East of West Volume Three by Jonathan Hickman

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Title: East of West Volume Three
Author: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: WARTY!

Art work: Nick Dragotta.
Colors: Frank Martin.
Letters: Rus Wooton.

I reviewed the very first comic in this series back in September of 2013. After that I never saw or heard of the comic until I found volumes two and three in the local library (bless that library!), so I thought I’d take it up again, and see what’s what. This series apparently has now run to fourteen volumes, but after reading these two, I'm not going to be reading any more.

Volume three continues in the same disjointed and violent way in which two proceeded. Fior me there was way too much violence and gore with very little payback for it in terms of the story moving along or in terms of the quality of the story being told. I understand that these are treacherous and violent times, but I also expected better than this absed on the first volume that I read.

It felt to me like the writer had lost track of what he was doing, or that he didn't have a clear sense of where he wanted to go, and so we were left meandering in the wilderness for much of this story, which begins with a meeting of heads of state which turns into something of a blood bath.

We're introduced to some of the factions, and they all of them seemed far too stereotypical to me. There was a Republic of Texas "nation" which was tedious. Can we not be a bit more inventive than this? Given this, I was rather surprised that there was no a redneck state! The representatives of the republic were all ZZ Top impersonators. Really? I live in Texas and I've actually never seen anyone who looks like that. Even ZZ Top doesn't really look like that.

There was a black nation, whose representatives were all clones - clones who didn't get along. On the way to the meeting, one of them punched another in the face so hard that his nose was literally squashed flat, yet when we see him at the meeting not long after, his nose is perfectly fine, and all he has on it is a tiny Band-Aid. There's no bruising, no disfigurement. That was as laughable as the tired stereotypes.

Once again this is a comic book where the text was too small. In the print book it was legible, but I'd hate to try and read this in ebook form unless I had a pad with a really big screen. The text was also oddly variable. For example, during the heads of state meeting, the text oddly changed size in several speech balloons. Then it really was too small to read comfortably.

The rip-offs from other comics/movies continued in this volume. We had, for example, giant dead animal bones lying in a desert looking like they came straight from the movie Heavy Metal. We had a head sticking out of a chest, like it was from the original Total Recall movie.

In conclusion, I cannot recommend this. It really had nothing to offer and was rather tedious to read. It felt like I was reading volume two over again. There's no point in reading a comic or any other kind of book which offers nothing more than warmed-up left-overs.

East of West Volume Two by Jonathan Hickman

Title: East of West Volume Two
Author: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: WARTY!

Art work: Nick Dragotta.
Colors: Frank Martin.
Letters: Rus Wooton.

Errata:
Page numbers are absent – in part 6, fifth page, bottom left panel “…say their peace…” should be “…say their piece…”.
Four pages into where John Freeman visits his father, first panel, “…against all harm your people…” should be “…against all who harm your people…”.

I reviewed the very first comic in this series back in September of 2013. After that I never saw or heard of the comic until I found volumes two and three in the local library (bless that library!), so I thought I’d take it up again, and see what’s what. This series apparently has now run to fourteen volumes, but after reading these two, I'm not going to be reading any more.

This compendium starts out borrowing a lot from movies like Star Wars (for the council, the exotic council building, and the floating chair in the courtroom). It borrows from Star Trek (for the testing of the child, towards the end of this volume – compare with the testing of Spock). It borrows from the movie Wanted when it comes to an assassin (which is what the Texas Rangers are turned into here) taking a ridiculously long rifle shot to take out one of the main characters (or does he? You have to read the next volume to find out). It also borrows from the movie Red Planet, for the predatory quadruped with a light on its head, and from the movie Judge Dread for the law-enforcement/judge/jury/executioner after the courtroom scene.

The comic has lines like “When the time comes, I’ll kill you last” which really makes no sense, and there are errors in the text, such as when the judge says “…say their peace…” which should be “…say their piece…”. Another one I noticed was “…against all harm your people…” which should have been “…against all who harm your people…”. That aside, it was written well and it was drawn and colored well, too – to the same standard as volume one was, but the story simply wasn't anywhere near as interesting or as appealing.

There is, however, what felt like a bit of a disconnect between this volume and volume one. In saying that, understand that it’s been a long time since I read this! In the first volume, we had the story of the four horsemen, and the end of the world, told from the perspective of splintered USA consisting of 7 republics, and a rather inexplicable wild west skin laid over it notwithstanding the advanced technology. One of the four horsemen, Death, had an agenda which you might not have expected, and he was accompanied by two witches, a guy and a gal who were both built much more like the stereotypical comic book heroes, and relying heavily on native American stereotyping.

The story really didn’t appear to be going anywhere much, and wherever it was going, it sure wasn’t in much of a hurry to get there. It seems like the authors had suddenly become obsessed with dragging out the pain and torture, which in some regard can be said to fit the overall plot, but to read panel after panel of this stuff is asking too much without having some sort of solid pay-off for the effort.

East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta

Title: East of West
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: WORTHY!
Other Credits:
Frank Martin - colourist
Rus Wooton - letterist

DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this graphic novel nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration of any kind for this review. Since this is a new novel, this review is less detailed so as not to rob the writer of their story, but even so, it will probably still be more in-depth than you'll typically find elsewhere!

Let me preface this by stating that I am not a comic book devotee. I read them a lot when I was a kid, but grew out of them. I can still appreciate what they contribute, however, and I have to say I was quite stunned by the first page of this comic. It wasn't anything intricate or complex, but it really made an impression on me, and definitely made me want to read what came afterwards.

This 152 page comic is volume one of the story of the four horsemen, and the end of the world, but it has twists and turns that were wholly unexpected. It’s told from the perspective of a fractured, splintered USA of 7 republics, and of wild west heroes and villains set in a modern technological age. Death has split away from the other three horsemen and gone rogue! Death also is in point of fact, the only one who actually rides a horse, but it’s not equus that he rides, it’s roboticus.

Death is accompanied by two witches, a guy and a gal who are both built much more like the stereotypical comic book heroes but who do not in the least behave like them.

While the other three (non-)horsemen(!) seek Armageddon, Death is looking for something far more personal, and he's not going to let a single thing get in his way or prevent him from finding what he seeks, but even Death is surprised that what he finds is not remotely what he expected, and it comes in the form of a double-whammy to him. But in return, he's able to surprise someone with a whammy of his own, and it’s this potent interaction at the end which triggers the premise for volume two.

I’d love to taunt you with more, but comics hold far less text than novels, and to tell more would be to reveal too much of the text. Frankly, for me, it was not so much the text but the images which impressed me the most, which is how it should be, otherwise why provide images? The artwork is by a seasoned artist who has worked on X-Men and Captain America, and he doesn’t fail in providing solid and stirring graphics to augment the intriguing story. I reproduce a few images here, inadequately, and by no means at their best (for which sins I hope the authors will forgive me!), but you can see more on Dragotta's web page listed above in the credits. That's not to diss the text - which provides an engaging and inventive narrative - by any means. You can read more about Hickman by clicking on the link above or by visiting his wikipedia page.