World Comic Book Review

28th March 2024

Honor and Curse #1 (review)

Honor and Curse #1 (review)
Mad Cave Studios, 2016
Writer: Mark London

Writing historical fiction can be difficult, and particularly when dealing with a place which has a different language and culture from that of the writer. This title is set in sixteenth century Kyoto. As far as historical accuracy goes, this comic does not capture it, with its improbably green-eyed heroes sporting long Dragonball-esque pony-tails instead of chonmage (the traditional topknot worn by Japanese fighters in the Edo period). If this issue has any significant flaw, it is that the writer, Mark London (who we assume like the publisher, Mad Cave Studios, is based in Florida), did not take more care to ground the story in medieval Kyoto by reference to landmarks which exist to this day, like Kamigamo-jinja Shrine.

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