I was really surprised to read today that Usagi Yojimbo is moving from Dark Horse to IDW. (And also surprised to read about it in the NY Times. I never really thought of Usagi as being mainstream enough to warrant a NY Times article.) There’s more detail at The Beat.
I’ve been reading Usagi for many years. I gave up on the regular comic back when I gave up on all my regular books, in 2009 or thereabouts. I’ve been buying the trade paperbacks since then. I’m really surprised to see Usagi leave Dark Horse. Stan Sakai has been with them for almost 25 years.
I’m getting a little worried about Dark Horse. I hadn’t previously seen the news about them being mostly owned by a Chinese company now. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…) They’ve lost Star Wars, Buffy, Conan, and now Usagi. I guess Hellboy is the last big property that they still publish. (My idea of what’s “big” may be out of date and entirely wrong though. Their video game tie-in books are probably popular with the kids, but I’ve got no clue about that stuff at all.) I’ve always been a Dark Horse fan, going back to the days when they were publishing Boris the Bear. They’ve published a lot of great stuff over the years.
Anyway, I’m glad that Stan is still doing Usagi. It’s always been a great book, and a nice change of pace from most of the other stuff out there. And Stan has always been a really nice guy. I’ve met him at the San Diego con several times over the years, and gotten some of the early trade paperbacks signed by him.
I’m actually several volumes behind in my reading right now. I still haven’t read Senso, and I think I’ve got volumes 27 to 30 of the regular series on my “to be read” shelf. Maybe I should read one of those this weekend.