Samurai Guard #1by Jennifer M. ContinoReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk.
Publisher
Credits Grade: 6 On Bushido Island the way of the samurai is still a way of life. The modern world means nothing to these few who are living in the past under their own code, until the outside world invades and attacks. Will the way of the warrior be enough to withstand modern weapons and ninjas?I like the idea: a group of samurai went to live on their own island, to keep the old ways, and to ignore the modern world. It's not that big a stretch! We have the Amish in the US, why shouldn't there be a clan of warriors in their own sector living life as they believe it should be lived? Bravo to Kirk Abrigo for coming up with this take on the samurai. The story has all the action of an old school samurai movie, but mixed with some modern twists. The samurai are living like their ancestors — basically the only way they know how to live — minding their own business when outside forces, evil ninjas, attack. The ninjas invade the island, kill some people, then threaten to do even more damage. The samurai try to defend themselves, but it seems a one-sided battle. However, most are trained quite well and able to handle themselves in the battle. Abrigo had a good pacing and pretty good ear for dialogue within this issue. His figures were drawn a little flat, but I think a lot of that had to do with the inking. He had some sketchbook pages in the comic that were fantastic illustrations, so I have no doubt his pencils are strong, but some artists need inkers. I think Abrigo is one of those artists who needs an inker and I think he agrees, because at the Pittsburgh ComiCon a talented inker was hanging out with him in a Colburn Comics t-shirt. So I'm pretty sure that little glitch is not being taken care of. As for the other artistic points of the book, the coloring looked almost like what you'd see on an anime. It reminded me a lot of animation cells or other work along those lines. The coloring was flat and dull in a few places, but I think that is just someone getting used to the ins and outs of coloring comics. Most of the pages were quite well done and the colors added to aesthetics. The one big coloring problem I had was most of the characters had brown highlights in their hair. I asked Abrigo and he said that "Asian people don’t have blue hair." Which is true, but I don't know many Asian people who have brown hair. However I guess if brown and blue were his only choices to highlight hair, brown was the choice to go with. Again, I'm nitpicking. The only real fault I found with the writing was some of the dialogue seemed too modern for a society that had lived on that island since the 13th Century, but I might be being a little too picky on that subject. And I have my doubts that a society living like the 13th Century would allow a woman to be a samurai, but I'm glad there's a strong female character in this book. I like the character though and hope she has a chance to develop more within the series. All in all, this series reminded me a little of the action feel to the Mortal Kombat movies and also reminded me a little of the manga Vagabond. It was an intriguing first issue and I'm curious to see how things turn out in the next part. Written: April 29, 2002
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