MISC. MANGA, *Black Blizzard

As one of the very first genuine manga titles ever made, Yoshihiro Tatsumi made this crime drama in late 1956, featuring both color and greyscale sections, which is a standard in even modern manga as the beginning usually begins with a few pages of color. Black Blizzard was a crime drama that unlike most of the Tezuka manga of the 60s, it didn't feature aliens, robots, or superheroes. In fact, Tezuka was a collegue of Tatsumi who encouraged him to make longer stories during a time that most Japanese comics were anthologies of short segments. Tatsumi decided to instead create manga intended for mature readers, which on its own was a turning point in the history of Japanese publishing, bringing on more pulp fiction themed titles.

Two fugitives escape from a train, and are handcuffed together. Now on the run, the professional criminal Shinpei and newly convicted Susumu ge better acquainted with Susumu going over the story of how becamed a wanted man. The young man fell for the singing daughter of a circus owner, but was found with the owner's corpse with no alibi. His affair lead to his arrest, but Susumu does find salvation in a shocking twist that links his and Shinpei's fates together.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi got his idea for Black Blizzard from the Count Of Monte Cristo, which itself was later turned into a sci-fi anime series. Drawn and Quarterly did a fine job cleaning up the vintage manga for English readers, and the plot is engaging for fans of The Fugitive and The Shadow.