Master Keaton, Vol. 3

Master Keaton, Vol. 3 is another great volume in the collection of Naoki Urasawa's early masterpiece that ran from 1988 to 1994. A prolific series with stories by Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki, it ran to 18 tankōbon volumes about Taichi Keaton (a half-Japanese archaeologist and insurance investigator), his adventures, and his family and associates. Unlike most popular manga series, Master Keaton is a collection of short stories with only minor overarching stories. There are, of course, recurrent themes.A lot of luck and consistency are involved in the stories; despite being in mortal danger repeatedly, Keaton never gets killed or badly hurt. A persistent bachelor, Keaton meets women but doesn't get involved with them. Although there are hints that he will get back with his ex-wife, this never happens. He is a boy playing in a man's world. He likes adventures to the point of being a poor scholar and professor, but you can't help but root for him. Enough is given and taken away that you want to read more, and I do. ****3/4

This book continues the stories, thought provoking, emotionally involving, and soul searing, that began modestly, with Volume 1. You learn things about out world and our selves with these fully developed characters, settings and art work. It's what I come to these for. Keep Going! More More More! A must buy, NOW!!!

Nice book and nice ship

Amazing!!

~3/5I did not read the second volume, but since this series is very episodic, I don’t think I missed too much. Perhaps something happened with his family and he lost his job in the second volume? Either way, almost all of this volume featured single-chapter cases.Since I prefer the chapters where Keaton is with his family, and there was only one chapter like that, I did miss it. There was another chapter at the end where he fools around with some friends, and that was a nice reprieve.Otherwise, Keaton travels around for insurance cases the rest of the book. There’s a lot of history, he sees some old friends, and he does a lot of good in helping save historic ruins. It’s a pretty slow series, very chapter-by-chapter based, with little real family or character progression. But it’s a good series, if you like this kind of thing. If you like history, if you like some mystery, and watching an older guy as he lives his life. I just don’t think that’s my kind of thing.A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, and Erik Jansen from MediaLab PR. Thank you so, so much![More of my reviews are available on my blog, Geeky Reading, to which there's a link on my profile.]