General discussion about Usagi Yojimbo, the comics, the stories, the characters, collectibles, TV appearances, Stan Sakai, Space Usagi, Nilson & Hermy, and all other related topics.
... hmmm, I wonder if the plan is to do every issue or to just do a sort of 'best of' smattering and save some of the color versions of certain stories for the eventual color collections? That cover makes me think that this is indeed Samurai Part 1.
Angilasman wrote:... hmmm, I wonder if the plan is to do every issue or to just do a sort of 'best of' smattering and save some of the color versions of certain stories for the eventual color collections? That cover makes me think that this is indeed Samurai Part 1.
The wording of the original announcement, "IDW Publishing will revisit some of the most memorable adventures of Miyamoto Usagi..." leads me to believe these will be a 'best of', with them hopefully following through with the promise to reprint everything as color collections. For the complete run color reprints, I'd expect something like trade paperback sized releases or something similar to the IDW TMNT ongoing collection volumes that contain approximately 2 trades worth of material in each hardcover (the latter being my preference, as I like the larger than tbp dimensions and prefer hardcovers over softcovers).
Angilasman wrote:... hmmm, I wonder if the plan is to do every issue or to just do a sort of 'best of' smattering and save some of the color versions of certain stories for the eventual color collections? That cover makes me think that this is indeed Samurai Part 1.
The wording of the original announcement, "IDW Publishing will revisit some of the most memorable adventures of Miyamoto Usagi..." leads me to believe these will be a 'best of', with them hopefully following through with the promise to reprint everything as color collections. For the complete run color reprints, I'd expect something like trade paperback sized releases or something similar to the IDW TMNT ongoing collection volumes that contain approximately 2 trades worth of material in each hardcover (the latter being my preference, as I like the larger than tbp dimensions and prefer hardcovers over softcovers).
Yeah, I recall when reading the original announcement, that I thought to myself that it was odd they said "some of the most memorable adventures".
My first reaction was, "oh no, then this won't be a complete reprint in color?"
I'm spot on with your preferences Jabba, that's what I'd like to see, eventually.
The plan is for ALL the Usagi stories to be colored. We chose to begin with Samurai because it really is Usagi’s origin story and Goblin of Adachigahara, the first story published, will be revisited in next month’s issue 6. It seemed Redundant to present that story so soon.
The first trade featured mostly shorter stories. Since the Fantagraphics run of the series we’re mostly 20 pages, the early stories in Book 1 will be used as fillers to extend the page count.
The IDW color stories will first be printed as comic books to help recoup the costs of coloring, as they did with the early TMNT stories, then those stories will be collected in graphic novels. The comic series will be cancelled when it no longer becomes cost effective. From then it will appear only as GN, though not on a regular schedule, as would be the case when it first comes out as comics.
Stan Sakai wrote:The plan is for ALL the Usagi stories to be colored. We chose to begin with Samurai because it really is Usagi’s origin story and Goblin of Adachigahara, the first story published, will be revisited in next month’s issue 6. It seemed Redundant to present that story so soon.
The first trade featured mostly shorter stories. Since the Fantagraphics run of the series we’re mostly 20 pages, the early stories in Book 1 will be used as fillers to extend the page count.
The IDW color stories will first be printed as comic books to help recoup the costs of coloring, as they did with the early TMNT stories, then those stories will be collected in graphic novels. The comic series will be cancelled when it no longer becomes cost effective. From then it will appear only as GN, though not on a regular schedule, as would be the case when it first comes out as comics.
Dear Stan,
That is so interesting. I love the BTS bits of knowledge. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to picking these stories in color and rereading them. It might be interesting to read the “new” colorized comics next to the B&W stories together.
Question: Will the reprinted in color comics have new covers, a mixture of old and new, or just old covers?
The early days of Usagi were before my time. It's going to be an awful lot of fun revisiting these stories in something approximating the 'classic' way of picking up single issues at the local comic shop!
Maka wrote:
Question: Will the reprinted in color comics have new covers, a mixture of old and new, or just old covers?
Peace, maka
Right now we are doing new covers. The first issue will have a one page Chibi gag. We would like to continue Chibi Usagi shorts but don’t know if we can because Julie has a couple big projects, one of which comes out at the beginning of May (hint).
After reading the first issue, I have to say, Ronda Pattison did an excellent job coloring it. It definitely has me excited to see more of these classic stories in full color. There was a major coloring surprise for me, which is Kenichi being brown. I guess I had always imagined he had white fur. I do have a question for Stan, which is: How much input do you give for color? Was Kenichi being brown something you requested, or was it an unexpected thing that you decided to keep?
Speaking of coloring, Emi did great with the one page Funhouse story. So please give her my compliments on a job well done. She's also coloring the Free Comic Book Day issue, right? I wonder if her coloring Chibi Usagi is setting a precedent for maybe having her color Julie's upcoming Chibi Usagi book as well?
jabba359 wrote:How much input do you give for color? Was Kenichi being brown something you requested, or was it an unexpected thing that you decided to keep?
Speaking of coloring, Emi did great with the one page Funhouse story. So please give her my compliments on a job well done. She's also coloring the Free Comic Book Day issue, right? I wonder if her coloring Chibi Usagi is setting a precedent for maybe having her color Julie's upcoming Chibi Usagi book as well?
Kenichi's brown coloring was a bit of a surprise to me as well when I received the coloring for approval. I never thought of him as being brown, but decided to keep it. I don't want all the rabbits in Usagi to be white. I don't want people to think I'm a White (Rabbit) Supremist.
Thank you for your very kind words about Emi's coloring. She actually did that when she and I were in Italy in October/November. The last two panels did not have any backgrounds at all, but she took it upon herself to drop in the background from panel 1. It's so easy on a computer! She did an awesome job on the FCBD story and will be coloring the Chibi graphic novel.
Stan Sakai wrote:Thank you for your very kind words about Emi's coloring. She actually did that when she and I were in Italy in October/November. The last two panels did not have any backgrounds at all, but she took it upon herself to drop in the background from panel 1. It's so easy on a computer! She did an awesome job on the FCBD story and will be coloring the Chibi graphic novel.
It seems the Sakais are the ultimate comic book family!
I have to wait to until this weekend to pick up my copy of the book, and I'm very much looking forward to it.
Stan Sakai wrote:Kenichi's brown coloring was a bit of a surprise to me as well when I received the coloring for approval. I never thought of him as being brown, but decided to keep it. I don't want all the rabbits in Usagi to be white. I don't want people to think I'm a White (Rabbit) Supremist.
I noticed with the 35 Years of Covers book that there was less consistency than I had thought with character's colors over time. Kitsune and Inspector Ishida could be a deep red brown and yellowish brown, respectively, only to pop up again in much lighter shades.
And, as you allude to, you don't want to fall into the trap of making something come across as racial in an unintended way.
