A murderer virus decimates the populations of remote villages. The only survivor of these epidemics, a mysterious archaeologist with extraordinary powers, tries to fight the plague.
New from Ki-oon Editions, King of Eden takes us on a journey to every continent, with a scenario involving several small international terrorist groups in a deadly hunt in which they are both the actors and the prey. The story begins in Spain, where an entire village is razed to the ground by flames and a pile of corpses burnt and disfigured by a mysterious affection piles up. The same scene is repeated in Thai, Chinese and Scottish villages… and governments are moved by these indiscriminate massacres. A witness always seems to be present, apparently immune, but fleeing like an eel.
King of Eden develops an original story in a rather classic vein of thriller suspense. Its author, Takashi Nagasaki, a 60-year-old Japanese multi-card writer, has a well-stocked CV in manga script writing. He has been seen recently in the Inspector Kurokôchi series, but is most famous for his collaboration with Naoki Urasawa, repeatedly, on his most famous works. It’s from his rather complicated mind that came out 20th Boys, the cult Monster, or more recently Billy Bat and Pluto. His tortuous and complex narrative style can be recognized quite quickly in this history, which rakes across geography and world history.
It could be a simple story of zombies, or deadly viruses, opening the way to a classic survival (High School of the dead, I’m a Hero, Parasyte…), but Takashi Nagasaki had the good idea to anchor his story in an ambitious historical and religious framework, referring to the Old Testament, Neolithic animism, the proto-religions of Persia of the Achaemenid kings and vampirism. A vast program that intrigues and gives a new depth to this type of manga. The success of religiously inspired thrillers is well documented since Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code left their mark on people’s minds.
For this new collaboration, Takashi Nagasaki has teamed up with Lee Sang-cheol, a young South Korean designer. It is the first series published in volumes of this young mangaka whose realistic line and vivacity are not without reminding that of Naoki Urasawa. The series is currently being published in South Korea, with five volumes available to date. Two volumes are in bookshops in France, the third is scheduled for May the 3rd.
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