Usagi Yojimbo

Created in 1984 as a supporting character for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stan Sakai'sUsagi Yojimbo has vaulted to the very forefront of iconic modern comics characters and is a perennial favorite amongst both children and adult fans. Stuffedwith engaging supporting characters, villains, and even a romantic interest ortwo, Usagi Yojimbo chronicles the action-packed wanderings of a masterlesssamurai (a "ronin") in feudal Japan -- as told with funny-animals. (If Pixarand the late Akira Kurosawa were to collaborate on a movie, it might very welllook like this.)For the first ten years of his career, the battling bunny was published byFantagraphics Books. In honor of his 25th anniversary, Fantagraphics is releasing a deluxe slipcase set collecting the firstseven Usagi books, including the earliest stories; the origin story, "Samurai"; "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy," a fullgraphic novel; and literally dozens more. With over 1000 pages of story, this is the complete, definitive, early Usagi.But that's not all This Special Edition (our third in a line of books revisiting Fantagraphics' most beloved classics, following Palestine: The Special Edition and Ghost World: The Special Edition) will also be brimming with extra material, some from the long-out-of-print hardcover editions of those first seven volumes, some brand new. Just a few of thegoodies are a complete full-color gallery of the more than 50 Usagi covers from that period (never-before-collected);many preparatory sketches, including Sakai's original first draft of the "Samurai" story; two "non-canon" Usagi storiesby Sakai co-starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (with whom Usagi also shared screen time in the TMNTs' TVseries); and an updated and expanded, long out-of-print and feature-length, career-spanning interview with Sakai fromthe pages of The Comics Journal.