Category: Manga

By Yasushi Suzuki (DGN/DrMaster Publications)
ISBN 13: 978-1-59796-157-8

Yasushi Suzuki is one of the design world’s most respected artists. In illustration, design and the realm of computer and video games his eerie ethereal art has charmed and mesmerized millions, and his powerful manga Purgatory Kabuki (ISBN13: 978-1-59796-070-0) has won him fans for his ability to tell a story.

This slim (32 pages) little tome is a reworking of much pre-existing artwork into a bleak and beautiful picture book for adults. Surreal and deeply moving the book relates three short tales of love and horror, all rendered in a dazzling blend of styles but forming darkly memorable comic narratives.

‘Glass Magic’ stars a willfully cruel princess, ‘The Feeling of Pain’ traces the morbid journey of a little boy and the collection concludes with the dire love experience of ‘The Pair.’

Suzuki’s sublime skill with colour and line here blend with evocative line and wash creations and the incredibly high production values of this book, utilising the most modern of print techniques and processes to highlight the art make every page turn the doorway to fresh delights.

The narrative is simplistic and often obscure, but here plot is not as desirable as emotional reaction and the audience – hopefully much wider than the Lolli-goths and game-boys-&-girls it’s clearly targeting – should find itself drawn into an all-encompassing other world without worrying too much about how they got there.

This is an ideal and lovely present for the fantasist in your life, a fine piece of classic fantasy in its own right and well worth your time a-questing for it.

© 2008 Yasushi Suzuki. © 2008 DGN Production Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Wing Shing Ma (DGN/DrMaster Publications)
ISBN13: 978-1-59796-149-3

This is the final volume in the spellbindingly action-packed but narratively nonsensical martial arts drama. Fans of the bizarre yet so enthralling series will be delighted and probably amazed that the spectacular fighting and action scenes are ratcheted up to an even more frenetic pitch as Hero Hua and the remnants of his family continue to defend the mystical Blood Sword from the meanest and most accomplished master villains of the veritable horde of vicious, exotic baddies determined to use its powers for evil.

If you need a starting context, it all kicked off when a gangster tried to steal the Sword, which Hero’s family had guarded for centuries. That fight’s collateral damage included most of Hero’s family, and began a bloody vendetta encompassing half the planet. The Foes are thoroughly evil, masters of every fighting art and dirty trick whom Hero and his incomprehensibly wide circle of friends and associates – coming and going with dazzling brevity – must fight unceasingly to preserve the Sword and achieve their vengeance.

I’ve said it before and it’s still true: Hong Kong comics are beautiful. Produced using an intensive studio art-system wherein any individual page might be composed of painted panels, line-art, crayons and coloured pencils – literally anything that will get the job done.

They’re wonderful to look at, but don’t expect them to make much sense, because fundamentally this genre of comic is one glorious, spectacular exhibition of Kung Fu mastery. Like much of the region’s classic cinema, all other considerations are suborned to the task of getting the fighting started and just keeping it going.

Remarkably that carries on right up until the very last page here. There’s no resolution – at least not in any recognisable western manner – just a brief cessation of violence, and as a tacked on text epilogue explains, all the varied combatants will go on making their plans and fighting for and against evil. The adventure never truly ends.

If you’re looking for characterisation, sharp dialogue or closure, look elsewhere. If, however, you want Good Guys thumping Bad Guys in eye-popping ways, give this fantastical series a shot. I never really “got it” but I think I’m going to miss it!

© 2006 Culturecom, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

By Arvid Nelson & J. M. (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0700-7

This trans-Pacific collaboration between Arvid Nelson and J. M. (Korean artist Jeong Mo Yang) is a solid supernatural thriller based on a video game (a prequel to it in fact) and supplements a number of prose novels in fleshing out your “point and shoot” experience.

In 2020AD the Battle of All-Hallow’s Eve resulted in hordes of demons escaping from the Pit and establishing beachheads in many earthly cities. But this was not a completely unexpected or sudden surprise. For many weeks before there had been portents that the wise and the gifted were privy to…

College boy and London Rugby hero John Fowler awakes on October 1st from horrific dreams of rapacious, murdering devils in the streets. Late for his archaeology class, he catches up with his friends just as they’re uncovering a skeleton buried face down. Whilst the professor lectures them on satanic burial rituals John finds a talisman that the others have inexplicably missed, and when he gets home for some reason there’s an incredible sword hidden in his attic…

As the grisly dreams continue, augmented by visions of robed figures and monsters, little do John and his feisty sister Lindsey (a dab hand with the dreaded cricket bat!) discover that they are descendents of demon-fighting Knights Templar, and in the dark days to come their inherited abilities will make them valuable champions of Mankind in The Last Battle…

Full of spooky omens and devious mysteries this is standard monster-hunting fare, albeit carried off with great style and aplomb. Hellgate: London is no classic but does deliver everything a supernatural action fan could want from a book, and has the singular advantage of being totally accessible to even the most vehement Video Game avoider.

This volume also includes an extract from Goetia, book two of a new Hellgate prose trilogy by Mel Odom

 

Hellgate ™: London © 2008 Flagship Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Hiroki Endo (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-503-3

The world has been devastated by the flesh-calcifying “Closure Virus” and subsequently racked by global civil war as the despotic forces of the Propater secret society attempt to conquer the survivors.

Mysteriously linked to the origins of the virus, young Elijah Ballard is making his way through war-torn South America seeking his lost mother when he is captured by a band of anti-Propater soldiers. Initially they seem more interested in Cherubim, his robot bodyguard, but eventually he begins to bond with the disparate unit of flawed and exotic warriors fighting a war for power on a planet that needs every human left if humanity is to regain its pre-eminence.

Due to cybernetic advancements the very definition of humanity is constantly in question and, as Elijah and the unit move on towards Cuzco City after surviving a particularly vicious assault, the story focus here shifts to the deeply troubled Sophia whose consciousness (can we call it a “soul”?) is currently inside an incredible artificial form whilst she seeks a preserved body under strict Propater guard. Is this, at least in part, the reason for much of the bloodiest fighting between the Conqueror-armies and the resistance forces of Nomad?

The brooding character study eventually turns into another of the spectacular battle sequences that this series is justifiably famous for when Elijah and his comrades make a play for the body at a “neutral” Gnosian airport. As the life of perpetual warfare and desperate searching for some greater meaning continues Elijah too is coming to some unpleasant conclusions about “humanity” regarding its nature and worth.

Amid incredible, beautifully realised carnage the book ends on another tragic cliffhanger. If you want to follow this adult (lots of sex and very explicit violence are part and parcel of this series) saga – and you should because it’s a truly brilliant work – you absolutely must start at the beginning.

Unmissable, but impossible to jump into late, this is a tale you must enjoy from the very start. This book is printed in the Japanese right-to-left manner.

 

© 2007 Hiroki Endo. All Rights Reserved. English language translation © 2008 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

By Yukinobu Hoshino, translated by Fred Burke & Matt Thorn (Viz Spectrum Editions) ISBN: 0-929279-62-X ISBN-13: 978-0-929279-62-6

Yukinobu Hoshino is probably the most respected “hard science” science fiction manga creator in Japan with the phenomenal 2001 Nights saga of exploration and survival as his best known and regarded work, although ‘Steel Queen’ and the Tezuka award-winning ‘Morning Faraway’ are also seminal classics.

After finishing the reincarnation thriller ‘The Legends of a Witch’ in 1980 he began working on the shared theme short stories that became Saber Tiger.

The two stories presented in this book explore his signature fascination with expansion and colonisation, and are underpinned with dour philosophical musings about Man’s place in the universe. In the title story time-travellers from 2479 arrive in the midst of the Ice Age with the sole intention of protecting their distant ancestors from extinction, but the Sabre Tooth Tiger, undisputed master of the frozen wastes has his own ideas…

This bleak, savage examination of evolutionary principles is drawn with captivating skill and guile, as is the second tale ‘the Planet of the Unicorn’ wherein a human colony vessel lands on a perfect world but soon finds that their inexplicable unease was fully justified as both animals and humans suffer behavioural problems and even radical mutations…

Chilling, moving and eerily pensive in the manner of British SF authors J G Ballard, John Lymington or Christopher Priest this is a superb evocation of the dark, cerebral side of science fiction rendered real by the efficient, effective art of a master art technician. Why this isn’t still in print I shall never know, but I have my suspicions…

© 1991 Yukinobu Hoshino/Futabasha, Inc.
English edition © 1991 Viz Communications Japan, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

STARTER PACK

By Yu Aikawa (DrMaster Publications)
ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-59796-159-2

Here’s a lovely idea for these cash-strapped times and just in time to beat the Christmas rush. A few years ago Yu Aikawa began his series of blackly comic tales set in the most unique High School in Japan. Kuro Takagi is a troubled boy. His mother has just died; he does not know his father and he’s been transferred to a new school. The kids there seem as wayward and difficult as he feels.

Yotsuji Private High School is not normal or traditional. The teachers only seem concerned with one unbreakable rule: under no circumstance must any pupil be on school property after dark. Those who have broken this rule are never seen again.

Kuro quickly befriends a disparate bunch of students, and learns that his absentee father is the secret owner of the school. And then, inevitably, one night they get locked in and learn why those giant gates are locked at dusk.

The school is a realm of monsters. Zombies roam the corridors, all the teachers are vampires, demons, succubae or worse and dead students can be reanimated at the will of the Powers subtly warring within the walls of this hell-academy…

And thus begins a highly engaging teen-horror saga with lots of twists and turns to satisfy the post-Buffy generation of older readers, manga or otherwise.

And now the first half-dozen volumes are available in a hugely economical shrink-wrapped six-pack that is both an ideal way to jump on board the fright-train and also makes for a cool Yule tool for that upcoming thing in December.

© 1999-2006 Yu Aikawa. English translation © 1999-2006ComicsOne/ DrMaster Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Yuna Kagesaki (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 1-59816-322-1

This supernatural teen comedy takes a few liberties with the traditional concept of vampires and some more genteel readers might have a few problems with the underlying metaphor in this tale of a family of immigrant Nosferatu whose middle daughter is a little different from most bloodsuckers.

Karin produces an excess of blood and about once a month is forced to expel it by biting someone. As well as injecting rather than draining her victims (which hyper-energises them) she is also able to move safely in daylight and sleep at night. Her peculiar life is disrupted when a new student Kenta Usui transfers to her High School – another thing most vampires can avoid.

Whenever he is near her condition manifests: She gets hot and dizzy, her blood pounds and the excess gushes out of her nose…

This gross-out horror comedy-romance has more charm than you’d expect from my description and as Karin discovers the meaning of her rare but not unique condition this nine volume tale really comes into its own. The comic strip, which originally appeared in Monthly Dragon Age between 2003 and 2006, spawned a series of Light Novels and an anime TV show.

Entitled simply Karin in Japan, the English version takes its name from the word “Chibi” which translates as “Short Person” or “Small Child”, but whatever you call it, you should also read it…

© 2003 Yuna Kagesaki. English text © 2006 Tokyopop Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Wing Shing Ma (DrMaster Publications)
ISBN13: 978-1-59796-131-8

The end is in sight for the spellbindingly action-packed, yet largely nonsensical, martial arts drama from Hong Kong. In this penultimate volume the plot, as ever, is largely incidental as Hero Hua continues to defend the mystical Blood Sword from a horde of vicious and exotic villains determined to use its powers for evil.

His lost son too faces threat after threat. Whether on sleazy city streets or jungle-lost temples The Black Dragon Gang persists in its wicked plans, and around the world Hero’s friends and surviving family endure a never-ending war for survival as magic and combat blend into a whirlwind of danger.

If you need a starting context, it all kicked off when a gangster tried to steal the Sword, which Hero’s family had guarded for centuries. That fight’s collateral damage included most of Hero’s family, launching a vendetta encompassing half the planet.

The villains are thoroughly evil, masters of every fighting art and dirty trick whom Hero and his incomprehensibly wide circle of friends and associates – coming and going with dazzling brevity – must fight unceasingly to preserve the sword and achieve their vengeance. By this volume nobody really cares: if you’re already buying this series it’s because of the astounding action and incredible art.

Hong Kong comics are beautiful. They’re produced using an intensive studio art-system that means any individual page might be composed of painted panels, line-art, crayons and coloured pencils: literally anything that will get the job done. And that presumably is to enhance not so much nuances of plot but rather details of the mysticism and philosophy of Kung Fu that my western sensibilities just aren’t attuned to.

They’re wonderful to look at, but don’t expect them to make much sense, because fundamentally this genre of comic is one glorious, spectacular exhibition of Kung Fu mastery. Like much of the region’s classic cinema, all other considerations are suborned to the task of getting the fighting started and to keeping it going.

If you’re looking for characterisation, sharp dialogue or closure, look elsewhere. If, however, you want Good Guys thumping Bad Guys in extended, eye-popping ways, give this a shot.

© 2008 Yasushi Suzuki. © 2008 DGN Production Inc.

By Yu Kinutani, translated by Gerard Jones and Satoru Fujii (Viz Spectrum Editions)
ISBN: 0-929279-38-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-92927-938-1

Manga is so ubiquitous in our shops and libraries now it’s hard to remember when the works of Japanese graphic narrators were presented in all sorts of formats and genres to break through Western reluctance and snobbery. From the far ago late-1980s and the early days of the prolific Viz Communications comes this odd little fantasy package that impressed all the right people but seemingly has left little mark now.

Approximately the same dimensions as a US trade paperback, Viz Spectrum products displayed all the advantages of high quality black-and-white printing – crisp white paper, inserted tissue-paper fly-leaves, gold and silver metal inks and even clear plastic dust-jackets – as inducements for their product but eventually all these fell by the wayside as fans opted with their wallets for the basic digest-sized repro format that dominates today.

And the contents? Shion reprinted the earliest works of Yu Kinutani (who went on to produce Angel Arm, Layla & Rei and White Dragon) and features the first two appearances of a wandering minstrel and demon fighter.

The first story is ‘The Minstrel’ which finds a one-eyed musical vagabond strolling into a strange and Byzantine city reminiscent of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth tales where he finds witches and devils, drinks anti-gravity wine and rescues a damsel from a demon. This demon proves to be his own father who had taken his eye as part of a Faustian Pact. By killing the monster Shion restores his sire and his own eye.

At 16 pages The Minstrel was clearly intended as a one-off, but the character returned in a much longer epic (54 pages) entitled ‘Mirrors’ wherein the troubadour falls foul of depraved, decadent and incestuous sorcerers Toy and Doll; brother and sister in magic, imprisoned in a lost city by Nazuru god of swords for their crimes against humanity.

Freed after millennia the spiteful twins of evil once more play their foul, mutagenic games with human playthings until the Minstrel aided by the Sword of Nazuru finally ends them, only to continue his lonely aimless wandering…

Born in Ehime, Japan in 1962, Yu Kinutani cites Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, among a bunch of Studio Gibli classic films) and Jean Giraud AKA Moebius as his strongest influences, although a close look at the astoundingly striking, intricate artwork seems to indicate more than a little Jim Cawthorne and a lot of Philippe (Lone Sloan – Delirious & Yragael Urm) Druillet in the creative mix.

Whilst the storytelling is primal and concentrates on fantasy archetypes the unique blend of manga sensibility with European narrative design (like a somewhat harsher version of Naausica of the Valley of the Wind) makes this an inviting treat for older fantasy and comics fans, but don’t let the superficial similarities to Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D distract you; this is a dark fairy tale, not an all-action monster-mash.

© 1988 Yu Kinutani. English edition © 1990 Viz Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.