Kengo Hanazawa's zombie manga I Am A Hero is returning to print in English. Dark Horse Manga said on November 9 that it is working on a reprint of the entire series, though it has not announced a release date yet. Check out the official post down below:
Dark Horse first published I Am A Hero in English as 11 omnibus volumes between April 2016 and October 2019. The publisher said it will share more information on the re-release when it can.
What I Am A Hero Is About
Hideo Suzuki is a 35-year-old manga artist's assistant whose life is stuck around an exhausting, low-paying job, unfulfilled dreams, strange hallucinations and unsatisfying relationships. He sees himself as a supporting character in his own life. Then a disease nicknamed ZQN starts turning people into homicidal, zombie-like mutants whose first instinct is to attack and devour the nearest human, and Hideo runs for his life with only his sporting shotgun.
Hanazawa's manga ran in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits from April 2009 to February 2017 and was collected in 22 volumes. It won the Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category in 2013 and has more than 8.3 million copies in circulation.
Shinsuke Sato directed a live-action film adaptation that premiered at the Sitges Film Festival in October 2015 and was released in April 2016. The world of the series also continued in 3 spin-off manga, I Am A Hero in Osaka, I Am A Hero in Ibaraki and I Am A Hero in Nagasaki, and in the anthology I Am A Hero Official Anthology: 8 Tales of the ZQN. I Am A Hero in Osaka is set at the start of the outbreak and follows Tatsuo, a part-time manager trying to reach his girlfriend Kozue, who is stranded on an airplane at Kansai International Airport. Hanazawa's series has also appeared on FearHQ's list of favorite horror manga titles.
Vampire Hunter D: The Rose Princess
Dark Horse also reminded readers that Saiko Takaki's manga adaptation of Vampire Hunter D: The Rose Princess begins its release on June 29, 2027:
The story takes place in 12,XXX AD, when vampires rule over humans after a nuclear apocalypse. The frontier village of Sacri is a fertile oasis, but its ruling noble, an immortal vampire princess, feeds on the villagers at her whim. When a young man tries to stop her from biting his lover, she sends her 4 savage knights to punish the village, and the vampire hunter D stands in their way with the help of a rebellious young woman named Elena.
The manga adapts part 1 of Hideyuki Kikuchi's 9th Vampire Hunter D novel. Takaki's version began in Japan on Sonorama+ in July 2024, and Dark Horse picked it up at Anime NYC in August. Volume 1 runs 176 pages, costs $14.99, is rated 16+ and is translated by Kevin Leahy.
Kikuchi's novels, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, began in 1983 and now total 58 books with more than 17 million copies sold. DH Press began publishing the novels in English in 2005, Dark Horse moved to omnibus editions in 2021, and the publisher calls Vampire Hunter D the longest-running Japanese novel series in English translation. They became the 1985 anime film Vampire Hunter D and Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust in 2000. Dark Horse is also releasing Vampire Hunter D: Fortress of Blood, an original comic by Chris Condon and Filipe Andrade, with Issue #1 on February 24, 2027.
Did you read I Am A Hero the first time Dark Horse released it, and does the ZQN outbreak still rank among the scariest zombie stories in manga?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.