The quintessential warrior-philosopher, Musashi authored A Book of Five Rings, a theoretical guide to military strategy still used today. But the path to enlightenment in feudal era Japan was fraught with peril. At seventeen years of age, Musashi—still known by his childhood name, Shinmen Takezō—was a wild young brute just setting out along the way of the sword.In the aftermath of the epic Battle of Sekigahara, Takezō finds himself a fugitive survivor on the losing side of the war. Takezō's vicious nature has made him an outcast even in his own village, and he is hunted down like an animal. At this crucial crossroads in Takezō's life, an eccentric monk and a childhood friend are the only ones who can help him find his way.

    Hiroaki Samura's massive manga series spawned an anime run, a spinoff novel, an art book, and a live-action film! Samura's storytelling tour-de-force also won Japan's Media Arts Award, several British Eagle Awards, and an Eisner Award, among other international accolades. Intense and audacious, Blade takes period samurai action and deftly combines it with a modernist street idiom to create a style and mood like no other work of graphic fiction. "Blade of the Immortal Omnibus Volume 1" contains the first 3 volumes of "Blade of the Immortal" by Dark Horse. "Samura's work will thrill you, engage you, and even horrify you like no other artist working in film or print today."-"Geof Darrow"

    All Lucius wants is to recapture the Rome of earlier days, when one could enjoy a relaxing bath without the pressure of merchants and roughhousing patrons. Slipping deeper into the warm water, Lucius is suddenly caught in the suction and dragged through the drainage at the bottom of the bath! He emerges coughing and sputtering amid a group of strange-looking foreigners with the most peculiar bathhouse customs...over 1,500 years in the future in modern-day Japan! His contemporaries wanted him to modernize, and so, borrowing the customs of these mysterious bath-loving people, Lucius opens what quickly becomes the most popular new bathhouse in Rome-Thermae Romae!

    Visually spectacular, shockingly violent, and singularly horrifying, Gantz is a relentless fever dream of consummate skill and fiendish imagination. This value-priced omnibus collection features 680 pages of havoc and horror!Kei Kurono's work as a Gantz alien fighter is a hellish nightmare, but his life as a high-school student is looking up, with a new ladylove opening his heart. But when his beloved is threatened by a Gantz-obsessed schoolmate on a shooting rampage, Kei must face the murderous student without his Gantz suit for protection!Collects Gantz individual volumes 10, 11, and 12.

    He's a rabbit bodyguard, a samurai who wanders the mountains, plains, and villages of a 17th-century Japan populated almost exclusively by anthropomorphic animals. Cats, snakes, rhinos, and ninja moles plot and fight their way across a land ravaged by civil war. The 10 stories in this first collection introduce Usagi, the evil Lord Hikiji, and a host of other characters. The stories themselves can stand alone, but taken together they begin to form an ongoing saga of treachery and revenge. Sometimes violent, sometimes funny, Usagi's adventures are filled with fascinating historical detail. The costumes, landscapes, and buildings are beautifully drawn, creating such a sense of realism it's easy to forget the hero is a rabbit. If you buy the first book in this series, you'll want the rest.

    Creating unforgettable imagery of stark beauty, kinetic fury, and visceral thematic power, the epic samurai adventure has influenced a generation of visual storytellers both in Japan and in the West.

    Now that Kikyo seems to be aiding Naraku, has Inuyasha's hope of reconciling with his former love become completely futile?Viz LLC

    Joseph Hobson is a bullying man and Evie isn't the only one who lives in fear of her father's violent temper. Then one day a bedraggled woman enters the shop and dies on the premises. Evie is shocked to discover she was in fact her mother, whom she had been told was dead. Why had her father lied to her? What secret was he trying to keep? One thing's for sure, Evie can't take much more from him and when she catches the eye of local lad Ned Collins they plan to run away to begin a new life together. But even when she has escaped and has started a family with Ned, Evie has a long way to go before her happiness is secured...

    They've raised their family with not much money but lots of love. When World War Two breaks out they know that nothing will be quite the same again. As the Blitz starts to take its toll and the close-knit community in Carter Lane endures the sorrows and partings which they had dreaded above all else, they find comfort in one another and solace in the knowledge that their wounds will eventually heal - as time goes by. AS TIME GOES BY by is a vivid portrayal of an East End community struggling to survive the horror of the Blitz.

    Abducted upon arrival, Tessa is introduced to London's Downworld, the sordid supernatural underbelly of the city, and informed that her future will be recast to service a man known as "The Magister". Only the intervention of the London Institute's Shadowhunters delivers the girl from this fate, but sinister forces are still gathering around Tessa. Even so, Tessa's attraction to two of the young Shadowhunters who have taken her under their wings may prove more dangerous by far...

    But before Meg can take her first steps into the unknown alone, she must look to her past. Why, she wonders, did her mother wear a wedding ring but never marry? Why, for instance, does the tallyman never call at No. 3 Tippet's Yard to collect any rent? He does everywhere else. With Ma gone, Meg must go back to her roots to uncover her 'family tree'. However, the process of simplfying her life leads to unforseen complications. But there's always Kip, reliable and loving, to pick up the pieces of her unsolved life and love.

    In an effort to fund his project, Thorfinn visits Iceland where Halfdan, a wealthy man who shared a dark history with his late father, awaits. Meanwhile, the marriage between Halfdan's son Sigurd and Leif's relative Gudrid is well under way, but Gudrid dreams of being a sailor not a bride. A battle soon breaks out as Gudrid attempts to escape aboard Leif's ship. With Sigurd hot on their tail, Thorfinn and the crew press eastward to the city of Miklagard, picking up an orphaned baby and a dog along the way...

    In his days, Gintoki is joined by Shinpachi Shimura, a teenager son of a samurai who wants to learn about him, and Kagura, an alien girl who went to Earth to earn money for her poor family, but is unable to return home and threatens Gintoki to let her live with him. While Kagura and Shinpachi live with Gintoki, they meet a terrorist named Kotaro Katsura who participated alongside Gintoki in the war between samurais and aliens, and lost. Odd Jobs is forced to help Katsura escape from the Shinsengumi, a police force working for the Bakufu, after they accidentally perform a terrorist attack. The volume ends with a one-shot from Sorachi named "Dandelion", which explores the work of a pair of exorcists.

    In the depths of the Great Depression, poor families like the Van Slotens are lucky to have a roof over their heads. Work is scarce, and there hasn't been enough of it to provide even the necessities, let alone a luxury like a holiday celebration. But when Tom, the oldest son, takes it into his head to provide a Christmas for his family, the stage is set for a story that will warm your heart and restore your faith in the true spirit of the season!

    That's the maxim of Olympus, the utopian city that sprung from the ashes of World War III. But Deunan and Bri, a young woman and her cyborg companion just entering the rose-tinted society, find that so long as there are different kinds of people there will be differences among them. Such is the story of Appleseed, the masterwork of manga storyteller Masamune Shirow. Beautiful art and a complex and fully realized future world rank this title among the best comics available.