Lady Snowblood, Vol. 1 (Book)

I picked this one up from Amazon because I read in Entertainment Weekly Tarantino was inspired from this to create Kill Bill. I've never really read any manga before, but I've seen it's enormous popularity judging from the amount of shelve space at Barnes & Noble. I found it an interesting and refreshing read. I've been reading American comix (along with Jazz, the only 2 unique art forms created in America) for well over 20 years and liked how I had to retrain my brain to read the comix. The Japanese read, how we would consider, their comic backwards. I became consciously aware of reading a comic again. It's been a long time since I felt that.

As for the story, Lady Snowblood is a highly paid assassin who always manages to be naked and covered in blood by the end of each story. I liked it and would be willing to read more. This may be the future of how comics should be. With single issues approaching $2.99 each and trades costing $20 or more, manga seems like a bargain. I can see why it's so popular.