The Last Sane Cowboy And Other Stories [Paperback]

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Earth has unfolded. Reality has stretched out into its more true and more terrible shape. Now, an insane cowgirl stalks the prairie in search of her missing brother... while a heartbroken lover confronts the creature masquerading as his stolen house. A refugee from a lost dimension ponders the impossible existence of cheese, and there's just another guy with a whole planet for a head. The Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories collects Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's Isotope Award-winning short story alongside five other surreal tales of life... and death on the Unfolded Earth.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Fumetti, photographed rather than drawn comics, reach a giddy apotheosis in Goodbrey's intransigently whimsical pieces. His two-plane visual style is obtuse enough, consisting of foregrounds of action in stark black-and-white and uniformly light-gray-and-white backgrounds. Foregrounds and backgrounds alike are obviously photographs, printed so high contrast that their subjects are all shadows and outlines. Then there are the stories. In "I Bleed Scorpions," Dean explains to his m-f drinking companions (the guy's labeled Alex and has a dog's head--in homage to Mark Kalesniko's Alex, 2006; see Top 10 Graphic Novels, p.41) that when he bleeds, his blood turns into scorpions. He pricks a finger, and sure enough. In the title piece, a gal gunslinger goes to Insanity ("Population: You Too!") to get her brother, who's a goldfish; en route she encounters talking horses and the titular male. "The Girl Who Talked" has three speakers, one a guy, shown TV talking-heads style, revealing their personal weirdnesses. Unflinchingly deadpan, this stuff is either highly hilarious or obnoxiously odd. You decide which. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: AiT/PlanetLar (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932051481
• ISBN-13: 978-1932051483
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,483,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing read with a promising premise., December 22, 2008

By 

Matthew Groff (Arcata, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Sane Cowboy And Other Stories (Paperback)

When I first heard of "The Last Sane Cowboy" I was fascinated by the premise, and I think perhaps that Goodbrey has created a universe certainly worth revisiting in future titles. Where this book in particular seems to wander astray is that while clearly having a gift for words, he doesn't seem to have much of a knack for plotting.

Most of the stories simply involve characters imparting witty diatribes (most often directly to the reader) about a wacky condition that has befallen them since the "unfolding" of the earth. Many of these idea are good (a girl who can smell tomorrow comes to mind specifically), yet feel aimless and underdeveloped without the context of something actually happening.

Where "The Last Sane Cowboy" begins to succeed (while still falling short for reasons described later) is when Goodbrey is able to pair his obvious depth of imagination and clever characters with a narrative, or rather as it were, at least an objective (To find something they are missing). The title story and especially another entitled 'The House That Wasn't Her, convey a sense of loss that at times really can break your heart.

It's a shame these more promising stories are held back by The Last Sane Cowboy's other pervasive flaw, it's inconsistent (though erring more on the side of just bad) and sterile artwork. This perhaps boils down more to a mere personal preference, but at least to my eyes the characters look like what they appear to be: poorly posed and ugly computer generated models in front of doctored photos. Rarely does the author/artist seem to take advantage of the potentially kinetic and unique visual medium of the comic format (With a few notable and promising exceptions. The drop of blood morphing into a scorpion in the first story comes to mind), and the result is lifeless and unpleasant to read.

The summation of the parts of "The Last Sane Cowboy" are at times promising, but the book is short on content and context, and seems content in the delivery of an "aren't I witty?" showcase of the authors imagination. Perhaps that is all he intended, and perhaps that's all his readers want. Personally I hope Goodbrey takes these characters and makes something out of them, as there's a lot of potential for something really special here. I'd tune in next time.