Back in November of 2015, I mailed the majority of my Usagi collection to a bookbinder to get 5 custom volumes made: 2 volumes making up the full run of Fantagraphics, a volume of the full run at Mirage, a volume of Space Usagi + Senso, and finally a volume collecting every color story by Stan (Usagi and otherwise) that I know of.
The binder finished the work and shipped them back my way in December, and then the package never arrived. It was sent via USPS, and tracking followed it as far as "out for delivery" but it was never actually delivered. I've tried a million angles with the post office over the last 6 months with no luck. The books look to be lost forever. The binders (Herring and Robinson) are amazing and are offering to refund my entire order. Nothing but praise for them. Major disappointment with the USPS.
I'm posting here for two reasons. One, to share an image of the spine layouts, so if any of you ever come across these for sale on eBay or elsewhere, you might contact me here with the info, so I can send it to the Postal Inspector to investigate mail theft.
As Usagi has a fairly small audience, I'm pretty sure the books are lost, and not the object of theft, but just in case, here's what the five missing books look like on the spines:
The second reason I'm posting is to try to rebuild my collection and get them bound again!
It's a major bummer to be out so many books, many of which I bought new, all the way back to 1986. But I've been slowly replacing all of them, and recently got most of the Fantagraphics run.
What I am missing is listed below. If anyone has a pile of extra books they'd like to sell at cover price (trying to keep cost down), please let me know!
Fantagraphics:
Summer Special #1
First series #1 first printing
Color Specials #1, 2, 3
Mirage:
Full run of #1-16
Space Usagi:
Vol 2 #1, 2, 3 (the color issues)
Dark Horse:
Color Special #4
Other color stories:
Wizard 97
Nocturnals Troll Bridge
Fish Police 14
Doomsday Squad 3
Grimjack 30
Trilogy II Tour Book
Dark Horse Star Wars Clone Wars 2009 Free Comic Book Day
Strange Tales 3
Buntori, Dark Horse Presents 7
The Artist, Parts 1 and 2, Dark Horse Presents 35, 36 2014
TMNT archie special
Once I've been able to re-collect and bind all these books, I'm planning to move on to binding the Dark Horse run. I'm missing these books to make that happen, so if anyone wants to sell, please get in touch.
Vol 3 #90-101, 136 B 25 years DH cover
Okay, that's all. Sad comic nerd story. Thanks for listening, and please let me know if you have any books for sale!
Casey
