Take a deeper dive into the future world of Appleseed with the Appleseed Companion Deluxe Edition—a sourcebook supplemented with bonus Appleseed manga stories!The centerpiece of Dark Horse’s striking three-book Shirow Masamune Deluxe Edition series is the Appleseed Companion Deluxe Edition.Collecting the contents of the previously published trade paperbacks Appleseed ID (Illustration and Data) and Appleseed Hypernotes, the Appleseed Companion is a rich sourcebook for the action and intrigue-filled future world revealed by Shirow Masamune in the Appleseed Deluxe Edition, plus a treasure trove of bonus material!The Appleseed Companion Deluxe Edition includes:132 fully translated additional pages of the Appleseed manga, including the 48-page short story “Called Game”…plus the 84 pages drawn by Shirow for the never-completed Appleseed Book Five.40 pages of Appleseed illustrations in beautiful full color by Shirow Masamune, in his classic painted style.Extensive notes by Shirow on the Appleseed story and its characters.A timeline of Appleseed’s alternate future from 1988-2147, maps of its war-ravaged Earth, and of the vast artificial island Olympus.Concept sketches, page layouts, and bonus illustrations done for Appleseed.An interview with Shirow Masamune.Designs by Shirow for his projects Bounty Dog and The Ghost in MachineheadAnd more!With a new wraparound cover design personally approved by Shirow Masamune, the Appleseed Companion Deluxe Edition presents the creator’s work at a quality never seen before, hardbound and printed on elegant paper stock!
Contributors: (W) Shirow Masamune (A) Shirow Masamune (CT) Frederik L. Schodt; Dana Lewis; Toren Smith
Shirow Masamune was born in 1961 in Kobe, Japan and attended Osaka University of Arts, where his fellow classmates included Hideaki Anno, the future creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shirow began his professional manga career in 1985 with Appleseed, which won one of Japan’s top prizes for science fiction, the Seiun Award. Dark Horse first began to publish Shirow’s work in 1992, beginning with his art book Intron Depot and manga Orion and Dominion, followed in 1995 with the first English edition of his most famous manga series, Ghost in the Shell. In 1996, Shirow was the first manga artist to be featured on the cover of Wizard: The Guide to Comics. Through his futuristic designs, dynamic action sequences and visionary concepts, Shirow has become one the most influential manga artists on international creators, counting among his fans the film directors James Cameron and Neill Blomkamp.