Discovered a new Manga this week - called Vagabond - written by a gentleman named Takehiko Inoue, and I must say, I am really enjoying it! It tells the tale of a self-obsessed Ronin, who spends half his life fretting about the fact that he is not the world's greatest Samurai, and the other (concurrent) half challenging the greatest Samurai to duels. He goes from being a total wuss to being something of a deified legend - and meets some really cool people along the way.
The nicest part about this is the art work - Inoue sets a rapid pace for the book, but contrastingly, likes to pause every once in a while and reflect on what has just happened. For instance, this page is preceded by a long and tough battle between our hero and some soldiers from the Imperial Army who are out to kill him. He has just spent the last 15-odd pages massacring them - an impaled neck here, gouged eyeball there - the usual excitement - but now the author takes this page to pause. The middle panel is that of a mercenary who was killed when a rock was hurled on his head, and that is framed by the moon on either side - it obviously is meant to have many interpretations - but there is a certain serenity and a foreboding about this page that has me all a-twitter!
Real nice comic - I've just started so I hope it stays this way.
The nicest part about this is the art work - Inoue sets a rapid pace for the book, but contrastingly, likes to pause every once in a while and reflect on what has just happened. For instance, this page is preceded by a long and tough battle between our hero and some soldiers from the Imperial Army who are out to kill him. He has just spent the last 15-odd pages massacring them - an impaled neck here, gouged eyeball there - the usual excitement - but now the author takes this page to pause. The middle panel is that of a mercenary who was killed when a rock was hurled on his head, and that is framed by the moon on either side - it obviously is meant to have many interpretations - but there is a certain serenity and a foreboding about this page that has me all a-twitter!
Real nice comic - I've just started so I hope it stays this way.
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