Schedule Monthly Artist(s) Andy Suriano Number of issues 20 (Plus one Special) | Writer(s) Jim Zub Genre Post-Apocalyptic fiction Publication date October 2013 – May 2015 | |
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Similar Locke & Key, Pretty Deadly, Rat Queens, Afro Samurai | ||
The Samurai Jack comics was a monthly American comic book series chronicling the travels of Samurai Jack. The comic book series follows up Season 4 of Samurai Jack of a time-displaced samurai warrior Jack in his singular quest to find a method of travelling back in time and defeating the tyrannical demon Aku.
Contents
In February 2013, IDW Publishing announced a partnership with Cartoon Network to produce comics based on its properties. Samurai Jack was one of the titles announced to be published. It was further announced at WonderCon 2013 that the first issue of Samurai Jack will debut in October 2013. The first comic in the series was released October 23, 2013.
Nine years after the cancellation of Genndy Tartakovsky's show, IDW Publishing had announced a new comic book featuring the continuing adventures of Jack, the temporally displaced warrior and his epic quest to destroy Aku. Beginning with a five-issue storyline called Rope of Eons. Suriano, who designed characters for the show, reflected on returning to the popular character via press release: "Returning to Samurai Jack is such a personal experience and labor of love for me. It's like stepping through a time portal back to characters I know as friends and a world that really launched my animation career".
The first volume, which contained Issues 1-5, was released in May 2014. It was made available as both a hard copy and an eBook with a total of 120 pages. Volume 2, "The Scotsman's Curse", contains issues 6-10 and was released 28 October 2014. Volume 3, which highlighted the "Quest for the Broken Blade" (Issues 11-15), was officially released on March 31, 2015. Volume 4; "The Warrior King", concluding issues 16-20, was released on September 1, 2015.
In January 2015, Jim Zub, creator of the Samurai Jack comic series, confirmed that the issues would be concluded with issue #20, in May 2015. He went on to state that "Working on Jack has been a project that felt just as creative and expansive as any creator-owned work I've done. Almost every single idea we pitched was enthusiastically approved by IDW and Cartoon Network. We told the stories we wanted to tell the way we wanted to tell them and, from everything I’ve seen and the people I’ve met, the fans thoroughly enjoyed them too. That’s a rare and wonderful thing and I won’t take it for granted." Zub wanted fans to feel that with the comics, there is a sense of closure to the series. In the third season of Samurai Jack there’s an episode called “Jack and Travelling Creatures” where, after trials and tribulations aplenty, we catch a glimpse of a possible future for our wandering hero; we see Jack as an older Warrior-King, a veteran of an untold number of conflicts. Zub stated that the team is "embracing that awesome vision of Jack in a very heartfelt done-in-one story called 'Mako the Scribe'." Tartakovsky doesn't consider the comics part of the story of Samurai Jack.
Plot
After the follow-up of episode 52, we find Jack crossing the desert to find a wise old hermit living in a cave. He seeks help on his unending quest to go back in time. The sage tells him that Aku learned his mastery of time travel through an ancient relic known as the Rope of Eons. He studied it, and absorbed its power before destroying it, so others couldn't learn its secrets. However, if the strands are gathered, they can be reassembled to form a rope once again. With that Jack set off and crossed the desert to find a remote underground Colosseum where the first strand lies.
Classic Volumes
The Classic Volumes are series of comics based on the events that happened before and during the TV series for Samurai Jack. The 136-page collection focuses on Jack's origin story and was released November 12, 2013. Simply put, Aku the demon wizard has enslaved Jack's people. Jack inherits a mystical katana and beats Aku in battle only to be sent far into the future where Aku's grip is all-reaching and all-powerful. Thus starts Jack's quest to journey back to his original time so he may finish what he and Aku started. The rest consists of short tales of Jack liberating others from Aku's hold, before passing along to the next town in true drifter style. The artwork for the Classic Volumes is done by Ricardo Garcia Fuentes (commonly known as Micro), who also illustrated Jack in the Cartoon Network: Action Packs comic. Volume 2 of the Classic Volumes was officially released on April 22, 2014.
