I'm not surprised, since Sanpei's artwork is simple, yet effectively brutal in its portrayal of violence. In fact, Sanpei was one of the first manga artists to become controversial for the graphic violence in his work. He is in fact famous for a unique technique he used to simulate blood sprays, by dipping a paintbrush in ink and blowing it on the paper (I've got a couple of friends who have tried to use blow pens......it doesn't work as well).Stan Sakai wrote:As luck would have it, I got to work with both these wonderful artists.Angelcake the Fox wrote:In the 60s, there were basically two big names in historical manga. The first was Shirato Sanpei (you guys might know him as the author of Legend of Kamui) and the other was Hiroshi Hirata.
I did the lettering and touch-ups for Viz's Kamui series. Sanpei both wrote and illustrated the first three volumes of the series, but they started the publishing from the fourth volume. Sanpei just wrote those. The first three were the best of the series.
Also, like I mentioned, his work had alot of social commentary. His work often has a liberterian, Leftist message behind it that usually revolved around the peasants revolting against the cruel caste system that enslaved them. Ninja Bugeichou is a good example of this.
I'm really serious about this. I'm absolutely DESPERATE for them (be it Viz or Darkhorse) to bring more of Sanpei's work over here to the states, ESPECIALLY Ninja Bugeichou.
