Geoff Darrow is the epitome of badass art. If you're not familiar with his most recent comic book series you might recognise his designs from the Matrix movies - he was responsible for the designs of the sentinels and the other intricately gritty parts of the dystopian "real world" - or from Hard Boiled, his ludicrously over-the-top and gory series with writer Frank Miller. He reached new highs of totally insane action, however, with his series Shaolin Cowboy. It's one of those does-what-it-says-on-the-tin deals, the story of a wandering martial arts master who ends up in the desert of the American South. And he fights a lot of people. By which we mean zombies, and by lots we mean THOUSANDS. The mostly dialogue-free series advanced to the point where each issue was simply another entry in a long-form fight scene, like the basic essence of the mainstream comic book boiled down into an orgy of four-colour violence, as the nameless cowboy uses his totally sweet kung fu skills to explode heads, cut off limbs and other delightfully nasty fare. The best part, however, was when he put together a set of custom nunchucks with chainsaws on the end. Which he swung around, slicing up the undead left and right. For twenty pages. So ridiculous, so badass.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
