From Criterion, Paul Pope, Larry Hama, and Ron Wimberly talk about the influence Lone Wolf and Cub has on US comics.
Long before the current mainstream popularity of manga, in the early to mid eighties, Lone Wolf and Cub was one of the first manga to widely influence American cartoonists, most noticably Frank Miller who went on a real Japanese kick at the time (in e.g. Wolverine, Ronin et all). He would also provide the covers of the first edition of the manga for First Comics. It was also one of the first series to not be released as floppies, but as what we called prestige editions back then.
As for why Criterion is interested, the manga was adapted into a series of six movies back in Japan in the early seventies.
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