Kabuki is a comic series by artist and writer David Mack, first published in 1994 by Caliber Press and later by Image Comics. The series concerns an assassin belonging to a special, government-backed circle of masked and costumed female enforcers called the Noh in a Japan of an indistinct time period (it's not clear if it's present day or the future), and her struggle for her identity.

The Kabuki series has been collected into six trade paperbacks, which include several one-shots and spin-off limited series. The current title, "," is being published by Marvel Comics under the imprint Icon.

Contents

1 Style & Popularity 2 Core plot 3 Volumes 4 External Links

Style & Popularity

Unlike is the case with most comic series, the plot of Kabuki moves very little over the course of the six volumes. Most of the focus is on memories, on dreams, thought and philosophy. Mack's characters, especially Kabuki herself, revisit the same scenes and memories many times, rethinking them and their significance.

Mack uses a myriad of art styles, not only with pencil, ink, and color, but with paint, magazine clippings, manga scans, and crayons. In "Kabuki: The Alchemy" especially, many of the pages are photos (or color scans) of collages, using a variety of materials; for example, the fingers of Japanese sandalwood fans become the borders of the comic panels. One technique he uses often is reusing the same artwork, the same scenes, to represent a characters' memories, or simply to shift scene back to something the reader has already seen. Imagery is very important and prominent in the series; Mack reuses the same images, often changing them slightly, and focusing on the emotional content of images and the power of memories.

Core plot

The character, codenamed Kabuki , is the daughter of a former World War II Japanese military man known as "the General " and an Ainu comfort woman, and much of the conflict is her identity between these two worlds.

In the beginning, Kabuki and the Noh are controlled by two masked men, known as the Devil, who wears an oni kabuki mask, and Dove, who wears an old man kabuki mask, although the group serves the Company, lead by the General. The Noh is charged with the control and elimination of various yakuza groups in Japan, especially the yakuza organization of the General's prodigal son (and the real father of Kabuki, who raped her mother), Ryuichi Kai .

However, Kai is powerful politically, and important to the Noh to keep alive for the time being. For her own personal reasons, and at the request of Dove , Kabuki goes against the General's orders and kills Kai and his gang. The Board of Directors of the Noh demand she be punished for her disobedience, and she massacres them before dying herself. She is revived, and brought to a facility run by the Control Corps, a combination prison and mental hospital where rogue agents can be reprogrammed. Her former associates, the Masks of the Noh, are sent to eliminate her, but she escapes, and takes on a new identity.

Volumes

External Links

• Official David Mack website
• Dance of Death - A Kabuki Fansite