Gyakushu!: Volume One
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"Gyakushu!: Volume One"

Gyakushu.  No, it's not what you say to someone after they sneeze.  It's the name of a manga by Dan Hipp, and a pretty badass manga at that.  Gyakushu is about redemption and sins revisited.  Oh, and plenty of bloody deaths on the end of a hooked sickle. 

Gyakushu's story follows a nameless but expert thief.  When the thief steals a highly-prized book from an evil king, it leads him to a hidden valley named Parthenion.  Overcome by its peace, he gives up the plundering trade and settles down with the younger sister of his (heartbroken) female accomplice.  After a few years of prosperous farm life, the king tracks the thief to Parthenion, razes the valley, steals away the thief's son, Spencer, and feeds his wife to a cannibal soldier.  The thief is mangled and left for dead, but snuffing the life from a vengeful warrior is never as easy as it seems.  The thief, held together by heavy bandages and his wind-torn cloak, searches the icy world for revenge against the king who's brought his life and the land to misery. 

It's not a terribly original premise … there are dozens of movies and books chronicling the bloody fates of outlaws who found the one good thing in their life (hint: usually a female thing) and had it violently taken away.  But Gyakushu doesn't suffer in the least for its lack of creativity; the fresh take on the art, writing and presentation indicate Hipp just wanted to put his own spin the classic drifter story.  And not only does Gyakushu stand out from its genre, it stands out from hundreds of manga titles in general with its stark black and white inking (and use of washed-over greys to illustrate flashbacks) and its heavy (but never bogged) narration.   

Hipp handles his story and characters well.  The narrator, a grizzled old man, assures the reader several times Gyakushu is a story lacking a happy ending--or a happy middle, for that matter.  But whereas the obvious is narrated, more subtle character cues have to be searched for.  The thief's sickle, once used to cut down wheat during his peaceful life, becomes his favoured weapon with no fanfare.  Selected symbolism never gets old. 

Full of fun irony, quick pacing and huge monsters with blank but still-horrific features, volume one of Gyakushu can be polished off in a matter of minutes.  The manga is available from Tokyopop for $9.99 USD.