Bonanzai by Ben Edlund

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Paul the Samurai return after the Ben Edlund written mini-series returns for a proper continuing series. This book collects Paul the Samurai (Vol. 2) Issues 1-4.

Clay Griffith takes over the writing chores and there's a clear shift from Edlund. Edlund's portrayal of Paul was of a character who was truly noble whose comedy came out of the situations he was in. Here, much of that nobility is somewhat more superficial though only somewhat. The world around Paul is still the source of entertainment.

Some of the ideas in the book are quite fun. Paul battles the Miti Men, a group of Manga/Anime inspired characters in Issues 1 and 2. (Kudos to artist Dave Garcia for making this incongruous set-up of traditional American comic and Japanese comic art in the same picture actually work). Issue 3 sees Paul battle a mad mastermind dog and Issue 4 has Paul beginning to face an environmental extremist anti-hero.

On the negative side, some of the humor is quite dated. This comics were written in 1992 during the tale end of Japan's economic ascendancy and American anxiety over such as represented by Issue 1's other villain the Detroit Fury, a giant car robot created by a laid off auto worker. Paul's position as an apolitical Japanese warrior who'd rather just hit things with a sword was nice comedy but readers who the humor doesn't age well.

The book ends on a cliffhanger that will be resolved in Volume 2.

Overall, this is a fun series very much in the spirit of the Tick and worth a read.



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