Dark Horse Comics releases a sci-fi graphic novel which is more of an inspiration of Akira in Joyama the first volume. 
So this comic is beyond my expectations because from what I see is just another Japanese manga that is drawn by an English artist. However, the comic is more like Akira because the story can be more cyberpunk sci-fi and fantasy story of some trio living in a big city called Joyama working as vigilantes. The comic is created by Daniel Isles, he’s an English artist and illustrator born in Birmingham, UK who is now currently residing in Japan. He has created art for various clients such as Apple Music, Yamaha music group, and Sega, as well as independently publishing his art book. The art is inspired by a variety type of sources with his own tastes and interests. However, the art itself is a surprise to the viewers.
The front cover shows simple concept art of the main character floating in the air, on the top of his head showing some kind of blue halo. I mean what does that look like? That design of Stephen McCrannie’s Space Boy front covers? I don’t know but it seems that there exists a blue halo in this world. And the background is more Asian like and it makes more sense why this author has some inspiration that involves the Japanese. Places such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, you name it, you’d get this dope background.
So at the starting panels, the comic has transformed into a Japanese manga with all the other essentials that the author chose to create his comic. The gradient work that he worked on is almost like a serious manga series. At the beginning of the story, the prologue takes you to the beginning of Akira, but without Kaneda and his gang battling against the clowns, it’s some strange white hood character attacking police officers. However, seeing the panels of action scenes got me impressed so far. The next scene shows one of the main characters who work as a vigilante known as one of the soldiers of Outrider who eventually saved the girl from a strange old man who is carrying a gun in his hand. But seriously, I can’t think of another action scene in black and white that leaves so intense to the readers. But what is really the most intense of this story is the battle against the white hood man who attacked the police officers. There’s a scene where one of the characters got into a surprise attack by the white hooded man in the bathroom. The way that the character moves is more like what you see in anime, this comic however gives you more motion from the character’s perspective. The battle scenes give you some mental images from Yoshitaka Amano’s character illustrations when they’re going into battle. However, at the end of the battle, one of the Outrider soldiers got slained by the enemy, which is ironic to have one of the main characters from the start of this graphic novel. Now everyone is going through some hard times after their friend passes away. And the rest of this comic gets remorse for the past which deals with a lot of pain for the main characters.
The story is more in detail if I would call this a comic or a manga because what the author did is that he turned his comic into a manga which is more accurate to his own inspirations. However, this is the first time that this artist has ever had to create a comic that is more manga-style inspiration. But aside from him, there are a lot of creators who do the same but never get the type of value of art because of the lack of anatomy, background, and such. But this one is just taking you to another level. All the screen tones and the values that the artist added to the comic are very satisfying. Hopefully, I would try that for the next chapter of my webcomic. So Joyama is actually a comic inspired by Japanese manga and himself, and hopefully, you’ll get the energy from reading that comic.
Newsdesk