Kaijus & Cowboys #1 is a comic written by Matthew Blair with art by Frankie B. Washington. Robots attempting to build infrastructure but are attacked by kaiju. This is a science fiction comic with post-apocalyptic elements and a high amount of violence as well as no humans in sight. The main machine for this tale is the titular Cowboy, it is a robot dressed in a bandanna, a duster, and a cowboy hat that fights like a classic Western hero with quick gunplay and a lasso. Also playing a notable role here is a maintenance robot who is bewildered by the whole situation. The story begins with the maintenance robot fixing a coolant league before getting in a argument with its supervisor. This war of words is broken up by a kaiju bursting through a wall which marks the beginning of destruction. This takes place on a distant planet that the robots are trying to make safe for the arrival of humans. The violence results in some blood but most of the “gore” is via the robots. The pacing is overall a bit fast as there is more action than words and the tone is serious and dire. This is destructively intense for most of the issue. The dialogue here is conversational with some robot-related words and phrases replacing human ones. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting debut issue with an easy-to-follow story, interesting leads, and plenty of destruction.
The art here is detailed and drawn in a style that is reminiscent of underground comics from the 80’s and 90’s. The color range here is very wide and the shading is well done. While we do get quick glimpses of the natural plant life on this planet most of what we’ll see is robot-made and stone or metal. The majority of this story takes place within the walls in what looks like a construction site. The backgrounds seem to show multi-story buildings and nearby surroundings half the time, the other half is gradient colors. The expression level here is towards the lower end because these are robots lacking proper faces. While the overwhelming emotion is that of fear we do see some shock and happiness. While one of the robots has an LED-like face the rest don’t; the other robots tend to use their whole body to get expressions across. The creatures here look a bit like ones on Earth but these are much larger with some additional parts. The violence here is crushing from the kaiju with bites and breaking of bots and structures. The robots use weapons like blasters as well as getting physical. The overall flow of the action scenes isn’t too hard to follow but you will most likely get tripped up and confused on some of the smaller moments from panel-to-panel.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like science fiction stories with post-apocalyptic elements and that stars robots and features kaijus and violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, robot gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Alright, don’t overheat your processors.”
Purchase Link: https://www.indyplanet.com/kaijus-and-cowboys-1
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kaijusandcowboys/kaijus-and-cowboys-1-and-2/description
Zoop Link: https://zoop.gg/c/kaijusandcowboys1
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24
Violent Pages: 12, for 50% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 4
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 3
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
