Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hi! New to the forum I had a question about the Usagi Yojimbo Saga collection. I started reading the Usagi comics back in 1991, well those few issues that where released here in Sweden.. 11 of them, then it got discontinued here So now when I saw these "Saga" books i thought that it was a perfect chance to read them again and finally read the rest of the story. But i noticed something strange when i got the first volume of the Saga..

My question is: Vol 1 of Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 1 does not start from the beginning? Why?

After som research it seems that Vol1 includes "Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 2#1-#16 and Vol. 3#1-#6!" why have them chosen to do this? why not start from the beginning, why skip chapters in the story?


Here is the first issue of Usagi released in Sweden featuring a nice artwork of Usagi taking out his anger on a defenseless candle. 11 Issues was released before it was discontinued in Sweden.

The Saga 1 doesn't start from the beginning because the first stories of Usagi Yojimbo were published by a different publisher (Fantagraphics). So, Dark Horse, the current publisher of Usagi, cannot include the first Usagi stories in their Saga books.
If you want to read the first stories, you can look for the Fantagraphics Usagi Yojimbo Special edition (these are two books , and there was a reprint of the soft cover version recently).
With this and the Saga books, you'll have a complete chronology of Usagi Yojimbo stories*.

*Yokai, Senso and Space Usagi will be included in a later book pulished by Dark Horse, similar to the Saga collection, if I'm not wrong.

And by the way, welcome here!

Welcome

As Eltanin says, the first seven volumes were published by Fantagraphics, and collected in a Special Edition. The first release was hardcover, and sold out pretty quickly, which is why a softcover version was also released as prices for the hardcover began to get silly (they still are to a degree). Technically the next 16 issues were published by Mirage (volume 2), but Dark Horse was able to licence them for use in collections, which is why they appear in Saga #1 book.

Thanks Mayhem and Eltanin! I will see if i can find the Fantagraphics Usagi Yojimbo Special edition to complete the collection Oh and i will need to get all the Saga Volumes too

Thermoptic wrote:Thanks Mayhem and Eltanin! I will see if i can find the Fantagraphics Usagi Yojimbo Special edition to complete the collection Oh and i will need to get all the Saga Volumes too

http://www.instocktrades.com/search/Usagi%20yojimbo

They have them at a nice discount. Good luck. Peace, maka