A disgraced outcast samurai living in early seventeenth-century Manila, Kitazume is contemplating ritual suicide when a divine force (of a sort) intervenes: Luis, a rogue Jesuit priest and Kitazume’s longtime friend. At Luis’s insistence, the samurai agrees to help smuggle a Manchu princess to Mexico. But little does he know that he’s really been dragged into an epic struggle for power.
Several forces have their malicious sights set on the New World’s rich silver mines: an insurgent Spanish duke, Chinese political interests, and the escaped African slaves known as the cimarrónes.And working in secret among them is a mysterious, long-lost order that has its own plans for the precious metal.
As politics and greed collide, Kitazume must call upon his deadly skills once more. But he’s not just fighting to save his friends—he’s fighting for the redemption he so desperately craves.
Foreworld founders Neal Stephenson and Mark Teppo—joined by authors Charles C. Mann and Ellis Amdur, and illustrator Robert Sammelin—forge a comic series with adventure, betrayal, and a samurai’s relentless blade.
Choreography for Cimarronin, Book 4 – On Sub-Saharan African Warfare
Amdur explains the choreographic process behind designing a fight sequence for the character Catumbuque in the graphic novel Cimmaronin. Amdur emphasizes that martial movements are deeply culturally bound and must reflect the specific historical context of the character.
Choreography for Cimarronin, Book 5 – On Chinese Curved & Straight-Sword Fighting
A collaboration between Amdur and Andrew Shinn devising a plausible semi-combat between brother-and-sister characters, a counter-thrust sequence that transitions into a close-quarters struggle, ending with a surprise knife attack behind the back. In a second sequence for the illustrator, we see a draw typical of Yakumaru-ha Jigen-ryū nodachi.
