Akira, Vol. 3
In 1982, manga modernist Katshuhiro Otomo created a worldwide literary sensation when Japan's Kodansha Publications released the first volume of his 3000 page sci-fi fable of the apocalypse, Akira. Few westerners had experienced manga (Japanese comics) before Akira, and its rocketing ascent through cultural divides helped impress a cynical world that had long been convinced that pictures in books should be relegated to children's stories. Now pictures were being used to tell one of man's most explosive and harrowing tales. Since his groundbreaking work on Akira, Mr. Otomo has completed a number of inspired manga classics, including the powerful post-apocalyptic Legend of Mother Sarah and the dark study of a child's dreams, Domu. Otomo's mastery of the manga artform was recognized with a top Japanese book award, the Grand Prix, awarded to him in honor of Domu in 1989. Dark Horse Comics published the first English-language versions of The Legend of Mother Sarah and Domu, and is currently publishing a true-to-its-original-form, black-and-white, six-volume re-issue of Akira.