Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hi Stan (and the rest of the Dojo).

My name is Kevin Freeman, a feature writer for the new upcoming comics magazine Comics Now! (coming in the August Previews).

For my first two columns, I am discussing the different sizes of these books and why publishers decide to publish a trade in a smaller or larger size from that of floppies.

Being a huge fan of Usagi, I was hoping that I might be able to ask you a few questions regarding this to be published in the first issue--particularly why you publish the Usagi trades in a smaller size than the floppies.

If you are agreeable to this, send me a private message, and I'll send a question or two your way.

Thanks in advance for your help, and sorry about asking through a message board. I'm not sure how to contact you directly.

Kevin Freeman
Comics Now!
www.iwantmycomicsnow.com

Actually, I can answer your question right here. The Usagi trades are in a smaller format than the typical comic collections, because when we started the trade collections, there was no graphic novel market to speak of.

The first UY trade came out in, I think, 1987. There was no viable graphic novel market, but trade paperbacks were popular with books like Kliban's Cats, 101 Things to do with a Dead Cat, Croakers, and a thousand other titles. These books were of various sizes, but larger than your typical paperback. We decided to follow this format. We stayed with this size even after the rise of the graphic novels. UY Book 21: Mother of Mountains was just published. Most, if not all, of the trades are in print.

France has the distinction of publishing the largest and smallest volumes. The first four volumes from Editions Paquet were published at the typical bande dessinee size--about 9x12". With the rise of the manga market, the books were reprinted and continues in the smaller manga size at a very affordable price.

Thanks for the quick reply, Stan!

Is it all right if I use snippets from this in my article? I'll be happy to send it your way so you can acknowledge whether or not I am using your quote appropriately.

K.

madman31 wrote:Thanks for the quick reply, Stan!

Is it all right if I use snippets from this in my article? I'll be happy to send it your way so you can acknowledge whether or not I am using your quote appropriately.

K.

Sure, use what you want.

I've been doing Usagi now for almost 23 years, and the collections have been coming out for the last 20.