A new edition of Adafruit’s comic reading list!

This week it’s The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker, written up by Shipping Director Jonathan!

There aren’t many graphic novels I’ve read that’ll make me laugh out loud. Sure I’ve chuckled inwardly while reading a comic before, I may have even silently snickered a few times, but laughing out loud I save for really funny stuff like a Monty Python sketch or seeing a stranger spill water on themselves. Kyle Baker’s first graphic novel “The Cowboy Wally Show” qualifies with that prestigious company in it’s ability to make me laugh.

The novel begins by following a reporter to the home of Cowboy Wally with the aim of conducting an interview about the history of Wally’s rise to stardom. We visit all of Wally’s most famous projects (Ed Smith- Lizard of Doom, A Cowboy Wally Christmas, Medical Hospital) and his controversies (a Senate hearing on morality, having someone die on his late night show for ratings.)

There are plenty of cheap jokes in TCWS, loads and loads of them, but everything is so well paced that it doesn’t feel like a series of one liners set to pictures. One moment there’s a silly joke and the next a character says something so smart and funny that you can’t possibly see it coming.

Kyle Baker is also great at adding awkward pause to his scenes, giving a joke just enough room to breath. Most writers might only give one panel to the pause so they can keep moving to the next joke, but Baker can sometimes give 5 or six panels of awkwardness that pays off in a brilliant punchline.

TCWS is the little known beginning of Baker’s career, so go read it now and laugh! Do it! Stop reading this and do it! Seriously don’t read one more word. If you’re reading this now then you have reading comprehension issues because I’ve asked you to stop reading 4 times now. Ok, I’m just going to stop writing now so you go read the book. I mean it, if you keep reading I’m just going to stop writing, it’s for your own good. Goodbye.

Check out our previous posts Bee and the Puppycat, Spacetrawler, Grrl Power, Krazy Kat, She-Hulk, King City, The Whiteboard, Hubris, Akira, The Wicked and the Divine, Saga, Are  You My Mother?, Cairo,  Static, Elfquest, Hip Hop Family Tree, Finder, Peanuts, Love and Rockets, As the Crow Flies, Hellblazer, Strong Female Protagonist, Safe Area Goradže,  The Legion of Super-Heroes, The Arab of the Future, Barefoot Gen, Stay Still and Stay Silent,  The Invisbles, Brenda Starr: Reporter, Lackadaisy,  Alone, Nat Turner, Agents of the Realm, and M.F.K.!