Key Graphic Novel with Drawing
Usagi Yojimbo: Book Two
Publication: Agoura, CA: Fantagraphics Books, 1989. First Edition.
Notes: The second of what would become 40-odd Usagi Yojimbo books. Collects Usagi Yojimbo comics nos. 1 through 6.
Usagi Yojimbo is one of the longest-running comics series written and illustrated by a single artist, spanning 250 comic book issues 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, a ronin, or masterless samurai). Rather than one continuous narrative, Sakai 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. The Netflix series, Samurai Rabbit, is based on Usagi Yojimbo characters.
Sakai (born Sutan Sakai in Kyoto, Japan, in 1953) was raised in Hawaii and lives in California.
See Rothschild, Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-length Comics, 209.
[4], 140 pages. Foreword by Mark Evanier. Rear cover blurb by Stan Lee, "one of the most original, innovative, well-executed comic books anywhere..."
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in wrappers (small color breaks at the corners, small spots of surface color loss on the rear cover). This copy comes from the collection of cartoonist Bob Foster, who drew The History of Moosekind for Marvel's Crazy in the 1970s and later worked for Hanna-Barbera and Disney Publications, among other animation and cartooning jobs.
Sakai signed this copy with a two-character drawing on the half-title page and a small vignette on the inside back cover.
The first printing is scarce; the book was reprinted several times and reissued in hardcover.
Item No: #366189
Price: $300