Recommendation: Apollo's Song By Osamu Tezuka

Apollo's Song is the story of Shogo, a troubled young man who has no faith in love. When his misanthropy reaches its peak, he is met by the Goddess of Love, who condemns him to an eternity of heartbreak.

Story and art by Osamu Tezuka"

Apollo’s song is a well constructed story that deals with love on many level through different periods of time. The main character, Shogo, struggles with the traumatic experiences of being in a loveless relationship with his mother. He channels this anger through hatred and distain for affection of living creatures. There are several story broken down into mini-stories through "dream-like" experiences of love and lost, life and death that would eventually help cure him.

Apollo's Song's art and layout is very clear and the story is straightforward. Known for being an environmentalist, Tezuka raise warning of the destruction of nature and effect of polluting the earth, which is still relevant with today's global warming concern. However, a lot of the "I love you" emotions in this manga felt kind of force rather than being natural and the story have some bizarre moments when dealing with the future. Plus the ending can be overly dramatic but it leaves it up to the reader to draw his own conclusion. Overall it's still a great book and better than his some of his other work (lost world?). It's a good beginning Tezuka manga for those that have not read Buddha, Phoenix or Adolf.

Childhood Comic Book

I was a huge marvel fan as a kid. I love collecting marvel trading cards and comics. The superheroes and villain in the Marvel Universe were a lot more interesting than DC's. My favorite comic book at the time were X-Men's Age of apocalypse, Spider-man's Maximum Clonage saga, Silver Surfer series, Gambit series. Oh yeah can't forget Image's Spawn, I went to see the movie back in the 6th grade.

Vagabond Artbook: Water & Sumi

Artist: Takehiko Inoue
Artbook: Vagabond Illustration "Water" & "Sumi"

Both artbook (Water & Sumi) were release on Oct 23, 2006 in Japan. Water is a collection of colored art while Sumi is a collection of black and white artwork. Sumi focus on monochrome art while Water has a water-like appeal to the art.

Shaman Warrior (Dark Horse)

Dark Horse is starting a new manhwa imprint. One of the first title to debut under this imprint is Shaman Warrior. I can't wait to see how this measure up to Blade of the Immortal and it looks like it's gonna be a solid title.

Presented in the original Korean format, Shaman Warrior is a dramatic fantasy series with a kinetic style that will appeal to fans of Blade of the Immortal and Vagabond! From the desert wastelands emerge two mysterious warriors, master wizard Yarong and his faithful servant Batu. On a grave mission from their king, they have yet to realize the whirlwind of political movements and secret plots which will soon engulf them and change their lives forever. When Yarong is mortally injured, Batu must fulfill a secret promise to leave Yarong's side and protect his master's child. As Batu seeks to find and hide the infant, Yarong reveals another secret to those who have tracked him down to finish him off--the deadly, hidden power of a Shaman Warrior! Translated by the mother/son team of Anna Kirk and Derek Kirk Kim.

• One of the top five bestselling manwha of all time!

• Often compared to Blade of the Immortal in scope.

Bleach Debut on Cartoon Network [Adult Swim]

Vagabond Image Gallery

Genshiken

Genshiken is Pimp. Make sure to pick it up.

Blade of the Immortal Art

Blade of the Immortal by Hiraoki Samura

Takehiko Inoue's Tool of Trade

The image above is a style that Takehiko Inoue experiment with. The first pic is a striking image off Kojiro that really stands out with all the bold lines that is use and swift stroke of the brush. What's interesting is that Inoue uses a hairband to wrap around his G-pen for tighter grip (as seen on the second image).

To set the tone for Poetry-In-Motion Blog

Preoccupied with a single leaf...you won't see the tree.
Preoccupied with a single tree...you won't see the entire forest
Don't be preoccupied with a single spot.
See everything in its entirety effortlessly
-Takuan Soho