First 34 Signed Limited Editions

Usagi Yojimbo [Complete Set of 34 Signed, Limited Graphic Novels]

Sakai, Stan

Notes: A remarkable set of all 34 volumes of the hardcover signed and numbered graphic novels in the collected Usagi Yojimbo series, many with original sketches and drawings and content unique to the limited editions. Complete sets, spanning three publishers and 28 years, are difficult to assemble, and even individual volumes from the first half of the series seldom turn up.

Usagi Yojimbo is one of the longest-running comic series written and illustrated by a single artist, spanning nearly 250 comic books (to date) over four decades. This is a young adult samurai epic set in the Edo period in Japan, with animals replacing humans (the title translates to Rabbit Bodyguard after the main character). Rather than one continuous narrative, Sasaki writes and illustrates vignettes, short stories, and novel-length sequences about his characters and their world. Sakai's characters have crossed over into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, another anthropomorphic samurai series, and have won a number of Eisner and Harvey awards. A Netflix CGI series, Samurai Rabbit, based on Usagi Yojimbo characters, premiered on Netflix in April 2022.

Sakai (born Sutan Sakai in Kyoto, Japan, in 1953) was raised in Hawaii and lives in California.

The collected Usagi Yojimbo volumes began as paperback originals issued by Fantagraphics books in the 1980s. As the series grew in popularity, earlier volumes were reissued in hardcover, and then as signed, limited editions.

After seven books, Sakai switched publishers and Dark Horse Books issued the next 26 volumes in the series. A few Dark Horse limited editions include unique content. All 33 volumes are introduced by someone connected to comics, including Sergio Aragones, Will Eisner, Jeff Smith, and George Takei.

In 2020, Sakai again changed publishers, to IDW. IDW issued volume 34 as a signed, limited edition, and then discontinued the practice.

The titles and print runs of the books included in this set are:

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
6-3/4 by 9-3/8 inches. Hardcovers in dust jackets. Signed and numbered on a bookplate. The limited editions include content not published in the trade issue. The first few volumes were issued after the books had been published and reprinted and they therefore use later printing sheets, with additional content added at the back.

1. The Ronin. 750 copies, with an added section of early sketches. First hardcover edition.
2. Samurai. 750 copies, with an added section with early sketches for the title story. Bound from second edition, second printing sheets.
3. The Wanderer's Road. 500 copies, with an added cover gallery. Bound from second edition, second printing sheets.
4. The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy. 1500 copies, with an added color story.
5. Lone Goat and Kid. 1000 copies, with an added illustrated essay, "How I Do Usagi Yojimbo."
6. Circles. 750 copies, with an added Turtles story.
7. Gen's Story. 500 copies, with an additional story.

DARK HORSE COMICS
6-3/8 by 9-1/2 inches. Hardcovers in dust jackets. Signed on a tipped-in page. A few volumes include unique content.

8. Shades of Death. 500 copies, signed with a drawing.
9. Daisho. 500 copies, signed with a drawing.
10. The Brink of Life and Death. 500 copies, signed with a drawing.
11. Seasons. 500 copies, signed with a drawing.
12. Grasscutter. 350 copies, signed with a drawing.
13. Grey Shadows. 400 copies, signed with a sketch.
14. Demon Mask. 400 copies, signed with a sketch.
15. Grasscutter II, Journey to Atsuta Shrine. 400 copies, signed with a sketch.
16. The Shrouded Moon. 400 copies, signed with a sketch.
17. Duel at Kitanoji. 400 copies, signed with a sketch.
18. Travels with Jotaro. 300 copies, signed with a sketch.
19. Fathers and Sons. 300 copies, signed with a sketch.
20. Glimpses of Death. 300 copies, signed with a sketch.
21. The Mother of Mountains. 300 copies, signed with a sketch.
22. Tomoe's Story. 300 copies, signed with a sketch.
23. Bridge of Tears. 350 copies, signed with a sketch.
24. Return of the Black Soul. 350 copies, signed with a sketch.
25. Fox Hunt. 350 copies, signed with a sketch.
26. Traitors of the Earth. 350 copies, signed with a sketch.
27. A Town Called Hell. 350 copies, signed with a sketch.
28. Red Scorpion. 350 copies, signed with a sketch.
29. Two Hundred Jizo. 900 copies, signed with a sketch.
30. Thieves and Spies. 575 copies, signed with a sketch.
31. The Hell Screen. 575 copies, signed with a sketch.
32. Mysteries. 575 copies, signed with a sketch.
33. The Hidden. 575 signed copies.

IDW
34. Bunraku and Other Stories. 750 signed copies.

Edition + Condition: First limited editions, signed by the author in each volume. All volumes are fine in a fine dust jacket; volume 32 has a small red remainder dot on the bottom edge of the pageblock. NB: Volume 34 is not shown in the pictures.

Publication: Seattle, Milwaukie, OR, and San Diego: Fantagraphics Books, Dark Horse Books, and IDW, 1993–2020.

Item No: #361042

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