My Favorite Way to Read USAGI YOJIMBO! The Gallery Edition Book 1

[@ftloc]

Check out my video on the second Gallery Edition here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIfYc36OfLB6qZI

[@WalkingManComics]

Oh jeez, and then he picks up and displays book TWO!! Yes, please go through book two. How can we have too much Usagi!?

[@ftloc]

Well said, and I agree. Book Two coming up!

[@colossalsunny4653]

New reader to Usagi Yojimbo and after watching all of your videos I ended up purchasing/hunting down all the Saga volumes. Thank you for all the valuable information and I appreciate the time you put into this great content.

[@ftloc]

Thanks so much and I'm sure you'll love/ are loving Usagi Yojimbo! I hope you keep enjoying the channel as well! 😁

[@colossalsunny4653]

@@ftloc I've been going down the list of videos on this channel for the past two days. Love it.

[@Thierrothierro]

So true - the clean art really benefits from such a large format presentation. YES to Book Two and more Gallery editions!

[@ftloc]

Glad you enjoyed it and I'll tackle Book Two very soon! Anything specific you'd like to see?

[@lord-fish]

Just got to watch the video. What a amazing looking book and yes would love to see book two. You just can't go wrong with anything from Stan Sakai.

[@ftloc]

Thank you, and coming up soon!

[@JosephAlanMeador]

These are absolutely stunning. Thanks for sharing!

[@ftloc]

So glad you liked them (I'm assuming you caught both videos?) and yes, I think they're gorgeous 😁! Cheers!

[@JosephAlanMeador]

@@ftloc Yes, and I agree with the other video; the Tea Ceremony piece (Chanoyu) may be the greatest work of Stan's, and perhaps of all comics ever produced. I NEED these in my life! Thanks again

[@sleepyreader666]

Two of them...wow. Definitely want to look into the second one. Wonderful video.

[@ftloc]

Thank you! I’ll get right on the second book! 😀

[@zachquam]

Wow those are awesome. I’ve never even seen these before.

[@ftloc]

Dark Horse has a number of Gallery Editions of various comics, several of them quite out of reach pricewise because they're out of print. If you can grab one on a deal or get lucky on ebay (like I did for the second book here) I think they're wonderful and worthwhile additions to a collection.

[@stevehubbell90]

Great video about a fantastic book!

[@felixwalne3494]

These are so hard to find!! 😱

[@ftloc]

So I hear these days! Back when I got them, they were often available and decently discounted prices (from time to time)

[@Rangersly]

I have been a fan of USAGI YOJIMBO since the Albedo days. It's the only title that have remained on my pull list since the 1980's. But I will probably never own this book. First because they are very expensive, and I prefer to use my comic book budget on stuff I don't already have. I have pretty much every Usagi Yojimbo story ever published already. Second reason is that I'm not interested so much in the process of creating art. Still, it must be something to enjoy Stan Sakai's art on such a huge scale. In any case, thank you so much for sharing this with us. I'm looking forward to your video about volume 2. The only think I would like to see more of is: more pages! especially the sketch pages.

[@ftloc]

Your Usagi collection sounds great, I’d love to take a peek at it! I’m always torn re: art books. On one hand they’re gorgeous and usually oversized, on the other they’re not stories necessarily, and usually expensive. But the materials deserved for this kind of celebration get pricey I guess. But here not only do you have full stories on this great paper and in this size, but also very little sketchiness or incomplete material. So it essentially can work as an oversized volume with superb production.

[@zachquam]

Very curious with the move to IDW if they’ll reprint these in some form.

[@ftloc]

I’m wondering the same thing! I know they have Artist Editions so no reason why not!

[@mutton7891]

Looks beautiful! Would you happen to have the Lone Wolf & Cub Gallery Edition also by Dark Horse? It presents the last chapter of the series in full size scans if I'm not mistaken.

[@ftloc]

I do, and it does! It’s a lovely presentation of a great manga!

[@mutton7891]

@@ftloc Brilliant! Have you made a video about the Lone Wolf Gallery edition yet? Would love to see it.

[@ftloc]

Not yet, but soon, I hope. I wanted to make a couple of videos on Lone Wolf, one introductory and one about the Gallery Edition. I’ll take this as a reason to get cracking on it!

[@mutton7891]

@@ftloc Great, really looking forward to those videos. It is one of my favourite series ever and one if the most iconic too yet there aren't a lot of videos about it on youtube for some reason.

[@ta5777]

@@ftloc I'd be interested in this as well!

[@ivanostermann7644]

Hello again! If I were to get one of the limited ed HC. Which one would you recommend?. Take in to account I’ve never read Usagi before. Thanks 😊

[@ftloc]

Hello Doctor! Do you mean the Dark Horse Usagi Yojimbo Saga volumes, the individual HC volumes with signed plate, or these Gallery Editions?

[@ivanostermann7644]

For the Love of Comics the hardcover limited editions. But I just also saw that idw just published an oversized limited edition of the grass cutter storie and in very tempted by that. Is that story a good one for a new reader? Thanks Mr. Comic Guru! 😊

[@ftloc]

@@ivanostermann7644 definitely. It's often named as a favourite story, is taught in school and so on. It's just that if you're ever interested in reading from the start, Grasscutter does bring together characters and storylines from before. You may feel more of an impact if you've read the earlier stuff? But that's a small thing.

[@ivanostermann7644]

For the Love of Comics understood. In that case what volume of the limited hardcovers would you recommend for me to start.

[@ivanostermann7644]

For the Love of Comics understood. For now I want to purchase a book (a nice quality one, like the limited hardcover Ed) that provides a self contained good story. Which one of the 8 HC do you recommend? Thanks again

[@DevangSanghrajka]

Woooow! That's massive 😮😱😍💯

[@ftloc]

Isn't it lovely? The Nemo books remain the largest ones I own though.

[@nivinbasheer3736]

Have tried dororo by osamu tezuka, feels like usagi.

[@ftloc]

I haven't read that, I'll look it up!

[@ta5777]

Do you prefer Gallery Edition Book 1 or 2? Thanks.

[@ftloc]

Ow, that's a tough question. They're quite different - one being early stories and the second being the later style and complexity - but also like two parts of a whole, particularly with the 'How I draw Usagi' comic being split between them. If forced to choose, I might go with the second one on the basis of the stories included, but it would be a close one!

[@eduardocarvalho861]

Although this is a beautiful book, I have to say the art it's not my cup of tea. Maybe because it's a little bit similar to kids comics style, or because the characters are anthropomorphic in that way. I know, it's a superficial observation, and for shure, there are much more than meets the eye. Congratulations for the review.

[@ftloc]

Give it a shot, you may be surprised! The art is lovely, and rich and historically accurate, not that I would know, but the love and care is obvious. And the animals stop mattering as animals very very quickly. Like the TV show Avatar The Last Airbender, this is something I thought was for kids only, then captivated me with the storytelling and honesty in characterisation.

[@WalkingManComics]

I. Am. SO. Jealous!!!!

[@ta5777]

Which Usagi stories would be in your top 3? Would it be Grasscutter?

[@ftloc]

That's one of those perennially tough questions, isn't it? Especially with Usagi Yojimbo, where the quality has been so consistent across decades of stories, resulting in a wealth of options. I'm sure Grasscutter would definitely make my Top 5 stories, but I'd have to give this some serious thought. At the very least I'd like to separate one-shot stories from things that have two or more parts. Because having one list for both would be silly (and near impossible)!

[@ta5777]

For the Love of Comics True. Honestly, I liked many of the other stories over Grasscutter. The IDW artist select edition of Grasscutter comes out in a few weeks. I would have preferred some other stories to come out in that edition.

[@ftloc]

T a I think going chronologically The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy would be the first epic to bring together multiple threads and characters. The thing that Usagi Yojimbo does effortlessly in wind characters together , and Grasscutter does that magnificently, along with history and myth, so I see why it gets that treatment. But as I’ve said before, something like A Town Called Hell is also perfect Usagi for me, and even stories in which Usagi is only a bystander are great, so selecting a big expensive edition will always be hard. I guess they went for the most famous and most popular story to maximise reach.