Usagi Yojimbo Ice and Snow #1 | Writer, Artist, Cover Artist: Stan Sakai | Colorist: HiFi Colour Design
First published in 1984, and continuing to this day, Usagi Yojimbo is one of the longest independent serialized comic book series in existence.
It has, understandably, gone back and forth between publishing houses in that time — -39 years is a lot — -recently returning to Dark Horse. As Stan Sakai himself says:
Usagi Yojimbo is one long epic of this hero’s life from childhood to the present, almost forty years so far. Regardless of the publishers, his stories follow a single continuity from thoughts and Images, to Fantagraphics, Mirage, Dark Horse, IDW, and now back to Dark Horse. He has matured a lot over those years — physically, spiritually, and emotionally. He is no longer the brash, impulsive young samurai, but an older, wiser, and somewhat jaded warrior.
Now, happily back, we carry on from last year’s story arc, The Green Dragon, with both Usagi and his nephew Yukichi still on the snowy mountaintops of Northern Japan.
After defending themselves from bandits, Usagi feels a strong command, like a summon, that leads to the hut of a strange hermit woman.
Unable to escape the cold, they stay after accepting the strange woman’s invitation to spend the night. Meanwhile, the weird and demonical Jei and his familiar, Keiko, are on Usagi’s trail when they stumble upon a bandit lair. Cutthroats and thieves may feel themselves to be a menace, but nothing can be taken for granted in Usagi’s world — -quite the contrary!
Usagi Yojimbo- Ice and Snow #1 is available on September 27, 2023.
Genre: Action/Adventure, Kids
Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries
Price: $4.99
UPC: 7 61568 01096 1 00111
Featured image by Stan Sakai, all images belong to Dark Horse Comics
.
