MANGA MONDAY!

Manga or Japanese comics, is one of the greatest things to ever happen to the American comic market since the advent of Super-Heroes. While we know a lot of our customers only truck with the 'Merican made books we all know and love, Manga offers a VAST array of subject matter, genres, art/writing styles and situations that appeal to age groups from wee little ones to grumpy old people! Even the most jaded comic book reader will find something new and exciting in the world of MANGA!!

This week we spotlight the GREATEST single samurai era epic to ever be crafted in ANY medium--Lone Wolf and Cub!! You will not find a better tale of honor, revenge and human perseverance than between the covers of this beautiful book.

LONE WOLF AND CUB TP 01

(W) Kazuo Koike (A) Goseki Kojima (CA) Frank Miller

A samurai epic of staggering proportions, the acclaimed Lone Wolf and Cub begins its second life at Dark Horse Manga with new, larger editions of over 700 pages, value priced. The brilliant storytelling of series creator Kazuo Koike and the groundbreaking cinematic visuals of Goseki Kojima create a graphic-fiction masterpiece of beauty, fury, and thematic power. Collects Lone Wolf and Cub volumes 1-2, and stories from volume 3.

COMICS SHOULD SMELL GOOD!! ep. #48!!

It's the hottest Wednesday of the year--are you prepared to sweat it out in the Zanadu spirit lodge to obtain your precious weekly four color fix? That's right, for as hot out there as it is right now, it's doubly hot inside the store--but never fear!! We have our ever diligent (though stinky) attic monkeys who endured the white hot furnace of a still active volcano to learn the forgotten art of comic swilling at your service and we will not fail in our mission to bring you the most shiny, most lenticular and mostly dry comics of the last week of summer!!! (Insert super exaggerated, but ultimately bad ass and epic manga training sequence)

EMPLOYEE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 6/12!!

LONE WOLF AND CUB 2100 OMNIBUS

(W) Mike Kennedy  (A) Francisco Ruiz Velasco

Daisy Ogami holds the key to a dying future's salvation. Powerful interests will stop at nothing to obtain Daisy, but her android bodyguard will do anything to protect her . . . and the promise of a brighter day. Collects Lone Wolf 2100: Shadow on Saplings; Lone Wolf 2100: The Language of Chaos; and Lone Wolf 2100: Pattern Storm.

What could make one the GREATEST and most EPIC tales of betrayal and revenge ever put to not just paper, but almost any visual medium, better? CYBERPUNK!! (naturally)  Released concurrently with the original Dark Horse run of Lone Wolf back in the early 2000s, I was initially very put off by the idea that a comic so perfect, so utterly completely well crafted, could be tainted by changing even one little element, that I refused to read it for years. Clearly I must have been on some shitty drugs when I made that decision cause holy crap, was I wrong! Kennedy and Velasco do an amazing job of paying homage to the original work while still keeping the reader guessing and creating an environment that feels as real as that of the Edo period the original creators worked so hard to convey. Neon, gritty alleyways, cybernetic ninjas--what's not to love? Cyberpunk is life--embrace it. RECOMMENDED BY CASEY!!

ZANADU RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 1/2/13

47 RONIN #2

(W) Mike Richardson  (A) Stan Sakai

Lord Asano is goaded into an assault by a corrupt court official in the Shogun's palace, and then forced to commit seppuku! Learning that Asano was sentenced without a proper investigation, his retainers set in motion a plan to enact revenge on the official whose insults proved too much for Asano to bear.

The 47 have taken the plunge, now it's gonna be a non-stop ride to regaining honor. RECOMMENDED BY HOWARD!