SDCC 2014 ANNOUNCE: CBR Talks "Shaolin Cowboy" and More With Geof Darrow

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SDCC 2014 ANNOUNCE: CBR Talks "Shaolin Cowboy" and More With Geof Darrow

07/23/2014 12:49pm

Geof Darrow discusses reprint collections and reflects on his career.

By Steve Sunu

Fans of Geof Darrow get ready -- Dark Horse Comics has three long out-of-print collections coming down the line. Not only will Darrow and Frank Miller's "Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot" receive a fancy new Gallery Edition, but "Bourbon Thret" -- Darrow's first published comics work previously only available in French -- will arrive in its first English translation, and his critically acclaimed "Shaolin Cowboy" will be collected for the first time ever in America.

Working in comics since the 1980s, Geof Darrow spent much of his career in France, breaking into comics there and going on to work in many different artistic fields -- including an animation job with Hanna Barbara and design work with the Wachowskis on "The Matrix" -- all while publishing more work, including "Hard Boiled" with Frank Miller.

CBR News spoke with Darrow about his upcoming reprints as well as his career as a whole, and the creator discussed working at Hanna Barbara at the same time as Jack Kirby, the continuing love for the short-lived "Big Guy and Rusty" animated series, the negative reviews he finds hilarious and how the industry has changed and evolved since he began in the '80s. Plus, he teases the first new "Big Guy and Rusty" story coming soon to Dark Horse.

CBR News: Geof, looking at "Bourbon Thret," this will likely be the first time many American readers have the opportunity to read the series -- which is your first published piece in comics. How did that project influence the other projects you've done throughout your career?

Geof Darrow: It was just the first thing. I was trying to figure out -- I still am trying to figure out -- how to tell and draw a story the way you want to tell it and what you want your particular vision to be -- if that's not being pretentious. I was working a lot of stuff out with that comic book and I was fortunate enough to get to do it. I wanted to work in French comics, I was living over there and I got a chance to do it.

CBR: Well, it seems like you still have a pretty big connection to French comics. In addition to "Bourbon Thret," "Shaolin Cowboy" was collected in trade paperback there -- and this new Dark Horse printing is the first time both had been collected in the states. Do you still feel like you still have a heavy connection to French comics, considering that's where you got your start?

Geof Darrow: Yeah, that's why I went over there. I'd seen a book by Maurice Horn called "Comic Strips of the World," and the one that struck me particularly was this western called Lieutenant Blueberry by this guy Jean Giraud [also known as Moebius]. They talked about him and I was fascinated by his drawing. Back in the '70s, Bud Plant used to import French albums. They weren't that expensive, and I just remember sending for one by him and this gentleman Jean-Claude Mezieres called "The Valerian." I was just amazed by the level of drawing in those books. I became a huge fan of it, trying to find these things. Whenever I'd go to another city, I'd go to the yellow pages to see if there was a foreign library, and if I could find some books there, I did.

I was a Marvel guy, and I still am to a certain extent, but at the time, I was a French comics guy. I guess I still am. I follow a lot of the work over there.

Catch the full interview with Geof Darrow at CBR!

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SDCC 2014 ANNOUNCE: CBR Talks "Shaolin Cowboy" and More With Geof Darrow

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