Inoue

Saved this illustrator for last for 2 reasons:

1: He's tied for 1st place in terms of favorite artists.
2: I've been waiting since the beginning of summer for these next two volumes of the manga to get shipped out, and they should be on their way now.

The writer and illustrator's name is Takehiko Inoue. His style in both storytelling and art is one of the most realistic I've ever read, which tends to be really refreshing after reading about people who fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes. He's done a few different comic series, two of my favorites being Vagabond and REAL. The first one is a historical fiction series about Miyamoto Musashi, who you may or may not have heard about as the legendary Japanese swordsman. The second, REAL, is about several different characters with the main focus being basketball, but more specifically wheelchair basketball.

As I said, the stories are realistic, and by that I don't just mean people don't have superpowers. Both of them do a superb (yes, I used a $5 word in a school blog) job of depicting human nature. For instance, Musashi in Vagabond is supposed to be one of the most epic swordsmen of all time. According to Inoue's rendition though, a lot of the time he's a jerk. Like a hardcore, really selfish jerk. Musashi is so focused on being the best (and in those days that meant challenging people and surviving), that he's really not that good at all with socializing like a human being. As in a lot of series, there come times when he has an epiphany and is able to become a better person... only to seemingly revert to his usual abrasiveness a chapter or two later. This doesn't frustrate me as much as I think it should, because I know real people don't just change over night into a better version of themselves; it takes a lot of time and a lot of screwing up before we get there.

Now, how do you make wheelchair basketball interesting, you ask? The short version: read REAL. It's one of those series that, after a while, you forget who the main character was supposed to be because examines the lives of at least 3 or 4 real main characters and a bunch more "minor" ones. The thing is, while the plot may appear to be about wheelchair basketball, that's the more superficial driver of the story. You might say the entire series is about falling and getting back up, only to fall again and finding the courage, guts, determination, what have you, to get back up and do it again. A few years ago, I might have thought, "Wow, that's kind of ... depressing..." After buying the first 8 volumes, though, I can't stop reading it. And re-reading it (seriously, you don't want to know how many times).