World War III #1

World War III #1Antarctic Press 2021

By Motofumi Kobayashi

Translated by Clifton Lloyd Miles Jr.

Lettered by Doug Dlin

1994, in a world like our own, but different. The Soviet policy of perestroika has failed, and General Secretary Gorbachev has been assassinated. Now, a rampaging portion of the Soviet military has resolved to invade the Western Bloc countries, escalating the threat of devastating global conflict. Leading war manga figure Motofumi Kobayashi, creator of the hit series Cat Shit One, delivers a gritty, realistic depiction of a third World War that might have actually happened had there been one wrong move!

God this is utterly amazing. I mean sure it’s tragic and not something I ever want to see in my lifetime but from a story standpoint what we see here is pure solid gold. The way we see the viewpoints and learn a few things along the way, such as the nuclear aspect that could be utilised, makes this so scary and realistic that at times it’s hard to remember it’s just a story. That my friends is how well this is being told, that at times it feels like something you’d read about in a history book. As a huge fan of Cat Shit One I had high hopes for this but Motofumi has far surpassed those expectations and taken me to a place that is as mesmerising as it is horrific.

I am in complete and utter awe in how well this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely. The character development as seen through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in portraying them as real human beings. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing characters and to this world you become hypnotised by the sheer audacity and complexity of the work we see.

I am a huge fan of how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen. The depth, dimension and complexity that we see in the writing is mindbogglingly brilliant to behold. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is unbelievably great.

The interiors here are bloody brilliant! The linework is so clean, crisp and strong as the varying weights and techniques we see are being utilised to create this level & quality in the detail work takes stunning to new heights. The way backgrounds are utilised and how we see the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous work. The creativity and imagination and the sheer volume of realism in the tanks and planes with their guns and their bombs is frighteningly realistic. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling. I’m of two minds on the colour work we see, on the one hand the way it brings this to life is near photorealism perfect and then the black and white with all the lines and seeing the level of work being done is phenomenal.

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Motofumi is a master storyteller and while he is known for his Manga this book right here goes to show that he’s capable of mastering any and all forms of storytelling. I mean one read through leads to another and then another still and so on, because you need multiple read throughs to catch so much of what might have been missed and each time you do read it it’s just as strong, powerful and poignant as it was the first time. I can’t think of another way to describe it as a perfect story, it’s sensationally well written with some utterly amazing characterisation and mindbogglingly brilliant interiors.