A reverse Samurai tale

By ANDREW A. SMITH
Scripps Howard News Service
21-FEB-06

"Bushi Tales" makes me smile.

And not just because of the pun-ny name. It's a comic book involving Bushido —the Samurai code of honor — although at a glance you might think squirrels were involved.

And not just because it's an online comic book making the leap into print. Which it happens to be.

And not because it's one of the few comic books in the world with its own soundtrack. Which it happens to have.

And not just because I've known one of the creators for years, and have always admired his work. Although I have.

But because it's the result of collaboration between two close friends (who now live 1,400 miles apart), and the enthusiasm shows. Writers-illustrators David Beaty and Lin Workman, who live in Arizona and Tennessee, respectively, once lived in the same town and collaborated and supported each other as only comics fans can do. The result is "Bushi Tales" No. 1 ($3.95, Pencil Neck Studios), which came out Feb. 15.

The premise is sort of a reverse Samurai tale, taking place as it does in the 31st century. In this future world modern civilization has collapsed, and the ancient culture of Bushido has re-arisen, complete with four warrior women fond of swords, archery, equestrianism and heartfelt speeches about courage and honor. Their opposite number is the traitor Chozen, who seems to have availed himself of even older, darker arts. Outside of New Edo, you see, there be monsters.

Like most self-published efforts, "Bushi Tales" No. 1 is an obvious labor of love. Unlike most self-published efforts, it's not relentlessly amateurish. Beaty and Workman still have some rough edges to work out, but their experience on the online comic and in the commercial art world for the last decade vaults them far past the usual wannabes. The first issue left me curious to see what was going to happen next, which many big-publisher comics fail to do these days.

And what is coming next?

"We've got a few more girls to introduce," Workman said, "and a lot of monsters! ... Dave and I hope to produce a comic that's worthy enough to sit on the shelves with the big boys, and will be working on making it better with each issue. Once we have 3-4 issues out we'll be doing a color TPB and add some bonus materials to it."

"Bushi Tales" No. 1 is 32 black-and-white pages, with a four-page "pre-story," productions sketches and some other behind-the-scenes stuff. And I wasn't kidding about the soundtrack, which you can find out more about online.

PaperbackReader.com Review

Bushi Tales is one of those rare online comics that has made it to print. Bushi Tales #1 is currently available and they even have a soundtrack! By the way, for those of you non-Japanese speakers or martial artists, Bushi Tales is not a story about bushy tailed animals. Bushi is the Japanese word meaning “warrior.” It is often combined with Do to make Bushido, which means “way of the warrior,” the Japanese code that was followed by the Samurai of ancient Japan.

When I first saw this book I thought, “Looks like an ancient Japan martial arts story. Interesting, but I rarely find historical setting comic books that hook me.” Ah, but Bushi Tales is not a historical piece, it is a futuristic piece. You see, in the future the gods of mythology return and change the world. Now the world has seen a return of samurai-like warriors and the introduction of mystical chi. Oh, and did I forget to mention monsters? Yeah, there are some really nasty creatures roaming about.

“And on the 8th day...the gods of myth returned. Reshaping the world in their image. The cleansing fire has burned out and the tides have shifted. It is the 31st century of man and the ancient world has been reborn. The god of war's hand picked survivors have rebuilt civilization as the city of New Edo. Guarding the wall to New Edo is Royo Temple. Here the elder warriors train the next generation to preserve their traditions. At the farthest edge of the new world...beyond the badlands...is the unholy city of the traitor Chozen.”

The main character is the female warrior Akiyo Yamashiro, who is one of the elite warriors of New Edo. In this issue Akiyo and her team must hunt a giant killer monster. It turns out to not be an easy task.

Ok, so it is nitpick time. Nothing is flawless, so I did find a couple of nitpicks. First, I found the dialog on occasion to be a little flat. It was only a few times, but it stood out to me as sounding odd. Second, the prose short story in the back of the book was overall a great touch and I hope they keep it up, but the writing was not as strong as their comic book writing. The flow seemed weak and there were a few grammatical errors. Paragraph breaks felt like they were in the wrong places and the narrative seemed a little flat. With that said, it was still a nice touch and also filled the readers in on another part of the Bushi Tales mythology.

There are still a few rough edges, but of course, this would be expected from their first issue. What is interesting is how overall solid the book is. The art and writing are very strong for a #1 by relatively new comic book creators (with their only previous major comic book work being the short-lived series Star Gods). You can tell that they are truly passionate about the world and the characters that fill it. The art is also very solid. The story has a fascinating overall concept filled with so many possibilities. I found myself with so many questions on how exactly did this new world age happen and what is there lurking in this mystically futuristic Earth?

So, there you go. Overall a strong book that deserves more attention. If you like martial arts action and fantasy, then you really need to gives this book a try.

You can find out more about Bushi Tales at: http://www.bushitales.com