Fans may deny it as much as they want, but the reality is that the translated manga market, despite its distinction as one of the fastest growing segments of the comics industry, is still very much small-market. Thus, while seeing triple digit issue numbers for venerable DC and Marvel workhorses such as SUPERMAN or X-MEN is commonplace, this has yet to be the case for the several long-running manga series that have made the transition to the English language market. Rather, companies translating manga are forced to "compartmentalize" their titles into smaller bite-size chunks that are more palatable to the big comic distributors.
GUNSMITH CATS: THE RETURN of GRAY, Dark Horse's second marketing incarnation for Sonoda Kenichi's popular manga series, is a symptom of this phenomenon. Other than that, there is no significant difference between the first ten chapters from the first GUNSMITH CATS series -- the translation team is the same, the production team is the same, and, of course, the original artist and story concept are the same. And it resumes the story exactly where it should: chapter eleven.
As the title implies, Gray, the Michigan crime operative who was charged with delivering a car bomb to a parking garage and whose right (actually left due to the page flipping that occurs when manga is translated and adapted for the English language market) hand was shot off by Rally, has returned to Chicago to take control of the local cocaine rings. Step one: Arm up by hitting a couple of gun shops. When his underlings kidnap May after hitting the Gunsmith Cats, Gray recognizes her and turns his thoughts to revenge against Rally. His first of what will become many attemps to exact vengeance unfolds in the next two issues.
Sonoda Kenichi, the fan-favorite character designer for popular titles such as BUBBLEGUN CRISIS and GALL FORCE, had been drawing manga and dojinshi for several years before he ever began working on RIDING BEAN, which is also his story concept. Thus, it was an easy transition, in 1991, to produce a full-fledged manga title around one of his favorite, and most gun-savvy, characters, Rally Vincent, Bean's markswoman blonde partner. In Japan, the series is six volumes strong and running.
Partly to avoid problems generated by the rift between Artmic and Youmex, BEAN'S joint production team, Sonoda altered Rally's profile and design. She is younger, darker, and brunette, a crack-shot bounty hunter whose "real" job is gunsmith. Her assistant and new partner is "Minnie" May Hopkins, an energetic, mischievous young woman with twin passions for bombs and sex. The end of the first tankoubon volume features the first introduction of Bean Bandit to the manga series. The following chapters of RETURN of GRAY will firmly establish Bean as a recurring guest character, though how he relates to Rally will likely surprise anyone familiar with RIDING BEAN.
This is a quality girls-with-guns title. Sonoda's expertise lends credence to the stories and characters. Combine this with a popular character design and art style and the result is powerful artwork, meticulous detail, and strong, though oftentimes controversial, plotlines.
At this point, there is little in the first few issues of RETURN of GRAY to indicate anything other than another fine effort. Issue one has some grainy artwork, but this is how the original chapter eleven looks, too. Chapter twelve clocks in at a whopping fifty-two pages, so Dark Horse is splitting it into issues two and three. Chapter thirteen -- issue four -- will be Dark Horse's first test as there is another two-page spread which could revive the chapter two censorship controversy. And on this reviewer's pet issue of splash pages, Dark Horse rates an A-. The chapter eleven splash page, which at first appeared to be missing, was pushed back and colorized to the issue three cover. Instead, for chapter eleven, Dark Horse chose the inside cover from tankoubon volume one. Similarly, the chapter twelve splash page was colorized and used as the issue two front cover. Since Dark Horse long ago exhausted their store of actual tankoubon covers, this could prove to be a promising trend: using the splash page as the cover.
Sonoda fans should have long since picked this one up on account of the first series. Those who have not, as well as other action manga enthusiasts, will discover the fast-paced Chicago underworld of guns, cars, and women, as seen from the pen and brush of the industry's top firearms expert and Chicago-lover.

COMICS AFTERNOON / KODANSHA
RELEASED IN NORTH AMERICA BY DARK HORSE COMICS
THE RETURN OF GRAY ISSUE 3 (of 7) SHIPPED OCT 9th
BONNIE AND CLYDE TRADE PAPERBACK SHIPPED OCT 23rd