Lone Wolf and Cub

Kazuo Koike

Aug 2002 · Lone Wolf and Cub Vol 24 · Sold by Dark Horse Comics

About this ebook

Holy hand grenades! Edo is flooded, and by flooded, we mean crazy-flooded. Bridges are crumbling, rivers are washing past retaining walls, and everything in Edo is floating away, including our vengeful ronin, his foe, and his little boy. In an ironic show of samurai respect, little Cub Daigoro gets saved by the conniving Retsudo Yagyu. And proving he can lend a hand, too, Lone Wolf Ogami pulls someone to safety as well — but maybe he should have let him drown. Eventually, the two opposing master swordsmen dry off and go head to head in a sword fight of a thousand stances and couple of days length. This seems like it could be the deciding bout between the two, unless that nasty, Abeno Kaii gets in the way, and he seems to do that a lot lately.The true meaning of Bushido, the warrior code, oozes from every page of this volume. A little boy desperately attempts to drag his ronin father to safely, even if it costs him his own life; that same wandering samurai and his mortal enemy work together to save the frostbitten fingers of the same little boy, knowing they will eventually match swords again in a battle to the death; another samurai bites his own tongue, killing himself and locking a dark secret in his grave. The code of the samurai is complex and rich with irony, which is why so few carry this code through life. But as we draw closer to the conclusion of this epic struggle, the true bushi are stepping forth and showing their colors. It will truly be a fight to the finish. So, in these final days, a ronin and his young boy will visit the grave of their murdered wife and mother. It just might be the last Spring the two will share, like the many petals falling from branches.

This volume contains the following stories:
Child of the Fields
In These Samll Hands
Kaii Triumph
The Last Cherry Blossoms
Stone Upon Stone

About the author

Kazuo Koike is a prolific Japanese manga writer, novelist, and entrepreneur. Early in Koike's career, he studied under Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and served as a writer on the series. Koike, along with artist Goseki Kojima, made the manga Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub), and Koike also contributed to the scripts for the 1970s film adaptations of the series, which starred famous Japanese actor Tomisaburo Wakayama. Another series written by Koike, Crying Freeman, which was illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, was adapted into a 1995 live-action film by French director Christophe Gans.

Goseki Kojima was a Japanese manga artist known for his collaborations with Kazuo Koike. The team was often referred to as the “Golden Duo.” Kojima’s best-known work was Lone Wolf and Cub. Other titles attributed to Kojima are Samurai Executioner and Path of the Assassin. In 2004, Kojima won an Eisner Award.