East of West Appreciation

[Agent John Bishop]

Hey guys, I have a question for you all. Having read all of the recent East of West trades nearly back to back and reviewing them, I noticed something about the artwork. Does it feel like the art quality kind of degrades or looks less polish in areas as time goes on to you? I mean, looking back at the beginning and in current issues, the linework and inking feels rushed in areas (rather noticeable in #13 I found). It could be just me, but it feels like the quality is dipping a bit as time goes on.

Not really. I have all the trades and I did a quick comparison. Dragotta's style has definitely changed a little over the last year, but I'd be hard put to it to claim it's gotten worse. His linework in places look simpler (much like Mignola's linework has gotten simpler throughout Hellboy), but it remains crisply detailed and well laid out. I also note that his style of inking has gotten rougher, but that might also be on purpose.

I guess what that boils down to is a simple matter of opinion. Dragotta's art is of such a high quality that looking at my three trades, I have trouble noting any kind of problem with his progression as an artist. I think he's changing, his stuff looks more streamlined and manga-like these days, but it remains to me the highest level of comic book art so I can't complain.

[Marvell2100]

Not really. I have all the trades and I did a quick comparison. Dragotta's style has definitely changed a little over the last year, but I'd be hard put to it to claim it's gotten worse. His linework in places look simpler (much like Mignola's linework has gotten simpler throughout Hellboy), but it remains crisply detailed and well laid out. I also note that his style of inking has gotten rougher, but that might also be on purpose.

I guess what that boils down to is a simple matter of opinion. Dragotta's art is of such a high quality that looking at my three trades, I have trouble noting any kind of problem with his progression as an artist. I think he's changing, his stuff looks more streamlined and manga-like these days, but it remains to me the highest level of comic book art so I can't complain.

I agree. I'm enjoying Dragotta's art on this series and really don't have any complaints with it.

[guanaeps]

Dragotta and Martin are magic. I can never tell where this book is going and I love it. Cant wait for some more John Freeman/The kingdom stuff!

[spaghetti monster]

New to the series - just picked up the first 3 trades. I have read the first 2 issues & there is something I don't understand.

So in the first issue the 3 children are 3 of the 4 horsemen but are temporarily in children form right? They are War, Famine, and Conquest if I remember correctly. Death is still in adult form. Are Death's 2 companions (female & Native American) the grown up versions of Famine and War/Conquest? At first I thought that it was in a different time stream, but the end of issue 1 (where Death is) continues to the beginning of issue 2 (where the 3 children are) so it looks like they are all in the same time stream and hence these are not the same characters?

Hope someone can explain the characters to me. I haven't looked much online since I don't want to read spoilers. Looking forward to continuing reading this series over the weekend!

[JJ Fiegel]

So like the apocalypse happened, and the hoursemen were supposed to be reborn, but Death opted out (or he killed them and then they were reborn but I don't think that's right). And Death's two companions are just his companions.

[Ragdoll]

I tried getting into this to kill time while waiting for Manhattan Projects to resume. I love Hickman and his FF/Avengers runs, but this comic somehow fails to engage me.

[spaghetti monster]

Thanks JJ Fiegel. So Death's companions are different characters, good to know. What confused me was that the beginning of issue 2 (with the children) was the continuation of the end of issue 1 (with Death). Same location, same storyline, but different characters.

[Joker]

I tried getting into this to kill time while waiting for Manhattan Projects to resume. I love Hickman and his FF/Avengers runs, but this comic somehow fails to engage me.

It is often a slow burn, and there's some points that aren't very high octane, if you will, but it gets good. It's really on point right now. Won't be for everyone, though.

[NecroDragon]

^ Reading it monthly started to make my interest wane, just because the story is so dense that I would forget what was going on most of the time, whenever a new issue would come out. (art still blew me away.) That said, I just re-read every issue from the beginning and it totally got me to fall in love with it again. It's an amazing long-form story that, when read all at once, is very engaging. To me, at least.

[Ragdoll]

The last 2 issues have been pretty solid. The changes in Balloon are interesting, for sure. I might need to re-read them all like the poster above me, though, because I am forgetting a good chunk of the early stuff.

[Joker]

^ Reading it monthly started to make my interest wane, just because the story is so dense that I would forget what was going on most of the time, whenever a new issue would come out. (art still blew me away.) That said, I just re-read every issue from the beginning and it totally got me to fall in love with it again. It's an amazing long-form story that, when read all at once, is very engaging. To me, at least.

I feel like that applies to Hickman's work in general. At least for me.

[MegaManChiefFan]

This is the only Hickman series that I truly like. Manhattan Projects is fun but critically meh, and every other thing I've read from him either ranges from kind of bad to absolutely horrible. So it shocked me to see an actually good series from him. This series has brilliant artwork from Dragotta, a fantastic story, great characters (especially the President), it is just great. It is such a shame to see a writer create both something as great as East of West and then make something so horrible like his Avengers run. Definitely one of my all-time favorite image series.

[Joker]

What Hickman work have you read? I could be critical of it, but I wouldn't call any of it outright bad. I haven't read his Marvel work outside of Fantastic Four, so I can't comment on that.

[MegaManChiefFan]

To be honest, I have not read any of his Fantastic Four stuff. May get around to it at one point. But his Avengers works were horrible. I have also read Infinity and a couple of issues of his S.H.I.E.L.D. series. Although they weren't as bad, they were still no where near the title good.

[Joker]

His creator owned work is far more interesting than any of his Marvel work, but that's also just my general lack of interest in superheroes.