YAN VOL. 1
TITAN COMICS/Titan Manga
WRITER-ARTIST: Chang Sheng
TRANSLATION: Vanessa Liu
LETTERS: Tom Williams
DESIGN: David Colderley
EDITOR: Louis Yamani
ISBN: 978-1787744424; paperback with French flaps (June 24, 2025)
352pp, B&W, $24.99 U.S., $33.99 CAN, £19.99 UK
Yan Tieh Hua is a Taiwanese manga (manhua) created by writer-artist Chang Sheng. It was originally published in Taiwan in three volumes 2020. Titan Manga is publishing an English-language paperback edition under the title, Yan. Each volume will have “French flaps,” which are extended sections of a paperback book's cover that fold inward, similar to a dust jacket on a hardcover book.
Yan, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 9, plus an “Epilogue”) opens with a viral video starring Yan Tieh Hua... and her intended victim – the Counselor's son. Who is Yan Tieh Hua?
Once upon a time, Tieh Hua was a member of “Yan's Opera Troupe,” know for its “Peking Opera” performances. However, 30 years ago, all the members of the troupe were found murdered – except 15-year-old Tieh Hua, who was blamed, convicted, and sent to prison for these crimes. Twenty years later, Tieh Hua allegedly died in prison.
So how is it that 10 years later, Yan Tieh Hua is back in Taipei, Taiwan? As she carves a bloody path toward vengeance, she has also reignited an investigation into the decades-old massacre of her family. Detective Lei Ming Zhi, who investigated the original case, has been coerced into coming out of retirement. It doesn't take him long to discover that he has as many questions about the place where Yan was imprisoned as he does about Yan. When Lei finds Yan, he learns that she is a young woman like no other he has ever seen. Add in Higa Miku, the missing young Go prodigy with the uncanny gift of precognition, and you have a hard to unravel mystery. It is all presented as a tale of stylish brutality with that unique Taiwanese swagger.
THE LOWDOWN: Since October 2023, Titan Manga has provided me with print and PDF copies of their manga publications for review. One of the latest is Yan Volume 1.
By any name: manga, manhua, or Taiwanese comics, Yan Graphic Novel Volume 1 is an incredible work of book design and construction and also a breathtaking read that will blow minds just about every page. Yan Vol. 1 is like the first John Wick film, except that with Yan, the reader can enjoy each panel of an fight sequence by examining the lovely art. I don't think that watching John Wick even in slow motion would allow the viewer to appreciate the beauty of simulated motion of a fight that well choreographed in manga graphics.
Before I go to far into this review, I want to say that the cover, with its French flaps, looks so sharp that I was reluctant to touch it – at first. This book's 7.13 x 10.24 inches trim size perfectly captures the operatic and balletic aesthetic that defines Chang Sheng's breathless graphical storytelling with its grand elegance and depictions of swift lethal moves.
Readers will find that the nine chapters that comprise Yan Vol. 1 recalls unusual tales of vengeance, for instance director Park Chan-wook's Oldboy. Stylistically, Sheng's spectacular action and fight scenes resembles (to one extent or another) films like The Crow (1994) and The Matrix (1999). Most of all, the larger publication format gives the story a cinematic feel that is similar to that in which Katsuhiro Otomo infused his seminal manga, Akira.
For all that the flashy art seems to fly off the page, I think what Chang Sheng uses to drive this narrative is the depiction of the characters. Yan Tieh Hua, Detective Lei, and Higa Miku are all engaging and intriguing, and they are always surprising in the things that they do and say. Yan Vol. 1 seems to delight in making me make assumptions about what the characters will do only for me to realize how wrong I am. My assumptions might be close to the truth, but there are twists and turns that always keep me on edge. The characters are about more than a story of ultra-violence and vengeance. They are about what lies beneath their choices and their actions, even their violence or the assumptions of their violent act.
Dear readers, I had a blast reading Yan Vol. 1, and I couldn't put this first volume down until I finished it. I can't wait for more because this is the most fun I have had in reading manga in at least half a decade or so.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of manga from Taiwan and of manga that blends science fiction, action and intrigue will want to try Yan.
A+
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
YAN VOLUME 1 is available for purchase at Amazon.
PAGE SAMPLES FROM YAN VOLUME 1:
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