Customer Reviews

Cowboys & Aliens

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is not a review of the contents of the graphic novel. Instead my goal is to shed light on the complex number of editions of this book to aid potential readers and collectors in making sense of the situation.

For some reason the publishers decided to publish at least 7 different "first editions" of this Graphic Novel. Each has a different ISBN number, but not different contents, and in most cases the covers are not substantially changed. You can use the ISBN numbers to search Amazon for copies of each book. At the time of this review, 4 of the 7 editions have Amazon pages, which I have linked to.

The numbers are sequential, beginning with # 1934220000 Cowboys & Aliens, called the "Retail Edition" - Each edition after this changes the last 2 numbers of the sequence, replacing the last 2 zeros.

#...19 Cowboys & Aliens is "Retailer Variant A Edition" and because I have a copy, I know that the retailer is Midtown Comics from NYC. Other than a Midtown logo on the back cover, and the different ISBN number, I believe that this is the same as edition #00. The indicia states "First Edition" and the cover price is $4.99, which is low for a book of this size and quality. Similar books from Marvel and DC usually retail for about $19.95

ISBN#'s 27 Cowboys & Aliens, 1934220035, and 1934220043 are "Retailer Variant" B C and D. Presumably these are like #...19 and were made exclusively for large comics retailers with their logo on the back cover.

ISBN #1934220051 is the "gold edition." - I believe this book is the same except for having a gold foil logo and back cover. The publishers must have used this ISBN # twice because if you search Amazon for it you get their other book "Watchdogs." But there is a page for the gold edition on Amazon; Search for the ASIN string B003G84ZW2 and you'll find: "Cowboys & Aliens - Gold Foil Edition" - from the excellent pictures uploaded there we can see that this "GOLD EDITION" was also under-priced at $4.99 and has a gold-tinted back cover in addition to the foil logo.

ISBN ..6X is the "Classic Edition" - Unfortunately, searching Amazon (And Google!) for the ISBN# 193422006X returns 0 matches. I'm not sure what the Classic Edition entails, if in fact it was published. Perhaps the publishers decided to stop after 6 first editions?

A second edition, or perhaps 8th edition depending on you counting, is scheduled for a May 2011 release to coincide with the release of the movie adaptation. The ISBN# is 0061646652. Cowboys and Aliens

I realize this isn't a standard review but hopefully it will be of assistance to some shoppers. At the very least, you can now look up each edition to find the lowest priced copy, content in the knowledge that each version isn't substantially different than any other... And at the very most you could collect them all!

Howdy. Welcome to Silver City, Arizona--the time is a few minutes to alien invasion, 1873. That's right...alien invasion. And the cavalry won't be coming; the garrison at Fort Larrabie has already been obliterated by a small army of huge, armored, scaly, horned marauding extraterrestrials packin' heat like the Old West has never seen. Commander Dar of the House of Dar has crash-landed on Earth, and never one to let an opportunity slip by, he's decided to turn the crash-landing into a first-strike on a planet ripe for the picking.

What these aliens don't count on is an ad-hoc cavalry of sorts forming to stop them from signaling an entire armada of House Of Dar warships to come sunder and plunder (=Bad. Humans not slaughtered would obviously become slaves to the invaders since they already have slaves of conquered races helping them). The story is all action as a group of cowboys, led by partners in adventure Zeke and Miss Verity, make an uncomfortable alliance with some Apaches, most notably War Hawk and plucky young No-Name. Well, not all action. There's romance too, as Zeke starts to fall for an emerald-skinned viper-eyed female alien named Kai, former slave of mighty Dar who decides to defect to Earth and aid Zeke and co.s hopeless-seeming resistance. And War Hawk soon has a bit of a thing for Verity, verily, and I plum reckon she's of a mind to reciprocate.

The humans pull some really cool tricks to throw off Dar's plans to summon immanent subjugation of all things Terrestrial, including using some of the aliens' advanced technology against them--although that's not a weapon Zeke keeps trying to use, it's actually a repair tool. But hey, whatever works in a clinch. And can you think of a better action scene than angry Apaches attacking over-confident aliens?

But Zeke's clever plan to claim Silver City back from the otherworldly marauders begins to fall apart when a weaselly little scoundrel of a human decides to switch sides to save his own skin, and tip Commander Dar off.

I enjoyed this SF/Western mishmash, though the art veers from eye-catching to flat throughout. The denouement involving cowboys and Apaches talking about future cooperation doesn't exactly remind me of the real world, but other than that this was a bit of a hoot--believable dialogue, likeable heroes, villains you just want to kick off the planet, and some lively action scenes that got me cheering for the guys in the white hats and the feathers.

Very entertaining.

Cowboys... and aliens. It sounds like a really, really stupid movie pitch.

But instead Scott Mitchell Rosenberg "Cowboys & Aliens" is a pretty fun graphic novel -- it has a simple but entertaining premise, lots of glowy splotchy action scenes, and some likable characters (on the human side). Its main downside is that it slaps you in the face with a hamhanded "evil aliens = European settlers" message that knocks you sideways.

The year is 1873, and there's a battle going on between the Apache warriors and a pair of hired guns protecting a wagon train. Then... suddenly a vast spaceship crashes nearby, and the aliens inside kill the Apaches who try to greet them. The cruel Commander Dar decides to conquer this world for himself, and quickly takes over the nearest Army fort.

So now the settlers, the cowboys and the Indians are being attacked by technologically advanced aliens who already outnumber them. Now these former enemies have to join forces to defeat Dar and his soldiers, or ALL of humanity will be in danger (especially when that space fleet shows up to finish the job!).

Yeah, "Cowboys and Aliens" sounds like a really terrible movie blockbuster. In fact, I think they're making it into a movie, which may or may not be insanely awesome (it's Jon Favreau, so it could be either). But as a graphic novel, it's pretty fun as a story -- lots of splashy action scenes (with glowy green weapons and flying death chariots!), and a wildly complex climax that belies its simple concept. T

Problem? The first five pages beat us over the head with "Evil Invading Aliens = Evil Invading Settlers"... which is kind of sabotaged since we see that most of the settlers (like that poor priest) don't have any "divine providence" delusions.

In fact, the characters are all (except for Dar and his thugs) pretty likable. In between fight scenes, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg reminds us that the HUMAN ex-enemies are not that different, as they pray for Apaches and cowboys alike to succeed, and a cowgirl even has a cute little romance brewing with an Apache warrior. Awwww, true love among the alien invasions.

"Cowboys and Aliens" sounds silly, but handles itself so smoothly that you never really have a chance to go, "Wait, what?" Fun, action-packed and thoroughly enjoyable.

Coyboys and Aliens will provide you with a fun and interesting read, but ultimately forgettable. The story follows Zeke and a group of new settles in Silver City. Keep in mind that the movie is radically different then the comic. Zeke, an alien resistance fighter, and Apache Indians must fight stranded aliens who crashlanded on Earth, bent on total domination over Earth. The art is good, dialogue is great, and the ideas Mitchell came up with are absolutely genius. Horses will fly, Indians will make toxic exploding arrows, and coyboys will wear cool shades. Overall, a 3 1/2 out of 5.

It's a story told a million times - primitive "savages" facing annihilation at the hands of a more advanced civilization that wants what they have. But, this time it's different, right? While Apaches and settlers fight over who owns a choice bit of land, both sides are shocked when a giant...thing falls out of the sky. The Caste has discovered the Earth, and they are determined to take its resources - natural and human! The only chance humanity has is to stand together, but that's a hard thing to imagine in 1873!

I must say that I found this to be an entertaining book. The illustration work is very good, but the story is somewhat light-weight, the book apparently being too short to give the story the depth it deserves. But, that said, it is an interesting story, well told in such a short space. I also found the illustration work to be very good. So, overall, I must say that I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to you.

Cowboys & Aliens is not a new topic. In fact I've seen this same thing on the Sixties TV show The Time Tunnel and more recently on the SyFy Channel.

The premise does make sense. We've seen alien invasions happen to the Earth while the Earth is in an advanced state, but why would we not be invaded by a superior force back in the days of the Old West?

Premise:

The book starts out with many parallels -- the Europeans settling in North America and pushing out the natives with its own superior forces and subjugating its native peoples. In the same way the aliens are also expanding and enslaving others for their own good.

Story:

A saucer crash-lands in Arizona about 15 or so years after the Civil War and the Apache Indian wars. The Apaches are about to get rid of a white man when this ship crashes and out pop an alien invasion force. The aliens find the planet is not on any of their conquests and claim it a virgin planet and begin the slaughter of the "damn savages."

Art & Writing:

The writing is pretty fast-paced, and at times corny but a fun read. The art was not all that great and at times it was hard to tell what was going on. The text in the back gives some history of Image Comics.

Bottom Line:

Great premise -- some interesting storylines a bit of blood & gut violence. All about the freedom fighters and some undisguised criticism of the white man's "manifest destiny."

Gosh. We had John Buscema, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Alex Raymond, John Byrne, George Perez, John Romita, Marc Silvestri, Jim Aparo, and so on and so on... Now, we had to deal with "artists" like the ones in COWBOYS & ALIENS. The "drawing" in this graphic novel is so bad, so cheaply made, obviously highly aided (or even made!)by computers, every single character is so badly drawn, so lifeless. It's really, I insist, obnoxious drawing.

That put out of my chest, the concept, although clearly silly, works like a charm. You'll read it fast, it's an authentic guilty pleasure.

It's not often I'll say this, but so far as "Cowboys & Aliens" is concerned, the movie exceeds the source material. By quite a lot.

The original graphic novel -- created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, written by Andrew Foley and Fred Van Lente and penciled by Luciano Lima -- has only the barest connection to the hit movie starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. The characters aren't the same. The action progresses along very different paths.

At their hearts, both stories are about an alien invasion in the Old West. There, the resemblance ends.

The graphic novel is, for one thing, far preachier, laying its sermon about the white man's conquest of Native Americans on a little thick. Yeah, yeah, we get it, it sucks when someone comes along with better weapons who wants to take your land. Ironic, eh, that those self-same white men are then confounded by the superior technology of space-faring aliens! Eh? Get it?

The story lacks any real character development. The action is hastily conceived and resolved. The art is fair to middlin', but unremarkable.

by Tom Knapp, the Rambles.(net) guy

The idea of Aliens and Cowboys in single fiction graphic novel format intrigued me; the story starts out with European settlers getting to Silver City AZ for a new life at the dislike of local Apache Indians. They hire two promising cowboys (one cowgirl) to protect their carriage from the Indians just in time for the whole area to get into a battle with Aliens commanded by Dar of the House of Dar, what follow next is packed with action, romance, betrayal and comedy among others. But what is more interesting is the idea of cowboys, settlers, Apaches and even an alien switching sides working to save there city and ultimately the planet it gives a nice message of unity when Armageddon is upon us. The story is not complex, believable and contours to realistic alien invasion genre but would have been better with better art. Highly recommended.

I did not realize this book was a "graphic novel", so was very disappointed.
A lot of comic book style pictures and very little story. Didn't make much sense. Hope the movie is better.