Flavio, I keep eyeing thos Lady Snowblood books! I'm very interested in purchasing the series, but I can't stand how they're marketed in the Kill Bill style (yeah, I know it was an influence on Tarentino's film).

I like the old-style artwork of the series. How does the series hold up as an entire read.

Convince me to buy those books! I want to read them!

Flavio, thank you for your take on the series. I'll definitely look for an affordable collection of these books.

Something you said here resonates with me:

<<Kamimura's art is deceptively cartoony. At first, it turned me off a bit, but
by the second book, I was positively addicted to it.>>

I agree with you 150% !!! The old-style artwork of the master manga storytellers: Osamu Tezuka (Phoenix, Buddha, Astro Boy, etc.), the horror work of Hideshi Hino, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Pushman, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, etc.), and Keiji Nakazawa (Barefoot Gen). The style may see cartoony and not even drawn very well, but it sinks in and lends itself very well when reading any lengthy tale.

I believe quality manga is essential stuff for any serious comic fan. It's an entirely different reading experience than the American comics. As well, the style compliments the human side and sentiment many of the stories have imbedded within. Manga shows another way comics can be presented and enjoyed.

I'd love to continue a casual correspondence with you as we seem to have similar tastes for what we like in comics (you mentioned Tom Sutton in another thread...).

I like Manga and I love Anime.  The advantage that Manga has over American Comics is variety.  I love Super Heroes, but there are more stories to be told than SH stories.  Our current market place has started to expand some with books like The Walking Dead, Y The Last Man, Love Less, etc, but Manga has always had those type of titles.

Blade Of The Immortal has been a great book, but when it comes to Samura, I do believe that his old stuff was better.  The artwork through the first 70 issues is mind blowing.  There is a lot of his work published straight from the pencils with no inks and it looks awesome.  A lot of scenes are done in a mixture of pencils, inks, and washes.  The closer you get to 100 and beyond the more the work becomes just ink and it is not as detailed. 

<<I love Super Heroes, but there are more stories to be told than SH stories>>

Amen to that, BH. If it's super-heroes, the only stuff that catches my interest anymore is the older stuff reprinted in Essentials and Showcase Presents.

I believe a lot the comics from Europe are a veritable treasure trove of non-super-hero stuff as well (Corto Maltese, Torpedo 1936, Schuiten and Peeters, etc. I could go on for days!!!!)

<<Blade Of The Immortal has been a great book, but when it comes to Samura, I do believe that his old stuff was better.>>

 I posted some images from the latest BotI volume on the last page and although they were mostly covers and chapter pages, I think Samura is still going strong with his artwork.

I agree his style has changed and he's doing solely pen and ink, but it is still some of the finest stuff around. For the most part Dreamsong was the best the series attained. (I wish Samura would do his haymaker/end fight spreads again).

For a while there (some point around or after Heart of Darkness tpb), Samura appeared to try and dispense of the elongated quality his figures possessed. He attempted to truncate the characters (the style) and - blegh - I'm happy he stopped doing that!

"One of the weird things about Manga and Anime is how ethnically Japanese characters are portrayed with distinctive Caucasian features (large, colored eyes, long noses, fair or even blond hair.)  "

Exactly, all the characters look the same. I mean, I like the look, I still collect DeCarlo Archie comics so I'm no position to complain about formula. But, come on. Manga really needs to vary art styles. The only thing they vary is the rendering.

The pacing is really painful too, I like watching the cartoons better than the comics.