Broken Frontier

100th issues are rare in comics today. Books seldomly last half that long, even at Marvel and DC. It is even more unusual to see them at the ranks of the independents, even at Dark Horse or Image, due to lack of the deep pockets of a corporation backing them up.

Tomorrow brings the 100th issue of Usagi Yojimbo to be published by Dark Horse Comics. While this is an accomplishment in and of itself, the character has a history which extends back over 10 years prior to its first Dark Horse book. As a matter of fact, tomorrow’s issue is actually the 154th comic to feature Miyamoto Usagi as the title character.

Usagi Yojimbo, which translates as “Rabbit Bodyguard”, first appeared as a pin-up in Army Surplus Komikz Featuring Cutey Bunny #4, published in 1985. The first story to feature Usagi was part of the April 1985 issue of the anthropomorphic anthology Albedo.

The character was created by Stan Sakai, who, at the time, was best-known for being the letterer of the various incarnations of Sergio Aragonès’ Groo the Wanderer. Usagi Yojimbo stories are set in 17th Century Japan and, with the only exception being humans are replaced by animals, are slavishly accurate to the time. The clothing, weapons, and living structures are all historically correct and real world events of the era act as a background for the series.

Sakai writes, draws, and letters each Usagi adventure all by himself. The time and effort he puts into researching each issue shows that the character is a labor of love for him, a labor which he has been doing for going on 22 years. Miyamoto Usagi is a ronin, a masterless samurai, who travels Feudal Japan hiring himself out as a bodyguard.

He made three appearances in Albedo before moving over to Fantagraphics’ Critters series. After several appearances in that title, Fantagraphics published the first Usagi Yojimbo series. The title ran for 38 issues from July of 1987 to March of 1993.

While being published by Fantagraphics, Usagi crossed over several times with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This raised the profile of the rabbit, especially when the character was featured in the TMNT cartoon and even received an action figure in the TMNT toy line. Therefore, it was no surprise that Mirage, the company founded by TMNT creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, would become home to Usagi Yojimbo when the Fantagraphics series ended. The Mirage series lasted 16 issues and the company also published two volumes of the Space Usagi spin-off series.

In 1996, Usagi Yojimbo moved to Dark Horse and over 10 years later the title still has a home there. Stan Sakai owns the rights to Usagi Yojimbo and could publish the title anywhere, even self-publish it if he wanted to. But the relationship between Sakai and Dark Horse must have benefits for both sides for the title to last 100 issues there.

And Dark Horse is doing something special for the 100th issue: it will roast both the character and the creator, featuring the biggest names in the industry. Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson will start it off with a sequence drawn by legendary artist Rick Geary, and from there we will see everyone from legendary writer and artist Frank Miller to Sakai’s Groo cohorts Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonès to Bone creator Jeff Smith take their shots.

       

So, while tomorrow might be a celebration of the 100th issue of Usagi Yojimbo at Dark Horse, it is also a tribute to the enduring popularity of Miyamoto Usagi and the unending dedication, creativity and talent of Stan Sakai. The loyal fans of the series cherish the issue as a mark of respect for the creator and the character. But people who have never read any of Usagi’s adventures should pick the book up as well. Perhaps the devotion of the all-star talent shows to the title will convince you to hire the ronin for yourselves.  

Also out this week:

• Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham Crisis (Featuring Wolver-Ham) #1: Speaking of anthropomorphic characters and line-ups of all-star creators, the 80s cult character Spider-Ham gets a revamp one-shot. Written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by a who-who’s of comic talent—most notably Mike Wieringo, John Severin and Mike Allred—this book promises to poke fun at the recent major comic events at both Marvel and DC.

Fans of the character, and there must be a few out there who consider themselves Spider-Ham purists, might be upset by changing the menagerie of different animal parodies (i.e. Captain Americat, Hulk-Bunny) being switched over to only pork products. I guess Marvel thought a pig version of Daredevil would be funnier than the old deer version of the character.

J. Michael Straczynski (W), Various (A), Marvel Comics, $2.99. One-Shot.

• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #214:  This marks the final issue of the long running series. With the arrival of the similarly-themed Batman Confidential a few weeks ago, it would only be a matter of time before DC pulled the plug on Legends of the Dark Knight.

The series was started in 1989 as a showcase where top creators could try their hand at writing Batman. For over 17 years, the book has been home to some legendary writers and artists in the business who have crafted many memorable stories. Some of the A-listers who have worked on the title include Grant Morrison, Gil Kane, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis, Bryan Talbot, Michael T. Gilbert, Bruce Jones, Matt Wagner, Mike Mignola and many, many more. I can only hope that Batman Confidential can live up to this title’s legacy. 

Christos N. Gage (W), Phil Winslade (A), DC Comics, $2.99. Final Issue.

• Adventures of Spawn #1 Director’s Cut: I don’t think that we’ll ever see a Spawn Saturday morning cartoon. Somehow, the tale of a servant of Hell seeking bloody vengeance on Earth wouldn’t translate well to that kid-friendly time period. It might be just me, but I don’t think that would make it past standards and practices of the major networks.

However, Spawn fans that are curious to see what that might be like are getting the next best thing. This 48-page, full color special collects the original web comic that features the adventures created in an animation-like style. It also features extra, never-before-seen story pages, creator interviews and a look into the process of creating the story. 

Jonathan David Goff (W), Khary Randolph (A), Image Comics, $5.99. One-shot.

• Ghost Rider Finale: This is an interesting story, nine years in the making. This book was originally supposed to be Ghost Rider #94  (2nd Series) and was scheduled to come out in late 1997. It was supposed to wrap up that series, which was to be cancelled with that issue due to low sales. Unfortunately, pre-orders on #94 were so low that Marvel couldn’t afford to publish the issue. The series ended with #93 and a cliffhanger story. All these years, fans of the series never knew the resolution to that storyline—until now.

Marvel has reunited the art team of Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira to finish illustrating the long-finished script by Ivan Velez so fans of the series can finally get the resolution to that arc. The issue also features a reprint of Ghost Rider #93 to get people up to speed and other bonus materials.  

Ivan Velez (W), Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira (A), Marvel Comics, $3.99. One-Shot.

• Kolchak Tales: Frankenstein Agenda #1: Even though the Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series only ran for 20 episodes from 1974 to 1975, it has been kept alive as a cult favorite for over 30 years. Its rabid fan base fell in love with the show’s black humor and its tales of the supernatural. There are people who weren’t even born when the show was on the air who are familiar with it because these fans kept its memory going.

Carl Kolchak came to life in an unpublished novel, so it’s only fitting that his legacy continues on in print form. This is the latest series from Moonstone to feature the Kolchak mythos and seems to focus on an American version of the Frankenstein legend. 

David Micheline (W), Don Hudson (A), Moonstone Books, $3.50. Three-Issue Miniseries.  

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William Gatevackes is a professional writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife Jennifer. He writes periodic comic reviews for PopMatters and writes title descriptions for Human Computing’s Comicbase collection management software.