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8/8 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #1 (Dark Horse Comics) Story & Art: Hiroaki Samura Translation: Dama Lewis & Toren Smith Lettering & Touch-Up: Wayne Truman S P O I L E R S Years ago, the samurai Manji murdered his daimyo because he felt he was giving unjust orders. Since then, he has been on the run and killed more than one hundred officers of the law and in the process driven his sister incurably insane. Further cursed with the aid of "blood worms" which restore his body to perfect condition no matter how much damage he takes, he resolves to travel around Japan and slay a thousand evil men to balance out his crimes. This is the plot of BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL, Dark Horse's new manga by Hiroaki Samura. Samura's artwork is gorgeous. Everything -- his painting, his inking, his zip-tone, and even his finished pencils -- is so exquisitely beautiful that I wouldn't want to change even a single line. Even his depictions of blood and gore are strangely attractive. At his request, Dark Horse cut-and-pasted the original panels instead of flipping them, and the result is a lot better than you'd think. Even the few Japanese sound effects that remain enhance the beauty of the book. On the other hand, his writing may be a bit troublesome. The story is well-done, but the dialogue is somewhat vexing. Instead of having his characters speak old-fashined Japanese, they speak more like modern-day street toughs. On the one had it's a lot easier to identify with characters that speak with modern idioms, but on the other hand it does seem a tad out of place. I haven't decided whether I like the effect yet. There's also a chance that the series will go downhill quickly. While I for one would not mind seeing Manji's adventures if they're all as good as this one, the series could quickly degenerate into "Manji kills another guy", which would get old fast. DAVE WHITE, dw4e+@andrew.cmu.edu, http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/dw4e "Those who induce these stressors on you, were individually not your friends in the first place, for they wish through these stressors to either brainwash you, transvalue your sex, or even kill you with alphabet soup." --Owen W. Gustafson