Cowboy

by Rikke Villadsen

This uproarious graphic novel is a surreal take on the classic Western ― and a rip-roaring adventure in gender identity and queerness! A rugged outlaw rides into a typical nineteenth-century Western town, swinging his six-guns and stirring up trouble. Meanwhile, an idle young woman gets the notion to outfit herself as a cowboy and makes her getaway. Danish cartoonist Villadsen's off-kilter vision of the Old West features exploding prostitutes, menstruating cowgirls, mysterious gender-bending, and much more. Giddyap! Full-color illustrations throughout.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Westerns, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Scandinavian Literature, 21st Century

100 pages, Hardcover

First published May 9, 2014

About the author

Rikke Villadsen is an artist and cartoonist from Denmark. She participated in the 2010 Nordicomic workshop and anthology and has been nominated four times for the Ping Award.

Reviews

[Chris M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cowboy's art was gorgeous. I'll put that out there.
But I can't say that I am loving this subgenre of graphic novels where art students wanna make a comic but they have zero story and character so they just do random nonsense and throw it at a book and call it SURREAL.
There is a narrative about a woman transforming into a male cowboy, this is true. But the vulgar humour became the book's primary concern. And the dick and vagina drawings got exhausting. I get it. You can draw a great vagina.
I will say: It's a well drawn pussy.
But the novel itself has almost no redeeming values other than the art. Barely any story. Humour is bad, just plain boring vulgarity. No real characters.
I don't recommend.

[jennacantread · Rating 2 out of 5]

only enjoyed the talking horse

[G · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was weird, and not in a good way.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this a bit more than The Sea but again was more interested in the scratchy, loose imagery than the narrative. The playful satire in this one is fun but gets laid on a bit thick in the latter-half of the book - the little "in case you didn't get it" text in the back felt especially unnecessary. Hope to see more of her work in English soon, though!

[Lenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Den här var ju toppen och väldigt kul!

[Iva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another dead man? How dramatic. Did he just shoot himself? That’s not very masculine, is it? Getting all hysterical like that. Pathetic!

[Anna Djuraas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her ability to draw beautifully “ugly”/interesting faces gives so much character to her stories. There is also a quirkyness and yet brutal honesty in the tone in her writing That i really appreciate

[Eli Poteet · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was WEIRD. and queer, which was great. i am still haunted by some of the illustrations

[Sonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird and wonderful, surreal and ... unexpectedly sexual.
This is the kind of paradigm shift that needs to happen all over.

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cowboy's not for everyone. The art is fantastic in that absurd, surreal, strange way. The story is a bit lacking. The main story, it seems, is one woman's search for power via becoming a man. This loosely ties in to the more cowboy-like shenanigans going down in the village a la good ol' western. The western story was a bit confusing. There's a wanted man and he comes to town and shoots people and has an argument with his wanted poster. There are many panels where a character or scene doesn't change much and it's not clear what the action/story is supposed to be. There's a nice twist in the end, but I'm not sure what it's trying to say about gender (perhaps it's not trying to say anything...) The story of "the whore" is perhaps the most disturbing and has some of the best art. In the end, I'm also not sure what the story is trying to say about the woman who became a man for power and tried to ride off to the sunset.

[Yaiza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Malauradament crec que per falta d'experiència en històries de l'oest no he acabat d'entendre la trama. Vol ser una deconstrucció dels típics rols masculins dels westerns, però no ho he acabat de veure i algins diàlegs m'han desconcertat.

El que més m'ha agradat és el llibre en si, ja que és un objecte bonic. Les il·lustracions en blanc i negre presenten et presenten forts personatges i et transporten a l'oest amb ganes de quedar-t'hi una estona.

[Foster Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surreal graphic novel that creatively reinvents the "cowboy" stereotype. I enjoyed the way it deconstructed gender norms and Western tropes, but kept wishing for a bit more prose to further explore the striking ideas that the images present.

PSA: If you're thinking of reading this book, be aware that many of the illustrations are extremely sexually graphic (NSFW).

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

It didn't land for me. I get that it's supposed to subvert the masculine cliches of the western, which is fine, but excepting one chapter about the woman taking possession of masculine western notions, it's still just disjointed bits of western-ish nonsense that don't really comment on those genre predispositions in any meaningful way.

[Dan Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cowboy: down and dirty cowboy story that has a bit of an old school underground feel. Clearly not trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to Western stories but doesn't hold back with just how grimey those times were in all levels

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violent, vulgar, chaotic. These aren't bad things. I see what the author is doing and I love the window and her story, but the artwork is purposely messy to the point of distracting and then detracting from the point that Villadsen is trying to make.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this and thought, “huh, a *western* graphic novel, don’t see that every day...” and I flipped it open and... 🍆🌮🌰👉👌... plus an interior view with a fly... well then... Very strange, creative, sexual and surreal, with watery distorted illustrations to capture all the crassness.

[Moon Captain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This failed to resonate with me. I found myself confused with the panel layout through most of it. Maybe making a mess of the structure of the comic form was also part of the message, here? Maybe I'm supposed to be high?

[Madeline S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hazy day in a not-so-typical western saloon. Good moments of subversive adult content. Felt like I’d pick up more if I was more familiar with Westerns and their tropes.

Format: print
Discovery: library

[Diego Dotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was potential, I think it could be republished later with a better connection and story. Be aware of some disturbing sexual scenes involving a man, a woman, and a fly. I guess the author succeeded in shocking me.

[Periodic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sat in a bubble bath and read through this gender bending piece of art twice. Will probably read again before moving on.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a curious, frantic, vulgar trip this was. Invites you to start over and reanalyze the moment it’s over.

[Michelle Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was basically about a “whore” who decides she wants to be a cowboy and then she jacks up her masculine qualities to emulate one. It was... interesting. Possibly is just not my thing?

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likeable artsy little book. Cool art and interesting perspectives. Darkly delightful

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ragged and talented crude artwork paired with a succinct story. I enjoyed its surreal elements, and wish it had gone further.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing drawings in this, and a great subversion of the ‘cowboy’ mythos.

[Carly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book but not amazing. I'd give it a high 2. I think I was just envisioning something different when I picked it up.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Raunchy and weird 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Anna Frohling · Rating 2 out of 5]

what

[John Stockton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mindblowing take on classic westerns with extreme takes on gender issues. This one is really out there!

[Alexis Frye · Rating 3 out of 5]

not my taste, but not bad necessarily, pretty grotesque