Stan Sakai’s long-eared samurai, Usagi Yojimbo, will return to Dark Horse this fall in a new miniseries, Usagi Yojimbo: Ice and Snow. The five-issue miniseries is part of Sakai’s Dogu Publishing imprint, which Dark Horse announced last fall.
“I’m very excited, honored and thankful to have my own publishing imprint with Dark Horse,” Sakai said at the time. “As the sole creator and owner of Usagi Yojimbo, this is a significant milestone. I’ve known Mike Richardson for more than 30 years and he is one of the pioneers and champions of creator-owned IP. As the industry continues to change, I feel he brings a unique progressive perspective.”
Dark Horse published Usagi Yojimbo for about 20 years, up until 2019 when it moved to IDW. That relationship did not last long, but did result in several Usagi-related projects, including color versions of the famously black-and-white title and a graphic novel featuring Chibi Usagi. This new miniseries will be in color, thanks to HiFi Colour Design.
The new miniseries will feature the ultra-creepy Jei as the villain, along with Usagi’s cousin/sidekick, Yukichi:
Usagi and Yukichi are still in the snowy mountaintops of Northern Japan, following Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo story arc, “The Green Dragon.” They are led to the hut of a strange hermit who allows them to spend the night at her home to shelter from the snow storm. Meanwhile, the maniacal Jei and his familiar, Keiko, are on Usagi’s trail when they stumble upon a bandit lair and subdue a band of cutthroats and thieves.
Check out variant covers for the first issue by Skottie Young and Paolo Rivera:
The first issue arrives in stores Sept. 27.