Below you’ll find the solicitations information and cover artwork for all of Dark Horse Comics comic book titles that were released on May 25, 2016. There are quite a few goodies on the list. Lobster Johnson and Death Follows are my picks of the week!
Last month, in my review of Usagi Yojimbo #143, I ended by saying that I predict that the next issue would have plenty of action. If I knew then what I know now I would have replaced ‘action’ with ‘violence.’ Usagi Yojimbo #144 is a violent, violent comic.
In the last issue, the ronin rabbit came into a new town and befriended Mitsui, an old, hardworking soy sauce brewer whose warehouse was being threatened by the local competition. Well, surprise, the thugs have returned in this issue. One of Mitusis’ staff is killed and Usagi sets out with an ineffectual sheriff to arrest the men responsible. They resist arrest. Swords are unsheathed.
For going on 25 years Stan Sakai‘s Usagi Yojimbo has been taking its anthropomorphized rabbit Samurai protagonist on adventure after adventure through Edo-era Japan while maintaining a steady rhythm of excellence in both storytelling and cartooning. Usagi Yojimbo #143 is no exception.
We find our hero in a new town and quickly embroidered in a new exploit defending the poor and defenseless against the powerful and bullying. It’s pretty standard fare for many samurai stories, or westerns for that matter. Sakai, of course, makes it worth our while with his richly detailed recreation of feudal Japan. When he sets the plot aside for a number of pages to take us on tour of a soy sauce brewery, showing us the process from soy bean to fermentation, it’s not tangential, it’s part of the fun.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
