Lady Snowblood

The manga that inspired the films of Kill Bill

Written by Kazuo Koike

Lady Snowblood Volume 1 (v. 1)

Rating: Very definitely adult. Violence and sex.

Genre / themes: Vengeance, historical Japan, assassin.

Art level: Manga, high quality, scenes and flow seem cinematically scripted by the author. Black and white.

Star Rating: 4.5/5

Number of Books: Four. Completed.

Other notes: Inspired a (not so good) film of the same name, which
led to Kill Bill. Kazuo Koike also wrote Lone Wolf and Cub.


Lady Snowblood: Amazon Blurb
From the pen of Kazuo Koike, of Lone Wolf and Cub fame, comes Lady Snowblood, the manga that eventually would become an inspiration for director Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill blockbuster films. A story of pure vengeance, Lady Snowblood tells the tale of a daughter born of a singular purpose, to avenge the death of her family at the hands of a gang of thugs, a purpose woven into her soul from the time of her gestation. Beautifully drafted and full of bloody, sexy action, Lady Snowblood lives up to its title and reputation.

My Review
Lady Snowblood is the only manga I ever truly loved (although I also recommend Doll),  and fits neatly into four volumes. The story of an assassin for hire, hunting down the people who destroyed her mother's life, Lady Snowblood is the story Kill Bill was (tentatively) based on, very evident in the design of the covers. Lady Snowblood was also the name of an earlier film adaptation.

A brilliantly drawn black-and-white manga full of blood and nudity, Lady Snowblood has both plot and character development, and I thoroughly approve of the artwork. it is not for younger readers nor for the faint of heart. Her trade is, after all, assassination, and being an attractive young woman, she often uses nudity as a distraction.

The stories skip along, mostly detailing each job - destroying a yakuza gangs that a museum can be built, exposing a blackmailing pornographic photographer, assassinations, lovers, traveling around. It actually takes some rereading to realise how subtly the stories are often connected, and which are simple 'jobs' and which are actually the pursuit of her vengeance. It is both well written and historically accurate - set in the 1890s of Japan, and the growth of Yuki ('Snow') as a person adds an extra layer of depth to the story.

The black and white style is simplistic and effective, and very graceful - in most cases, it helps reduces the impact of the violence, as the blood is not red, and the flesh is plain white.

The third book, Retribution, is a bit cruder than the rest (in case you prefer to avoid more explicit stories) and less serious - she hunts down a famous (and famously eccentric) writer and persuades him to publish her story in order to flush out her remaining targets - but the art is beautiful still. Or, as an Amazon reviewer puts it "Compensation for their dumbing down a fairly smart series comes in Kamimura's artwork, more cinematic than ever, full of marvelous viewing angles, perspectival effects, and purely visual storytelling; Koike presumably scripted these wordless aspects, too. So, hats off again, gentlemen."

If you think this is up your street, I thoroughly recommend it.

The four books of the Lady Snowblood manga

Serenity (Firefly): Those Left Behind

The graphic novels that tell the story between Firefly and Serenity

Serenity, Vol. 1:
Those Left Behind

Rating: Young adult-adult

Genre / themes: Sci-fi, theft and petty crime, spin-off of Firefly.

Art level: Good. Colour.

Star Rating: 3.5/5 Stars. (plus a bonus 0.5 for being Firefly related)

Number of Books: Three so far, but I'm counting The Shepherd's Tale (a prequel) separately for the purposes of this review. So, two in the 'sequel' series.

Other notes: Picks up right after the last episode of the Firefly television series. Written by Joss Whedon and one of the writers of Firefly. Not mindblowingly awesome, but pretty darned good. With the exception of The Shepherd's Tale

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My Review of Books 1 and 2

Serenity, Vol. 1: Those Left Behind 

Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days

Unlike the Buffy books, the two Firefly spin-offs - actually designed to fill in the gaps from the cancelled episodes - are worth reading for their own sake. The art is pretty good, the wit is witty, the criminals are criminal and our heroes are... well, the criminals.

It's the same familiar cast of Captain Mal Reynolds, his crazy crew, and the two stowaways, Simon and River. They pick up odd jobs, get in trouble with the law, and try and keep River away from the government.

The series is oddly constrained by the fact that it has to keep everyone alive and in the state they were at the beginning of Serenity, but does well enough within those boundaries. The first book is a good bridge/introduction between the Firefly television show and the film Serenity, with Agent Dobson (the Alliance spy from the very first episode) reappearing, and Inara leaving at the end of the book - although the second book is better.

Book Three Review


Art level: Bad, monotonous colour.

Star Rating: 2.5/5

I recently had the chance to read Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale (in the library, of course). It was very disappointing, and I'd give it 2.5 stars. While the cover is nice enough, and it was a hardback, I got through the whole story in less than ten minutes. I'm a fast reader, but I expect my graphic novels to last me at least twenty!

While it does give you Shepherd Book's backstory (which did affect how you see him, next time you watch him onscreen), it does it in a way that leaves you feeling cheated. Basically, it is in the format of flashback, after flashback, each only a couple of pages long, jumping further back into his life. And each flashback is just too short. The narrative would have worked better in the correct order, as you could have watched Book grow and change, but the authors clearly wanted the cheap tensions of the 'sudden reveals'. Also, the art  felt very dirty, which was probably intentional, to give it a 'gritty' feel. But the result, to me, was a book that looked ugly and slapdash.

And it could have been awesome. Despite the fact that they packed in more than they needed, it could have been an epic story. Only buy it if it's cheap, and you need to complete the set.

The Serenity Graphic Novels So Far

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Long Way Home
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Season 8, Vol. 1)

The spin-off comics from the awesome vampire dusting television series from Joss Whedon


Rating: Young adult-adult

Genre / themes: Vampires, Buffy, supernatural, saving the world, normal- 'super' heroes.

Art level: Very variable - mostly quite bad, but the artists change a lot. The season eight books are much better.

Star Rating: 3.5 stars (4.5 stars for season 8)


Number of Books: Seven Omnibuses (one for each finished season) plus individual graphic novels and comics. Season Eight is unfinished, so still only in single story graphic novels.

Other notes: Mostly spin-off stories and retellings of the show, so it's not too repetitive if you've seen the original series. Bonus materials (e.g. original covers) included. Storytelling and art highly variable originally. Season eight only available as graphic novels, due to the television series ending, and much better quality (also actually written by Joss Whedon in many cases).

This is a brilliant gift for a Buffy fan, so-so for anyone else (with the exception of season eight which is pretty awesome)

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My Review
The graphic novel version of the famous television series is collected in seven volumes, plus the eighth season that's still being written. The art doesn't get consistently good until the final season, but we're not buying this for the art. We're buying it for Buffy and the Scoobies.

 Some of the artwork or the stories are patchy, as they tend to be collaborations with various writers, but the omnibuses are the best way to collect the Buffy comics - they're even organised into chornological order (story wise). And the story is different enough to be worth reading, and to provide new enjoyment - especially the bonus stories! The stories in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Volume 1" take place before the show's first season, and the other volumes all deviate from the television and include additional stories.

Season Eight - 4.5 stars
From what I've seen of the single graphic novels in the eighth series, the art is incredibly improved, and as it's the continuation of the television series, not the spin-off, and Joss Whedon is actually taking a hand in the plot, I can guarantee that a) it actually has a cohesive story (and is not just a bunch of collectible tales)  and b) it's canon, and good.

I actually met Georges Jeanty, the artist who did the pencils for the season eight books, and was impressed enough to buy one of his sketchbooks (reviewed here).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 was shortlisted for the 2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, in the 'Other work' category.

All the BtVS compilations so far (not including season eight)