#71 Lone Wolf and Cub

This manga tells the story of Itto Ogami, a shogunate assassin turned ronin, and his son Daigoro. The pair travels the figurative road to meifumado, or damnation. Lone Wolf and Cub is a tale of vengeance and honor. The lessons of bushido are taught in strokes of violence and moments of compassion. Writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima paint the nuanced, beautiful and haunting saga with admirable skill and intelligence. It's not hyperbolic to call Lone Wolf and Cub one of the great works in the brief lifetime of comics.

The 1970s brought Lone Wolf and Cub to the screen in a series of films that played up the violent aspects of the tale. The comics were first introduced to U.S. audiences in 1987. First Comics published many of the books, but skipped some of the stories, and canceled the comic before readers got the chance to learn the fate of the Wolf and Cub.
Now, Dark Horse has just finished publishing the entire series, from beginning to end in affordable 300-page volumes. In Japan, interest in these tales has returned. Rumor has it that Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, will play the samurai in a new feature film.