that it is no longer the property of the author; it belongs to the readers." Two years later, Big Comics fourth issue of 2015 announced that the series was "heading towards its conclusion." Due to difficulties that arose from the restrictions implemented by the government to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, Golgo 13 began its first hiatus in its 52-year history in May 2020. It returned on July 7, 2020. Saito died of pancreatic cancer at 84 on September 24, 2021. According to Shogakukan, Saito said before his death that he wanted the manga to continue on without him. The Saito Production group of manga creators will continue its publication with the assistance of the Big Comics editorial department. Media Manga Written and illustrated by Takao Saito, Golgo 13 has been serialized in the monthly manga magazine Big Comic since its January 1969 issue, published in October 1968. The chapters have been collected into tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan and Leed Publishing, a spinoff of the author's own Saito Production, since June 21, 1973. As of December 2022, 207 volumes of the tankōbon edition have been published, while the bunkoban edition has 167 volumes. In 1986, Leed Publishing released four Golgo 13 stories translated by Patrick Connolly: "Into the Wolves' Lair", "Galinpero", "The Ice Lake Hit" and "The Ivory Connection". In 1989 and 1990, Leed and Vic Tokai published two further Golgo 13 comic books, "The Impossible Hit" and "The Border Hopper", as part of the promotion for two Golgo 13 video games. The comics were released to the US public via a mail-in offer with the purchase of the games and were later even found packaged with the video games. Each issue contained one complete story and had nothing to do with the storylines of the video games themselves. In 1991, Leed Publishing and Viz Media published The Professional: Golgo 13, a three part mini-series. The Professional was a re-printing of "The Argentine Tiger", a story where Golgo is hired by the British Government to assassinate the reportedly dead ex-president of Argentina Juan Perón. In 2006, Golgo 13 was brought back by Viz as part of their Viz Signature collection. The stories are picked from the forty-year history of the manga, and do not necessarily represent the original's order of publication. A total of thirteen volumes were published, with the thirteenth volume being published on February 19, 2008. Each