Cowboy Ninja Viking Volume 1

Cowboy Ninja Viking #1

by A.J. Lieberman, Riley Rossmo (Illustrator)

International intrigue! Black-market nukes! And Cowboy Ninja Viking! Sent on a covert mission that will take the triplets from Bangkok to the Middle East, Duncan, Ghislain, Nix, Grear, Steed Malbranque, and everyone's favorite gladiator/pirate/oceanographer Yashitiko Ammo are gonna save the world... or totally screw it up!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Adventure, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Espionage

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2010

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving points for an interesting, ambitious concept, because the execution didn't really work for me. The idea of people with strong alternate personalities being trained to take on the skills those personalities theoretically had is interesting. And the top secret agency trappings work. But something about the way it was written just threw me off. It takes a little practice to get the hang of reading those alternate personalities as written, and for me it just didn't pay off. Still a good idea, though.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that nobody has heard of, but this is definitely a hidden gem.

How often do you get to read about an assassin with a triple schizophrenic personality disorder?! A Viking, ninja and a cowboy assassin! Brilliant book with a giant story of betrayal.

A must read.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Wacky story. Snarky humor. Cool artwork. Not for everybody, but for my money a lot of fun. Movie in development with Chris Pratt as Duncan, and Pryanka Chopra (Mrs. Nick Jonas) as perhaps Grear. Screenplay by the screenwriters of Deadpool. So yeh, that kinda book. On my buy, borrow, skip scale--I own two copies.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

What. The. Fuck.

Is there indeed a market for shitty faux-edgy 'quirky' spy/crime with artwork so hip it's impossible to actually gauge what's going on?

Apparently so. All the worst elements of THE LOSERS/THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY/Garth Ennis (real & imitated) all rolled into a perfect turd.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Duncan suffers from multiple personality disorder. Within his psyche rests four distinct individuals: a cowboy, a ninja, and a viking with Duncan functioning as the ringleader. Lieberman and Rossmo use this high concept as the centerpiece for their fun, conspiracy-laden adventure story. A failed super soldier experiment created an army of Triplets, people with three personalities all with different extraordinary abilities. Rumored destroyed by the government, Triplets re-appear, led by one of their own. The experiment's creator, psychotherapist Sebastian Ghislain, summons the most powerful of the Triplets, Duncan, to confront the progeny. Often confusing, at times grotesque, and always fascinating, Rossmo's monochrome art perfectly propels Lieberman's exciting, parody-riddled script. Sadly, the fascinating tale collapses near the last page when the series reaches an unsatisfying, all-to-quick conclusion. Even with its flaws, Cowboy Ninja Viking delivers an original, enthralling story.

[Lyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky, hip, and kinetic comic about about an experimental psychological program that transforms people suffering from multiple personality disorder into assassins, training each personality to have unique combat skills. The main character, Duncan, has three unique personalities: a (yes) cowboy, ninja, and viking. The plot is fast paced, the characters unusual, and the artwork (evocative of some of Bill Sienkiewicz's early 80's Moon Knight work) perfectly matches the fractured pyschological state of the protagonist.

[Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most imaginative, interesting, graphic novels I've read in years, and I've read a lot! The art is also simple, but the way they digitally colored it really amazed me. Top notch, no doubt, the whole thing.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

A neat concept and a cool title, but horribly muddled execution made it painful to read and impossible to follow - multiple characters with multiple personalities would be a chore for even the best of authors and Lieberman isn't anywhere close to one of those.

[Jason Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it, the plot was ridiculous and just wasn't interesting.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, action packed, great characters.

[Paul Allard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secret opps operatives with interesting psychological problems – quite engaging

The basis of the storyline in this comic collection is that the main protagonists “house” three multiple personalities with different skills. The stories then show how they are used in secret opps and come into conflict with one another. There's plenty of sexual references as well as a plethora of bloodshed and bodies.

The illustrations are sometimes hard to follow as they are line drawings with some colour thrown in. The story shows originality and is also reasonably amusing in places. A long volume but well worth a look. This is a review of the deluxe edition which includes all volumes, not just Volume 1.

[ISMOTU · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the title you'd expect something juvenile but that's not what Lieberman and Rossmo deliver. It's something much better. The storyline is on par with a typical thriller or summer blockbuster (in a good way) with the twist of a cadre of assassins with multiple personalities. I'll admit I checked this out mostly for Riley Rossmo's art and he does not disappoint. If nothing else the book looks amazing.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mushy plot and predictable character development, all while taking a gawky, stereotyped tour through a timid perspective on mental health.

A good summary would be: multiple personalities makes you more competent plus you get to spew predictable banter with yourself!

[Kimberly Pinzon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun to read.

[Rob Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius!

[Elizabeth Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, this was okay. Nothing to write home about but action filled story. Interesting premise. Ill at least read volume 2 since I own it but nothing amazing.

[G Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

cool idea.

[Devon Munn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3 stars

Fairly interesting read. I liked that each issue it was mostly black and white except for one color that was a cool choice

[Nicole Westen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of main characters in comics who become 'heroes' despite their disabilities. But often these are physical disabilities, blindness, missing a limb, ect. But this hero's disability is a mental one, a multiple personality disorder. And unlike most heroes, who go on to do great things despite their disabilities, Duncan is a hero BECAUSE of his disability, which I find extremely interesting and something not often tackled. I also like how the different personalities are handled when they are speaking. It's very easy to tell which personality is taking because of the speech bubble stylization, and also the fact that Duncan is depicted with certain characteristics that belong to one of his other personalities. This keeps what could be a very confusing presentation extremely clear and easy to follow. Also it's nice to see authors/artists exploring different mental conditions that affect many people today, but aren't often discussed, let alone depicted in our media as a central focus of the story.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, action-oriented comic geared towards superhero fans who want a little something different. The main character Duncan was part of an experiment called the Triplet Project that trained assassins with three separate personalities, each with their own unique skill set. Things go haywire and Duncan is tasked with hunting down all the other Triplets that have gone rogue. It's a nice balance of wacky humor with bloody action, without going too zany like the Merc with the Mouth does. I don't know how long they can sustain the gimmick, but I'm sure it's got at least 20 issues of fun material in it.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premise -- taking mentally ill multiple-personality-disorder patients and honing their different personalities to create covert government killing machines -- more than the execution.

It was hard to follow, as the story was convoluted and non-linear, and the artwork made it difficult to discern some characters from others. The overly ambitious one-color high art approach didn't help the cause any, either. Nor having 14 separate characters who each had three distinct personalities, plus the support cast around them.

But I have the second issue already, so I'm going to move right on to that and see if these issues are resolved as the comic comes into its own.

[zxvasdf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit confusing, but with diligence coherence is reached. The idea that people with multiple personality disorder could be harnessed as weapons of war is a great one. What is exactly not explored is how these personalities came to be, whether these were intrinsic to each character, but I imagine most questions will be explained away in subsequent sequels. I loved how they identified who was the speaker by inserting an outline of each character's defining trait in the speaking balloon. Ninja knife, viking axe, and a six gun. Others have martinis, glasses, and tridents.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take some people with Multiple-Personality Disorder, add a little government experimentation; drop in a dash of wicked fun; top it all off with some damn fine artwork and you wind up with Cowboy Ninja Viking.

You can tell AJ Liberman and Riley Rossmo are having way too much fun with this concept. They should be paying us to read it, not the other way around.

Minor complaint: I bought the single issues and the trade paperback has a ton of extras I would have liked to have gotten.

[sweet pea · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've been hearing about this comic for some time. the premise is so very awesome. the narrative is sometimes convoluted, as it's unclear who exactly is talking. the personalities of Duncan are clear. it's some of the other Triplets' personalities that make things muddy. trying to figure out what people are and who they belong to. even so, it's such a unique storyline that the twisting narrative just gives me an excuse to re-read.

[Sabrina Rourke · Rating 2 out of 5]

**2.5 stars**

I'm going to stick with it because I am intrigued and the concept is a 4-star concept, but I find the pacing and non-linear timeline a little too much along with the rough art style and the confusing multiple people. The authors have taken steps to ameliorate the confusion, really cool artistic choices, but it was still a bit iffy for me and I had to reread parts carefully to make sure I had it.
I anticipate it getting better as I get more used to the style.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphic Novel Bookclub 2016:

This book really was boring and wordy to me by the 22nd page, and as someone who loves comics as well as books that are 900 pages, that's saying something. It's not well organized, overly wordy and bothersome in that the storyline was very plot hole laden and more reliant on the "triplet shitck" rather than consistent story arcing.

Review will be in for both volumes

[Carl Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touching story of unlikely friendship between… wait a sec, wrong book. This is a fun romp through psychosis, corruption, trained government killers on the loose, betrayal, and murder. Inventive take on a standard action plot cliche, peppered with great dialog and well-conceived, exuberantly flawed characters.

[Nicolas Ronvel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une excellente surprise. Un peu surpris par la forme au premier abord, avec ce dessin particulier, mais on pénètre très rapidement dans cet univers déjanté, et on apprend à vite repérer les différents protagonistes. De l'humour, de l'action, un peu de suspense, et surtout beaucoup d'inventivité.
Un comics à suivre assurément.

[LMG Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have only read Issue one so far but I plan to make a trip and collect the rest, (or outright purchase the full volume 1) soon, VERY Soon.

I have posted a review online at: UpsetAppleCart Publicity: Review, CowboyNinjaViking#1
Take a look if you're interested.

[Donna Jo Atwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I have read a graphic novel for awhile, but I found this book almost incomprehensible. This was my problem and not the book's. The best thing about it was the use of the various symbols on the word balloons so you knew which of the multiple personalities was speaking, which helped a little.