▪	RELEASED BY:		DARK HORSE
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		PARK JOONG-KI
		▪	FORMAT:		WESTERN / BW
		▪	PAGES:		16+
		▪	RATING:		T
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		05/25/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		07/25/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

|One of the best-selling Korean epics of all time, Shaman Warrior recently won Korean Culture and Content Agency’s 2006 “Best Manhwa of the Year” award. Now you might be thinking: “What is Manhwa? I thought this was Manga.” Well in a sense there isn’t much difference – Manhwa is the Korean word and equivalent of manga. The Japanese produce some wonderful graphic novels and stories, but the Koreans have shown they can do a great job too – more and more so in the recent years especially. This particular collection is translated into English (just like Japanese manga are), and oriented in its original left-to-right reading format, and published at its original size.

Outlawed and hunted by a kingdom they once served, the Shaman Warriors of Krugai are a dying breed of disturbingly powerful, mystical killing machines. Shamans are now marked for death and killed on sight by the king’s soldiers and by twisted Death Lords, who also wield supernatural abilities. In volume three, Batu hopes to protect the child in his care from the chaos and fear that has engulfed the land, but the daughter of one of the strongest Shamans ever cannot be shielded from her destiny – or from a gang of colourful, bloodthirsty assassins that has followed their trail to the lawless desert town of Maruchette. This volume contains numerous conflicts between the characters involved with both sides and barely lets up on the action – and good action at that!

Being Manhwa, Shaman Warrior has a fairly different style then a lot manga you may have read before. The art is very mature and of a serious quality – the kind that many people would more easily accept as true art, rather than as a “comic.” Detail is present in bucket loads - from the characters to the backgrounds, everything looks great. The action during fight scenes shares the same excellent detail – you can almost feel the hulking punch in the gut being delivered from time to time! Fights are brutal and sometimes bloody, but nothing that most teens couldn’t deal with. The violence is not exploitative in the least. It’s interesting how human-like the characters are – the artist is really very talented at creating realistic human figures and anatomy to some extent. As said before, the art style is unique and quite different – readers looking for a more mature art style with appreciate this series almost certainly.

Although the fight scenes and martial arts are all portrayed in a very entertaining way within the book, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any story or feeling. Batu’s relationship with the little Shaman girl (Yaki) is much like that of a father or older brother – he protects her with is very life, but is not overly comfortable expressing how much he cares for her. It’s much the same with any other character trying to shield her along the way – they do it with a sense of duty for what is right, but appear to truly care for the child herself as well. The story makes perfectly good sense and flows along nicely, but the action is always at the fore-front, keeping with the action/fantasy genre.

The back of the book contains one of the funniest author-related joke comics I have ever read. Sometimes the author/artist will make a short comic about themselves and their experiences while creating the series and this one is just so humorous and understandable. You’ll want to read it at least twice. But you’ll have to read the book yourself – we won’t ruin it for you here!

IN SUMMARY: 
Shaman Warrior has a mature look that will draw in the many readers searching out the few truly adult oriented graphic novels they crave. The art is beautiful to behold, and of such a unique style. It’s more than worth reading, even if just to sample something quite different from the norm.