Stan Sakai

This is introductory book to our intrepid hero, Miyamoto Usagi. We follow him as he wanders the Japan and from one short story to another we slowly discover more details about Usagi's past (how he became ronin in the first place, after that faithful day on the battlefield where his lord was betrayed), and in parallel we are introduced to a list of what will definitely be recurring characters (like Tomoe, Gen, the blind pig swordsman, various ninja clans etc).

Art wise, it reminds me a lot of Aragones' Groo (later I found out that Stan Sakai worked on Gru :)) but with a great difference - pages are much more calmer (in Groo you had pages that were just overcrowded - to the extreme). Character design is on a cartoonish side (again very much like Groo) and this is somewhat in the contrast with the seriousness of the story itself. All in all art works for me, I especially like it is all black and white (which I think works wonders for these types of comics).

It is obvious that inspiration for the story is in action martial arts movies and I like the way pages and action are organized, it feels very cinematic. Entire book is collection of short stories, no large story arc is present here. I like short story collections but sometimes repetition can "kill" the enjoyment (for example overdose of Conan related short stories) but here author manages to avoid this and make every story stand on its own (and make it work with varying lengths of the pages).

Very interesting comic, as I said do not get sidetracked by rather cartoonish art - all stories are very serious, with some comic relief (especially between Gen and Usagi) but deadly consequences as well.

Highly recommended to all fans of adventure stories (and if you happen to like Japan setting there is an additional plus to it :))… (meer)

Third volume brings us back to collection of short stories about our hero. In my opinion three stand out - story of motherly love (sad and terrifying one), blind pig swordsman returns and ends on a more merry note than the previously mentioned one, and finally introduction to Jei, mysterious warrior that I am not quite sure about - is he crazy, or truly possessed by an unearthly power? In any case while Zato Ino might be this-world-based counterpart to Usagi's sword fighting skill, Jei is something that Usagi is barely able to contain in fight.

All in all interesting collection of stories (TMNT crossover was just that, short intermezzo crossover to make things interesting).

Art-wise nothing is changed from previous issues, if you ask me both drawings and black and white approach are the best. Author gives us several very epic and cinematic shots that bring back scenes from samurai and kung-fu movies of the 1970's and 1980's.

Recommended to fans of action and adventure. One caveat though - this is still a collection of short stories, linked together (even from temporal perspective they are in order, TMNT crossover aside) so if you expect longer story arc (like Samurai arc from vol 2) you will be disappointed. I, personally am not :) but hey that is why they call it a caveat eh :)… (meer)

Second volume in the series gives us first longer story arc - origin story for the Usagi. We follow him as a kid aiming to become a renown samurai warrior. While on his way to the famous Dogora sword fighting school he will come across Katsuichi, mysterious warrior challenged by the very Dogora students. Witnessing the ease with which Katsuichi defeats the gang, Usagi decides that Katsuichi is a master he wants to learn from. What follows is what in my opinion are the best parts taken from many martial arts movies, of young student learning the art of war and life from a reclusive and wise warrior.

Art wise nothing much is changed from the volume one. What catches the eye are more panoramic shots and more truly cinematic views - entry pages, for example, showing Usagi confronting a samurai from his past are truly fantastic.

Highly recommended to fans of adventure stories.… (meer)