Dead West

by Rick Spears

Book Overview

Combines two genres, zombie horror movies and westerns, to create a manga adventure. During America's westward expansion, a small Indian village was wiped out to make way for the town of Lazarus. Only... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0976303817
• ISBN13: 9780976303817
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Gigantic Graphic Novels
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Guiness Brilliant

The book was absolutely genius in so many ways...my favorite being: Rob G...as usual, he has pulled off the stunning artwork that brings this book together. Pen and ink is a terribly difficult medium to work with, and he makes it look like a walk in the park- It has effortless grace (yes, even in the zombies) and lends a herd-of-zebras chaos to the whole scheme. Hands down, one of my favorite Graphic novels of the era.

A SPAGHETTI WESTERN ZOMBIE STORY

It's always a treat when something from a small publisher just jumps out and grabs you and doesn't let go. Dead West from Gigantic Graphic Novels is just such a book. A blending of spaghetti western and zombie films...Clint Eastwood meets George Romero. Produced by Rick Spears & Rob Goodridge, Dead West takes these two unique film genres and blends them together for one horrific ride. The story opens as a group of Native American Indians warmly welcomes the white man into their small village, only to have the white men lay claim to the lands. The men return as raiders, killing all of the Indians except for the young son of the tribe's chief who escapes. Move forward a number of years to the town of Lazarus on the very land stolen from the Native Americans. That lone survivor of the raid, now a man, performs a ghoulish ritual atop the Lazarus cemetery, taking his own life and letting his blood spill over the graves. Soon the dead claw their way out of the ground, and shuffle forth towards the town, led by the same Indian Shaman, now returned to life himself, to avenge his tribe. The residents of Lazarus now find themselves under attack by the undead zombies, and returning to life when they die themselves to attack their former friends and neighbors. The survivors take refuge where they can and try to fight off the living dead as a mysterious man, looking remarkably like Clint Eastwood from one of his spaghetti westerns, comes to town in search of a man with a price on his head, and finds himself caught up in this hellish struggle with the dead. I am always a sucker for a good zombie story and Dead West certainly was that. The black & white art, while not remarkable, was very reminiscent of the kind of art in the old Warren horror magazines like Creepy or Eerie back in the day. In fact the art somewhat reminded me of Pat Boyette's work on those same magazines from the 60's and 70's. I also like the fact that dialog was kept to a minimum as Spears and Goodridge let the visuals tell the story. There's nothing worse than a story that gets too "talky", especially a horror story. They have a very good handle on the zombie concept and a good flair for the dramatic as well. A very well done story and I look forward to seeing more from this pair. Reviewed by Tim Janson