Dead West

by Rick Spears, Rob G (Illustrator)

Seeking revenge for the death of his people, the survivor of a massacre of Native Americans returns to place a zombie curse on the town that now sits where his village once stood, and soon the town is crawling with the recently risen from the dead. Mature.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Zombies, Westerns, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2005

About the author

Rick Spears is an American comic book writer, best known for Teenagers from Mars and other independent comics.

Reviews

[Hillary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has the same drawbacks as many a zombie movie and many a less successful western--namely, it degenerates into action sequences, and action sequences can be done extremely well but rarely are these days. So it's a lot of shooting and darkness and blood spray and such, plus confusion about who's in which building. The art is really pretty decent, but the narrative doesn't have a lot going on. I'm sure there are those who will contend that "it doesn't have to be complicated! It's just a mothaeffin' zombie western, and if you don't like blood and guts, don't read it." But that's a stupid approach. I like zombies. I like westerns. And I do like blood and guts, rather a lot. I just also like things that are smart, and there's nothing about any of those three things that precludes a smart approach. This isn't exactly dumb, but it could be smarter or more compelling, although it's possible the almost entirely visual storytelling gets in the way of character development and the like. It's not bad, but it's not great.

[Ashe Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been meaning to read this for a while but never got around to it. Finally decided to plow through it and...I was pretty underwhelmed. The basic plot was solid but played out pretty nebulously. The young native boy who gets the party started isn't seen as much as he should be. The Man With No Name shows up and kinda becomes the focal point later and that's pretty much the deepest the plot delves. I'd have loved to have seen more about the moral struggle with revenge, especially considering what the young man does.

The art was a mix of good and not so good. Mostly, when there were lots of characters on the page, it just sort of devolved into a big mess. I'm not entirely sure if color would've helped that, honestly.

I'm a big fan of weird westerns so I was hoping this was gonna be a fun read but honestly, I was bored with it. It devolves into action and stays there. The story has no meat whatsoever, and again, the art is kind of a mess sometimes. So, it gets a deuce.

[Valerie Clack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rated this a little high. It's got obvious flaws, but wears them proudly like any cowboy. I like the native grandfather and the anti-hero is kind of a sh*t, which I also like.
It's like a cliché gone right.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Indian curses a whole town to be overrun by zombies. A stranger shows up to help.

Black and white art. It’s not bad.

[K T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty generic zombie story, but set in the West, with some commentary on the horrible slaughter of native americans.

The art was sometimes beautifully loose, sometimes awkward, sometimes confusing.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante sentire la vendetta, l'odio dell'ultimo superstite di una tribù. Quando solamente la morte e la vendetta rimangono, nel torrido Far West. Varie storie si intrecciano e il caldo afoso che torreggia sulle teste dei protagonisti riesce a permeare nonostante la scelta di avere il fumetto in bianco e nero. Dialoghi essenziali, forse qualche personaggio accessorio di cui si sarebbe fatto volentieri a meno per sapere invece di più di personaggi attorno a cui ruota effettivamente la storia.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK? It's an action western but also zombies. Imagine that for 150 pages. There was a nugget of anti-American expansionism in there that got turned into a banal revenge plot that ultimately went nowhere. The art is nice in still images but is really too messy and indistinct to follow different characters and locations closely.

[Magnus Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it was awesome, some of it was hard to follow, some of the drawings were unclear, some of the drawings were some of the coolest shit I've seen...
Overall, it was pretty cool.
My favourite panel was "You know about babies." Iykyk

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zombie western. Nothing more to know about it. I dig westerns, but hate zombies. Consequently, it was okay, but nothing more. Good art from Rob G.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just absurd enough to be interesting.

[boofykins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cool cover. Super quick read. Not much text. Pretty much every conceivable spaghetti western and zombie trope and cliche jammed into this one, and zero character development. This would work a lot better on screen.

[Andrea Blythe · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the wild west, a group of white settlers bring their claim to the land and order the local natives to leave, only to slaughter them when they don't. The sole survivor of the tribe comes back to the settled town years later, and performs a ritual to raise the dead, thus unleashing his vengeance upon the townfolk.

First, if we look past the issue of how native americans are portrayed -- on the one hand, simple victims, and on the other hand, perpetrators of of mystical and evil power -- the story still doesn't have much going for it other than action and bloodshed.

The art is okay, very scratchy and gritty in style, which actually works for the story, but there is zero character development for anyone in the book and I'm not sure why I should care if any of the townfolk or the cowboy who comes to their rescue should live or die. Overall, I wish Sparks had put more thought into the story, at lease in an effort to make the people likable and interesting, but as he didn't I'm afraid it all just falls short.

[Daver · Rating 2 out of 5]

I dunno. I liked it, it was kinda arty I guess. The slaphazard penciled drawings seemed to be distracting sometimes though, and I didn't feel like the narrative came together perhaps how it could have. Should have. The main story seemed a little pushed into the background, and the side stories were too prominent. Either that, or if the side stories were going to _be_ that prominent, then they needed to be more complete. I do appreciate it as a part of this author and illustrators collaborations. And I feel like maybe I'm missing a piece behind it that help the piece make a bit more sense to me. Anyway.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bulk of my approval of this book was the sheer entertainment value of it. I found the initial premise of the story uncompelling and hokey, but once the ball started rolled (being vague to avoid spoilers) I was caught up. The story within the story probably did the most point-scoring by this judge, though I wasn't quite sure I approved of one of my favorite movie heroes being drug in. Ok, yes and no about that. The drawing left me unclear at times what I was looking at, mainly because it was in black and white and what I'll term sketchy. More could have been done with the existing characters, especially the wanted man.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an OK graphic novel that did not quite live up to what I was expecting. I was actually excited when I read what this book was about and even more excited to find it at our local library. After reading it I was feeling pretty well let down. Think of the wild west with an avenging American Indian, a parody of the great Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns and throw in some zombies. Yeah, it sounds good but just falls a bit short of a home run, kind of like the pitch never makes it over the plate really.

[Lindsay Deacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably wouldn't have liked this book except that the art totally sucked me in. It has a lot of cliches, and when I put it down I said, "I'm not sure I fully understood everything, but it sure looked cool!" Zombie fans like myself will appreciate the alternative setting and time period, as well as the catalyst for why the zombies arise...but don't look for character development or a super linear story line. Again, the art was great part (in a sort of haphazard blood smeary way).

[Book Tea 🫖 with Jai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dead West, is a western, zombie comic. It starts off about these Indians who have a land and some white settlers come along and eventually steal the land.
As always it's about revenge, and to me the zombie Indians steal don't get revenge... The art work and story line had a lot going for it. But I think with a little more help and push it would have been great. CAUSE WHO DON'T LIKE A GREAT ZOMBIE COMIC?!? :-)

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

No thank you. I'm not a big fan of zombies anyway, but there are always exceptions (I like the Walking Dead books, for example) so I gave it a shot. The art is in black and white and SO MESSY that there were few pages I could get through without having to re-read (re-look at?) in order to determine what the hell was going on and who was who. And the story, as far as I can tell, is boring and tired. So, yeah, no.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is everything one could want from a b&w zombie western graphic novel. I haven't heard a thing about it being adapted, but it damn well should be. Spears and G give a lean, mean story that takes no prisoners and leaves no zombie... uh... un-shot in the head. Highly recommened for those looking for a great story for maybe 30 minutes of their time.

[James Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had never read a horror genre graphic novel, let a lone an entire graphic novel, before reading this (it's a very quick read). I honestly was not impressed. While I am a fan of anything in the western genre, the whole "zombie" speculation and horror topic was a bit boring in this telling.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. Too many stereotypes (whore with a heart of gold, for one) and not enough depth to any one character for readers to care who lives and who dies. I like the idea of a zombie / western mash up, though.

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright, zombies in the west, whats more to expect?

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not as good as Teenagers from Mars but still a great read!

[Mark Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Walking Dead, but still a worthwhile and unique entry in the world of zombie fiction.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty weird, but quite enjoyable.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but a little hard to follow at times.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wild west story with zombies. Not much meat to this one --- didn't feel anything for any of the characters, and blah ending.

[Jacobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some cool happenings in Dead West, but this OGN is pretty rough. The art is hard to follow in spots, and the story has some pretty flat and cliched characters in it.

[Zanne]

14.95