''Kogaratsu'' is a

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

series created by the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

comics creators Bosse (pseudonym of Serge Bosmans) and Michetz (pseudonym of Marc Degroide).

Overview

''Kogaratsu'' is about a

mercenary A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any ...

named Nakamura Kogaratsu. Caught in a fratricidal war, and confronted with superstitious farmers, Kogaratsu lives the way of the

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

: his honour, his weapons, and his love are the things dearest to him, in that exact order. And in the tumultuous Japan of the 17th century, honour is the small margin between life and death, wielding a weapon is a calling, and love is a weakness.

Publication History

It was first published in the French '' Spirou'' magazine in 1982. The success of the series, written by Bosse and illustrated by Michetz, inspired then-illustrator and script writer Bosse to give up illustrating in order to focus solely on script-writing. Fourteen volumes of ''Kogaratsu'' have been published by

Dupuis Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines. Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French ...

beginning in 1985: #''De bloedlotus'' (1985) #''De schat van de Eta'' (1986) ()

Translations

English

The only English translations to date are that of the first volume. UK-based

Acme Press Acme Press Ltd. (styled as ACME Press), later known as Acme Comics, was a British comic book publisher active from 1986 to 1995. The company's initial publication was ''Speakeasy'', a monthly fanzine of comics news and criticism. Acme published ...

published it in 1987 as ''Kogaratsu: The Lotus of Blood'' (), and three years later the US-based

Catalan Communications Catalan Communications was a New York City publishing company that existed from 1983 to 1991 and was operated by Bernd Metz (1944–2012), which mainly focused on English-language translations of European graphic novels presented in a series of h ...

published it as ''Kogaratsu: The Bloody Lotus'' () under their ComCat Comics imprint. Catalan had planned in 1991 to publish the next two volumes, ''Treasure of Eta'' () and ''Spring of Betrayals'' (), even obtaining ISBN numbers for them. However, the company entered bankruptcy the same year and the volumes never materialized.

French

French versions have been published by the same

. 0. "Volume Zero" titled ''Le Pont de nulle part'' () was published in 1991. #''Le Mon au lotus de sang'' (1991) () #''Le Trésor des Étas'' (1991) () #''Le Printemps écartelé'' (1989) () #''Le Dos du tigre''(1992) () #''Par-delà les cendres'' (1994) () #''L'Homme sur la vague'' (1995) () #''L'Autre moitié du ciel'' (1997) () #''Sous le regard de la lune'' (1999) () #''La Strategie Des Phalenees'' (2000) () #''Rouge ultime'' (2002) () #''Fournaise'' (2008) () #''Le protocole du Mal'' (2010) () #''Taro'' (2014) () A multi-volume compilation, ''L'Intégrale - Tome 1,'' was published in 2010. ()

German

German translations have been issued by Finix Comics e.V. They count the prequel/Volume Zero as number one, pushing the subsequent volumes' numbering down by one. (For example, the volume ''Taro'' is the 13th French but 14th German title.) *(volume 12) ''Glutofen'' (2014) () *(volume 13) ''Das Protokoll des Bösen'' (2015) () *(volume 14) ''Taro'' (2015) ()

Spanish

Spanish multi-volume compilations have been issued by Ponent Mon Comic. *(compilation 1) () *(compilation 2) () *(compilation 3) ()

References

External links

* (Depuis) * (Acme Press) {{FrancoBelgian-comics-stub 1982 comics debuts Dupuis titles Martial arts comics Historical comics