Kazuo Koike, co-creator of the amazing manga, Lone Wolf and Cub, passed away last week. During my rabid consumption of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films, I stumbled upon the Koike/Kojima series about a dishonored samurai who takes a path of vengeance to right the atrocities suffered by his family, all done with his surviving toddler in tow.
If you’ve never read the 8,700+ page series, it is easy to pick up and even though created in the 1970’s, it holds up extremely well today. I picked up the 28 volume series back when Dark Horse comics reprinted it in the early 2000’s and it remains a favorite part of my collection.
Ironically, last week, Footsore Miniatures announced they were making a sculpt of the famous character and cub for use in Grey For Now Games Test of Honour game. I’m excited to see this inclusion and it can hopefully introduce more to Koike’s amazing feudal Japan world.