American comic book publishers started releasing Japanese manga titles in English on a regular basis sometime in the late 1980s. Some of the earliest to appear were the following:
I first started reading manga in 1992, right after I’d acquired some anime VHS tapes in Japanese without subtitles. My earliest manga purchases were chosen so I could follow the anime adaptations without translation. In the process, I learned to appreciate manga for its own qualities.
“Storm Riders” tells a long and intricate tale of the intertwining destinies of two young martial artists, Wind and Cloud, in the rarefied, mythical universe of competing martial arts clans in a fanciful version of Ming Dynasty China, the kind of setting popularized in the serial narratives of Hong Kong-based authors like Louis Cha (“Legend of the Condor Heroes”). It began its existence in 1989 as a Hong Kong comic book (aka “Fung Wan,” translated as Wind and Cloud) written and drawn by Wing Shing Ma, a recognized genius at home but little-known in the U.S. The comic was adapted into a live-action Hong Kong movie, THE STORM RIDERS, in 1998 starring Ekin Cheng, Aaron Kwok, Sonny Chiba, Kristy Yang and Shu Qi. This was followed by an animated sequel in 2008, STORM RIDER: CLASH OF EVILS, that was produced in China with significant Hong Kong personnel attached. Finally, there was a live-action sequel from Hong Kong in 2009 called THE STORM WARRIORS (or STORM WARRIORS II, as sometimes listed), with Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok the only cast members from the 1998 film returning in their roles.
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