Fan-favorite writer HS Tak (Red Shift, Boy-1) teams up with artist Isabella Mazzanti for the forthcoming historical fiction story, Hitomi. This five-issue miniseries will launch from Image Comics/Syzygy in October.
In Hitomi, a drifter with no prospects in Feudal-era Japan begins training in secret under Yasuke, a now-disgraced former samurai, as she struggles to find her place in a society entrenched in discrimination and violence.
“I imagined a long day’s journey by foot on the Edo Road,” said Tak. “Posting up at a roadside Sakaya, legs aching. But the night still young, the land wild and filled with bad guys; my teacher looking at me, chewing his salted fish. Adjusting the empty scabbard at his hip and cursing his luck. What happens next? This is the world we set out to create in Hitomi; a story about two outsiders who forge an unusual bond in a turbulent and beautiful world.”
Combining the historical sweep and elegance of Kurosawa with the visceral action of Tarantino, this saga follows the trials and tribulations of a young female warrior who travels the countryside unendingly as she works to gain the rank of Samurai—a title no man, monster, or myth can give to her, but one that she will have to take for herself.
“Fighting to be your true self—that is Hitomi for me,” added Mazzanti. “Sometimes your hands are empty, the road in front of you dangerous, and you have no friends or family at your side. But there is a voice in your heart that says ‘go on, overcome your fears and dance with them, as the most beautiful flower that grows in dry, harsh soil, delicate yet resilient and strong.’”
Hitomi #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, October 12.
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