Crying Freeman #1

The bold cover image — a chiseled, bare-shouldered man with tears streaming down his face and a gleaming blade held across his mouth — sets the tone for this Dark Horse collection of Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami's gripping manga series. That contradiction of raw emotion and cold steel, rendered in Ikegami's meticulous linework, captures the haunting duality at the heart of Crying Freeman with striking visual economy. If you've been looking for a place to start with one of manga's most atmospheric crime sagas, this 2006 volume makes a compelling first impression.