Yongbi the Invincible Vol-1
Story by: Ki Woon Ryu
Artwork: Jung Who Moon
Pages: 200
Published Domestically by: CPM Press
By: Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Aside from Ranma ½ and a handful of other titles I really haven’t taken in much as far as the world printed martial arts adventure goes. I would venture to guess that it’s because I always found it more entertaining to see this type of fare in more lively mediums like film and animation that allow me to appreciate the physical movements and acrobatics in ways a still image could never duplicate.

Today, for a change of pace and as an excuse to go back into the comic book world (more specifically the world of Manhwa, i.e. Korean Comics) I’m going to take a closer look at Yongbi the Invincible, a martial arts adventures series being released domestically by Central Park Media.

Story

"A mysterious stranger rides into town. The peaceful village of Gang-Ho is disturbed when Yongbi, a seemingly foolish bounty hunter, comes to town looking to claim the bounty for the leader of Gang-Ho's deadliest clan of assassins. Will Yongbi collect the bounty unscathed, or will he fall victim to a vengeful pack of assassins hell-bent on retribution for their captured leader? " -- CPM Yongbi the Invincible Page

Review

The story opens in a bar scene where we see the local people drinking, eating and generally having a good old time. As we make our way through the scene we are taken straight to a poster hanging on the wall that depicts a local criminal gang leader, the terrifying Goo-Hwi. As we finish seeing the sign the very man that it pictures enters the bar and terrifies everyone with his sheer presence. As he stands tall and menacing no one dares move or speak, then suddenly and without warning we see this ominous figure fall to a young warrior who smacks him on the head with a stick, much to everyone’s surprise. The warrior’s name is Yongbi and his accompanied by his faithful horse Bi-Yong.

As he makes his way through the countryside pulling Goo-Hwi along on a rope our hero runs into a boy who has passed out over a log floating adrift on a river. After helping the young lad recover from his ordeal Yongbi is offered a very expensive necklace by the boy if he helps him get back to Hobook Castle. Pleased by the offer that has been made Yongbi decides to help him out and take him back, however our hero may not be quite prepared for the crazy adventures his about to undertake as a result of this fateful meeting.

I’ll tell you, when I saw the cover art for this book I literally said, “what the hell is this?” For some reason the drawing looked very poor and disinteresting. Thankfully upon closer inspection of the back cover (which has MUCH nicer artwork) and the inside pages I was able to determine that indeed the cover was misleading and not indicative of the quality held within. I’m glad I was able to get past that initial impression because this book was freaking awesome! (to put it mildly)

Yongbi the Invincible is basically a simple story about an adventurous young warrior, who although on the surface seems more motivated to action by food, women and booze than anything else, he is in reality someone who stands for justice and will protect the innocent from harm. This is by no means an original setup or protagonist, but thanks to the way the storyline and cast are balanced with each other and some really good pacing and attractive artwork it manages to succeed were many don’t. The title character in particular seems to strike a note of uniqueness in his personality balance that I could not help but be fascinated by.

When I was reading this book last night I was amused by the way in which Yongbi is portrayed and how he reacts to the different situations he’s thrown into. The majority of the time he seemed like a big goof that had nothing but the most basic human needs and wants on his mind, but when danger arises he does a 180° and becomes an unstoppable fighting machine that is adept both in physical skills and strategic thinking. This is a tricky proposition to pull off since essentially you are taking two very different personas and throwing them together in one character, who’s supposed to play both the laid back country boy and dead-serious martial artist roles seamlessly. Somehow the creative team here pulls it off. This contributes a lot to the overall feel and heart of the story, resulting in a book that mixes both comedy and action in one nicely wrapped package.

Most of the comedy comes about as a result of Yongbi playing the comedic half to the straight players he meets across his travels such as Goo-Hwi, who spends most of his time telling Yongbi how he is going to die and how he will never be able to stand up to his group’s assassins but remains oblivious to the fact that Yongbi has already dispatched of many of the criminal lord’s henchmen as he was rambling on about their skills. There are also some great moments that play off of Yongbi and Bi-Yong’s (his horse) relationship. At first I thought that the horse was just your typical hero horse, but in actuality he turned out to be Yongbi’s animal counterpart, resulting in a horse that is as much into meat, booze and women as our hero.

The action scenes were just as great as the comedy and really added to the excitement of the story. There wasn’t anything particularly unique about it, but it was solid. There are you’re usual “my skills are better than yours” moments and also the typical l“I can’t believe how good he is!” scenes, but it’s all very good and fun reading.

I loved the artwork of this book. The character designs are nicely handled, the backgrounds are detailed and for the most part it enjoys a very clean look. Probably the only problem I had in terms of the drawings was that some of the action scenes were hard to follow and at points I wasn’t even sure what I was looking at when Yongbi pulled off certain moves against his opponents. Aside from that it’s up there in terms of overall quality.

On the product side we have a well put together book. The art reproduction was solid, with the ink levels being nicely handled and the drawings coming across beautifully. The translation seemed good with no real issues that I could spot. In addition to the main story we also get a little foreword by the author who tells us a little bit about his thoughts on this work. Nothing big, but it proved an interesting read.

Conclusion

I really, really liked this one. If you enjoy martial arts stories or even just adventure comics this is one that you should consider next time you head out to your local book store.

Yongbi the Invincible gets our highest recommendation for a Manga/Manhwa title!

Jeffrey Couto