By: David Mack Publisher: Image Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Image Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: January 01, 2001
Book Description: Collecting all six issues of the first Kabuki series plus the hard to find prequel one-shot with new pages of art from scenes that for space reasons were left out of the original story. It also includes in-depth notes and story analysis about the subtext of the story. Circle of Blood recounts the origins of the government operative known as Kabuki who works in Japan's near future, It's an exploration of the relationship between Japan's government and organized crime on a truly epic scale!
Bite Off Your Own Finger..... I first read the Kabuki series where she was in the hospital run by the people who hired and trained her (and was blown away) so I was dying to read this earlier story that gives her back story. At first I was a little disappointed by the art (this is more comic book) but the story was more linear but very shakespearean (to steal from a reviewer before me). When she faces them down and bites off her own finger I was awed. It explained the hand injury from the prior book I read and was such a powerful play on the Yakuza chopping off the finger for forgiveness motiff. I loved this book. I can't understand why it is not being made into a movie by Quentin Tarentino or Mike Takeshi.
Everyone Should Read This! I just finished reading this book and I can't find any better word to describe it than amazing. I started reading earlier today and could not stop until I reached the back cover. The way David Mack weaves this story so intricately is like nothing else. I don't understand why his writing doesn't get the same kind of recognition as someone such as Alan Moore. I was skeptical going in and the only reasons I ended up buying it was because David is a good friend of one of my favorite artists, Andy Lee, and he gave me the book himself for half price. But now I want to go back and give him the other $10 because he deserves every penny.
Not only is the writing incredible but the art is so unique for this graphic novel format. The page layout and design is like no other. On one page you feel like you're looking at some great historic painting and the next page it feels like you're watching the latest summer blockbuster.
The story has so much to offer and is so varied it's hard to compare it to other graphic novels. It's like Sleeper, meet V for Vendetta, meets Sin City... and some.
The most innovative and satisfying graphic novel I have ever read
I love the new Kabuki series KABUKI: The Alchemy currently being published by Marvel Comics. So I read this first volume to see where things started. I was stunned at the level of emotion, characterization, and intelligence put into this work.
The story was fascinating and insightful. But most of all, I connected with the psychology and emotion of the main character. There are a lot of twists and turns that you would never expect. Sometimes the events were even shocking.
After reading this book, I bought and read all the other collected Kabuki volumes. And they continue to get better as the series goes. Highly recommended.
Mack's writing and art evolve and grow in sophistication in the later books, but this one still has a classic and timeless quality to it. You can't deny the raw power and emotion that is conveyed in this first volume. Even though this is Mack's first work, you can tell it is a legend in the making.
This book is grand and mythical in its scope. An epic scale like Watchmen. And the storytelling is truly innovative and ahead of it's time. I can't recommend it enough. As a writer, Mack's only peers in graphic novels would be Alan Moore, Neil Gaimen, and Grant Morrison.
silly and tired...so 90's I really didn't like this book. I can see what he's trying to get at, but it's just a sloppy way of going around it. I bought this because I got a box of graphic novels from my brother carl...Hi Carl!. stationed in Korea. And a lot were Kabuki. he kept saying "you've got to read the first one or it won't make sense." So I bought the first one. and I've seen better art. so I can't dig the art. I've read better stories. The author seems to have read them too. so I can't really get into buying one writers stuff when I'm actually reading anothers. So Carl's like you have to read the new color ones they're way better than the black and white ones. I'd rather buy another used copy of The Lion , The Witch and The Wardrobe. Couldn't get into this. Not really about any of the things that it claims to be about. But I really think it wants to be... which makes it even sadder than the story the writer was trying to tell.
The rising sun of art Circle of Blood is a transcendent work of art and David Mack is one the the great artists of our deranged and crazy times. This work is a revenge tragedy with all of the Jacobean resonances but it creeps up on you like a spider and bites you with the most soft and subtle poisons. There is a Shakespearean quality to the Circle of Blood - the feeling that we are reading about great events that transcend the dull nothings that make up so much of our lives. Evil has never before been quite so evil and good ( if it exists at all) has never been so much on the run. The integration of the plot and the characters and the images the profoundly poetical language is almost perfect. There are flaws in this epic tragedy so reminescent of Kirosawa's Ran - but I readily forgave them because I understood that I was gazing upon a grotesque masterpiece - a masterpiece that indicted the whole of the corrupt militaristic, politically insane, and economically debauched order that we now live in. But this indictment is not done with self-righteous fake anarchist whining and rage. It is a matter of style. This work is delicate as a feather and as brutal as a car crash. It smashes you in the heart. Considering the current corruption of Japan, getting smashed in the heart is a triumph, a horribly beautiful triumph of David Mack's rising sun of art.
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