iFanboy - Episode #45 - "West"


This week iFanboy calls attention to the great American genre of western comics, in all their horse smelling glory. We've got lawmen and outlaws, gamblers and rustlers, and maybe even a no good, low-down, dirty robot army.

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The last few years have seen a tremendous uptick in western comics, which used to be commonplace, but became very rare a few years back. Here are the books we rustled up:

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Comments

One great OGN that you guys missed is Dead West by Rick Spears. It's like Clint Eastwood Vs. Zombies. I don't know anyone whose read it that doesn't like it.

Oh, I started reading Loveless in trade and loved it. But it's impossible to follow in issues.

Posted by Brandon on 11/24/07 at 06:11 PM

my dog passed away this morning and i was pretty down but when ron made that face in the intro i totally cracked up. thanks a lot guys.

Posted by leland222 on 11/24/07 at 06:57 PM

Gordon = fried comedy gold!

I picked up Jonah Hex after you guys recommended it on a podcast a while back, and I'm hooked. It's fantastic, down n' dirty, gritty western greatness.

Why wasn't Josh wearing a hat???

Posted by Eyun on 11/24/07 at 09:35 PM

I really like the Jonah Hex stuff Vertigo put out in the late 90s. It was writen by Joe R. Langdale, whose writen about a million novels and the movie Bubba Ho-tep. That stuff had alot of freaks and super-natural stuff that the current series doesn't have. The Vertigo stuff isn't as good as Palmiotti and Gray's DC run, but the series has a really great tone.

Posted by Brandon on 11/24/07 at 10:27 PM

We only had the two hats.

Posted by josh on 11/24/07 at 10:42 PM

I hate this place but i love these chords.

Posted by chippy on 11/25/07 at 02:54 AM

I was disappointed that no one mentioned Desparados. It's a Wildstorm western that uses mini's and oneshot's for each story arc. It's been around for a long time. The first one has artwork by a Pre-Planetary Cassaday and a later one has Severin. It's basically x-files meet spaghetti western.

Posted by TfJ on 11/25/07 at 09:02 PM

I was disappointed that no one mentioned Desparados.

Well, we can't be on top of all books, but that's why we have a comment section like this. Good catch.

Posted by Josh on 11/25/07 at 09:35 PM

I love the casual cosplay moments at a con when you spot spandex Flash having a sandwich with a cardboard-winged Hawkman. This episode gave me a similar joy as Ron seriously debated the merits of comics, forgetting he had a birthday sombrero on his head.

Very nice show highlighting an "invisible" genre of comics out there. There's another Western/scifi comic, Dusty Star by Andrew Robinson but those old issues are nearly impossible to find. Check out his site for examples. http://www.nextexitproductions.net/comics/comics.php

Posted by Tad Stones on 11/26/07 at 02:42 PM

all I'm sayin is... Lone Ranger better be good, since I just ordered it

great show though, I love Western stuff, but unfortunately don't getany ('cept for Jonah Hex) at my local shop

Posted by deezer on 11/26/07 at 02:43 PM

I have to agree with Brandon - the Joe Lansdale stuff from 1994 was teh awesome. The biggest incentive: TIm Truman on art. If you like the Palmiotti/Grey stuff, snag a copy of "Riders of the Worm and Such."

Posted by William K. Scurry Jr. on 11/26/07 at 11:02 PM

I'm catching up on "Lone Ranger" as we speak, and abandoned "Loveless" when it got (as y'all noticed) a little too confusing.

The teacher in me is wondering--how is the issue of race addressed in these books? I mean, if this is post-Civil War, and we've got our 'heroes' wandering around in Confederate uniforms...

I seem to remember there being African American characters in "Loveless" that were also portrayed as 'heroes', and Jason Aaron is doing a great job of presenting a fairly-balanced portrayal of modern Native American life in "Scalped"...

Posted by Big E on 11/27/07 at 07:09 PM

The teacher in me is wondering--how is the issue of race addressed in these books? I mean, if this is post-Civil War, and we've got our 'heroes' wandering around in Confederate uniforms...

Race is clearly a theme in Loveless, but since I'm no longer reading it, I'm not sure where it went. I think the basic idea is that the Union soldiers weren't any less racist than the slave owners before them.

Jonah Hex is a different story, but they haven't really gotten into it yet, except that Hex is basically colorblind, and he'll kill anyone for money. The thing is, he's not a hero. He's not a good guy. He's just the protagonist. He was raised by Apache, but he's killed Indians. I don't think they've really gotten into why he wears the uniform in much detail.

Posted by Josh on 11/27/07 at 07:28 PM

Oh man, Hex would make an incredible TV show, but only if shown on HBO or Showtime... kinda like a nastier Deadwood!

Posted by Eyun on 11/28/07 at 10:18 PM

kinda like a nastier Deadwood!

I'm really not sure that's possible.

Posted by Josh on 11/28/07 at 11:41 PM

Good point, maybe just using the same style as Deadwood (man, what an awesome show!)? But Jonah's face is half melted off, which makes it a little nastier, doesn't it?

Posted by Eyun on 11/28/07 at 11:44 PM

Something occurred to me while I was watching this show. (I realize I am a little behind)

There are so many of those books that take place right after the Civil War. And I think you guys even commented that is kind of a "normal" scenario for these types of books. I really love the whole Civil War period and it's history. I was curious if there are any books from the actual war period. Either fictional or true history.

That would be interesting to read I think.

Posted by Craig From Kansas on 12/02/07 at 04:23 PM

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