This month’s Comics for Manga Lover focuses on Archaia Studios Press, an indie publisher with a small catalog of smart-looking titles. ASP is best known for Artesia, a long-running series about a medieval sorceress/warrior. Although I didn’t succumb to Artesia’s enchantments, several other ASP titles currently grace my must-read list alongside Monster, Anne Freaks, Berserk, and Claymore.

Topping that list is Alex Sheikman’s Robotika, a cyber-steampunk samurai saga. Now anthologized in a deluxe hardcover volume, the first four issues boast beautiful artwork, crack pacing, snappy dialogue, and a theme likely to resonate with Battlestar Galactica fans—what happens when artificial life forms rebel against their human creators? The four episodes don’t coalesce into a grand narrative, but with such eye-popping imagery, cool organic gizmos, and entertaining villains—including a pack of nanny cyborgs who recite Lewis Carroll while fighting in the buff—Robotika’s gleeful genre-bending proves irresistible. My only gripe with Robotika is the typeface. For reasons unknown, Sheikman decided that the dialogue spoken by ballsy female yojimbo Cherokee Geisha should be printed vertically. (OK, make that two criticisms. Cherokee Geisha?! Was she an overlooked member of the Superfriends?) Sure, the word balloons look cyber-cool, but the text bears an uncanny resemblance to a jumble. Still, this is a minor criticism of a major talent. I’m giddy at the prospect of the next crop of adventures: For a Few Rubles More.

Anyone who loves her manga hard-boiled ought to check out The Killer, a 10-issue French series that ASP has adapted for American audiences. The plot is stock. A killer-for-hire accepts one last hit (or, in his case, a few last hits) so that he can retire from the business in a remote tropical location. But if the sheer implausibility of weeping assassins has hampered your enjoyment of Crying Freeman, take note: creators Matz and Luc Jacamon invigorate The Killer’s been-there, done-that set-up with a heavy dose of realism. We see our anti-hero scoping out a victim’s home, feeling his frustration and boredom as he fruitlessly watches an empty apartment for days. Adding to the realism is The Killer’s failings; his hits aren’t always the flawless, leave-the-cops-stumped affairs that we’ve come to expect from Hollywood thrillers. The art, too, contributes to The Killer’s grim, gritty atmosphere. Jacamon’s adept use of light and color reminded me of a film soundtrack in its ability to convey tone: the palette is drab and leached of color for surveillance scenes, blindingly beautiful for a flashback set in the Caribbean, and lurid for a hit-gone-wrong on the Paris Metro. Much as I’ve enjoyed the sheer hyperbole of Crying Freeman, Old Boy, and Golgo 13, I’m also making space on my shelf for the next volume of The Killer, which “hits” stores in February 2007.

I’d be remiss in my coverage of ASP if I didn’t mention David Peterson’s much-praised Mouse Guard. Sure, all the cool kids have been blogging about the adventures of these badass mice since the series premiered in February 2006. But Mouse Guard lives up to the hype. Peterson’s stunning watercolor images and knack for visual storytelling make it easy to forgive the narrative shortcomings of this smart political fable for grownups. Issue six arrives in stores next month; series two debuts in February 2007; and a hardcover edition of issues one through six reaches store shelves in May 2007. Set those Mouse traps!

A final note: ASP unveiled a new series this month by artist/writer Hub. Okko: The Cycle of Water is a classic “You touched my stuff” saga. (See Metrokitty for a fuller explanation of the genre.) Tikku, an aspiring young samurai, witnesses the kidnapping of Little Carp, a geisha with the proverbial heart of gold (and a tattoo that would be the envy of yakuza everywhere). To save his sister, Tikku pledges his soul to Okko, a fierce ronin/demon hunter who travels in the company of a red-faced demon and an unscrupulous, sake-loving monk. Tikku and this motley crew then embark on what promises to be a harrowing, adventure-filled mission to retrieve Little Carp. (Translation: demons and ass-kicking to follow in issue two.) If this all sounds a bit derivative, it is—issue one felt like an awkward mash-up of Berserk, Kekkaishi, and the entire Kazuo Koike catalog, complete with feuding clans, fan service, demon hunters with demon sidekicks, and a ronin-for-hire anti-hero. And did I mention the series was set in medieval Pajan? Let’s hope that Okko sails for more original waters in issue two, as Hub is a supremely talented artist with a rich visual imagination.

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