By Milo Manara
Publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781595827821
Milo Manara is an Italian cartoonist with a wonderfully detailed drawing style and is perhaps best known for the erotic nature of much of his work. Dark Horse have set about collecting his stories into some lovingly presented hardback volumes that retain the European album size and allow his artwork to be presented how he intended.
If you're not familiar with the name, you may have comes across him before in Neil Gaiman's 2004 book Sandman: Endless Nights, or more recently for his work with Marvel, but if not, having been born in 1945 he has a rich back catalogue of work. His work covers many genres and he's a fastidious one when it comes to the detail, be that anatomical, period, architectural – you get the idea. Because of this every panel of every page is beautifully drawn and presented.
This first volume features two stories set in America as it was still finding its feet. The first, and by far the longest story deals with an attack on a young woman on a beach by two Native Americans and their subsequent execution by an armed observer. This starts a chain of events that draw in an ostracised family living in a cabin in the forest, a local township, and the Native American tribe, and it's clear from the start that it can't end well for anyone. The first nine pages of the story are told without any words at all and it's testament to Manara's skill how much drama he brings to the tale with the pictures alone.
The second story involves a young man heading north to meet his love. On the way he meets an English soldier, shipwrecked to the south, who is travelling up country to do his duty, and they in turn meet a band of rebels with a captured Native American woman. The English soldier attempts to attack the rebels but it ends with him being chained to the woman and solemnly promising to deliver them both to the nearest fort as the rebels go on their way. The young man is slowly entranced by the Native American's beauty and, as their little party grows, so do their mutual feelings. This second tale is told with a smidgen of humour and has a very different quality to the first story, but is still rich in detail and utterly absorbing.
Panel after panel stops you in your tracks as you pick over the amazing penmanship. There's a superbly drawn wide panel featuring a hoard of Native Americans attacking the township, while the very next panel reverses the point of view to show the warriors rushing forth or doubling up where they've been struck, while the final panel is from within the walls of the town as it is breached. All fantastically illustrated. The second story's first panel is also stunning, looking across a multi-tiered canyon which Manara has depicted with some amazingly intricate hatching.
Not one for younger readers because of the saucier content, but any adult fan of the medium won't fail to be impressed by this.
And if you liked that: Get yourself Volume 2
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