To mark the 40th anniversary of Stan Sakai’s samurai-rabbit epic Usagi Yojimbo, Dark Horse Comics is publishing Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary Reader, collecting eight stories, picked by Sakai, spanning four decades. The stories are colored by Emi Fujii, Tom Luth, and Ronda Pattison, and the 2006 tale “Chanoyu” is appearing in color for the first time. The other stories in the collection are “A Mother’s Love,” “Blade of the Gods,” “The Way of the Samurai,” “Cut the Plum,” “The Artist,” “Buntori,” and “Adachi.” The collection includes key moments in the saga and is a good starting point for first-time readers as well as longtime fans. The trade paperback, with a cover painted by Sakai, will be released in bookstores on June 18, 2024, and in comic shops on June 19, with an MSRP of $14.99.
Usagi Yojimbo has had several publishers over the years; Dark Horse Comics was the publisher from 1999 to 2019, when Sakai moved the series to IDW Publishing; three years later he returned to Dark Horse (see “‘Usagi Yojimbo’ Returns to Dark Horse Under New Dogu Imprint”).
Source: ICV2
