▪	RELEASED BY:		DARK HORSE
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		KIM YOUNG-OH
		▪	FORMAT:		WESTERN / BW
		▪	PAGES:		184
		▪	RATING:		16+
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		06/20/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		08/03/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN

BANYA is MAD MAX meets VAMPIRE HUNTER D.  Whether you would describe him as berserk or demonic in nature, this delivery man gives a whole new meaning to ‘going postal’.  He always gets the job done, it is true.  However, while his fees for delivering the goods may sometimes be up to negotiation, he happily dispenses mayhem and death to his enemies free of charge.  It is no wonder why he is called the explosive deliveryman…

In this five part manhwa from Dark Horse, we have seen Banya get into some pretty bad situations and still manage to fight his way out with action and wisecracks to spare.  However, he was definitely in a bind at the end of the third volume, and with the opening of the fourth, it looked like this time he may have finally met his match.  Kong, his young associate, was badly injured, and Banya himself was looking the worse for his troubles.  While mingling with the monstrous Torren, fighting off gargantuan pit bulls, and dodging the giant Gwichi worm's sneak attacks, Banya seemed to be able to handle things.  But now something has snapped inside of him and we open the action with Banya going mad with rage and taking down two mutated killers, along with their entourage.  At the end of the battle, with bodies everywhere, not only is Banya in bad shape and Kong is injured, but Mido has been kidnapped and taken to the castle of Kamutu, where she is to be trained as a summoner for some rather nasty looking monsters.  Banya is also suddenly aware of lost memories from his dark and dangerous past.  As the story unfolds, he starts to put together the pieces of his identity, and discovers he was once part of a government run group called the Slayers.  Being at his core some kind of demon, (his eyes now flash red when he goes over the edge), Banya realizes that he was something quite monstrous before he went to work for the post office.  It is in this state he then takes on his most important job, which is to safely deliver a monk named Sister Jiahn to the Land of Death.
It is a race, though.  Banya is surrounded by enemies, and the survival of the world itself is at stake.  If, as the publisher’s information is anything to go by, and the final volume promises to wind up the story, one can only assume that the battles we’ve seen in this edition can only pale compared to what’s coming.

And what battles!  The artwork in this manhwa is simply stunning.  Drawn with great energy and expression, the characters and action burst out from one frame and into the next.  There is a lot of showy ‘just because I can’ techniques demonstrated in this work, but unlike in some comics where the results are overwrought and the pages seem like a muddle of lines, shapes and forms, the images here crackle on the page.  There is some fantastic tonal work in this story, giving each scene a richness that makes reading the manhwa more like watching a movie.  In terms of plotting and content, the story moves like the wind howling through the plains, and the dialogue is pointed, as befitting an action based story.  The characters could use some more development, and the whole ‘Banya is a demon and must wrestle with it’ thing as a plot device is becoming a little tired.  Get over it, you want to say, when the angst levels start to creep into the red.  But  Banya suddenly turns around and says something funny or acts out at precisely the wrong time.  Then you know everything’s okay and we’re back on track.  In fact, it is the humor that really glues this story together.  So many of these post-apocalyptic tales are just grungy bloodbaths with nothing witty or even smart about them; BANYA gives us all of that, too, but with a twinkle in the eye.  As readers, we should be thankful for this.    

The book really has nothing in other than the story, an author’s note, and a short two-page comic called “Studio Diary” by Ji Hoon, an assistant artist on BANYA.  Both make interesting diversions after the relentless action in the story itself.

IN SUMMARY:
BANYA- THE EXPLOSIVE DELIVERYMAN is a very special delivery.  It begins in the middle of a fight, and has you spoiling for the next one when it’s all over.  Raw, shattering action makes BANYA a blast from start to finish.  It’s all go, all the time!