Back in July of 2016 I had made a trip down to my local used bookstore, and there on the shelves were copies of East Of West trades 1 and 4. I had been lookin for something new to read and so, taking a chance, I grabbed Vol.1 with a plan to purchase the rest of them if the first book grabbed me.
Well to say it grabbed me was an understatement- besides the beautiful art was an intriguing storyline and compelling characters involving an alternate world where the United States was broken up into different factions about to go to war even as the Apocalypse looms. Throw in the rebirth of the Four Horsemen: Death, War Conquest and Famine once again walking the earth, and you had the makings of a MAJOR modern Sci-Fi/fantasy EPIC!
Reading that first book, it was time to get all the rest of the volumes! At the time, East Of West was at Vol.5 of the series , so after running back to the bookstore to grab Vol.4, I went to Amazon and put in an order for Volumes 2, 3 and 5!!
Reading the series from Book One to Book Five, I was completely floored at how good this series was. The promise made at the beginning of the series was fully met, with the story getting more and more intricate even as we got to know the characters better and better!
Image Comics has a history of uneven and even delayed releases and I was often disappointed to learn that a book I was expecting to get would be delayed for weeks and even months at a time! I was not a buyer of the individual ,single issues, preferring to wait for collections, so these stretches of waiting was agony, and you can see by my posts how erratic the releases were:
Vol. 6 October 2016
Vol. 7 September 2017 (almost a whole YEAR waiting!)
Vol. 8 August 2018
Vol. 9 May 2019
But I couldn’t complain because very time I got my hands on the next book, I was in seventh heaven! It seemed like it was just going to get better and better!
Finally in July of last year it was announced that East of West was going to be wrapping things up and the next three issues would be its last! The series concluded in December of last year, but the final trade paperback of Vol.10 would not be released until May of 2020.
Oh MAN, that was almost another whole YEAR of waiting, but I told myself to be patient.
Then Coronavirus hit and suddenly things were up in the air. Diamond Distributors was putting all its deliveries on hold and closing shop. And with that, most COMIC STORES began shuttering as well! We were assuaged that this would be a temporary step and once the pandemic died down, things would be up and running.
Well, I could only hope that that was true, in the meantime, however, my main thought was “WHAT ABOUT THAT LAST VOLUME!!!” And so, in the end, i just went on to ebay and, for a very reasonable price, BOUGHT the last three issues!
Well. those babies came in just a few days ago and, with them in hand, I went back and, starting from Volume One, read ALL the way through to East of West’s final, magnificent, climactic issue!!
HOLY HELL, this series is one of the most AWESOME series I’ve READ!!!! By the time I was getting down to the last chapter, i was reading each page as slowly as I could to prolong the excitement in my heart, and as the characters went through the confrontation, the final wars and the sombre conclusion I was exhausted!
‘This was a freakin’ MASTERPIECE!!!
PS: East of West’s collected volumes don’t have anything in the way of bonus material like most other series do, still, when that last volume DOES come out, I’m STILL going to have to get it, if only to complete my set!!!
It has been one HELL of a ride!!!
