I picked up Drifters when I saw it was being done by Kouta Hirano. If you are unfamiliar with that name, you may be familiar with his work on the Vampire Manga Hellsing. Hellsing is a very cool manga and one in which many American audiences have picked up on quite well.
Drifters has an interesting idea to it, it’s basically a world of fantasy full of elves and goblins and such but it also has a bunch of random inhabitants. These inhabitants are called Drifters and they are real people from our Earth who at some point in their life disappeared and their bodies were never recovered. They were never recovered because when they disappeared they were taken to this alternate world to help wage the already existing war on this fantasy world. The main character is a Japanese Samurai named Shimazu Toyohisa who actually existed in the late 16th century. Some other famous people encountered in the book include Warlord Oda Nobunaga, the Carthaginian commander Hannibal, Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch and Joan of Arc.
If you read any of Hellsing you’ll find Drifters to have a similar feel, lots of cool action mixed with some subtle humor and even more action. The book overall was fun and a very fast read. Encountering a lot of historical figures is quite fun and seeing them hack and slash their way to victory is fun as well.
This book was put out through Dark Horse comics for 12.99