Lone Wolf and Cub

It inevitably drags a little bit in the late teens, before the endgame gets set up. But there's something great in every volume, and if you can get past the size, I don't think you'll regret buying a volume or two a month.

I kind of liked that DH digest format. But the art really does look nice enlarged.

I have that entire run of FIRST comics, wadew1. GREAT stuff.

I love the comics (got the First Comics editions when they came out- dig those original covers) but I love the movies more. Tomisaburo Wakayama was the baddest fat dude ever.

He was almost unrecognizable in Black Rain. It was like when they wheel out post-stroke Dick Clark on New Years Eve.

He's awesome in the Baby Cart movies though, like when he slices up a sneak attacker without even turning round to look then has his sword back in its sheath before the corpse hits the ground, wearing the same pissed-off facial expression the whole time. The movies are really a masterclass in samurai grimacing, and you just don't get that from the comic.

Also:

"When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest Samurai in the empire, and he was the Shogun's decapitator. He cut off the heads of 131 lords for the Shogun. It was a bad time for the empire. The Shogun just stayed inside his castle and he never came out. People said his brain was infected by devils, and that he was rotting with evil. The Shogun said the people were not loyal. He said he had a lot of enemies, but he killed more people than that. It was a bad time. Everybody living in fear, but still we were happy. My father would come home to mother, and when he had seen her, he would forget about the killings. He wasn't scared of the Shogun, but the Shogun was scared of him. Maybe that was the problem. At night, mother would sing for us, while father would go into his temple and pray for peace. He'd pray for things to get better. Then, one night the Shogun sent his ninja spies to our house. They were supposed to kill my father, but they didn't. That was the night everything changed, forever. That was when my father left his samurai life and became a demon. He became an assassin who walks the road of vengeance. And he took me with him. I don't remember most of this myself. I only remember the Shogun's ninja hunting us wherever we go. And the bodies falling. And the blood."

Advantage: The movies. I believe the Wu-Tang clan will back me up on this!

They grow up so fast LOL

Plus, you gotta love his home made DEATHSTROLLER. I can't find a pic, but at one point Itto presses a switch to reveal a hidden gatling gun! (it's like Franco Nero with his coffin in Django, only cooler)

The gatling gun episode is one of the highlights of the early volumes of the comic.

I think the living "Holy Man" murder was perfection...love it the first time i read it.

"The gateless barrier", was it? Its amazing how philosophical that part is, despite ending with a guy cut in half.

I like O____O guy in the back

I think this is very typical of Japanese culture. The (shitty) manga Berserk that's pretty much a D&D campaign with ultraviolence always has the townspeople react to Guts' fantasy sword all "H-how can this be!! How can one man lift such a sword?!!"

Love the surprised reactions of the people Itto kills after he has dealt the finishing blow e.g. he uses his sword like a spear on one attacker, who responds "who would have thought... you would have... thrown it? ARRGGHHH"

The final Master of Death is the classic, though: "The wound across the neck... they call that sound the Whistling of the Wintry Wind... Just once, did I wish to slay someone... and hear that very sound. How ironic it is... to hear it... from my own neck!"

(collapses, scientifically impossible amount of blood spews out of his neck)

My favorite Lone Wolf & Cub story is when Itto is hired to kill a samurai who ordered his men to abandon a burning castle rather than die in vain trying to put it out. Half the time the people who end up on the sharp side of lone wolf's sword don't really deserve it, but I especially felt for this guy.

Yup, that was the moment; I also remember a scene where Itto has sex with a prostitute in front of a full room for some reason.

Sorry to keep going on about the movie version, but the hooker scene is really funny. His face when he's screwing her is the same as when he's slaughtering people. And he's so good at it, she falls in love with him.

You know, i really need to get a few volumes of L&C...and some Golgo 13 while at it. maybe.

Awesome manga! The movies are pretty badass too. I even like Shogun Assassin.