Question from a guy who doesn't read manga

[vehement]

Maybe Peace Maker Kurogane?

[MajorHoy]

Maybe Peace Maker Kurogane?

That might be interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Maker_(manga)

[Alex]

Sure, maybe not quite the style MajorHoy was looking for. It's still a classic, though.

Well...he did start a thread to ask for recomendations, ya big jerk.

[CromagnonMan]

Crying Freeman sounds sort of familiar.

I remember Eclipse Comics partnered with Viz to bring English translations of several titles like Area 88 and Mai, the Psychic Girl.
Maybe I have to dig out the old long box I have of that stuff to see what I already own.

i steer clear from those old comics (except for Area 88 which has never received either a complete or better translation elsewhere).

Lone Wolf & Cub received a better treatment from Dark Horse, who actually completed the 28 volume manga in full and in english.

[Inkthinker]

I find you gotta be careful with people who aren't familiar with manga or haven't read it in a long time. To bring 'em back into the fold, you gotta ease 'em in with the material they're looking for (in this case, his noted history suggests he's into samurai manga with a realistic, gritty tone), THEN you suggest the stuff that's similar but different (like Kenshin, which is more cartoony and contains a lot more superhero elements), and then if they get into all that you can try and see if they're into switching genre towards something like sci-fi or horror or whathaveyou. If you start 'em off with something that's too far removed from what they were already into, you're likely to lose 'em altogether.

Rorouni Kenshin is fine if you're into it, but it's not a match for Lone Wolf & Cub or Kamui. It's got some dark stuff deeper into it, but we're still talking about a series with a cartoony visual style (big eyes, simple character design) and where one of the main characters introduces himself in the first couple chapters by punching a massive wooden door into kindling with his bare fists. It's more goofy than dark, and it's hardly realistic in the same way that a hardcore, dark and gritty story like Lone Wolf is.

Vagabond is probably perfect, especially as you can now get it in those giant VizBig books which is good value for the cash. Blade of the Immortal starts with a strong supernatural flavor, but as it goes on we see that (other than the kessen-chu worms which keep putting Manji back together when he gets chopped up) there's not a lot of supernatural stuff in there.

[MajorHoy]

I find you gotta be careful with people who aren't familiar with manga or haven't read it in a long time. To bring 'em back into the fold, you gotta ease 'em in with the material they're looking for (in this case, his noted history suggests he's into samurai manga with a realistic, gritty tone), THEN you suggest the stuff that's similar but different (like Kenshin, which is more cartoony and contains a lot more superhero elements), and then if they get into all that you can try and see if they're into switching genre towards something like sci-fi or horror or whathaveyou. If you start 'em off with something that's too far removed from what they were already into, you're likely to lose 'em altogether.

Rorouni Kenshin is fine if you're into it, but it's not a match for Lone Wolf & Cub or Kamui. It's got some dark stuff deeper into it, but we're still talking about a series with a cartoony visual style (big eyes, simple character design) and where one of the main characters introduces himself in the first couple chapters by punching a massive wooden door into kindling with his bare fists. It's more goofy than dark, and it's hardly realistic in the same way that a hardcore, dark and gritty story like Lone Wolf is.

Vagabond is probably perfect, especially as you can now get it in those giant VizBig books which is good value for the cash. Blade of the Immortal starts with a strong supernatural flavor, but as it goes on we see that (other than the kessen-chu worms which keep putting Manji back together when he gets chopped up) there's not a lot of supernatural stuff in there.

Dug out my old long box and found the following manga / manga-like stuff from the late 1980's/early 1990's, and in addition to my Lone Wolf & Cub and Kamui I seem to own:

* Akira (Epic Comics) 15
* Appleseed, Book One (Eclipse / Studio Proteus) The Promethean Challenge tpb
* Appleseed, Book Two (Eclipse / Studio Proteus) Vol. 5
* Appleseed, Book Three (Eclipse / Studio Proteus) Vol. 1 - 5
* Area 88 (Eclipse International / Viz Comics) 1 - 27, 30
* Crying Freeman (Viz Comics) 1-8 / Part 2: 1-3
* Cyber 7, Book Two (Eclipse / Studio Proteus) 1 - 3
* Dirty Pair (Eclipse / Studio Proteus) 4
* Dirty Pair II (Eclipse / Studio Proteus) 1, 3 - 5
* Dominion (Dark Horse / Studio Proteus) 1 - 4, 6
* Grey (Viz Select) no. 1
* Lum (Viz Select) 7 & 8
* Mai, The Psychic Girl (Eclipse International / Viz Comics) 1 - 28
* Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Part Two (Viz Select) 2 - 4
* Outlanders (Dark Horse / Studio Proteus) 9 - 20
* Pineapple Army (Viz Comics) 5
* Rumic World (Viz Select) 1: Fire Tripper and 2: The Laughing Target
* Xenon (Eclipse International) 1 - 11

Will have to read back over Crying Freeman and Mai . . . many of the others seem like things that may have seemed interesting back in the day, but I don't know how interested I would be in the present.

And I'll definitely have to look into Vagabond next time at Barnes and Noble.

And by the way, my current tastes in comic books is more towards superheroes and historical, but I would worry about getting too cartoony. Lighter and slightly humorous is okay, but too many reaction panels of characters going bug-eyed or overly-smiling would probably put me off.

[Inkthinker]

Good taste! A lot of what you have there in slim volumes or single comics issues has since been collected in full trades, so you might be interested in just reading the rest of what you've only got in fractions.

I'm guessing you have issues from Adam Warren's first two Dirty Pair books ("Biohazards" and "Dangerous Acquaintances"), if you liked them then you might like the ones he's done since then (five more volumes!), I feel like his work just got better and better as he went on.

On the topic of superheroes, Warren's doing a series now called Empowered, a "sexy superhero satire". I like it quite a lot, and it's often available at B&N (though it might be shrinkwrapped to hide the sexy). The seventh volume just came out a couple weeks ago.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is fully finished, self-contained series that's been published a couple times. The latest edition is seven volumes printed in a nice sepia tone. Akira is also fully complete, printed in 6 volumes, each is about $25 but it's a pretty beautiful series (though it's never been reprinted in color again, it's all in the original B&W tones). And you can also find all those Appleseed volumes pretty cheaply. Each are considered to be classics of the comics form, Katsuhiro Otomo and Masamune Shirow are manga-no-kamisama (god's of manga) and Hayao Miyazaki is... well, he's Hayao Miyazaki. He never did much manga other than Nausicaa, but in animation he's at the very top of the mountain.

One thing to note is that most modern manga (including reprints of older content) are printed to match the original Japanese format now, which means right-to-left. You start at the "back". It takes a little getting used to, but it's generally preferable to modern readers. Your mileage may vary.

If you're looking for the cheapest options (and you're sure you want to buy) then Amazon is hard to beat for the prices. Most of the B&N chains have a solid manga section these days, though they may not have much in the way of the older stuff.

[Inkthinker]

Just outta curiousity, after writing all that I went digging around Amazon. You can get the Akira books for between $16 and $22, and I should note that those 6 volumes are THICK, each is about an inch across the binding so you get a lot of bang for the nickel.

Nausicaa volumes are about $10 each, not much savings there but I'd be surprised if you could buy them all in a store.

Appleseed volumes 1-4 are about $12 each, and the nice thing about those is that they're all self-contained. There's also a couple smaller books called Appleseed: ID and Appleseed: Hypernotes that contain short stories and a TON of background filler (essays and such of the sort that were occasionally printed in the back of those old Eclipse volumes). I liked those a lot because I love the background thought that Shirow puts into his manga, but again YMMV.

I've got all those on my shelves, and I consider them to be core items in my manga library, I love 'em all.

After he got tired of Appleseed, Shirow went on to produce Ghost in the Shell and its sequel Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface. Those then became the basis for a huge media franchise spanning a couple films and a two-season TV series that airs currently on Cartoon Network late Saturday nights. I don't know if I'd recommend 'em, as they can be a little... dense. Shirow was trying to express a lot of his ideas about Singularity and the blurring line between reality and virtuality, but if you're into that stuff then I'd say go for it! You can almost always find either of those books at B&N for sure.

[Libaax]

Vagabond is great artwise but it cant come near writing wise to Koike,Kojima series. Samurai Executioner must be your next must read. It has surpassed Lone Wolf and Cub as my fav samurai manga and my fav alltime manga period. That manga takes a serious look at Samurai period,powerful storytelling.

Vagaond and others are very good but they are more i must be strongest than a historical look as Samurai era japan.

Frankly i wish there were more good,adult serious samurai manga out these days. Seinan,adult mangas in the Samurai genre.