Kabuki-Images

    (Image, 1998-1999)
™ and ©1997 David Mack

The first issue of this special edition is split between a retelling of Kabuki’s origin from Kabuki #1, and a series of Kabuki pinups. Despite its dual nature, it succeeds marvelously. A second Kabuki-Images appeared in 1999.

The story portion takes places after Kabuki has been revived from a state of technical death, and is now being held in a secret government facility, There, psychologists try to figure out why one of the top operatives of the Noh went haywire. Using beautiful painted imagery by David Mack, Kabuki tells of her mother’s capture by Japanese soldiers in World War II. Her mother was then taken to a camp to be used as a “comfort woman,” but the commander in chief instead had the women reenact classical Kabuki plays—a small bit of elegance in a brutal war. After the war, her mother was killed by the general’s own son, who carved the words “Kabuki” scornfully on the girl’s face. The general, stricken with grief, trained the girl as an operative in his own organization, turning her into the agent called “Kabuki.”
Jump to issue:
  • 1
    #1
    Regular Cover by David Mack
    Jun 1998
    Cover: $4.95
    W: David Mack  ·  A: David Mack, Andrew Dimitt, Matt Wagner, Jae Lee, Dan Brereton, Adam Warren, James O’Barr, Mike Allred, Jill Thompson, Mike Mignola, Andy Lee, Louis Small Jr., Brian Michael Bendis, J. Scott Campbell, P. Craig Russell, Rick Mays, Jay Geldhof, Galen Showman
    Reprints Kabuki (Image) #1 with new pin-ups; Pin-ups and story; Prestige format
    3 copies from $4.98
  • 2
    #2
    Jan 1999
    Cover: $5.95
    W: David Mack, Matt Wagner  ·  A: David Mack
    Reprints Kabuki (Image) #2-3; Collects #2 and 3; Prestige format
    2 copies from $5.00