Petition for a new Usagi Color Special!

[Casey Burns]

A few months back Steve Hubbel suggested something that would be a great idea:

Even neater would be for Dark Horse to collect all of the short color Usagi stories they have published in a second Usagi Yojimbo Color Special. It would make a nice filler issue while Stan has Usagi on hiatis while working on his "secret project"

I propose a Dojo petition rally (if Stan's game) to get Dark Horse to put out a 64-page GIANT color special, using the same production template as the new Dark Horse Presents.

All of the following stories collected in COLOR would be such a great book to have:
Return to Adachigahara Plain, Book Four Hardcover, 1990, 8 pages
The Guardian, Trilogy Tour Book, 1998, 8 pages
Netsuke, Wizard #97, September 1999, 3 pages
Tsuru, Dark Horse Extra, 2000, 4 pages?
A Lesson In Courtesy, Dark Horse Extra, 2002, 4 pages?
Saya, Myspace Dark Horse Presents 3, 2009, 8 pages
One Dark and Stormy Night, Free Comic Book Day, Dark Horse, May 2009, 6 pages
Cut the Plum, Myspace Dark Horse Presents 6, 2010, 2 pages
Buntori, Dark Horse Presents 7, 2011, 8 pages

That's a total of 51 pages, and I'm pretty sure that covers all of Usagi's color stories outside of previous color specials and the Mirage series. The DHE stories may need to be spread out over more than 4 pages each due to their original layout, so with that in mind, and with a table of contents and a cover gallery or pin-ups (or ads if needed), this could be a kick-BADWORD 64-page color special easily.

This could be such a great book! And it would be relatively easy to put together production-wise, since digital color files should exist for all of these stories (unless they've been lost, which I hope is not the case).

It would be a great way to sustain Usagi's presence in comic stores while the 47 Ronin project is in the works, and might be able to grab new readers who have ignored Usagi because it's not in color.

What do the rest of you think? Especially you, Stan?

[Steve Hubbell]

Sounds like a great idea to me, so sign me up or tell me where to sign to show my support for both the idea of a proposed petition and the new Color Special as well!

And I believe it is possible to post this same idea on Facebook with "likes" acting as the petition's signatures, with the proposal posted on the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo Facebook page as well as on Stan Sakai's Facebook page and on the Dark Horse Comics Facebook page.

[maichan]

Certainly sounds like a great idea to me!

[Steve Hubbell]

After thinking about this for a bit, I believe the two water-color stories (Return to Adaigahara and The Guardian) would be unlikely to be included since 1) they were originally published by Fantagraphics and Cartoon Books respectively, and 2) they were already reprinted in the "Art of Usagi Yojimbo" not all that long ago.

A nice alternative to replace some of those pages would be the full-color Nilson 2199 back-up story originally published by Mirage and which has never been reprinted.

And a new color story would make the book really awesome!

I propose a Dojo petition rally (if Stan's game) to get Dark Horse to put out a 64-page GIANT color special, using the same production template as the new Dark Horse Presents.

All of the following stories collected in COLOR would be such a great book to have:
Return to Adachigahara Plain, Book Four Hardcover, 1990, 8 pages
The Guardian, Trilogy Tour Book, 1998, 8 pages
Netsuke, Wizard #97, September 1999, 3 pages
Tsuru, Dark Horse Extra, 2000, 4 pages?
A Lesson In Courtesy, Dark Horse Extra, 2002, 4 pages?
Saya, Myspace Dark Horse Presents 3, 2009, 8 pages
One Dark and Stormy Night, Free Comic Book Day, Dark Horse, May 2009, 6 pages
Cut the Plum, Myspace Dark Horse Presents 6, 2010, 2 pages
Buntori, Dark Horse Presents 7, 2011, 8 pages

[coolray85]

I want to echo my interest and support for such a book!!and this nilson color story as a fit in for the already reprinted first two suggested stories?jeez, I have never known of their exostence at all, so I would LOVE this!!!;)
I hope that people at dark horse read this and follow this idea...

[Stan Sakai]

I doubt Dark Horse would be interested in publishing an UY Color Special. Most of the stories were published pretty recently.

I have other plans for the Nilson stories. Not in color though. They were published by Fantagraphics and Mirage back before digital printing. Most of the film was either lost or destroyed.

[Steve Hubbell]

I doubt Dark Horse would be interested in publishing an UY Color Special. Most of the stories were published pretty recently.

OOPS! Wish I had seen your message before posting this to the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo Facebook page.....

Oh well, maybe there will be enough response to get Dark horse to at least consider the idea for a minute....

[Stan Sakai]

I have not been able to log onto Face Book today. All I get is a blank screen.

Nice visuals of the color pages.

[Angilasman]

DH has been bundling recent stories from Dark Horse Presents into one-shots recently (the 3 Beasts of Burden stories, the 3 Concrete stories), so this isn't really that far fetched.

And it would make a good sampler of stories for new fans before the series comes back from hiatus. Usagi rarely provides opportunity for a marketing push because everything's so consistent (consistently good, IMO), but this might be a nice chance.

[Casey Burns]

I sent an email to usagi@darkhorse.com to see if it could spark interest from the Dark Horse folks. You never know!

[goosey]

I'll chime in also as saying that a collection of the old color stories, and maybe a new one would be fantastic! I know Stan is very busy, but a color annual or something like that would be perfect. I think I will also email dark horse about the collections...

[Steve Hubbell]

I was looking for something else and ran across this thread and decided it was worth bumping since it is relevant to one of the books for which Stan has received a 2015 Eisner nomination for....



.....I have to say that I was really happy to see this published.