I am dizzy. Over the
weekend I made it a personal mission to complete the entire run of Kazuo
Koike （こいけ かずお） and Kojima Goseki’s
(ごせき こじま） brilliant manga,
Lone
Wolf and Cub (こずれ おかみ）. For those unfamiliar with the
series, it’s a tale of revenge spanning 28 volumes, 130+ chapters, and
approximately 7000 pages. The complete collection laid out in a row is
quite intimidating, but the time spent pouring through the intense
story-lines, historical context, philosophy, and not to mention,
ridiculously rich artwork (there is not a single bug-eyed character;
found often manga) will be time well spent. As far as comics distributed
in the United States go, there are but a few volumes that approach the
depth achieved in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, among them perhaps:
From
Hell,
Cerebus,
Bacchus,
Transmetropolitan,
and
Sandman.
Having read all of the aforementioned titles, I can confidently say that
by comparison Lone Wolf and Cub leaves all others in the dust. Part of
the reasoning behind this is the differing views between Japanese and
American comics. In Japan (in general) manga is considered a legitimate
media, while in the states it is still generally viewed as child’s play.
While Sandman was indeed incredibly influential to western comics and
won many awards, it was still wrought with momentary lapses of bowing to
the general view that comics were not a legitimate format for
story-telling (especially in the beginning). That is, while DC Comics
was certainly groundbreaking in their desire to publish such a title,
they were still at times handcuffed by the status quo; thus the
occasional presence of mainstays such as Batman,
as well as the insane
‘pamphlet’ distribution method coupled with the equally insane direct
market distribution model. While stories such as From Hell, Bacchus,
Cerebus, and Transmetropolitan were able to avoid the poisonous ‘cameo
effect’, their respective impacts were without question curtailed by the
pamphlet/direct market models. Lone Wolf and Cub on the other hand (as
with many Japanese manga) was handled quite differently. The tales were
distributed on a weekly basis, and took just as many pages as were
necessary to tell them. Lone Wolf and Cub was distributed in chunks of
60 to 100 page story-lines spanning 7 years. By comparison, western
comics are often distributed as 22 page stories.Lone Wolf and Cub tells the tale of the former Kogi Kaishakunin (the official charged with decapitating those performing Seppuku at the Shonin’s command) Itto Ogami (おがみ いと） and his 3 year old son Daigoro （おがみ だいごろ）, and their 4-year vendetta against the Yagyu （やぎゅ) assassin clan. Itto and Daigoro walk the path of Meifumado (めいふまど）, the path to hell. This path intersects with assasination, battling ninja, vengence, the bond between a father and son, corruption of the Shogunate, the deterioration of Bushido, cinematic battle scenes, philosophical pondering on the life of bushi, heart-wrenching tales of innocence lost, and of course an ending that left me with a creeper and that was a million miles away from the endings found in typical western stories. If you’ve been wavering on checking out this series, or are looking for manga at its best, then by all means buy, steal it, perform assasinations to pay for it, for Lone Wolf and Cub is the best that there is.
-m