Usagi Yojimo: Samurai and Other Stories Review: Fantastic

One of the biggest names in comic books is Stan Sakai. His comic, “Usagi Yojimbo,” has skyrocketed him to stardom and winning multiple awards. Usagi has even appeared in a few episodes of the 80s cartoon “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Dark Horse has released “Samurai and Other Stories” which is a compilation of the early “Usagi Yojimbo” comics. This compilation is a gem.

The main story is “Samurai” which is “Usagi Yojimbo” #1-6. There’s even an early version of the first three pages in this compilation. The comic is about Usagi telling how he started training, his hardships during training and everything that happened in his early samurai career.

Usually, a writer’s early work does not live up to the quality of his/her later works. “Samurai” isn’t the exception. It’s an interesting concept with plenty of action and introduces all of the main characters from the series nicely. The problem is it’s a bit too wordy and slow in places.

There are also stories collected from “Albedo Anthropomorphics.” These include “The Goblin of Adachigahara,” “Bounty Hunter” (“Critters #1”) and “Homecoming” (“Critters” #10-11.) These early stories are more like one shots seeing as how they did appear in a short story anthology. The best out of them is “Homecoming” where Usagi’s home village is attacked by a ninja clan.

In fact, all of the comics here, though not equally as amazing as the later comics, do have their own charms to them.

The first thing that stands out to many readers is the art, especially how Usagi looked. His face is completely different than what fans are used to seeing. His face looks a lot narrower than what it is now. The comics here also show Usagi with the design he has now. This is a great way to show the evolution of a character’s design.

Some of the extras are a comic where Sakai shows how a typical “Usagi Yojimbo” comic is made and an art gallery. The how-to comic is both informative and funny. Funny as in how everyone he shows his comic absolutely hates it. The gallery not only shows off artwork from the comics, but it also has rough sketches. Anyone who is interested in the comic drawing process will love these sketches.

“Usagi Yojimbo: Samurai and Other Stories” is a great collection of the first few “Usagi Yojimbo comics. The comics, along with a few extras, make this compilation a must for any comic fan as long as you can see through some of the minor shortcomings.