Usagi Yojimbo turns 40 this year and Dark Horse is celebrating with a new anniversary collection
Jan. 10, 2024One of the stories will be published in color for the first time
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The new Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary Reader contains eight stories personally selected by Stan Sakai himself, one of which - ‘Chanoyu’ - is appearing in color for the first time.
The other stories in the collection include: ‘A Mother’s Love,’ ‘Blade of the Gods,’ ‘The Way of the Samurai,’ ‘Cut the Plum,’ ‘The Artist,’ ‘Buntori,’ and ‘Adachi’.
“Stan Sakai is not just a master storyteller, but a member of the Dark Horse family,” Dark Horse president Mike Richardson said in a statement about the new book. “We are so glad to celebrate Stan and 40 years of his beloved creation, Usagi Yojimbo, here at Dark Horse. I’m thrilled to offer longtime fans and new readers a fresh look at some of our favorite stories over the years, now in one new collection.”
Usagi Yojimbo first appeared in Albedo Anthropomorphics #2 in November 1984 before moving over to Fantagraphics Books a couple of years later, with a dedicated ongoing series launching in July 1987. Originally intended to be a human character, directly inspired by the life of swordsman and philosopher Miyamoto Musashi, he became a rabbit when Sakai casually doodled rabbit ears on one of his drawings.
The character hascrossed over with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesmany times and also spawned the sci-fi spin-off Space Usagi, whichreturnedfor a one-shot comic in October last year.
The Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary Reader trade paperback is published by Dark Horse Comics in bookstores on June 18 and arrives in comic shops the following day.
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Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.
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