Takehiko Inoue - Vagabond Vol 1-5 [JPG - ENG]

Vagabond (?????, Bagabondo?) is a manga drawn by Takehiko Inoue and adapted from the fictionalized accounts by Eiji Yoshikawa of the samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (????, 1584–1645).
Beginning in 1998, the manga has been serialized in the Weekly Morning magazine and is published by Kodansha in Japan. The English-language translation is done by the American company, VIZ Media. As of December 2006, there has been 24 tank?bon (???) published in Japan while 24 have been translated in the United States (volume 25 is slated for a May 15th 2007 release). To date, Vagabond has sold more than 22 million copies throughout the world.
Vagabond has gone on to win the 2000 Media Arts Festival Grand Prize from the Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The following was an excerpt from the speech congratulating Takehiko Inoue: "From Toyotomi to Tokugawa. Musashi Miyamoto grew up amidst the turn of two great eras. Mr. Inoue has taken the powerful Musashi who was sometimes called a 'beast' and drawn him as a vagabond. The artist brags about boldly challenging the national literary work of Eiji Yoshikawa, even so, the sense of speed that he creates is impressive. I send my applause to the artist for creating a new image of Musashi." [1] The very same year in 2000, Vagabond won the 24th Kodansha Award for Best Manga. In 2002, Vagabond was bestowed with the highly-acclaimed Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award. The following year, Inoue received nomination for the 2003 Eisner Award in the category of Best Writer / Artist.