#344 The Fiesty Four pt9/9

#343 The Fiesty Four pt8/9

#342 The Fiesty Four pt7/9

#341 The Fiesty Four pt6/9

#340 The Fiesty Four pt5/9

#339 The Fiesty Four pt4/9

#337 The Fiesty Four pt2/9

#336 The Fiesty Four pt1/9

#331 Insert Eye of the Tiger Here

#325 Villains Anonymous

#154 Comedy vs Tragedy pt2/2

#153 Comedy vs Tragedy pt1/2

The Story So Far

Greetings you constant comrades of Cowman!  Howdy you breathless bovine buffs! 

Howya doin' you faithful fans of our fearless friend?!

Okay...maybe Cowman isn't entirely fearless and maybe you're not a loyal fan 

and/or friend of Cowman.  The guy hasn't been around all that long...still kinda 

new to the game...still has lots of holes to punch on his time card.  And I know 

what you're thinking.  Does the superhero community still use those old style 

time cards with a hole punch?  The answer is: yes...yes they do.  Utility belts 

don't come cheap folks, these guys have to cut costs where they can. 

If you're new to 'The Adventures of Cowman' fear not!  All of those adventures 

are still here to catch up on, but if you're not into back issues and wanna get 

the skinny on what's been going on before you make Cowman part of your twice 

weekly routine along with coffee and the toilet then here's the story so far. 

And I know what you're thinking again.  Did I just use the expression 'the skinny' 

like a 1950's soda jerk?  The answer is: yes...yes I did.  I don't have a reason 

for that one though.  This is just the important stuff guys, you'll need to read 

the comics for all the nitty gritty...but otherwise beware of spoilers ahead.

Our story began not with Cowman, but with his slightly younger and significantly 

dorkier alter ego, Herman Marvin.  Herman was on a field trip at a local farm 

that had recently fallen victim to some chemical contamination, when he was bit 

by a radioactive cow.  The incident imbued Herman Marvin with the powers of the 

cow and forever changed his life.  Now as Cowman he stands up for truth, justice 

and the farmland way.  Don't know what the farmland way is?  Ask someone other 

than Cowman,cuz he doesn't know either.  Cowman divides his time between fighting 

crime in Pig Knuckle County and hanging out at his favourite watering hole, The 

Grass Hut with his buddies, Farmer Budd, Micheal Burkowitz, Milkman Stu and the 

owner and bartender of The Grass Hut, Ted Kahananui.  The bunch of them spend 

hours talking about everything random, and when they're not available Cowman 

hangs with the local wildlife, the other cows, the pigs, the chickens...he 

doesn't discriminate.

To help kick off his newfangled crime fighting career, Cowman dropped in on 

Detective Gloria Chick while at the crime scene of a mysterious murder in which 

the victim was found with an unproduced screenplay crammed down his throat. 

Detective Chick, not really a fan of Cowman, humoured his interest in the crime 

but was generally uninviting to his help.  Cowman wasn't about to let that stop 

him though. He asked her out anyway.  She said no.  Awkward. 

Homicide detective Cowman is not however, and his crime time had to be divided. 

He answered a call to help at a local china shop where he had his first serious 

showdown with a new villain in town known as Bullzerk.  Big, mean, red, half 

human, half bull, Bullzerk was a science experiment gone bad.  His fight went 

bad too when he accidentally bit his tongue and called the fight off, maybe to 

return again. 

The next serial victim was found a top a pile of bootlegged DVD's but Cowman's 

involvement in the investigation was again kept brief.  Near by a jug of milk 

reached it's expiry date and went bad, attacking and killing people across the 

country side until Cowman interceded and made short work of it with a blender. 

A stint of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances followed.  Cowman was bit by a 

Mad Cow...which ultimately wasn't all that bad but I mean come on, being bit by 

a cow isn't usually a good thing.  The radioactive one was an extenuating 

circumstance. He also bumped into a cow named Bessy who once licked him and 

things just got awkward.  Then to top it all off he was kidnapped by an insane 

fast food enthusiast who wanted to BBQ him as consolation for being banned from 

all major fast food chains. Another murder victim was discovered with a pair of 

3D glasses welded to his face and Cowman had to deal with a hangover from a rough 

night of hard drinking and an encounter with Bessy. 

Things took a turn though when the last serial victim was found with the word 

'FRANCHISE' stamped onto his forehead.  Stumped and frustrated, Detective Chick 

came with Cowman to The Grass Hut where she met Micheal Burkowitz and immediately 

pegged him as the mysterious serial killer they'd been hunting.  Burkowitz took 

Detective Chick hostage and after a hot pursuit and a brief battle Cowman brought 

the killer to justice, earning an even briefer moment of respect from Chick.  And 

now you know the rest of the story. 

New Cowman comics upload every Tuesday and Thursday.

The Not So Secret Origin of Bullzerk

Bullzerk actually predates Cowman by more than 10 years, I was 13 or 14 at the time and this is what he looked like.

Pretty bad, huh?  I know.  I know.  Here's the deal.  One of the first characters I ever created was a superhero named Fireball...I don't know how old I was at the time but I'm sure I was barely in Elementary school.  The character was a composite of a few different things and wasn't terribly original.  Then a few years later I decided I was gonna try to revamp him and make him into something cool.  I'm not sure I succeeded but there was definitely an improvement and Bullzerk became a member of his rogues gallery.  The drawing above was the first incarnation of him.  Then came this...

 I think the storyline was that he was on steroids or something.  I bulked him up, made him darker and gave him a cigar to chomp on.  It's hard to believe I used to get compliments on drawings like these, they make me cringe now.  His proportions are purposefully exaggerated but they still don't work.  Gah.

And then there was Cowman....

I really doubt I'll ever bring back Fireball...not without a massive overhaul anyway...but I always thought Bullzerk was kinda neat looking and he made sense as a Cowman villain so I resurrected him into the slightly more cartoony, better proportioned individual you see here.  Bullzerk's Fireball origin was essentially a rip off of the Lizard from Spider-Man...something to do with experiments on bovine DNA.  Bad, right?  Which is why I make a point of being sketchy about his origin in Cowman...I figured I now had a chance to poke fun at the situation.  Who knows, maybe one day I'll write a decent backstory for him and reveal it in a Cowman adventure.  But for right now he's just a cool looking character with not a lot of story.

#7 The exciting conclusion of "China Shop!"

 

#6 Part 2 of Cowman's battle with Bullzerk

(China Shop pt2)

#5 A new menace emerges in part 1 of "China Shop"