Samurai #1 Reprint

Samurai #1 Reprint
Aircel, Jan 1986, b&w.

1 Samurai #1 Reprint cover Reprints Samurai #1.
REVIEW
Toshiro Kimura, the Samurai, was formerly chief combat instructor for the United Nations space battle-cruiser Naganata. Toshiro left the service after a bomb blast intended for him killed seven innocent people. His girlfriend at the time, Velvet Black, went on to become commander of the Naganata. Now Toshiro is living a sort of drop-out existence in Toronto, Canada. His clone Hotachi is still serving aboard the Naganata. The Naganata clones are not exact duplicates of their originals: Hotachi is much smaller, looks nothing like Toshiro and has a white stripe down the middle of his head. Also, Hotachi is very hostile towards Toshiro from motives which probably spring from an inferiority complex.

While on reconnaissance Hotachi discovers a secret base on a Caribbean island. Commander Black decides that only Toshiro has the ability to secretly penetrate the installation and find out what's going on. A Traitor aboard the Naganata gives the bad guys warning that Kimura will be called onto the case. After this lengthy prelude we finally get to meet the hero, Toshiro Kimura.

Toshiro is having a beer in a rather dingy bar which is mostly patronized by outlandish punk-rock hoodlum types. Three Mafia-type hit men wearing suites and ties sit at his table and try to shoot him with a gun under the table but Samurai realizes what is happening and goes into action, beating the daylights out of all three. In this he is helped by his friend Homer Bentley, a tall skinny old coot who has led a life of adventure and is now something of an alcoholic. Toshiro's sister Gennin is briefly introduced after this fight. She wears a black leather jacket, motorcycle gloves, studded wristband etc. and appears to be involved in some type of "scene" or a motorcycle gang.

Toshiro goes aboard the Naganata in earth-orbit where he is briefed by Commander Black. She feels that the secret base is related to the disappearance of Professor Stringfellow, the ship's weapons and science expert. Toshiro returns to his home where he has another and far more violent encounter with the hit-men who tried to kill him before: this time they burst in with machine-guns blazing, but Samurai butchers them with his katana and throwing stars. Issue 1 ends with Toshiro and Homer renting a boat in Jamaica and heading out into the Caribbean.

The art is the work of "various hands". In issue 1 it appears that Barry drew and inked Toshiro and Homer in the first fight sequence and Toshiro in the second. Pat McEown did the punk rock types who hang out at the bar, and Guang Yap everything involving the Naganata and Hotachi. Issue 1 has four pin-ups, five if you count the inside front cover. The best of these is on page 32, seven long-eared elves on a raft, by Barry, a fabulous early Elflord pin-up! The rear cover shows Samurai and Simon Stringfellow on a tropical island, nicely drawn in colored chalk.

		Samurai #1 Reprint Aircel, Jan 1986, b&w.
1		Reprints Samurai #1. REVIEW Toshiro Kimura, the Samurai, was formerly chief combat instructor for the United Nations space battle-cruiser Naganata. Toshiro left the service after a bomb blast intended for him killed seven innocent people. His girlfriend at the time, Velvet Black, went on to become commander of the Naganata. Now Toshiro is living a sort of drop-out existence in Toronto, Canada. His clone Hotachi is still serving aboard the Naganata. The Naganata clones are not exact duplicates of their originals: Hotachi is much smaller, looks nothing like Toshiro and has a white stripe down the middle of his head. Also, Hotachi is very hostile towards Toshiro from motives which probably spring from an inferiority complex. While on reconnaissance Hotachi discovers a secret base on a Caribbean island. Commander Black decides that only Toshiro has the ability to secretly penetrate the installation and find out what's going on. A Traitor aboard the Naganata gives the bad guys warning that Kimura will be called onto the case. After this lengthy prelude we finally get to meet the hero, Toshiro Kimura. Toshiro is having a beer in a rather dingy bar which is mostly patronized by outlandish punk-rock hoodlum types. Three Mafia-type hit men wearing suites and ties sit at his table and try to shoot him with a gun under the table but Samurai realizes what is happening and goes into action, beating the daylights out of all three. In this he is helped by his friend Homer Bentley, a tall skinny old coot who has led a life of adventure and is now something of an alcoholic. Toshiro's sister Gennin is briefly introduced after this fight. She wears a black leather jacket, motorcycle gloves, studded wristband etc. and appears to be involved in some type of "scene" or a motorcycle gang. Toshiro goes aboard the Naganata in earth-orbit where he is briefed by Commander Black. She feels that the secret base is related to the disappearance of Professor Stringfellow, the ship's weapons and science expert. Toshiro returns to his home where he has another and far more violent encounter with the hit-men who tried to kill him before: this time they burst in with machine-guns blazing, but Samurai butchers them with his katana and throwing stars. Issue 1 ends with Toshiro and Homer renting a boat in Jamaica and heading out into the Caribbean. The art is the work of "various hands". In issue 1 it appears that Barry drew and inked Toshiro and Homer in the first fight sequence and Toshiro in the second. Pat McEown did the punk rock types who hang out at the bar, and Guang Yap everything involving the Naganata and Hotachi. Issue 1 has four pin-ups, five if you count the inside front cover. The best of these is on page 32, seven long-eared elves on a raft, by Barry, a fabulous early Elflord pin-up! The rear cover shows Samurai and Simon Stringfellow on a tropical island, nicely drawn in colored chalk.