For a long time, I’ve suspected that the majority of comics readers are more interested in comics characters and genres—superheroes, fantasy, bustier-busting babes with big guns and sharp knives — than they are in the medium itself. And that’s just fine. If what we produce entertains or enlightens on any level, we’ve done our job. The art of comics, however, isn’t in the stories or the illustrations, it’s in the form of storytelling employed: only a series of snapshots is shown, and yet the reader’s imagination fills in the visual gaps, creating a magical synergy with the writer and artist as though the creators are building a wall supplying only the mortar while the reader contributes the bricks. The "truth" of comics lies beneath the surface: silent, deep, endlessly in motion.

And those of us who are moved by comicsÂ’ invisible intricacies are in for a treat.

In the 1970s, Japan’s comics industry produced one of the true landmarks of graphic fiction, Lone Wolf and Cub.An epic samurai adventure of staggering proportions — over 7,000 pages — Kozure Okami (the original title) is acknowledged worldwide for the brilliant writing of series creator Kazuo Koike and the groundbreaking cinematic visuals of the late Goseki Kojima, creating unforgettable imagery of stark beauty, kinetic fury, and visceral thematic power that influenced a generation of visual storytellers. Frank Miller has openly credited the impact Lone Wolf and Cub made on his own work, and his eloquent praise speaks volumes to the rare qualities of this legendary series:

"It takes you to another time, and to a frightening, alien land, windswept and gray, dying in quiet obedience to the insane decrees of insane leaders. Its authors took the time and space to tell their tale in its every moment, often devoting many pages to scenes that wouldnÂ’t last three panels in a monthly American superhero comic book. We come to know the players, large and small, as we meet them, as they reveal themselves to us. Koike and Kojima tell their story masterfully and artfully, portraying a man, a boy, and a country on their journey into Hell."

Unavailable in America for over a decade, and never available Stateside in its entirety, Dark Horse is about to bring Lone Wolf and Cub back to the English-speaking audience in perhaps our most ambitious publishing program to date: twenty-eight monthly volumes, each approximately 300 pages in length!

For lovers of the real thing -- well, it doesnÂ’t get much better than this.

-- Chris Warner,
  Editor in Chief