APR190591
(W) Stan Sakai (A/CA) Stan Sakai
Follow the adventures of rabbit ronin Miyamoto Usagi as he wanders Edo period Japan on his warrior's journey. In the start of this three-part story, Usagi becomes embroiled in a puppet drama where the players are not quite what they seem. Written, drawn, and lettered by comics legend Stan Sakai. Colors by Tom Luth (Groo the Wanderer).
The start of an exciting new chapter in the epic ongoing saga of Usagi, now published by IDW! Exciting retail incentive variants are offered for the serialized Usagi Yojimbo series for the first time! This series will be in all color.
- colored by Tom Luth
- 32 pages
- $3.99
- DIAMOND CODE: APR190591
The first issue sold so well that it went into a second printing, which features an all new cover.
Second printing cover
- 2nd printing release date: September 11.
Characters[]
Variant Covers[]
RI-A 1:10 retailer incentive
- Daniel Warren Johnson (cover artist)
- Mike Spicer (cover colorist)
RI-B 1:25 retailer incentive (pictured next to the Ragnarok half of the complete image)
- Walt Simonson and Stan Sakai (cover artists)
- Laura Martin (cover colorist)
- Part of a two-part cover that will form one image when joined with Ragnarok: The Breaking of Helheim #1 cover, co-drawn with Stan Sakai.
RI-C 1:50 retailer incentive
- Kevin Eastman (cover artist)
- Tomi Varga (cover colorist)
Exclusives[]
AOD Collectables
- Maria Caligari (cover artist)
- Run of 500 copies
- $9.99 CAD early bird pricing
- $14.99 CAD
Brave New World
- Chris Johnson (cover artist)
- Run of 1000 copies
- $20.00 (online)
- $14.99 (in store)
Collector's Paradise/Knowhere Games & Comics
- Mike Choi (cover artist)
- Run of 600 copies (regular cover)
- Run of 200 copies (virgin cover)
- Blank back cover (virgin only)
- $9.99/$24.99 signed (regular cover)
- $24.99/$39.99 signed (virgin cover)
- $34.99 unsigned regular/virgin set ($29.99 pre-order price)
Comics & Ponies
- J. Scott Campbell (cover artist)
- Nei Ruffino (cover colorist)
- color and virgin black & white covers
- Run of 1025 copies (color)
- Run of 775 copies (virgin black and white)
- $30.00 (color)
- $35.00 (virgin black and white)
- $60.00 combo ($55.00 pre-order)
Dogū Merchandising Just Sakai
- Julie Sakai and Stan Sakai (cover artists)
- Emi Fujii and Matt Enterline (cover colorists)
- Run of 500 copies
- $10.00 regular
- $20.00 signed (by Julie and Stan)
- $40.00 signed and remarqued (by Julie and Stan)
Excelsior Collectibles
- Alex Kotkin (cover artist)
- Ivan Nunes (cover colorist)
- Run of 500 copies
- $25.00 (online)
- $20.00 (in store)
Frankie's Comics
- Mike Vasquez (cover artist)
- Run of 500 copies
- $15.00
HeroesCon
- Charles Vess (cover artist)
- color and black & white covers
- Run of 750 copies (color)
- Run of 500 copies (black and white)
- $15.00 (color) / ($10 preorder)
- $15.00 (black and white)
IDW SDCC
- Walt Simonson and Stan Sakai (cover artists)
- Laura Martin (cover colorist)
- virgin cover version of the 1:25 retailer exclusive
- part of an SDCC exclusive 2-pack that includes Ragnarok: The Breaking of Helheim
- the two covers form one piece of art, jointly drawn by Simonson and Sakai
- back cover features the same artwork in black and white
- Run of 500 copies.
- $20
Incredible Con/Nashville Comic Con
- Linh Nguyen (cover artist)
- While listed as an "Incredible Con" exclusive, it wasn't made available at that show. A Kickstarter campaign for next year's Nashville Comic Con was launched in October and was successfully funded, with this cover offered at a $25 reward level. The comics began shipping Dec. 2nd.
- Run of 500 copies.
- $25.00 (through Kickstarter)
Jak's
- Tessa Rose (cover artist)
- virgin cover
- Run of 1000 copies
- $20.00
Legends Comics & Games Fresno
- Buzz (cover artist)
- Brittany Peer (cover colorist)
- Run of 144 copies (originally 500 copies)
- Approximately 400 of the 500 copies arrived damaged, so only 100 copies or so are being made available in undamaged condition. The rest were returned to be destroyed and reprinted. Update: the reprints were also damaged, so (according to the Legends webstore) the total print run being sold for this variant is 144 copies, though at this time (Sept. 2019), only copies with very minor creases that would likely prevent them from grading at a 9.8 or 9.6 CGC are available.
- $25.00 ($20.00 pre-sale ending 5/31), $30.00 (for remainder of comics with minor imperfections after subsequent print runs didn't solve the damage problem)
New England Comics
- Ian Nicholas (cover artist)
- Run of 500 copies
- $9.99 (online)
- $7.99 (in store)
Other Realms
- Stan Sakai (artist)
- Tom Luth (colorist)
- Run of 500 copies
- $15.00
Signing Tour/SDCC
- Stan Sakai (artist)
- Tom Luth (colorist)
- Run of 500 copies (50 per store for the six stores on the signing tour, plus allotment for SDCC). HeroesCon was supposed to be part of the signing tour, but copies were not available in time for that show.
- $10
Sketch Variant
- Stan Sakai exclusive
- Cover paper specifically chosen by Stan Sakai after testing a variety of comic book cover paper stocks to see how well they worked with his watercolors
- Run of 1000 copies
- $20.00 (at early conventions)
- $25.00 (at stansakai.com webstore and later conventions)
- $75.00 basic head sketch
- $175.00 full figure sketch
- starting at $325.00 fully inked commission
- starting at $425.00 fully inked and colored commission
Slab City Comics
- Stan Sakai (artist)
- Tom Luth (colorist)
- virgin cover
- Run of 200 copies (was originally 600, but the number was lowered for the corrected, undamaged run)
- Comes with a COA
- original run all arrived damaged, so it is being reprinted, delaying the release
- second run were all damaged as well, but the cause has been found, so a third printing to replace those is in progress as of 7/25/19. Due to the delay, IDW let them reduce their order size.
- third print run (of 200 copies) was successful and delivered to Slab City the first week of September
- £9.95
Vault Collectibles
- Stan Sakai (artist)
- Tom Luth (colorist)
- Run of 150 copies (originally 500 copies)
- Run arrived damaged, so is being reprinted. Like Slab City, the second run also arrived all damaged so IDW allowed them to lower the print total for the third run, which was finally delivered undamaged.
- $19.99 (pre-order), $39.99 (after third run, resulting in a greatly reduced print quantity)
Sales Charts[]
Issue #1 debuted at #61 on the sales charts with 29,343 copies sold; a new high for the title.