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4.7 AVERAGE
4.7 AVERAGE
Stan Sakai is a master and it's in this collection you see him become one - from charming fun tales to epics with a personal focus - this is an artistic journey for one man and a series of trials for one samurai bunny. A staggering achievement in creator owned comics.
Usagi Yojimbo is a comic about a 17th century ronin (masterless samurai). He's also a rabbit. This is about as fantastic as you'd expect. Artist Stan Sakai is a genius, as he's also writer, penciler, and letterer. Sakai's beautiful imagery is heavily influenced by Japanese cinema such as Kurosawa. The cast of characters are all anthropomorphic – cats, pigs, rhinos, dogs – but it's not childish. Characters die, and frequently. Longer storylines have incredibly complex plots. At this point, there's quite a few collections of the series, and you can jump in at any point.
Such an amazing book. Sakai does a wonderful job telling Usagi's story and making me care about a rabbit samurai. Reading it in this collected edition was nice because there is a lot of character buildup and side adventures that kept me interested in the whole. If I read this in separate volumes, I probably would have been less motivated to read as much of the story as I did here. Especially with the early parts. It wasn't quite as polished and the characters weren't quite there. This collection allows the reader to see a lot more development that makes the story more impactful. I have to say that the art isn't my favorite, although it fits with the tone of the plot really well. It definitely grew on me the more I read.
Got this as a Christmas present from Amy. I'd read some, but not all of these stories before, the very start of Usagi Yojimbo's decades long run. If I had to distill what I think makes comics great, Usagi would definitely be a great place to start. Seeing them in giant size pages really does the art and stories justice here, and definitely something I'm glad to have the opportunity to go back to when I wish.
This two book set collects the Fantagraphics run of the Usagi Yojimbo stories in black and white. The box set is very nice, printed on heavy stock.
In addition to the stories, many drawn from Japanese mythology and movies, there are extras including a full color gallery of covers and an extensive interview from 1995 with footnoted updates.
Between this and the Dark Horse Usagi Yojimbo Saga collections, fans can have an almost complete set of the stories. I can only hope the few missing links and extra titles will be published in as good a collection as this.
In addition to the stories, many drawn from Japanese mythology and movies, there are extras including a full color gallery of covers and an extensive interview from 1995 with footnoted updates.
Between this and the Dark Horse Usagi Yojimbo Saga collections, fans can have an almost complete set of the stories. I can only hope the few missing links and extra titles will be published in as good a collection as this.
