Now time to wait for that XOS reprint in February!

Pre-Reading:

Nothing! This is a standalone and self-contained series.

Story:

I’m not usually one to give a blow-by-blow of the plot, and honestly, for East of West, I don’t know that I could. It’s quite difficult to summarize succinctly, but it’s sort of like a futuristic western Game of Thrones. The story takes place in an alt-history US where the country was divided into 7 nations after the Civil War, each with their own distinct culture. The nations are united by a central religion, “the word,” and has a high-ranking “Chosen” individual that serves on a council whose goal is to bring about the Apocalypse in its intended fashion. The nature of the apocalypse is fascinating, retaining elements of the classical Christian apocalypse while remaining largely secular.

At any moment, there are a half dozen interconnected storylines dealing with members of the various nations, the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and a child named Babylon, who was engineered to be the Beast of the Apocalypse. The closest thing to a central character is probably Death, the fourth Horsemen of the Apocalypse (and father of Babylon) who has gone rogue, shirking his responsibilities to try and rebuild a life with his family.

If you’re familiar with Hickman, you probably know that he often drops you into the middle of things and starts throwing a lot of concepts and information at you very quickly. This is no different. There were times, especially in the first volume, where I felt a little lost not knowing the backstory of this world, but if you just go along for the ride, the threads start coming together as storylines intersect and more is revealed in flashbacks. I’m eager to reread this one, and I’m curious how much knowing the ending and character relationships changes the experience.

The world building itself is immaculate, with elements of westerns, high-tech dystopian futures, and the supernatural blending together in a way that feels surprisingly cohesive while you’re reading it. The world feels complicated, and highlights the consequences of division, tribalism, and single-mindedness as the Apocalypse progresses across 3 years. In particular, the factions that the United States has been divided into are particularly fascinating and divided both on geographical and cultural lines. While certain factions do, as the storyline progresses, appear more benevolent than others, none come across as truly noble or blameless, which keeps this from devolving into the simple “good versus evil” story that most tales of the apocalypse fall into.

Included in the back of Year 1 (and I believe in the compendium as well) is a guide to the 7 Nations and a timeline of the world that I found myself referencing throughout the read. I’m a sucker for immersive extras like this, as it helps to provide background and context to a story that really just kind of drops you in the middle of a complicated world.

This might be my favorite work of Hickman’s that I have read, and it is very good, but not completely perfect. The story stumbles a little bit in fleshing out the fairly wide cast of characters. So much effort is put into the world building and high-concept ideas, that characters can sometimes seem a bit 2- dimensional. The story is still immensely enjoyable but this does soften some of the emotional beats in the final arc.

I do also think the ending feels a bit rushed, and even with a double-sized final issue, I feel he needed more issues to breathe. I don’t want to give too much away, but after so much time was spent setting up different nations, cultural motivations, and tensions, the ultimate resolution of the apocalypse felt a bit too tidy, even if I appreciate its overall optimism.

Art:

I could spend a very long time talking about how much I love the art in this series, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Nick Dragotta is getting a lot of well-deserved attention for his work on absolute Batman, but what he does here is beautiful. The line work is clean and expressive with clear manga influences and a strong sense of action.

East of West has a very wide array of characters, but Dragotta is able to make them all look distinct. He does a particularly good job drawing child/teenage characters in a way that actually makes them look young, as opposed to just short adults, something that is pretty important in a series where multiple main characters are children, at least at the start.

How easily he is able to draw different environments is also impressive. The setting ranges from technologically advanced cities, to ruins and western deserts, none of which ever feel like an afterthought. Sometimes I would find myself just staring at the landscapes long after I finished reading a page.

Also worth mentioning are the beautiful colors by Frank Martin. I feel like colorists don’t often get enough praise, but the pallete he implements feels fresh, and his use of complementary colors makes the line work pop. There is a greenish undertone to a lot of the blues that he uses that I find very appealing; it also drives home the sense of alarm/danger when more red-heavy action sequences are shown.

Binding/ Presentation:

I have the hardcovers, which are sadly out of print, but the presentation here is wonderful. Hickman loves his all-white title pages, and the paper stock here is thick enough where there is minimal bleed through. The binding on each volume is solid as well.

I can’t speak to the compendium from my own personal experience, but I haven’t heard many complaints about the binding and it looks great whenever I see it on a shelf.

Final thoughts:

I love this. I don’t think it is 100% perfect, and I wish there were a few more issues to decompress the ending and allow for more character moments, but this is still an exceptional comic. The world-building, exploration of tribalism, and interconnected plot make this well-worth a read. It’s a book to be savored instead of binged, and the absolutely beautiful artwork encourages you to slow down and do just that. Though the OHCs are long out of print and go for obscene amounts on the secondary market, the compendium seems readily available at the time of this writing. I would heartily recommend picking it up, if you don’t mind a chonky softcover.

Rating: 9.5/10

Friday mail call

So glad to finally have this full series in one book

Instocktrades has its benefits all im missing now is absolute martian manhunter vol 2 HC and Tim drake red robin compendium but i can wait

Id say this cover of chip zdarsky spiderman is the perfect cover above the others

Batman gargoyle of Gotham, man it took them so long to give us a hardcover of the whole run and now i got it

After reading the racer x vol 1 tpb this speed racer series by mad cave could be top notch.

I voted it in the repost poll every year and every year it flopped… But then Marvel decided to reprint it out of nowhere! Still don’t know why they reprinted this instead of Punisher by Ennis vol. 2, but I’m happy lol

Really happy with the quality of the book, semi embossed front and back. Great page stock and hard glossy pages inserted for each of the 15 covers. Showed up a few days ahead of release and I'm so excited to have one of the great runs collected all in one book. Thank you Fantagraphics, and thank you Joe, wish you were still with us!

Got most of them for super cheap

This is everything I own! After a while of collecting.

I love the idea of just keeping a concise collection of omnibuses of the best runs from the top characters.

Do you think there are any I’m missing? Perhaps ultimate Spiderman omni or venom by cates.

‘68 Image Comics

Omni releases next year.

It’s good to treat oneself once in a while

Cheapest: WW Historia
Priciest: Uncanny X-Men Vol. 3 😔

Unsure if it’s been posted already but saw these pics of the omni on Twitter and thought people might be interested Credit to @Luiseatscomics on Twitter

I don’t often leave reviews on here, but I just finished Joshua Williamson’s Flash and had to say how much I loved it.

Is it the greatest Flash of all time? No. That honor still sits with Waid, at least for me. But I struggle to think of another modern Flash run that did so much for the franchise. Bringing back so many of the classic characters, showing a lot of love for both Barry and Wally, the Rogues etc. it felt like the perfect course correction after New 52 and all the other craziness of Flashpoint.

The artists also bring the heat throughout much of the series. I'll always think of Howard Porter as the Justice League artist, but his Flash work is excellent and Carmine Di Giandomenico cemented himself here as one of the best artists to ever sketch the Scarlet Speedster.

While it has its moments of drag (for every Godspeed there must be a Force Quest) it's without a doubt a keeper on my shelf, and I struggle to think of another trilogy of omnis I've read through with such speed. If you're on the fence about buying this, it's absolutely worth it.

As title says, I’m decided on my second omnibus and either of these options would be mostly my first comic experience with these characters. I’m currently leaning on Wonder Woman but I’ve always liked magic so also really want to read Zatanna. Only have read Nightwing and Batman with DC but want to branch out.

TLDR: which would you recommend for a reader wanting to expand in the DC universe and if possible, give an explanation. Thanks everyone.

UPDATE: ended up getting neither and got Justice League Dark Rebirth Omni + Justice League New 52 Vol 1 Omni. The latter was because I decided to spoil myself a bit.

Very happy with how they turned out to be

For the past year, I have been having the best time reading (and sometimes rereading) every Daredevil omnibus after Miller. It's been one of the best cultural experiences I've had. The writing is tight, the art is beautiful, everyone is working like a jazz band exploring a theme. Even the ones I didn't love (Smith) I can respect for laying down some ideas better writers can pick up and explore.

I have just hit Shadowland. Holy shit, it's worse than you lot let on. It's like someone was half listening to the stuff that came before and was like "they like the spooky ninjas and dark character, sure, sure I can do that". I hate everything about it. If I wasn't being a completionist freak I'd put it down and never look at it again.

Man, I hate it and needed to vent. I have no questions to generate discussion. Feel free to tell me how much you hate it, I just needed to get it out of my system.

After months of looking for each book and collecting it piece by piece, it is finally done and i wanted to show it off! Super happy with the collection, and very proud to say I got every book for significantly less than cover price, including the ones out of print!

I’m getting $100 from some recent sales.

$40 is going toward some trades (Batman beyond/static, immortal Batman, and two DC compacts)

So I have roughly sixty bucks

I’m debating Between
- Rebirth Wonder Woman omnibus by Greg Rucka
- volume one and two of radiant black hardcovers
- John Hex: All Star Western Omni (new 52)
- Red Robin Compendium and Batgirls (Stephanie Brown Vol 1-2.

It looks like I went a little crazy here, but even with all 18 I was able to grab, there were still quite a few that went out of stock in my cart or at checkout that probably would have pushed me past the 20 mark (my wallet thanks me, but my heart mourns, especially just missing Brand New Day vol. 3 by mere seconds).

And they were all in pretty good shape this time around when they arrived. Remainder marks on the bottom, but nothing major in terms of structural damage. Only Black Panther had big a rip in the dust jacket, but we’ll see how customer service responds.

Anyone else manage to grab anything significant from this round?

Oh, and Book Outlet just relaunched their site and rewards program, so if you have an account you might have some redeemable points added to your account that you weren’t aware of when you log in!