I just reread the last volume of Takehiko Inoue’s Slam Dunk for the first time in several years (no, not online – I have most of the series in French). I had forgotten just how good it is. The last three chapters only take thirty seconds of ‘real time,’ excluding the little epilogue, and it’s some of the most enthralling, dramatic stuff I’ve ever read. Other sports manga can become a little staid when key moments are dramatized to that extent, but Inoue makes it work. You feel the pressure of those thirty seconds, and every page turn is a thrill. For instance, after the page posted above (read right to left!), there’s a double page spread of the ball flying through the air, so you don’t see if it goes in for three pages after the shot. It’s also important to note that a big part of the reason such sequences are successful is that Inoue has been developing these characters for 30 volumes. You know who they are, and you care about whether they will win a basketball game that has been going on for six volumes or something. That’s another great thing about this comic, by the way: a six volume basketball game. That’s 1000 pages of comics. I mean, come on…that’s just making everyone else look bad.