spike spiegel 1998 - cowboy hero スパイク・スピーゲル, Supaiku Supīgeru

Hero of hit TV series Cowboy Bebop, and its spin-off manga by artist Yukata Nanten and house pseudonym writer Hajime Yadate, bounty hunter Spike is tall, skinny, and achingly hip. He and his ex-cop partner, Jet Black, roam around a solar system that’s a cross between kung-fu movies, Syd Mead futurism, and the Old West.

He has the hots for sultry mystery girl Faye Valentine. Girl hacker Ed and her cute Welsh Corgi, Em, the true brains of the outfit, complete a criminal dysfunctional, but united family that’s the twenty-first century successor to Lupin III. The hackneyed premise of the hired hands going from job to job, ripping off plots from U.S. crime shows in search of the next payday, is redeemed by the commitment of the creators to make a believable world for their all-too-human urban cowboys.

The manga is available in English from Tokyopop.