Fiction and comic are different ways of telling a story. ‘Bakuman’, as introduced before, describes creating comic while ‘Sangre Y Acero’ is much more aggressive — a revenge story, to be exact.

While the Wudang dominates the others, each of them regards himself as the strongest fighter. They prefer to keep a distance from the others and pursue their extreme ways. However, the fighters are loyal to their own group and authority figures — for them it is not a matter of righteousness, but a pursue of martial arts techniques. Wanting to maintain its privileged position, Wudang begins to take over all the other martial art groups — with the expense of human lives, when necessary. The two main characters Jing Lie and Yan Heng lost all their peers but managed to survive — Jing Lie, known as ‘Wudang Hunter’, attacks with Guerrilla warfare technique; Yan Heng was saved by Jing Lie. The two friends join in a journey of revenge.

The first issue was published in 2008, and four others have been out during the past two years. Wudang leader Yao Lian-zhou is eager to speed up the take over, and decides to take it upon his own shoulders. However, he ends up being attacked by a much bigger group and is stranded in a brothel in Xian. The fifth issue focuses on the last stage of the Xian battle. The author Jozev puts in much effort in crafting the battle scenes, my favourite being the fight in Chengdu in the second issue — Jing Lie, his peer Torasuzuran Shimazu and other fighters of Emei (with Sun Wu-yue as their leader) fighting against the Wudang troops leaded by master Jiang Yun-lan. The fight between nine masters in the fifth issue is another outstanding, well-thought-through fight. It is no surprise that the author practiced martial arts and is obsessed with all kinds of fighting practices.

‘Sangre Y Acero’ breaks new ground in martial arts story, for it shows a ‘real’ side of martial arts practice, that each master is still limited by being a human being. Ergonomics, psychology and other elements take part in fights — the strongest is often the one who is most willing to push the boundaries. Martial arts in ‘Sangre Y Acero’ is not a supernatural power, more like an extreme sport. Mixing known martial arts elements with a brand new story is a clever touch.

The intention of Jozev is explained in the ‘outro’, ‘In the traditional martial arts novel world, “Kung Fu” is merely a symbol of status and a tool to accomplish their goals (be it revenge between individuals or nations). A real fighter is much more straight-forward with only one goal in their mind — improving techniques and pushing their physical and mental boundaries. The title ‘Sangre Y Acero’ is very close to the human emotion — although ‘revenge’ is one of the main themes, pursuing ‘the best’ is still a greater force driving each of the characters. The story is set with the backdrop of the most known martial arts schools — in my mind, this is what martial arts is really about’.

Text: BEBOP
Translation: dilettante
Update: 11 May 2010

HKD $68
Publisher: Skywalker Press
enrichculture.com

JOZEV
jozev1969.blogspot.com