368 LOST GIRLS
revenge, 500 ryo per assassination—the sign “sword for hire, son for hire” affi xed to
Daigorō’s baby carriage.
Th e pair interact with men and women at all levels of society—peasants, merchants,
government offi cials, ninjas, and samurai. While most killings are done for justice,
others are tragic. For example, in the sixth chapter of the fi rst volume, titled “Waiting
for the Rains,” Ōgami waits patiently for his target to return to his dying lover’s side.
After they have their bittersweet reunion where she has died in his arms, Ōgami kills
the man; with his last breath, he whispers her name, Shinobu. Th e series has many such
moving stories, and, by adding a child, Koike and Kojima bring humanity to the story,
which could have descended into simple bloody revenge.
In many instances, Daigorō proves to be an asset to his father rather than a hindrance,
as Ōgami exploits people’s reaction to the child in order to get closer to his targets; his
baby carriage is made of weapons. Often invoking Sun Tzu’s Th e Art of War , Ōgami’s
clever ruses earn him the admiration of even those he kills. Daigorō, however, is not a
mere by-stander to these events; the son reveals his own stoicism and courage over the
course of the series. As the volumes draw to a close, the feud between Ōgami and the
Yagyū clan reaches a climax that shakes the countryside, even drawing the Shōgun to
witness the fi nal confrontation.
Koike’s script and Kojima’s black-and-white art can best be described as “dynamic,”
because they are masters at choreographing tension and emotion in their often wordless
scenes. Remarkably, for such a long series, they are able to create new and inventive ways
to pit Ōgami and his son against their various adversaries. Th e fi ght scenes are drawn
with an economy that most artists would be hard-pressed to recreate. Yet in the fi nal
chapters, they are also able to construct a sustained battle sequence that builds to a
moving and satisfying conclusion.
Koike and Kojima’s work not only infl uenced Miller, especially in his modern-day
samurai story, Ronin (DC Comics 1983–84), but they were also role models for a new
generation of manga artists and writers. Koike created a course called Gekika Sonjuku
which produced a number of rising stars—one of his most famous graduates is Rumiko
Takahashi (known for her works, Ranma 1/2 and Inu Yasha). Koike is currently a pro-
fessor at Osaka University of Arts. Kojima, who also paired up with Koike on the manga,
Samurai Executioner and Path of the Assassin, passed away in 2000.
Lone Wolf and Cub won an Eisner Award in 2001 and two Harvey Awards in 2002.
Th e manga was made into two TV series (in 1973 and again in 2002) and into a series
of six feature fi lms. Lone Wolf 2100, a futuristic re-imagining of the original series, was
licensed to Dark Horse Comics in 2002 and ran for 11 issues.
Wendy Goldberg
LOST GIRLS. Lost Girls is a work of illustrated erotic fi ction by Alan Moore and
Melinda Gebbie. Th e fi rst six installments appeared in Steve Bissette’s anthology Ta b o o,
starting with issue #5 in 1991. Th ese were reprinted as two volumes by Tundra in 1995
and 1996, respectively. Th e completed work was ultimately published 16 years after the
