Cowboys & Aliens (comic)

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Graphic novel
title Cowboys & Aliens
Original title Cowboys & Aliens
Cowboys & Aliens (Comic Logo) .jpg
author Scott Mitchell Rosenberg ,
Fred Van Lente ,
Andrew Foley
Illustrator Dennis Calero ,
Luciano Lima
publishing company Platinum Studios
First publication December 2006

Cowboys & Aliens is a graphic novel from 2006. The basic idea came from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg . The story was written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley , and illustrated by Dennis Calero and Luciano Lima . The graphic novel served as the literary template for the film Cowboys & Aliens , which was released in theaters in 2011.

action

In 1873 the two gunslingers Zeke Jackson and Verity Jones were hired by a number of settlers to protect them from all conceivable dangers on their way to their new home. And so they are soon needed when they are attacked by some hostile Indians . The situation seems hopeless when suddenly an alien spaceship crashes nearby, which drives most of the Indians away. The aliens have come to conquer the earth. Led by Rado Dar, they get rid of their spaceship, butcher a fort and begin installing a communications system to attract more invasion ships.

When the settlers then arrive in their city of Silver City, they are either killed or chased out of the city by the aliens on their flying, motorcycle-like vehicles. At the gorge they are ambushed by the Apache chief Medicine Crow and his most important warrior, Warhawk , who does not kill the displaced but the aliens. After the rescued are brought to the Indian village, it is decided to join forces and take action against the common enemy. And the weapons and tools they captured from the aliens are also helpful to them. Thus Zeke a microwave -emitting captured pistol, Verity was an energy whip and Warhawk , a high-tech X-ray goggles. The metal of the aliens' flying companions was also misappropriated and explosives used for exploding arrows were captured.

They also receive unexpected help from Rado Dar's science officer, the slave girl Ra Chak Kai . This has sneaked away to join the humans, as she wants to prevent the human species from being enslaved by the aliens. She also reveals to them that they only have time until sunrise to stop Rado Dar , otherwise it would be too late and he could call for reinforcements. So a plan is forged on how to get to Silver City at night. But they are all caught by the aliens and are to be executed the next morning. Shortly before the execution takes place, the communication system is supposed to contact the other aliens. But both of these no longer occur, as the rest of the Indians on their flying horses, who can only do this with hooves shod with alien metal, are attacked and killed. After Rado Dar is also killed, a great celebration of the joy of victory is announced. Then Ra Chak Kai withdraws and transforms itself back into its original form, makes contact with their fleet and communicates that a first uprising against the warrior caste has been successful.

criticism

On bluecorncomics.com Robert Schmidt found that the story begins with a wonderful comparison between the European invaders and the extraterrestrial invaders as a “nice prologue”. However, he was surprised that this aspect no longer appeared in the story and that the Indians corresponded to the worst clichés. None of it was historically founded, which is why he was surprised that the first rumors about the film were that it was less historically founded than the comic, which is why he came to the conclusion that "a hundred times zero is still zero".

The experienced comic critic Johanna Draper Carlson also found on comicsworthreading.com that the prologue compared to the story looked ridiculous because it was simply no longer taken up. And she also criticized the "two-dimensional figures [...] that do not go through any character development" and the "abrupt action". However, she praised the “competent drawing”, which rarely deviates from its high level.

Production background

The Cowboys & Aliens project was originally an idea by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg , who sold the filming rights to Universal Studios and DreamWorks in 1997 . Rosenberg was then President of Malibu Comics and then founded Platinum Studios in order to better market the filming rights of Malibu Comics. This was followed by Steve Oedekerk hired to write the script for the film, and to direct the film. But Oedekerk left the project again in 1998. So the project stalled and the filming rights reverted to Rosenberg, who only found a buyer for it in 2004 with Columbia Pictures . But Columbia never got beyond the development stage with the proposed film. After Rosenberg published the story as a graphic novel in December 2006 , Universal and DreamWorks came together again to buy the film rights. The film Cowboys & Aliens, directed by Jon Favreau , was released in US cinemas on July 29, 2011.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Schmidt: COWBOYS & ALIENS on bluecorncomics.com from January 8, 2007 (English), accessed on July 30, 2011
  2. ↑ Johanna Draper Carlson: Cowboys & Aliens ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at comicsworthreading.com on March 26, 2011, accessed July 30, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / comicsworthreading.com
  3. ↑ Michael Fleming: D'Works, U lasso 'Cowboys' . In: Variety . May 19 , 1997.
  4. ↑ Michael Fleming, Paul Karon: 'Limpet' nets Oedekerk, hooks Carrey . In: Variety . February 1 , 1998.
  5. ↑ Staff:Cowboys & Aliens & Movies , IGN . May 12 , 2004. Retrieved June 9 , 2011. 
  6. ↑ Michael Fleming: 'Cowboys & Aliens' hits bigscreen . In: Variety . June 20 , 2007.