Ax was a manga magazine similar to Juxtapoz or Heavy Metal, but a bit cruder and more subversive--at least for Japan. It was born from the ashes of the more adult and social/political manga magazine Garo when one of its founders died. In the same spirit of pushing the boundaries of what manga is and what types of art, stories, characters and ideas manga is capable of. The results aredefinitely a mixed bag. Some of these I quite liked, a fair number of other ones I didn't much like or I was indifferent to. But certainly a good collection if you want to get an idea of what, as the title suggests, "alternative" manga is like. NSFW at all! Keep that in mind if you are reading this in public, a majority of the comics have nudity and/or sex and not really censored either.