Sometimes, amazing things can come out of casual conversations. That's what happened this weekend when Luke Herr was plotting out an RPG campaign based around the idea of retelling Jack Kirby's classic Fourth World saga as a western, full of gun-slinging cowboys and steam-powered parademons battling it out in a town called Hope, and artist Kyle Latino stepped up to do some redesigns for what they began calling "The 4th West."

The end result is a pretty fantastic set of character sketches that drop the cosmic sci-fi characters into a whole new aesthetic, complete with the Black Racer tooling around on tiny little trains for shoes. Check out the full set, along with some commentary from Latino, below!

 

I feel like the many parts of Fourth World stuff works even better the Old West than it did in its own era. ... Even the contemporary references to Billy Graham and Stan Lee, they could just as easily [have] appeared in a different setting. Add this to Kirby's awkward attempts to portray 70's youth culture, and one might wonder if a different time period than the 70s might have served the story better. Imagine how cool it would have been if Jack had drawn it in a time he was more familiar with, like the Depression or World War II!

 

Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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Art by Kyle Latino
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To see the whole set in its full context along with some of Luke's ideas for the campaign, make sure to check out @kylelatino on Twitter, particularly the #fourthwestrpg tag!

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