AN WHILE WE'RE AT IT-- SHAMAN KING!!!

While lamenting the

soon to be

passing of

Naruto,

I glimpsed you a bit of this old thing:

When I first started reading 

Shonen Jump

I would tear out

pages

poses

and 

backgrounds

that

inspired me.

The manga I

most often 

ripped from was

SHAMAN KING

by

Hiroyuki Takei

It's the story of 

Yoh Asakura,

a young, laid back spirit medium who 

finds himself thrust into a worldwide battle to become the

Shaman King.

I love

Takei-san's

broad posing:

His draftsmanship:

 

His characters

and the way he dresses them:

And his insane 

splash panels:

I wish I had his 

caffeinated blend of technical skill

and cartooniness.

It's a refreshing change 

from most manga:

Looking through these,

I don't think I've captured

even half of what I love about

Shaman King.

I stopped ripping the magazine up 

once I really got into it.

And now,

while researching this post I found that 

there's a short series

called

Shaman King: Flowers

that came out a couple years ago.

I think I need to check that out!