03]And this is actually blown up. Like the artwork seems like they blew it up. And I'll show you what I mean here in a little bit. And when I said I'm going to show you the stories, it's so hard to describe the stories of Shaolin Monk.

[00:03:21]One of my favorite things though is the evolution of his artwork, how Mobiuslike it is towards the beginning here. And then when you get into the Shaolin cowboy, how he's kind of developed his own style, mixing in elements of course of people like Frank Miller. Um, but always with the madness that is Jeff Darrow to each of these pages. So, it's the story is practically a guy that's always fighting people, monsters, villains, and you have gigantic landscapes, gigantic dinosaurs, and little Easter eggs that are always in the background. This is sad. Sad. And this one actually doesn't have any dialogue. It's just the word bubbles are full of pictures.

[00:04:10]Uh but what I wanted to show you is the bourbon threat right here and how they were originally published like this in black and white. So these were the pages that they were originally published in.

[00:04:22]And one thing you probably notice is that hey that's the splash page from the very beginning. So yeah, that's what I meant by they blew it up. So that's pretty cool.

[00:04:33]So, this panel also became like a lot bigger. Then we have these two panels down here. So, it seems like they've cut the panels, blown them up, and reshuffled the way this looks.

[00:04:48]So, I got to give him credit because I mean Jeff Darrow's artwork to me really benefits on from having this type of collection just an oversized format where you can see all the amazing details and this is his early stuff and you'll see a difference between this and when we get into the Shaolin Monk. Uh, but first we get this East meets West with this Clint Eastwood looking character here.

[00:05:18]And you'll see bourbon threat through here. And this one also has no dialogue to very little dialogue. And you'll start seeing the evolution of this guy becoming this Shaolin monk. And he loves doing these type of pages. I wonder if um they'll ever print any of these where you can just have foldouts.

[00:05:40]And then we get to this story right here.

[00:05:46]the Star Trek. Did I miss the Coca-Cola one? Maybe I did as I was talking through here. But this is a reprint of the first Shaolin Cowboy story. And the Shaolin Cowboy comics, I mean, they've been around since 2004. I wasn't really aware of them. I didn't really become a Jeff Darrow fan until much later. And it was mainly because of the hard-boiled and big guy and rusty the boy robot that he did with Frank Miller. That's really what put his name on my radar. And those books came out early, but I didn't get the original prints. I don't have the hard covers. I had the trade paperbacks and I fell in love with his artwork, his detailed artwork. So then I found out about Shelon Cowboy and I was unfortunately too late to the game. I don't have the original one of these. And I went and I thought about I found some a little bit later. Uh so I'm glad that they're starting to do anniversaries and making maybe these as an excuse to reprint some of these older stories. It would be great. So in case you missed out on the original Star Trek, this book has all of it included in here. And by now you'll see the difference in his art. This is really cool. This is what I meant. I don't know if they'll ever do a story where it's collected and you can just have a fold out of all of this art cuz I mean this is one continuing scene.

[00:07:14]So as I mentioned it is your basic story of good guy versus bad guys with very little dialogue. He travels around the world and you can see here I think it's at the very beginning that he is talking.

[00:07:29]Let me see here. Where is There he is.

[00:07:33]Right there. His mule.

[00:07:37]He talks to his mule. And the mule ends up talk. What is the mule's name? It's something ridiculous. Uh Lord something Dunkerk. I think it's got he's got like a long name. But anyway, uh the mule is kind of like the wise ass and and talks to him and he just travels the world and gets into fights and they are bloody and disgusting and amazing fights and wait till he pulls out the chainsaws. It gets nuts and he'll fight different types of people through here. Villains, mutants, giant dinosaurs, zombies, the undead.

[00:08:13]like it just it's all kinds of amazing type of well choreographed fights too even though as detailed as it is. This is insane by the way. Um it is still like my wife was flipping through here going hey these are drawn really well like martial arts books. She's a martial artist. So when she looked at this, she thought that the way that he fights, or at least the way Jeff Darrow shows him fighting and draws him fighting is like you would find in a martial arts book.

[00:08:44]So I thought that was really cool.

[00:08:45]Something like that that I don't really notice. I noticed things like that.

[00:08:50]Like, holy crap, look at all the details. Like he actually had to sit there and draw. I met him at conventions and the man is insane. like uh he always draws on his table and then he ends up donating the cloth or the the the the uh tablecloth to the convention and they can auction it off and he draws in detail and all these amazing scenes, things like this. Yeah, the double chainsaws. That thing is awesome.

[00:09:15]Fighting giant sharks. This the story is nuts. That's what I said. It's impossible to give you the premise, the pitch of this. It's the artwork that really does it. And then in the back we have the covers back here. Let's see.

[00:09:29]Jeff Darrow and Peter Dhy unless otherwise noted. So we have some older stuff. Piece by Mike Mcnolola.

[00:09:37]And we have a piece here by Mobius, which is so cool because you could see the inspiration for his art.

[00:09:44]This is awesome. Elgato and Kevin Nolan. John, John Sever, classic artist.

[00:09:56]Then we have him going through the different lands. So again, we're going from something like this, which has more of a simplistic style, even though it's detailed as hell with all these different characters, to the insanity that is this.

[00:10:10]Like, oh my gosh. And this is the type of artwork you'll find later on in his Shaolin cowboy books. Now, as far as the binding, it is sewn binding 288 pages and printed in this thick glossy paper stock and really no, yeah, no gutter loss or actual bleedthrough coming.

[00:10:37]But that's what Shaolin Cowboy beginning of the end results. 21 years of blood, sweat, and chainsaws is. And that, as they say, is that if you're interested in purchasing this hard cover, don't forget to check out our sponsor, cheap graphic novels.com, your online home for graphic novels and collected editions up to 50% off cover price. They have excellent shipping and prompt and helpful service. Check out their bargain deals for up to 90% off cover price. And don't forget that CGN also takes pre-orders. That way, you don't miss out on the hottest releases.

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[00:11:18]They will then apply a free shipping promotional credit to your next order in the US. Cheap graphic novels, your source for the hottest books with a kind of deep discount, quality shipping, and customer service that will keep you coming back for more. And that was the content, the page count, and build of this book. In the comments down below, let me know if you've been a big fan of Jeff Darrow, if you pick up all his hard covers, or if you've never heard of this particular series, and what other Jeff Darl book would you love to see Darkhorse reprint with more additional content. If you have any questions, leave them down below. Smash that like button on the way out. Everyone, stay healthy and safe out there. Much love.