Saiunkoku in Black and White

The occasional "...in Black and White" series continues today with The Story of Saiunkoku.  Saiunkoku started off as a light novel series.  Apart from the cover (and maybe one or two illustrations), most illustrations in light novels are monochrome just like manga.  All of the scans in today's post come from the original novels with Kairi Yura behind the art. 

 

 

 

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Spider-Man: Clone Saga

The Clone Saga was a notorious Spider-Man story arc that's the poster child for bad story decisions driven by money and marketing.  It's interesting, then, that Marvel has decided to reimagine it.  Spider-Man: Clone Saga is a limited-series (set for six issues) that tells the story the way it "should" have been. 

My only experience with the Clone Saga storyline was through the animated series, so it's been fun to read the new series.  Of course, any excuse for there to be more than one Peter Parker is motivation enough for me to check it out.

The scans in today's post come from the first two issues of the series and feature pencils by Todd Nauck.

 

 

More Inuyasha

With Inuyasha: The Final Act (an adaptation of the final parts of the Inuyasha manga) airing in Japan and streaming online, it's time to revisit the half-man, half-demon himself.  This post contains a mix of old and new anime artwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nightwing and (Red) Robin

World's Finest is a new DC miniseries that pairs two different heroes from the Batman and Superman universes.  What better start to the series than to pair the new Nightwing with Red Robin?  I really wasn't a fan of the Red Robin costume when I first saw it but it's growing on me.

Julian Lopez provides the pencils for the scans below.

 

Samurai Deeper Kyo

Samurai Deeper Kyo is a manga series about a young man who finds out that he shares his body with the soul of a legendary samurai.  It was created by Akimine Kamijyo and also has an anime version that apparently takes the plot in a completely different direction from the manga. 

This is one of those things that I could've sworn I posted about earlier but didn't.  I really like the artwork for this series, especially the manga.  TOKYOPOP initially released the manga in America but it looks as though Del Rey has the rights now.  The anime version was released by Media Blasters a while back and is still readily available.

 

 

 

 

 

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Cade Skywalker

Today's post takes us into the Star Wars Universe.  Cade Skywalker is one of the main protagonists in the comic series Star Wars Legacy.  He's a descendant of Anakin and Luke Skywalker and was initially trained as a Jedi.  Now, he's a bounty hunter who lives by his own rules.

What drew me to the character was the leather pants he wears.  Not just any guy, real or otherwise, can look hot in leather pants.  However, he pulls it off well.

The pencils in these scans (and the artwork for the cover above) were done by Jan Duursema.