This month saw the glorious halfway point on my epic journey and made me realise how small a number from the vast pool of incredible works 365 actually covers. I was worried about running out of things to read. Now I am worried I won’t be able to finish them all in time as I have loads of series I still want to visit.
This month we also had no Thumbs Down titles. I certainly wouldn’t expect any.
We had zero No Thumbs titles too. Thank goodness.
We had 24 Thumbs Up titles.
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 1- Ronin – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 3 – The Wanderer’s Road – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 5 – Lone Goat and Kid – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 6 – Circles – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 7 – Gen’s Story – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 8 – Shades of Death – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 9 – Daisho – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 10 – The Brink of Life and Death – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 11 – Seasons – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 12 – Grasscutter – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 13 – Grey Shadows – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 16 – The Shrouded Moon – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 18 – Travels with Jotaro – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 20 – Glimpses of Death – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 21 – The Mother of Mountains – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 22 – Tomoe’s Story – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 23 – Bridge of Tears – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 24 – Return of the Black Soul – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 25 – Fox Hunt – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 26 – Traitors of the Earth – Stan Sakai
Space Usagi– Stan Sakai
Blacksad: Somewhere within the Shadows – Juan Diaz Canales
Blacksad: Arctic Nation – Juan Diaz Canales
Blacksad: Red Soul – Juan Diaz Canales
This month we had seven Double Thumbs Up titles, more than ever before.
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 2 – Samurai – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 4 – The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 14 – Demon Mask – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 15 – Grasscutter II – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 17 – Duel at Kitanoji – Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 19 – Fathers and Sons – Stan Sakai
Blacksad: A Silent Hell – Juan Diaz Canales
There is not much I can say with Usagi and Blacksad being such magnificent works it has been a real pleasure.
My star was actually the commentary on Blacksad: A Silent Hell which taught me so much about art and gave me an even greater respect for hard working artists.
See you next month (maybe).
365GN
Great job on the Usagi Yojimbo reviews, it was fun reading your opinions on each of the books over the past month. I hope that you decide to make the committment of reading the twenty-eight volume Lone Wolf & Cub series by Koike and Kojima, one of the highest rated manga published and (IMO) the closest relative to Usagi Yojimbo in sequential art and samurai drama.
Unlike Usagi, LW&C is a single long story, even though the ealier books in the series are a lot more episodic. Eventually the stories become more and more intertwined leading up to the end of what has to be one of the best epics of love, honor, and revenge.
Koike and Kojima also published the ten volume Samurai Executioner (also translated / published by Dark Horse) which is also a very good look at feudal Japan with an emphasis on the justice system of the time, made up of mostly independent stories loosely connected by the presence of Kubikiri Asa, better known to Lone Wolf & Cub readers as Decapitator Asaemon.