Covert Nerd Podcast

East of West comic book by Jonathan Hickman   This is the world. It is not the one we wanted, but it is the one we deserved. Is a quote from the East of West comic book series. ----more---- The comic received nominations for Best Writer, Best Continuing Series, Best Artist, and Best Colorist from the Eisner Awards (unfortunately winning none of them). That’s massive amount of praise and honor surrounding this book East of West is a comic book series published by Image Comics Created by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Nick Dragotta, the book is a science fiction Western set in a dystopian version of the United States whose fate rests with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Things didn’t exactly go down in the American Civil War like expected. The war went on and on and on between the North and South; even the Native Americans got in on the fighting. Then, after years and years of fighting, a huge comet collided with the Earth and the people saw it as a sign to end. In 1908, America was divided up into the Seven Nations of America. On the same day, two figures from different walks of life, Elijah Longstreet and Red Cloud, told of something big on the horizon before they died. Several years later, another big figure dies, delivering out another message. When all three accounts were combined, they came together and created something called The Message. It is the story—or perhaps an actual account—of how the world will end. Flash forward to the year 2064 and that’s where the story begins. The Union: The north east region of the US The Confederacy: The southeast region of the US The Kingdom: Louisiana region of the US The Endless Nation: Central plains region of the US The Republic of Texas: Texas and Oklahoma region of the US PRA: Western region of the US, from the Rocky mountains to the pacific ocean The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Death, War, Famine, and Conquest) seek to bring about the end of the world. Their plans are interrupted when the daughter of the leader of the PRA falls in love with death. Essentially love conquers death. When I found this series it reminded me of the Stephen King Dark Tower series in some ways. Both are futuristic western post-apocalyptic worlds. The story has a lot of characters and can be difficult to follow at time. In some ways that makes it interesting too, because the reader doesn’t spend much time on one single character. Hickman has created an immense world for his characters to play in. When the series is done I hope he does a few short runs in the world he has created. The intrigue and deception the leaders of the 7 nations create is fun to follow. You never know what kind of coupe or assassination attempt they are going to try next. If you haven’t picked it up I suggest you do so. Image has put the entire series into an 8 volume set. On April of this year, Amazon Studios, Skybound Entertainment and Hickman are developing an hour-long series   Binge reading comics In the age of streaming it’s no wonder my comic reading patterns have changed, have yours? It could be the fact for the most part I haven’t been into comics in almost 25 years. I bought some here and there during that time, but not like I did in the early 90’s. I might have a subconscious need to try and catch up. I think and you might have the same perspective, I like to be able to read a story from beginning to end without having to wait a month for the latest issue to come out. Just like binging a TV show on Netflix, binging on a comic book story is similar. I know many old timers like me have gone from getting the floppies as they are called to the TPB. Since it’s cheaper per issue to do it this way. If you are not a collector this is the way to go in my opinion. I am more of a lover of the story and art not the perceived value of the issue. If you like collecting for the value great, some people enjoy the hunt for certain issues. If you like that great! Either way keep reading and enjoy the format, whet