JOURNEY TO THE WEST

The Chinese legend of the Monkey King goes full manga in the latest entry in the Manga Classics series.

This graphic retelling presents one episode from the multivolume source material. Tang San-Zang, the monk tasked by Buddha to go on a long journey to obtain sacred scrolls, confronts a puzzle involving cups of tea. He realizes that Buddha wants him to contemplate them and find his “own answers to enlightenment.” The monk sets off with his traveling companions: Sha Wu-Jing (“the sand monk who was not always an oni”), Bai Long-Ma (the “faithful steed who was not always a horse”), and Zhu Ba-Jie (“the pig monk, who was not always a hog”). They’re soon joined by Sun Wu-Kong—“the Monkey King who was always a monkey!” When Tang meets a village boy who’s been scapegoated for an extreme drought, he has flashbacks to his own past, when he was regarded as bad luck. The travelers use magic to restore water to the village’s dry well; later, readers learn of a source of the drought connected to Monkey’s complicated past and the celestial realm. The characters’ cultural and religious backstories are vast, and readers new to the legend may miss the full impact of certain moments. But the story’s entertainment value is high, igniting interest in sequels. The striking panels feature intricate details, bold colors, comedic expressions, and compelling composition.

An action-packed and visually alluring Monkey King adventure.