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Secret of The Delirium Dagger #1
The Four Constables, Volume 1
Four of China's supremely skilled detectives - Emotionless, Iron Hand, Life Snatcher, and Cold Blooded - loyally serve their Master Zhuge Zhen-Wo, the head bodyguard and advisor for China's all-powerful Emperor. Entrusted by the Emperor with the power to arrest and execute any corrupt officials or lawless criminals within the Chinese Empire, these Imperial Constables act as protectors, using their venerable skill as kung fu practitioners and meticulous sleuths to root out potential usurpers and discern the cause of many strange occurrences during the Sung Dynasty!
- GenresGraphic NovelsManga
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
16 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
About the author
Tony Wong
293 books124 followersFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Yuk...
Tony Wong Yuk-Long (Wong Jan-Lung), is a Hong Kong based Manhua artist, publisher and actor who wrote and created Little Rascals (later re-titled Oriental Heroes) and Weapons of the Gods. He also wrote adaptations of Louis Cha's (a.k.a. Jin Yong) Wuxia novels such as The Return of the Condor Heroes (retitled as Legendary Couples), Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and Ode to Gallantry. For his contribution and influencing a generation of artists in the local industry, he is regarded as the "Godfather of Hong Kong comics" or "Hong Kong's King of Comics".
He provided the art for Batman: Hong Kong, which was written by Doug Moench. He has also acted in some films occasionally, including making a cameo appearance in Dragon Tiger Gate (a film adaptation of Oriental Heroes).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Yuk...
Tony Wong Yuk-Long (Wong Jan-Lung), is a Hong Kong based Manhua artist, publisher and actor who wrote and created Little Rascals (later re-titled Oriental Heroes) and Weapons of the Gods. He also wrote adaptations of Louis Cha's (a.k.a. Jin Yong) Wuxia novels such as The Return of the Condor Heroes (retitled as Legendary Couples), Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and Ode to Gallantry. For his contribution and influencing a generation of artists in the local industry, he is regarded as the "Godfather of Hong Kong comics" or "Hong Kong's King of Comics".
He provided the art for Batman: Hong Kong, which was written by Doug Moench. He has also acted in some films occasionally, including making a cameo appearance in Dragon Tiger Gate (a film adaptation of Oriental Heroes).
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 12, 2017
This is a review for entire series as long as I read. I only recommend to read until the first arc story finished. The second and overlong third act are just dragging the stories, similar with bad soap opera.
The rating itself is for the first volume. After the first arc finished, this comic series are definitely drop into 1 star rating.
It is an adaptation from famous wuxia novel series of four constables at Northern Song Dynasty period of Ancient China. The plots of Four Constables usually quasi crime mysteries with some plot twists to accompany the main dish: fighting scenes between good vs. evil. I found the main attraction of stories of the author are fighting scenes. The plot twists are passable but entertaining.
As the name implied, there are four protagonists. Actually there is the fifth one: their teacher. If the constables are good fighters, the teacher considered as one of the best fighter in China.
The first arc of the comic book is an adaptation of an early story of novel version, where they against masked 13 assassins that killed seemingly random (but important) people in government and martial arts community.
The rating itself is for the first volume. After the first arc finished, this comic series are definitely drop into 1 star rating.
It is an adaptation from famous wuxia novel series of four constables at Northern Song Dynasty period of Ancient China. The plots of Four Constables usually quasi crime mysteries with some plot twists to accompany the main dish: fighting scenes between good vs. evil. I found the main attraction of stories of the author are fighting scenes. The plot twists are passable but entertaining.
As the name implied, there are four protagonists. Actually there is the fifth one: their teacher. If the constables are good fighters, the teacher considered as one of the best fighter in China.
The first arc of the comic book is an adaptation of an early story of novel version, where they against masked 13 assassins that killed seemingly random (but important) people in government and martial arts community.
August 18, 2019
At the height of the manga revolution (mid 2000's) Comics One released a series of manga adaptations of Kung Fu movies and novels which had sold the rights to film companies (things like Hero, Shaolin Soccer, Storm Riders etc)
The Four Constables is a manga adaptation of Woon Swee Oan's novel series Si Da Ming Bu (四大名捕; The Four Great Constables) which has since been adapted into an awesome film trilogy: The Four/Lawless Kingdom/Kingdom of Blood and more recently a TV series sadly still unavailable in English. For English speaking fans of the movies keen to get hold of the source material - The Four Constables manga is the closest you are going to get.
So broadly speaking it follows the same basic plot of Lawless Kingdom/Kingdom of Blood - The Four Constables (Life Snatcher. Cold Blood, Emotionless and Iron Hands) work for Zhuge Zhen-Wo and are trying to track down the 13 assassins who murdered Emotionless' family and encounter a metamorph assassin.
However there are some startling differences the biggest being the sex of Emotionless - here he's a man and in the films the role is gender-swapped. Since the Emotionless/Cold Blood romance is so central to the films I'm wondering how it will play out here? We do get a couple of scenes where Emotionless shows admiration and gratitude to Cold Blood for stepping in and saving him in a flashback - but whether this will develop I'm not certain.
So far we've had no department Six either or rival police forces and our crew have been working together for some years.
Plus each of the assassins is a detailed character in their own right with a very specific martial arts skill. In this one wee meet Cruel Scholar (Shendong Wu) Murderous Erudite (Shengxi Wu) Black Death Palms (Elder Guan), Iron Umbrella Scholar (Xiuao Zhang) and Thousand Chop (Gei Gei Mosan) But so far we have not uncovered the identity of their master.
I absolutely loved this first volume. The biggest selling point is Andy Set's artwork which is beautiful and really kinetic giving the fight sequences a great vibrancy as well as capturing the emotion of the characters.
I also like the pulp story telling - we have flashbacks, dramatic pauses and cut scenes - we'll be in the middle of a fight sequence where the villain has given a seemingly fatal attack. Then the dialogue will say something like ""Will the loyal and patriotic master Zhuge fall prey?" and then we'll shift to the back story of one of the four constables for a flashback interlude, before jumping back into the fight. You are either going to love this style or find it supremely annoying. Personally I think its rather fun. Hilariously over dramatic, but it breaks things up and keeps it interesting.
This is unlike most manga I've come across before - It's a cinematic hybrid which is such a refreshing change - this doesn't feel like an abridged retelling of a movie - this is something unique in its own right and is so epic that it really lives up to the term 'graphic novel'.
Recommended.
The Four Constables is a manga adaptation of Woon Swee Oan's novel series Si Da Ming Bu (四大名捕; The Four Great Constables) which has since been adapted into an awesome film trilogy: The Four/Lawless Kingdom/Kingdom of Blood and more recently a TV series sadly still unavailable in English. For English speaking fans of the movies keen to get hold of the source material - The Four Constables manga is the closest you are going to get.
So broadly speaking it follows the same basic plot of Lawless Kingdom/Kingdom of Blood - The Four Constables (Life Snatcher. Cold Blood, Emotionless and Iron Hands) work for Zhuge Zhen-Wo and are trying to track down the 13 assassins who murdered Emotionless' family and encounter a metamorph assassin.
However there are some startling differences the biggest being the sex of Emotionless - here he's a man and in the films the role is gender-swapped. Since the Emotionless/Cold Blood romance is so central to the films I'm wondering how it will play out here? We do get a couple of scenes where Emotionless shows admiration and gratitude to Cold Blood for stepping in and saving him in a flashback - but whether this will develop I'm not certain.
So far we've had no department Six either or rival police forces and our crew have been working together for some years.
Plus each of the assassins is a detailed character in their own right with a very specific martial arts skill. In this one wee meet Cruel Scholar (Shendong Wu) Murderous Erudite (Shengxi Wu) Black Death Palms (Elder Guan), Iron Umbrella Scholar (Xiuao Zhang) and Thousand Chop (Gei Gei Mosan) But so far we have not uncovered the identity of their master.
I absolutely loved this first volume. The biggest selling point is Andy Set's artwork which is beautiful and really kinetic giving the fight sequences a great vibrancy as well as capturing the emotion of the characters.
I also like the pulp story telling - we have flashbacks, dramatic pauses and cut scenes - we'll be in the middle of a fight sequence where the villain has given a seemingly fatal attack. Then the dialogue will say something like ""Will the loyal and patriotic master Zhuge fall prey?" and then we'll shift to the back story of one of the four constables for a flashback interlude, before jumping back into the fight. You are either going to love this style or find it supremely annoying. Personally I think its rather fun. Hilariously over dramatic, but it breaks things up and keeps it interesting.
This is unlike most manga I've come across before - It's a cinematic hybrid which is such a refreshing change - this doesn't feel like an abridged retelling of a movie - this is something unique in its own right and is so epic that it really lives up to the term 'graphic novel'.
Recommended.
April 2, 2012
Cooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
November 6, 2019
Picked this up randomly at a booksale. Good story especially for fans of martial arts, wonderfully colorful artwork.
May 9, 2014
Unnessicarily wordy and dramatic, it just wasn't my sort of thing. It gets a second star for the prettiness of the art.
June 7, 2015
It is awesome!!
June 27, 2014
The art is amazing.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews