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Saturday, 17 August 2013
Manga in the 80's Pt. 1

[Sadly I have now found nearly all but
only a few of the manga I remember so fondly from the 80's & 90's are
still in print in English – And that Anime & manga fans from the
late 90's onwards have yet to discover them]
So what Japanese comic books were
people reading in the late 80's, and when did they appear in our Comic Book stores (and what did I get and read?)?

'Lone
Wolf and Cub' should not need any introduction to this influential
Japanese manga that is so widely recognised as an important literary
work. First published in 1970 Japan was at first released in the
United states of America in the flipped-format translated English
editions by First Comics in 1987, as a monthly comic-book, with
covers and introductions by Frank Miller no less!
This
manga was created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima,
depicted violence (extreme at the time) in such a cinematic way that
most Western mature comic book readers just had not seen at all!
The main
protagonist Ogami Itto used a Dōtanuki 同田貫
(Torso Cutter) styled
sword, a no nonsense blade designed
to cut off its target's limbs or head in a single stroke (the sword
was outlawed in times of peace)!
The
chronicles of 'Lone Wolf and Cub' tell the story of Ogami Itto, the
Shogun's executioner who uses his sword skills using the Torso
Cutter. Itto is then disgraced by false accusations from the Yagyu clan,
and looses his respected position with the Shogunate's court, he is
then forced to take the path of the assassin (about the only payed
work he can get or wish to do) and viewed as a Ronin (Master-less
Samurai). Along with his three-year-old son, Daigoro, they seek
revenge on the Yagyu clan and are known as "Lone Wolf and Cub".
A
slice of Japanese culture as Black 'n' White as any Western!
[
First Comics closed down in 1991, with just over 40 or so issues of
'Lone Wolf and Cub' published out of a possible 140 to150 issues to
complete the set]
[The
Lone Wolf and Cub story has been adapted into more than six films
starring Tomisaburo Wakayama (edited in the West as 'Shogun
Assassin', and almost banned for its extreme violence), four plays, a
television series starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke (very highly praised
for a TV drama, now out on DVD), and is the monologue from the unseen TV in Kill Bill
Volume 2, and who's cameos pop up in many an animation.]
>More soon............!
>
>Still Cataloguing.....
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