Rocket Bomber - article - found - comics - Found -- Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai

Found:

Full-color Hardcover Original Graphic Novel featuring a stand-alone story of my second favorite rabbit*

From the source and font of all Usagi

Update: This year also marks the 25th anniversary of ‘Usagi Yojimbo, ‘and probably the coolest of all the various anniversary events Stan and I have planned is ‘Yokai,’ a hardcover original graphic novel, fully painted by Stan! Yokai are the monsters, demons, and spirits of Japanese folklore, so they are perfect subjects for a Usagi story in which every page is a color painting. Previews coming soon, but for now check out the awesome cover painting (4.6MB full size scan available here). Pages 26 and 27 also available in full size!

Dark Horse is planning a new, fully painted 57 page graphic novel to celebrate UY’s 25th anniversary. It will take Stan a full three months to write, draw, and paint it, so expect it in fall of 2009. He’s debating between a couple of stories for this one—the return of Jei, or Sasuke and obakemono monsters. He’s leaning toward Sasuke because it would be fun to draw all those obake from the scary stuff to the goofy ones.

I love full color, hand painted art. I love the effort and passion Sakai is willing to put into this work, and I’m sure I’ll love the final product.

[and allow me a moment to correct an earlier error — granted, it was an error I made by linking to and copy-pasting from the Amazon description of the title, but I should have known better — by directing curious readers to the Official History & FAQ of the Rabbit Ronin in question.]

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• Max of Purcell’s Sam & Max will always be my all-time favorite lagomorph. I appreciate Miyamoto Usagi on a completely different level, and in this case, there is no shame in coming in second.

included image ©2009 Stan Sakai, ganked from his website.