Stan Sakai (Author, Artist, Cover Artist) Ronda Pattison (Colorist)
Usagi Yojimbo #4 continues his tale to his friend Gen. (We had to wait a bit since the Pandemic affected some release dates at IDW). Picking up where we left off, Usagi is back to his hometown, ready to defend it from bandits. Once he almost effortlessly succeeds, he decides to present himself to his new to-be lord, Lord Mifune.
Immediately this lengthy origin story continues with the next part, once he has established himself as part of the guard of his new lord.
Stan Sakai goes to great lengths to familiarize the reader with the complicated, violent, and often fascinating story of feudal Japan. For a Ronin to be born, his lord must stand defeat, and for that, first, he has to be betrayed.
And this is what will happen in the Part VIII of Samurai. (I don’t want to do more spoilers).
As I′ve said before, all the battle scenes, all the swords, all the heaped piles of bodies portrayed here seem the easiest of feats, however, only Sakai is such as good an artist.
In the next installment we shall finally arrive to Usagi′s first and last great battle under servitude, The battle of Adachigahara, a place so famous in Usagi Yojimbo′s lore, that it even has some stand-alone stories that refer to it.
But we shall wait for the next installment in the series to arrive there…
This series are collecting the original early issues of Usagi Yojimbo, in full color.
′Usagi Yojimbo Color Classics Issue # 4: Samurai Part VII-VIII′ is on sale since July, 2020
AVAILABLE: July 2020
IMPRINT: IDW
PAGE COUNT: 32
COLOR: FC
DIAMOND CODE: FEB200675
Featured image by Stan Sakai, all images belong to IDW Comics
