Review:
Hey Look! I Read Manga! Dark Horse's Shaman Warrior Vol 1

Shaman Warrior Vol 1
by Park Joong-Ki

Now I’m not much of a manga guy. I’ve always been an American comic guy. There are only a few manga titles that can keep my interest over time. I think there’s a lot of manga with great premises but over the long haul, I don’t generally stick with them. My favorite manga is Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura, it being the only one I’ve ever really kept the same enjoyment from. I also like Usagi Yojimbo, Oh My Goddess and Gunsmith Cats—I tend to stick with the manga released from Dark Horse—but even those get a bit repetitive for me and I lose interest after a while.

Now with Blade of the Immortal being my favorite manga series, the covers for the Shaman Warrior series, also released in the United States by Dark Horse, really intrigued me. It reminded me very much of the style of Samura. But I’ve been heavily into my American super hero comics of late, so I’ve been putting off picking it up. But with a bit of super hero burn out, I was itching for something different to read. I just re-stocked my store with the first eight volumes this Wednesday—also the release date of the final volume, number nine. With a completed series, I figured now was the time to jump into this series.

Before we get into the story, a little background on it. Shaman Warrior is one of the top five best selling Korean manhwa epics of all time. Manhwa is a general Korean term for comics and print cartoons. It’s presented in its original Korean format of left to right reading (which is a blessing for me because I’ll just never be able to really enjoy the “traditional” manga printing of right to left) and is translated by Taesoon Kang and Derek Kirk Kim.

First off, Park Joong-Ki’s art is simply beautiful. I also like the design of the characters, even down to the random bandits—thought was put into the look of everyone no matter how incidental the character is. I was immediately drawn to the look of the two warriors that appear on the first page, as well as the beggar hassling them for money. I knew right away I’d love this series, on character design alone.