Jonah Hex: Shadows West

Jonah Hex

by Joe R. Lansdale, Timothy Truman (Illustrations)

Joe R. Lansdale, the acclaimed horror novelist of such titles as EDGE OF DARK WATER and DEAD AIM, takes on DC's famed bounty hunter Jonah Hex with twisted tales of the Old West featuring Buffalo Will's Wild West Show, a demonic baby, an ancient race of man-eating worms, and more.

Collects JONAH HEX: TWO-GUN MOJO #1-5, JONAH HEX: SHADOWS WEST #1-3 and JONAH HEX: RIDERS OF THE WORM AND SUCH #1-5.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Westerns, Horror, Dc Comics, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.

He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Reviews

[Dan Schwent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonah Hex: Shadows West contains Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo #1-5, Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such #1-5, and Jonah Hex: Shadows West #1-3.

Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo was my introduction to Joe Lansdale, one of my favorite writers, but I never had the chance to read Riders of the Worm and Such or Shadows West in their entirety until now.

Jonah Hex, he of the hideous facial scar, is a gunslinger of The Man With No Name caliber, a force to be reckoned with in the old west. In this volume, he goes up against an undead Bill Hickok, subterranean human-worm hybrids, and protects a bear-faced child from the denizens of the wild west show.

Tim Truman handles the art chores on the three volumes within. The art style is dirty and gritty as hell, a maturation of his style on Scout years earlier. You can almost smell the stink coming off of Jonah Hex and the rest of the characters. He also knows his way around the grotesque, which he puts to good use with zombie Wild Bill Hickok and the Autumn Brothers and the rest of the worm cousins.

Joe Lansdale gives Jonah Hex a dose of his usual mojo storytelling. There are hilarious jokes, blood, gore, lost worlds, and balls to the wall action. I have to think Jonah Hex is spiritual kin to Hap Collins and possibly a stand-in for Lansdale hisownself at times.

I would read a hundred more Jonah Hex tales by Lansdale and Truman. 4.5 out of 5 worm cousins.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lansdale and Truman give Jonah Hex a supernatural spin. Full of crackling dialogue and quirky spookiness. Truman's art is gritty and detailed. These are my favorite Jonah Hex stories.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo: ☆☆☆☆☆

JONAH HEX: SHADOWS WEST: ☆☆☆☆

Jonah Hex - Riders of the Worm and Such: ☆☆☆☆

[Jim Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shadows West collects three Jonah Hex mini-series written by Joe R. Lansdale with art by Timothy Truman and Sam Glanzman. While Jonah Hex did appear in a comic titled Weird Western Tales for a while, his stories were usually gritty tales of his life as a bounty hunter and not really weird westerns. These stories are still gritty but Lansdale goes all in on the weird western horror aspects and the stories are filled to the brim with dark, dark humor.

Two-Gun Mojo:

After being rescued from a lynching, Jonah has to deal with a traveling salesman who controls a resurrected Wild Bill Hickock. I really liked the character who rescues Jonah, Slow Go Smith.

Riders of the Worm and Such:

Jonah helps the owner of the Wilde West Ranch who was inspired by Oscar Wilde to start a ranch dedicated to the pursuit of art. The ranch is being attacked by “The Worms of the Earth,” creatures that have lived underground for centuries. After a devastating attack Jonah convinces the owner to take the fight to the creatures and Jonah leads a group underground.

This was one heck of a wild ride. Truman added some nice details to the art like graffiti left by another DC Comics character. There’s also a nod to the 1936 Republic Pictures serial Undersea Kingdom in some of the designs of what they find underground.

Shadows West:

Jonah helps an American Indian woman and her baby, which looks like a bear, escape from a Wild West show. The owner of the show sends his performers in pursuit.

I enjoyed the combination of Lansdale’s dialogue and dark humor with Truman and Glanzman’s art. In his introduction Lansdale says this: “And speaking of ornery, that’s Tim Truman’s art. Rough-edged and beautiful, bright and dark at the same time. If there was ever an artist born to draw Hex, it’s Tim.”

I agree and I think Lansdale, Truman, and Glanzman all did a great job with these weird western Jonah Hex tales.

[Jesse A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe a bit more supernatural than I prefer my Jonah Hex but still fun all the same. 3.5 stars.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun romp through the weird west. There are some nasty worms that are a mix of Lovecraft and Tremors. This whole book was great in my opinion, but not for the easily offended. Oh yeah, the story was written by Lansdale, so obviously it was good , but the art was stellar too. Something fun and different for fans of weird dark western stuff. Loved it. 5 stars and best reads pile.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Western shows and injun fairytales are the backdrop to a short, tight Hex tale.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intrigued by the hideously scarred bounty hunter who lives by his own code of honour? Want to read about his exploits as he takes on evil, of this world as well as of netherworld? Wish to have said adventures drawn in the most appropriate manner, befitting this rough, raw, and ruthless persona? And, above all, wish to have a real laugh amidst all the mayhem and tragedies? Look no further. Get hold of this book, where Lansdale has spun his golden web of bloody violence, dirt & grime of south-gone-west, and dark comedy, keeping Jonah at the centre. I don't remember when I had last had such a good time with graphic novels.

Highly Recommended.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this a lot. The best of the latest batch of graphic novels that I've read. I always enjoyed the Jonah Hex character, though I only read a few of those comics as a kid. This collection is written by Joe Lansdale and the dialogue is spot on while the witticisms flow fast and furious. It was a bonus to see a story that was a take off on Robert E. Howard's Worms of the Earth.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story was good, and the whole book was ok over-all, just got too ridiculous for my taste. Darkly ridiculous, but just silly non-the-less.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very different and unusual western story. Interesting use of this classic DC character. Nice read Recommended

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 3 Jonah Hex stories written by Joe Lansdale for Vertigo comics. While introducing supernatural elements, these stories are prior to Jonah He's return from the dead.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first issue of Two-Gun Mojo, the first of three collected miniseries in this volume, was my introduction to Jonah Hex back in the 90's. I was young and the world of comics had just exploded, so I gobbled up whatever weird thing showed up in my local comic shop (right next to the bait-and-tackle) without much concern for following titles month to month. But I loved the humor, the violence, and the weirdness of Hex -- Vertigo books could really do no wrong back then.

It wasn't until adulthood that I looked up the old backissues and discovered that Lansdale and Truman had collaborated on three Hex stories in the 90's. What's more (and Lansdale says as much in his introduction), these are the ONLY Hex stories that veer away from traditional cowboy fare into the territory of the weird western, which I had always thought was the genre where Hex and his creepy face lived permanently.

I dislike most westerns, but those I love, I love dearly. Getting my hands on this collection was a big nostalgic deal for me. As such, it couldn't really live up to my expectations, but neither did it disappoint. These stories take place shortly after the Civil War, as Hex is wandering through East Texas without much cause or purpose. The only continuity between them is Hex's soldier duds, his ever-growing red hair, and his endless quips in response to the constant questions about why the hell he's so damned ugly.

The aforementioned Two-Gun Mojo is easily the best story in the bunch -- a freewheeling adventure that covers outlaw zombies, occult travelling shows, blood debts, and a giant cowboy-and-indian shootout that somehow manages to maintain a not-embarrassing level of cultural sensitivity while still delivering a lot of blood and guts. Although I never saw the Jonah Hex movie, I'm of the mind that if TGM ever got adapted, Hex might find a place in the DC cinematic universe.

Riders of the Worm And Such, the second miniseries here, isn't quite as clever, but it's not for lack of effort. As a Lovecraft-meets-Tremors-meets-The Hills Have Eyes-meets-Army of Darkness mashup, RotWaS may be the most bonkers Lansdale story I've ever read. It takes what little plausibility his version of Hex has going for him, and runs it through an LSD trip. The violence and gross-out humor lies somewhere between Preacher and Prison Pit. I mean, it's just beyond the pale.

The third story, Shadows West, isn't bad, but it's a little undercooked. It's considerably shorter, the art is a little phoned-in, and it rehashes the circus-freak trope Lansdale plays with in TGM. It also falls victim to a white-savior plot, as Hex takes it upon himself to return a Native American woman and her supernatural child to the wild tribe of magical natives they were stolen from. All three of the stories have questionable elements that haven't aged perfectly, but this is the only one where the pitfalls of westerns are so clearly exposed.

So the book, as a whole, is a mixed bag. But if you're looking for a big collection of well-written Hex adventures at a reasonable price, you could do a whole lot worse. Personally, I don't see the point of reading Jonah Hex unless he's getting neck-deep into weird shit, and Lansdale's is only official version of the character in my personal canon. I can see all three stories, with a little revision, making a pretty excellent (Hexcellent?) movie trilogy. Till then, this book will have to do.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just found out that this collection has all three mini-series that Lansdale wrote for DC Comics (I reviewed Two-Gun Mojo previously). I enjoy the humor that Lansdale brings to the character, and the supernatural horror elements are OK. For my taste I prefer the work being done Palmiotti and Gray which deletes the supernatural elements and where often Hex acts more as a catalyst for the story's events.

Again, I'm not saying Lansdale's work is bad, and both he and the art team of Glanzman and Truman (who are excellent) tell a good story. Its just not an outstanding story.

Riders of the Worm has both written and drawn humor. As he has done in the past artist Truman drops a slight homage to the rock musician Winter brothers. Lansdale has fun with Oscar Wilde, and the concept of singing cowboys, as in a ranch where you have to sing and write poetry to get paid. The problem is that the ranch sits on top on creatures out of the BRPD's monster catalog. The actual climatic fight is rather brief, and look for the artistic homage to DC characters Cave Carson and Rip Hunter.

Shadows of the West has Hex being recruited to join a competitor of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The show is really second rate, except for the Native American woman who is being kept as a sex slave and her son who is a talking bear cub. Lansdale likely would not be able to keep the rape aspects of the story in today's climate. He gives a portrayal of how uneducated white men would think 25 cents is an OK amount to have sex with a woman who is being kept against her will.

If you like Hex, you might want to give this a shot. If you like the supernatural mashed up with a Western then this is very likely a collection that you would enjoy,

[Alex Sarll]

Joe Lansdale, Tim Truman, Sam Glanzman - three names that meant nothing to me back in the nineties, when Vertigo originally serialised these three tales of the Western antihero even more ornery than he was scarred. So, despite Vertigo back then being a pretty good bet in general, I'm only reading this now, a few years after first encountering Lansdale's scabrous sensibilities, laconic dialogue and natural affinity for tales of strange and bloody doings in Texas. Truman and Glanzman's art I've only got to know this year, but both have something of the same echoes of Hugo Pratt et al, so teaming them up was always going to work a treat. And together this dream team send Hex into the weirder reaches of the old West, facing subterranean worm creatures, zombie cowboys and bear-spirits, forever shooting and tricking his way out of one disaster and into the next. Some of the comedy works better than other bits (the running joke where Hex always has a different answer for how he got his scar is wisely retired by the final story; the occasional double-acts, on the other hand, are always a treat). But despite the whole 'weird West' field having been seriously overfarmed in the intervening years, these earlier examples still hum with authentic prairie strangeness.

[Zedsdead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonah Hex, a badly disfigured gunslinger and former Confederate officer, meanders the Old West getting into weird trouble, shooting bad people, and standing up for blacks and women and other oppressed individuals. (He fought for the South because the North invaded, he explains, and not out of any particular love for the institution of slavery.) He's purportedly a bounty hunter but never engages in the hunting of bounties.

Shadows West reads a lot like The A-Team: kind of fun, in its hyperpredictable people-helping low-quality episodic way, except that when Hex shoots at people he actually hits them.

Plot notes: 1) Hex fights a travelling snake-oil salesman with a family of zombies. 2) Hex joins an Oscar Wilde Singing Poetry Ranch and fights a man-eating society of tentacled worm-people. 3) Hex helps an Indian woman with a bear-baby escape Buffalo Will's Mess of Riders. ("Congress" was taken.)

[Lauri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kõik 3 Joe Landsdale 90ndatel kirjutatud Jonah Hexi lugu samade kaante vahel. Landsdale tõi muidu küll ülivägivaldsesse ja vägivalla graafilisele kujutamisele kuid siiski üsna realistlikusse vesternisse sisse üleloomuliku. Esimene lugu, "Two-Gun Mojo", on kõige tuttavam ja levinum ja ilmselt ei vaja tutvustamist. Hexi kokkupuude oma freakshow'ga ringisõitva ja inimesi zombideks muutva värdjaliku doktoriga oli siimaani ainus mis neist 3 loost oli taasavaldatud.
Teine lugu, "Riders of the Worm and Such" algab niigi übervägivaldse Hexi kohta veelgi rohkem veriselt. Kui aga püssirohusuits Hexi endise sõjaväekaaslase farmis hajub ja laibad maetud on ilmuvad õige pea välja maa-alused lehmi, hobuseid ja inimesi söövad roomajad. Loo lõpp läheb juba päris aurupungiks oma maa-aluste reptiilide linnade, robotite ja rakettidega. Lugu saatis mingi kohtukeisside rodu kuna loos esinevad kaks värdjalikku venda Johnny ja Edgar tundusid tuntud bluusikunnidele Johnny ja Edgar Winterile nende endi pealt mahakirjutatud olevat ja nad asusid selle loo levitamist takistama.
Kolmas lugu "Shadows West" aga ajab põse keelega veelgi rohkem punni, rohkem kui eelnenud kahes loos kokku. Onelinereid, pärle ja kilde lendab nagu kaevikusõja lahingus kuule.
Kokkuvõttes päris tõsine tükk, muust Hexi saagast aga erinev selles mõttes et üleloomulikku esineb palju ja see on oluline osa süžeest.

[Corto Maltese · Rating 5 out of 5]

What seems to be a gritty Horror-Western Comic on the surface (it is that too) is much more a hilariously funny comedy.
That is - if you're into dark and sometimes (ok, more than sometimes)dirty humor. I was laughing out loud on several occations and that doesn't happen too often to me, when I'm reading.
If you love the likes of Garth Ennis or Quentin Tarantino, go for this thing. Excellent entertainment awaits you.
If you despise those two - well - pick up some Archie-comics instead. Wimp! ;-)

[Mark Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where Lansdale and Truman did an excellent job on Two Gun Mojo, they feel like they are phoning it in here...the last of the three minis they did for DC's adult line Vertigo. Not very good.

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe R. Lansdale revived a moribund Jonah Hex character in the 1990's with three limited series under the DC/Vertigo imprint. He injected a heavy dose of crude humor, blood and gore, and supernatural horror elements into the canon. He pitted Hex against zombies, Lovecraftian monsters, and a demon baby that is half man/half bear.

This is vintage Lansdale. These stories closely resemble his "weird Western" novels like Dead in the West and Hell's Bounty, although with a higher quotient of camp than usual.

This omnibus edition collects all three of Joe Lansdale's Jonah Hex limited comic series:

1) Two Gun Mojo (1993)
2) Riders of the Worm and Such (1995)
3) Shadows West (1999)

These were seminal works in both the Jonah Hex canon as well as Joe R. Lansdale's career.

Jonah Hex had a been a popular character in the DC pantheon during its initial 92-issue run from 1977-1985. It was a Western comic with little, if any, supernatural elements and only occasional crossover with other titles. It was discontinued during the 1985 cross-comic event Crisis on Infinite Earths, then was promptly relaunched under a new name, Hex. The rebooted/reimagined story arc took Jonah Hex out of the Old West and into the 21st century via time travel. This proved to be a commercial misstep, and when the series ended after only 18 issues, it looked like the character would be mothballed indefinitely.

Lansdale's prose career seemed to have also stalled a bit prior to this project. His fame as a young splatterpunk horror writer was fading, and it took many years to reestablish himself as a serious author of crime novels (Cold in July, the Hap and Leonard series) and historical fiction (The Bottoms, Paradise Sky). After Jonah Hex, Lansdale was able to work steadily in comics for over a decade. For a while, in fact, he was probably more well-known as a comic writer than a novelist.

Today, Jonah Hex is still going strong at DC, with a regular title ongoing for the past 11 years.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Jonah Hex going way back to the original Weird Western Tales by DC Comics in the 1970s. It was only recently that I discovered that one of my favorite authors of crime fiction, Joe R. Lansdale, had written a series of stories about the Western anti-hero.

Lansdale mentions in the introduction that he had remembered the original stories as being more supernatural in nature than they actually were, I share that false memory. I haven't read any of the originals in many years but I'll take Lansdale's word on it.

This collection of stories emphasizes the "weird" of the original Weird Western Tales and expands on it to mostly good effect. Zombies and freaks and supernatural critters all make for some rollicking good fun. I wasn't a big fan of the collected 'RIDERS OF THE WORM AND SUCH' section (it just seemed silly to me) but, honestly, I'm not a major fan of that sort of Sci-Fi stuff.

The artwork serves the stories pretty well but at times seems a bit primitive - kind of blocky and unfinished.

Bottom line:It's a fun read. Lansdale's signature "down-home" style of dialogue and narrative works particularly well for the subject.

This one is adult stuff. Violence, some nudity, strong language. Definitely not for younger children or the easily offended.

[Nate]

Not too familiar with Jonah Hex, but I enjoyed this. It collects the three Vertigo miniseries by Joe Lansdale, Timothy Truman, and Sam Glanzman. Lansdale injects each story with supernatural elements and plenty of comedy. In fact, "Riders of the Worm and Such" and "Shadows West" I would almost call straight comedies, recalling the funnier bits of Preacher (I understand Ennis was influenced by "Two-Gun Mojo"). The dialogue across all three stories is snappy and Hex is your typical Western badass vigilante. I like Truman and Glanzman's art; it's detailed but appropriately gritty. Yeah, these stories aren't deep, but they're a good time all the same. I now want to read the 2000s era Hex series by Justin Gray, which I've heard good things about.

Also: It was hilarious seeing Johnny and Edgar Winter in "Riders," though the real-life guys didn't find it too funny...

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, crazy, Western adventures with a supernatural twist. Jonah fights the resurrected corpse of Wild Bill Hickok and a bunch of underground monsters straight out of Lovecraft, then protects a woman and her half-bear child from an evil Wild West show. I never really connected with the humor even though I appreciate the lighter tone in the midst of so much graphic violence and general human ugliness. The comedy is cruder and more vicious than I like, but I'll take it over the completely grim and grisly spirit this could have had.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot damn this a great book. Joe R. Lansdale was the perfect writer for Jonah Hex and every page of this graphic novel was just a reminder of it. Weird West as a genre is bitterly underappreciated and undervalued and it's books like this that remind me why I love it so much. Whether it's evil miracle men, zombie sharp-shooters, alien worms threatening cattle ranches, or a boy with a bear head, this collection was a blast from start to finish and I...LOVED IT.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of stories with Jonah Hex, not bogged down with too much plot, just a bunch of classic old west gunslinging and sometimes worms!

[Neil Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing to terrific pulp

[shawn murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun. Updated take on Jonah Hex

[Cail Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goddamn sonofabitch, this was fun. I gotta read more Lansdale.

[Scott Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge Tim Truman fan. I would love to have seen what he could have done with Hex had he written the character in addition to illustrating him. I'm not terribly well versed in Joe Lansdale's fiction, but there are so many panels that are just talking heads and silly dialogue, I feel like Truman's talent was a bit wasted. A shame too as the pair's work on Conan: Songs of the Dead is one of my favorite ministries of all time and I was hoping for that same quality here.

[Kimber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read these stories for awhile now but never really actively searched them out. I could never find them at the library or in bookstores, but I didn't really want to order them online or track down the individual comics. Half the time I was lucky if someone recognized the name Jonah Hex, let alone Joe Lansdale.

Well, I ran across two back issues of "Riders of the Worm" at Salt Lake Comic Con a few weeks ago (plus some other Lansdale comics, but that's another story). That started it, because all of a sudden, I'm running across fans and this volume. I'm glad I always waited to buy, because getting all three in one volume was wonderful. It's been a regular Lansdale fest for me.

Anyway. "Two-Gun Mojo" is my favorite of the three, but they're all definitely what I expected. Westerns plus the supernatural (and tentacles). Lansdale's voice is so suited to these comics that it's a marriage made in heaven. Granted, when they're weird, they're weird as hell, but I'm not surprised by that since I've read a lot of Lansdale's work. If you've never read his books or short stories, you might be surprised or even a bit offended. There's bad language. And it can be pretty colorful and inventive, but it just suits the story and characters so well, I couldn't imagine it another way.

The artwork is really nice too. Not always crisp and perfect, but it doesn't need to be. The stories move fast and they're pretty ugly tales with pretty ugly villains and monsters. The artwork needs to be rough and dirty and rugged, not slick like a superhero comic. It's got lots of nice hatching (which I love) and deep shadows. The colors are dark and moody (especially in the first and third stories).

So on one hand, I'm glad I've waited to read these stories until they came out in one volume (and I could find them in a local shop, rather than online), but on the other, I wish I'd read them sooner!