Cowboys And Aliens Graphic Novel: A Wild West Adventure That Almost Wasn't

Ten years have passed since Cowboys & Aliens galloped onto screens across America. Based on an equally iconic graphic novel of the same name, released just three years prior in 2006 by writer/artist Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Kevin J. Conroy respectively, this Western sci-fi epic had all the makings of a blockbuster hit.

With Academy Award-winning director Jon Favreau at the helm (at least during production), an A-list cast headlined by Harrison Ford as grizzled gunslinger Clay Rance alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as notorious outlaw Doc Holliday's lookalike, and an estimated budget reportedly north of $150 million to boot - not mentioning a host of mind-bending alien creatures hellbent on enslaving humanity.

The premise alone was enough reason for excitement: when extraterrestrial visitors crash-land in 1800s Arizona, it sets off a chain reaction that forces disparate cowboys and Native American tribesmen from warring factions to put aside their differences. Their goal? To join forces against an alien threat so formidable - not just technologically advanced spaceships but also hordes of deadly alien creatures with teeth as sharp as knives themselves.

Yet despite such promise, Cowboys & Aliens somehow flopped spectacularly upon release on June 29th, 2011. What went wrong? Was it poor marketing or simply bad luck that consigned this ambitious summer blockbuster to obscurity?

Whatever the reason(s), one thing remains certain: with a canvas as vast and untapped as Old West America stretching out before them - combined with all sorts of action-packed set pieces just waiting to be unleashed upon an eager audience, Cowboys & Aliens had every chance of becoming something truly special. Alas, it seems fate had other plans.

So here's hoping that perhaps one day soon, this underappreciated Western sci-fi epic will get the second chance at glory it so richly deserves - before being consigned forever to the annals of 'what might have been'.

Cowboys and aliens graphic novel