January 2008 Archives

"Show, don't tell," goes the old writer's aphorism. With Vagabond, Inoue demonstrates this constantly, but nowhere moreso than in Volume 26.

In Vagabond Volume 26, Musashi... well, fights a bunch of guys. Describing the book this way leaves out very little. It seems like an impossible way to fill 200-plus pages, especially to anyone coming in without the benefit of the previous 25 volumes, but it's how he does it that's the real story.

Check out the full review.

Vagabond writer and artist Inoue Takehiko is known primarily in Japan for the Slam Dunk manga and anime, a body of work popular on a level rarely seen even outside of the manga and anime sphere, selling tens of millions of copies in Japan alone, as well as being exported to places like Singapore, China, and now (finally!) America. As a fan of basketball, Inoue has three stories about the sport under his belt, all of which are worth checking out. Vagabond, however, is quite a departure from Inoue's previous work. With Slam Dunk, Inoue had already achieved enough for a lifetime, but Vagabond puts him into the realm of living legend.

Check out the full review.