almost as good as sliced bread...

I am so thrilled with this: David Mack's Kabuki...One page posted per day ...woo-hoo!



And oh, even better than the recent stuff is re-reading what got me hooked in the first place...Circle of Blood v1 is also published in its entirety on the net...sweet! Gotta love the internet.





And this, from Comic World News......what an awesome 2008 it would be if a movie really did make it to the big screen...

Slashing the stereotype: David Mack’s breathtaking Kabuki puts a new edge on comics and illustrated killer beauties.

Every preconceived notion one might have about comics— the fanboyishness, Spandex-clad superheroes, and absurdly pneumatic female ideals—are shattered the moment a reader picks up David Mack’s long-running illustrated masterpiece, Kabuki. Originally released in 1994 as a series of stark, dynamic black-and-white comics, Kabuki is similar in style and substance to Sin City. The art is detailed and extraordinary, and the story is stunningly ambitious.

Kabuki inhabits a world where Yakuza gangsters vie with an intrigue-rife political/economic complex for primacy over the vast wealth and power of high-tech, futuristic Japan. The eponymous protagonist, Kabuki, is part of the mysterious government agency, the Noh, dedicated to maintaining the delicate balance between the factions. Along with eight other ravishing, iconic female assassins, Kabuki is tasked with culling any criminal element upsetting that precise equilibrium.

Sounds relatively straightforward, right? It’s not. Kabuki is an astonishingly complex achievement for any medium. It’s a mix of underworld espionage, pathos, political intrigue, and Japanese cultural mythology woven together with the deadly grace of a basketful of vipers. Kabuki herself comes from a background of strife and tragedy, facially disfigured and nearly killed by her father as a child. Damaged both physically and psychologically, she hides behind a mask that allows her to interact with the world yet remain isolated from the chaos and violence surrounding her. Eventually, corruption and personal needs force Kabuki from beneath the Noh’s aegis, taking the illustrated tale on a tangent entirely different from its blood-drenched genesis.

That barely scratches the surface of Kabuki’s intricate plot. The series has been ongoing for more than a dozen years, growing both literarily and stylistically. From its black-and-white pen-and-ink beginnings, Mack’s creation has undergone a metamorphosis into an astonishing riot of multiple media as widely varied as oil paint, collage, watercolor, sculpture, and beyond. It’s evolved past any traditional definitions of comics that once might have applied, becoming nothing less than futuristic literary fiction in graphic novel form.

About Kabuki’s transformation, Mack said, “Comics are a hybrid medium. Whenever they pull from themselves, they are lifeless. But, whenever you pull from outside what it initially is, bringing into that medium and making it larger, there’s something new constantly being generated. Whenever you add to the grammar of this medium and bringing something brand-new to the vocabulary, that’s when it really sings.”

That approach is reflected in those drawn to Mack’s work. While hardcore comic enthusiasts flock to Kabuki, the largest element of readership he encounters are those who say, “I don’t read comics at all, but I read Kabuki.”