Thank you for your kind words as well as letting us know more books and such that are part of Usagi’s 25 Anniversary celebration. I hadn’t heard about the special poster or the MySpace comic. They both sound fun.

Roger

Sometime before I finished high school, I had lost interest in comics and quit reading or collecting them. then, a couple years after graduating, I stumbled upon Sergio Aragones’ new comic book series Groo the Wanderer at a friend’s place. Since I use to read and collect Conan comics, I was quickly hooked on Sergio’s fantastic version of the barbarian swordsman.

That’s when I discovered that there were still some good comics worth following, but Groo was the only comic which I enjoyed reading for a long time.

Finally, after moving within close proximity of a comic shop, I started noticing issues of Usagi Yojimbo on the shelves. Of course I knew Stan Sakai’s name from his contributions to Groo, but I had never seen any of the Usagi comics before.

Needless to say, I finally broke down and read some of Stan’s stories and very quickly became hooked. I have been buying, reading, and collecting Usagi Yojimbo comics for something like fifteen years now, having started around the time that Usagi made his move to Mirage and the run of color issues (which I really enjoyed since I love Tom Luth’s color work).

While my interest in reading Groo stemmed from having previously read Conan, my reading of Usagi actually spawned my interest in both samurai manga such as Koike and Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub, and in Samurai genre films such as Seven Samurai and Yojimo (to name just two of the more widely known).

Five years ago, when Usagi Yojimbo’s twentieth anniverary was being celebrated, Dark Horse released the totally fantastic Art of Usagi Yojimbo coffee table book.

This year, for the twenty-fifth anniversary, us fans get Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai, the twenty-third collection of stories titled Usagi Yojimbo: Bridge of Tears, the awesome two volume slip-cased hardcover omnibus from Fantagraphics called Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition which collects the first seven Usagi Yojimbo books.

Also, Dark Horse has issued a great Twenty-fifth Anniversary Usagi Yojimbo promotional poster which is supposed to be available at all the conventions which Dark Horse is attending this year.

After twenty-fifth years, Usagi Yojimbo (and Stan Sakai) have fially made their first straight to the internet web-comic appearance with the short story “Saya” published on the MySpace Dark Horse Presents web-site. And the short story “One Dark and Stormy Night” marked Usagi’s first appearance in a “Free Comic Book Day” publication back in May.

So much going on this year to celebrate twenty-five years Usagi Yojimbo, but then again, why shouldn’t there be? A black and white anthropomorphic comic about samurai and ninja? Too bad more comcis weren’t this good!

(Sorry for the long rambling comment)