Ronin Island is published by BOOM! Studios. It is written by Greg Pak with art by Giannis Milonogiannis and colors by Irma Kniivila.
Long before the beginning of this story, a mysterious poison wind wiped out the major cities of 19th century Japan, Korea, and China. Survivors from all three lands managed to escape and find safety on a hidden island where they built a new society. Now, among the civilians of this now fairly well established society, are Kenichi, the wealthy son of a great samurai leader, and Hana, an orphan of Korean peasants. Both Hana and Kenichi have worked hard to become warriors and now, despite their mutual contempt for each other, these two must work together to keep their island safe from not only a new Shogun regime, but mutant human creatures that could exterminate all that’s left of humanity.
I can already tell Hana and Kenichi are going to be great characters. They are incredibly different as individuals and come from vastly different worlds in terms of their experience growing up and now at such a young age they are going to have to learn to get passed that as they fight for survival of themselves and the people of their island. It’s kind of like when you were in school and you had to do a project together with someone you didn’t get along with. You had to learn to make it work otherwise you’d fail the assignment. Except in this situation people could actually die. But, I mean, same amount of pressure, you know?
This comic is basically zombies in the feudal era. I mean, they’re mutants, but they’re mutated, re-animated, humanoid corpses. I guess you could compare them to demons because of the spike-rock-things protruding from their bodies in random areas, but I wasn’t getting the demon vibe, this definitely felt like these beings kill humans and then those humans turn into more of them. So. Zombies. Now, I didn’t actually see them kill anyone so I could end up being wrong. But I don’t think I am.
Anyway. How could you not be excited to read zombies in the feudal era? Plus, like Mech Cadet Yu (also by Greg Pak, amazing story and I highly recommend) this comic has a very heavy anime/manga feel to it. I am loving this tone Pak has with his independent work. As someone who reads comics and manga, it’s awesome to read this interesting blend of the two. There is clear inspiration coming from the two sides and it isn’t so overdone that I actually feel like I’m reading a manga, so comic-only readers can enjoy, but it’s similar enough that I genuinely feel manga-only readers would enjoy it as well.
Greg Pak could be building a bridge between two worlds and I will happily stand in the middle and help usher people across it. Giannis Milonogiannis’s detailed art and Irma Kniivila’s colors bring this story (that could easily be a show) to life. It reminds me a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender in that it has a bit of a light-hearted feel, but can also very easily get serious. It’s something that kids and adults can appreciate and enjoy. I’d definitely give it a PG rating though considering there’s probably going to be zombie-oni-mutant-people killing and being killed (but not in a scary, gory way).
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
