page from East of West #11
Hickman and Dragotta reunited soon after their phenomenal Fantastic Four run to give us this Sci-Fi Western set in a alternate reality fractured dystopian United States where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the world’s only hope. It’s honestly just such a cool world to dive into and learn about.
Would recommend to sci-fi fans, comic fans, and those that just love world building.
A few of the major powers in the world:
The Union
The Endless Nation
The Kingdom
The People's Republic of America
pages from East of West: The World
Anyone with a fucking robot balloon is to be taken super seriously
Yes, I made a post about comics too! Most of my bookshelf is graphic novels.
I love East of West. Apocalyptic western horror with some of the best art in any series.
Black Science
Atomic Robo
Paper Girls
Transmetropolitan
Saga
And not sci fi but
Monstress
Sandman
Lucifer
Darkness Visible
The Highest House
Lazarus
Are all so good.
Atomic Robo! Not enough people talk about Atomic Robo.
Oh my God, I think it’s in the free comic book day book, where Dr. Dinosaur is at the gun show, has to be one of my favorite pages of any comic ever.
Love me some Atomic Robo. I’ve been a fan of Brian Clevinger since the days of 8-Bit Theater.
One of my biggest scores was an original inked comic page from Savage Sword of Doctor Dinosaur.
Transmetropolitan remains my favourite by far. It’s just so…chewy. It reminds me of 2000AD Dredd - panels overflowing with incidental details that show the city is alive. Spider is unrelenting and unrepresented.
The character design of the (aliens?) reminds me of something I’d see in The Fifth Element!
Now that you mention it, it does give off those 5th Element vibes. Though, The Endless Nation is actually comprised of Native Americans, so it’s the complete opposite of aliens in both the extraterrestrial sense and the immigrant sense.
No one really knows what went down, but at some point they went into isolation for a considerable time, then emerged as a technological superpower. As the comic puts it:
There is no record of the internal revolution which resulted in the Machine State, only the oral history of cast-out believers who now reside in the dead country. One day there was no Machine State, and then the next there was.
I think this was the first series I finished front to back. Got me into comics that had a finite length, unlike a lot of super hero comics.
Yeah, luckily, around the time I started to burn out on the endless events and reboots in Marvel and DC was when I feel like Image Comics really hit its stride. I wanna say early to mid 2010s(?) they really started branching out/expanding in what they published, and finding recognition and success—well, as much as comics can expect—for it.
Yeah! Saga, Invincible, The wicked + The divine, paper girls…
So many more that I still need to read. Montress, Deadly class, chew, rat queens, the department of truth, kick-ass…
Man, I loved Descender and Ascender. Beautifully drawn & great story!
Most of the stuff I read is from Image Comics. I too have the Marvel/Dc burnout.
Excellent art/world and pretty compelling story. Almost everything from Image Comics is really top quality. Recently read ODY-C and working my way through the Low series. Can’t recommend enough.
Now THIS looks like my jam. As someone who is only marginally knowledgeable about comics, can anyone recommend stuff in this vein?
To name a few other sci-fi ones: Saga, Low, Black Science, and if you love pulpy sci-fi there is also Fear Agent. They have some really cool art too.
From Black Science #1:
Edit: Oh, also want to shill James Stokoe’s Aliens: Dead Orbit just because I’m in love with the art in everything he does.
I really enjoyed Black Science and did like Low.
Hickman is one of my favourite writers, easily!
1st: Black Monday Murders (not sci fi but so so good, I love occult stuff like this)
2nd: Decorum
4th=: Manhatten Projects and East of West
Given the success of Oppenheimer I’m surprised Manhattan Projects isn’t getting more love. I’d love a second volume of Decorum but you have to be patient with Hickman haha
Black Monday Murders is great - Mammon is my wallpaper at work, lol. But it needs more, sort of dropped off in the middle!
The comic itself certainly has some flaws. But the world, the history, the art, and the mythos were so compelling
I loved the worldbuilding, but fell off pretty quickly when I realized the characters weren’t going to get interesting.
The lore behind the characters i really enjoyed, and a few characters I thought were interesting enough. Its a world Id love to read a really fleshed out wikipedia site on
I’m not exactly a “fan”, but I remember years ago really enjoying a brief comic run called “Gene Roddenberry’s ‘Lost Universe’”, published under an almost equally brief label called “Tekno Comix”. I was really disappointed when they went under.
Does the IDW run of Transformers count? One of my favorites by far.
Can I recommend Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow? I just finished it, it’s sci-fi-ey and a very enjoyable standalone story. The art is really good as well. I really enjoyed it.
Holy shit thank you for posting this! I just found out about this from you and found part 1 in my local library and this shit slaps hard as fuck. Thank you so much!
Try Descender and if you haven’t, try Saga.
Never read that one, but I definitely enjoyed Transmetropolitan
