samurai

Samurai: The Isle with No Name, the gorgeous French comic by Jean-François Di Giorgio and Frédéric Genêt, has revealed the two covers of its second issue exclusively to Comics Alliance, both featuring titular samurai Takeo and his sword. Genet provides the main cover, while the variant comes from celebrated Kabuki artist David Mack.

If you're already up to speed with Jean-François Di Giorgio and Frédéric Genét's Samurai, then you already know that it's one of the most beautiful comics on the stands. Originally published in France as a series of graphic novel albums, the series follows the adventures of a samurai named Takeo who journeys across medieval Japan trying to solve the mysteries of his own past while dealing with an evil enemy in the form of the hilariously named General Akuma. If you haven't read it, though, there's some goods news. After collecting the first four volumes into a single book last year, Titan Comics is following it up with the American release of a new miniseries: Samurai: The Isle With No Name, a monthly series that picks up right where the collected volumes left off. It's set for release in March, but there's a preview available, and seriously: You're going to want to see how pretty this book is.

I am by no means an expert on the Japanese language, but I have played enough video games about people punching each other to know that a dude named "Akuma" is pretty much always going to be bad news. Alas, it seems that no one told that to the cast of Jean-François Di Giorgio and Frédéric Genet's Samurai, which has led to a whole lot of the kind of trouble that can only be solved by slashing things up with swords. But their loss is certainly our gain --- Di Giorgio and Genet's Samurai is coming back into print this September courtesy of Titan, and if the preview pages are anything to go by, it's going to be pretty fantastic. Have a look for yourself!

While other artists give us ahistorical takes on alternate history superheroes by dressing them up in the faux Victorian and Edwardian costume of steampunk, Alex Mitchell delivers carefully researched reimaginings of Marvel superfolk inspired by the jidaigeki genre of media, especially those set during Japan's Edo period...

Sam Filstrup is a concept artist for the animation studio Ghostbot, so it's no surprise that his work has an animation sensibility. His illustrations of video game characters, Captain America and even Conan O'Brien look ready to spring to life on screen, and his series featuring samurai and dragons is begging to be made into a feature-length film...

Over at action figure blog and webcomic powerhouse Shortpacked!, a hefty dose of razzmatazz is being heaped upon the latest Justice League Unlimited three-pack - which includes Super Friends alumni Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Samurai -- and I can't say that the digs are undeserved...

Press Release Acclaimed creators Ron Marz and Luke Ross reunite for the next volume of their historical epic: Samurai Heaven and Earth Volume II. The samurai Shiro followed his kidnapped love, Lady Yoshiko, across eighteenth-century Europe and Asia, only to have her slip through his fingers in the fabulous halls of Versailles, where she was stolen away by a villainous Spanish nobleman ... Read Mor

Press Release MySpace, the nation's most trafficked website, and Dark Horse Comics, pioneers of creator owned and licensed comics material, today announced a partnership to revive one of the most celebrated comic anthologies with the launch of a new online comic book, "MySpace Dark Horse Presents ...