Usagi Yojimbo Spanish language editions

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 22:30 -0700

Starting in February 2007, Public Square Books will be publishing and/or distributing Spanish language editions of Usagi Yojimbo for sale in the United States. The retail Price is listed as $15.95 per volume. Appears to be the same editions published by Planeta-DeAgostini in Spain.

PUBLISHING SCHEDULE
Usagi Yojimbo vol. 1: Sombras de muerte (vol. 8: Shades of Death)
Publishing Date: February 2007

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 2: Daisho (vol. 9: Daisho )
Publishing Date: March 2007

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 3: Al filo de la vida y la muerte (vol. 10: Brink of Life and Death)
Publishing Date: April 2007

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 4: Estaciones (vol. 11: Seasons)
Publishing Date: May 2006

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 5: Segadora (vol. 12: Grasscutter)
Publishing Date: June 2007

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 6: Primeras andanzas (vol. 1: The Ronin)
Publishing Date: July 2007

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 7: Samurai (vol. 1: Samurai)
Publishing Date: August 2007

About Public Square Books
Public Square Books, a specialized publishing and book distribution company, is the first company to introduce a major line of Spanish Language graphic novels and Manga into the U.S. market.
Public Square works closely with Norma Editorial, the worldwide leader in Spanish language graphic novels, as well as other leading publishers in Spain and Latin America.

Public Square’s mission is to make a diverse collection of Spanish language graphic novels available to Spanish speakers, students of Spanish, educators and librarians. We currently offer over 150 titles, with 10-12 new releases each month.

Our publishing program offers something for everybody—it covers every age group and every genre from Anime to autobiography. It includes translations of English language bestsellers, movie tie-ins, and originals from Spain and Latin America. In addition to graphic novels, we also offer best-selling novels, art instruction series and children’s books.

For More Information Contact:

Katelin Trowbridge
Marketing & Sales Manager
Public Square Books
307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 704
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-604-0415
katelin@publicsquarebooks.com

Cosmo · Post by **Cosmo** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:30 -0700

Strange that the Spanish edition wasn't published in the right order. Isn't there a Latin American Spanish edition of Usagi yet ?

Similarly, I wonder if the French-speaking readers of Usagi in Québec prefer to read the French edition or the U.S. edition. They can have the two, I guess.

tayocham · Post by **tayocham** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:52 -0700

iQue bueno!

I'd actually pick one of these up. They're great tools for learning a new language.

Feadraug · Post by **Feadraug** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 16:00 -0700

About this edition, at first I didn't think this was Planeta's edition, but looking at the order of the books, I can say it's the same one.

I've always wondered why they didn't published the UY books in the proper order, but maybe I would have discovered Grasscutter much later.

Anyway, it isn't the first time Planeta DeAgostini does something strange and/or stupid...

But what beats me is that they're going to publish UY comics in Spain's Spanish if this is Planeta's edition. I mean, we're talking about the American continent and the Spanish spoken in all America is quite different from the one we have in Spain - the difference is bigger than the one between UK and USA English. Anyway, let's see what happens, but from personal experience there are lots of people from America that despise Spain's Spanish for no apparent reason...

And $15.95 per book? Quite expensive, in my opinion. I recall the most expensive book in Spain to cost no more than 9.50 euros.

Robweiller · Post by **Robweiller** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:41 -0700

Cosmo wrote:Strange that the Spanish edition wasn't published in the right order. Isn't there a Latin American Spanish edition of Usagi yet ?

Exactly the same thing happened in Poland. Books 1-7 were published by Mandragora from 2003 to 2005. The rest has been published by Egmont since... 2002! So, for two years, two different publishing houses were releasing different volumes of UY simultaneously! How awesome is that?

To make it even more interesting, Egmont decided to releases "Daisho" (9) first. Then "Shades of Death" and then "Brink of Life and Death" (10). Who needs the continuity, anyway?

That reminded me that "Glimpses of Death" premiered yesterday in Poland. Now please excuse me, but I'm off to a comic store.

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:47 -0700

Feadraug wrote: I've always wondered why they didn't published the UY books in the proper order, but maybe I would have discovered Grasscutter much later. Anyway, it isn't the first time Planeta DeAgostini does something strange and/or stupid...

Planeta DeAgostini first licensed the Dark Horse volumes, because they already had a relationship. When they discovered those books were selling well, they licensed the Fantagraphics books (volumes 1-7).

They had informed us they they wanted to distribute the UY books in Mexico, but I was unaware until now that the Spanish language books would be in the US as well.

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:53 -0700

Robweiller wrote: Exactly the same thing happened in Poland. Books 1-7 were published by Mandragora from 2003 to 2005. The rest has been published by Egmont since... 2002! So, for two years, two different publishing houses were releasing different volumes of UY simultaneously! How awesome is that?

This is what happens because I have two companies in the US publishing Usagi. Egmont had licensed the books from Dark Horse (volumes 8 and on). Fantagraphics forgot to inform us that they were negotiating with Mandragora for Books 1-7. Fortunately, both publishers got along very well, so there were no problems. In fact, they co-sponsored my visit to Poland.

The same situation almost happened in Spain. Fortunately, we caught it before negotiations were seriously underway.

Thomas Froehling · Tue Jan 23, 2007 14:29 -0700

Better to have two publishers who publish two different sets than having one publisher doing nothing, as it seems the case in Germany....

I mean, I do not depend on German Usagi books, and there are a lot of Usagi fans here who can easily do with the English ones; It's just a shame that some others are excluded from the pleasure, just because....

Well, the reasons of Schwarzer Turm for not publishing Usagi (although they could and should) escape me, so I am in no positon to blame anyone there. It's just so sad....

Feadraug · Post by **Feadraug** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 16:39 -0700

Stan Sakai wrote:Planeta DeAgostini first licensed the Dark Horse volumes, because they already had a relationship. When they discovered those books were selling well, they licensed the Fantagraphics books (volumes 1-7).

I recall that now... Thank you very much for the answer, Mr Sakai!

Well, now the books are being published in order from "Grey Shadows" after the last of the 'old books' - "Gen's story" - was published. In fact, the last book published - in order - in Spain was "The Shrouded Moon", so it means that in 2007 we'll have "Duel at Kitanoji" and "Travels with Jotaro".

Stan Sakai wrote:They had informed us they they wanted to distribute the UY books in Mexico, but I was unaware until now that the Spanish language books would be in the US as well.

I still find this a bit awkward because of the differences between Spain's Spanish and Latinamerican one. Anyway, let's see how it goes...