[REVIEW] Cowboy Ninja Viking #1

So Amazing They Needed Bigger Pages…

I’ll admit, I didn’t know ANYTHING about this book going in today. The first time I’d heard about it was on GKS’s appearance of Fanboy Radio. It took me two comic shops to find it, but I walked away with this oversized book. You aren’t ready for this story.

It’s remarkable to me that so many of my books deal with schizophrenia. Surprising still is how many different ways there are to embrace the disorder both in writing and in art. I can honestly tell you that I have never seen an approach like AJ Lieberman and Riley Rossmo took with Cowboy Ninja Viking.

Okay, recap: schizophrenia, cowboy, ninja, and a Viking. Here’s one guy that suffers through multiple personality disorder. He’s trained to be a weapon against the incredibly vague “War on Terror” that seems to be all the rage nowadays. The best part? You can train EACH of his personalities to have separate combat styles. Does that mean you can fight more terrorists? No. All it means is that you spent a lot of time and money and you’re left with a schizophrenic killing machine. But that’s not all; you didn’t just stop with one guy.

Do you need some time for it all to sink in? We basically just stepped into a Willy Wonka Factory of possibilities here. We’ve got three personalities-one’s good with guns, another with a sword, the other an axe. Each has their own preference in psycho-pharmaceuticals. There’s a secret cover-up to the whole experiment and there are more of these “Triplets” floating around in the world. WOW!

Cue the “AMAZING PLOT LINE STICKER”.—->

Okay, let’s get into the legitimate critique…I shouldn’t like Riley Rossmo as much as I do. His artwork is never clean; the characters have so many lines and marks around them that they look like Pig-Pen from Peanuts. It works though. He does an amazing job on Proof and his style is perfect for CNV. I guess both books have rough characters; it would stand to reason to have a rough and unpolished art style.

Like I said before, this is a very cool approach to the multiple personalities. Most of the time you’ll see one person, maybe with different facial expressions, talking to him/herself with voices that are differentiated by opposing fonts or text/word balloon coloring. However, this book is done in grayscale with blue accents for shadowing purposes.

The font is consistent throughout so what we see are differences in word balloon shapes-the incorporation of a gun or an axe or a sword. Meanwhile, the character is shown wearing the hat, mask, or helmet. It’s refreshing to see a new approach. The squiggly lines around the balloons are way too overdone.

As for the writing, the plot received a sticker. I appreciate the quick pacing and subtle humor. It would have been very easy for Lieberman to make this very cartooney where the cowboy is predominately sex-driven, the ninja is the brains and the Viking is pure brute force. Yes, that’s actually how they are presented but it isn’t to the point of being stupid. He took the higher road. You have got to applaud that.

Add this to my pull list from Image. They understand surprise sleeper hits.