Gunslinger Girl Vol 8

There is a secret counterterrorism unit for the Italian government known only as "The Social Welfare Agency." Its mission: to rescue troubled girls and turn them into heartless cyborg assassins using the latest advances in cyber-technology. The newest inductee into the Agency is a second generation cyborg called Petrushka, who may just be the Agency's most powerful operative yet. Petrushka is given an impossible trial-by-fire mission, together with her handler Alessandro, to foil an assassination attempt. Can she prove she's got what it takes in an impossible mission she may not even survive?

After Henrietta barely surives the savage murder of her family, Italy's Social Welfare Agency takes her in and repairs her injuries using the latest in cybernetic technology. All traces of Henrietta's past are wiped from her mind as she becomes one of the Agency's most lethal assassins. Despite her progamming, Henrietta is troubled by fragmented memories. Her handler Jose must keep her feelings in check and ensure that she stays on mission; a task made all the more difficult by Henrietta's striking resemblance to Jose's late younger sister.

Innocence Lost.... Henrietta barely survived a brutal attack that killed her family. "Rescued" by the Social Welfare Agency, her injuries were repaired with robotic components and she was brainwashed - lost with the memory of her family's death was almost every trace of her own humanity. Today she is an extraordinarily lethal cyborg assassin, obediently working with her handler Giuseppe to carry out her deadly tasks. Despite her conditioning and programming, Henrietta still has the heart of a young girl; she has not completely forgotten how to love. Yet the very emotion is contrary to her training and programming. Can the Gunslinger Girl survive? Can she find peace in a struggle against her very nature?

The Social Welfare Agency in Italy is not what it seems. Yes, it rescues young girls who have been brutalized--but brainwashes them and transforms them into ruthless killers for an elite and secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government. Enter Henrietta, a young girl who witnessed the savage murder of her family and barely survived. The Agency takes her in and repairs her injuries using the latest in cybernetic technology, wiping her mind of all traces of her past and turning her into one of the Agency's most lethal assassins. Yet despite her programming, Henrietta is troubled by fragmented memories. It is her handler's job, Jose, to keep her feelings in check and ensure that she stays on mission. This task is made all the more difficult because Henrietta bears an uncanny resemblance to Jose's younger sister who died in a car bombing years earlier.

James Patterson presents a bold new heroine -- a cross between Katniss Everdeen and Annie Oakley: Serendipity Jones, the fastest sharpshooter in tomorrow's West. Seventeen-year-old Serendipity "Pity" Jones inherited two things from her mother: a pair of six shooters and perfect aim. She's been offered a life of fame and fortune in Cessation, a glittering city where lawlessness is a way of life. But the price she pays for her freedom may be too great . . . In this extraordinary debut from Lyndsay Ely, the West is once again wild after a Second Civil War fractures the U.S. into a broken, dangerous land. Pity's struggle against the dark and twisted underbelly of a corrupt city will haunt you long after the final bullet is shot.

The Social Welfare Agency: a secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government that rescues troubled young girls and turns them into cybernetically-enhanced ruthless killers who do the government's dirty work. Yet the child assassins are not as heartless as they were programmed to be. Henrietta struggles with her conflicted feelings towards her handler Jose, while fellow agent Triela combats her own inner demons as she strives to remember the girl she once was. Meanwhile, the clash between the Social Welfare Agency and the covert radical group known as the Five Republics continues. As the Five Republics targets one of the Agency's handlers, the Agency plans its own counter-strike that will pit Triela against the professional assassin and martial arts master known as Pinocchio in a rematch to the death.

The Social Welfare Agency in Italy is not what it seems. Yes, it rescues young girls who have been brutalized--but brainwashes them and transforms them into ruthless killers for an elite and secret counter-terrorism unit for the Italian government. Enter Henrietta, a young girl who witnessed the savage murder of her family and barely survived. The Agency takes her in and repairs her injuries using the latest in cybernetic technology, wiping her mind of all traces of her past and turning her into one of the Agency's most lethal assassins. Yet despite her programming, Henrietta is troubled by fragmented memories. It is her handler's job, Jose, to keep her feelings in check and ensure that she stays on mission. This task is made all the more difficult because Henrietta bears an uncanny resemblance to Jose's younger sister who died in a car bombing years earlier.

The Gunslinger Girl saga comes to a heart-pounding denouement as the scattered factions of the Five Republics have united together under the leadership of the terrorist Giacomo Dante. Utilizing a cache of stolen cruise missiles, the terrorists unleash a series of devastating attacks across the Italian Peninsula and seize control of the New Turin Nuclear Plant. Their demand is simple: send in the Social Welfare Agency or die. With vengeance burning in his heart, handler Jean Croce leads the Agency's assault, knowing full well that they are walking straight into Dante's mastermind trap--and that heavy casualties are inescapable.

Grand in its scope, Asian Comics dispels the myth that, outside of Japan, the continent is nearly devoid of comic strips and comic books. Relying on his fifty years of Asian mass communication and comic art research, during which he traveled to Asia at least seventy-eight times and visited many studios and workplaces, John A. Lent shows that nearly every country had a golden age of cartooning and has experienced a recent rejuvenation of the art form. As only Japanese comics output has received close and by now voluminous scrutiny, Asian Comics tells the story of the major comics creators outside of Japan. Lent covers the nations and regions of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Organized by regions of East, Southeast, and South Asia, Asian Comics provides 178 black-and-white illustrations and detailed information on comics of sixteen countries and regions—their histories, key creators, characters, contemporary status, problems, trends, and issues. One chapter harkens back to predecessors of comics in Asia, describing scrolls, paintings, books, and puppetry with humorous tinges, primarily in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan. The first overview of Asian comic books and magazines (both mainstream and alternative), graphic novels, newspaper comic strips and gag panels, plus cartoon/humor magazines, Asian Comics brims with facts, fascinating anecdotes, and interview quotes from many pioneering masters, as well as younger artists.