Critters #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCritters #1 (July 1986) stands as the founding issue of Fantagraphics' flagship anthropomorphic anthology — the series that, before Furrlough and Genus came along, held the record as the longest-running talking-animal anthology in American comics. Its debut gave Miyamoto Usagi his first Fantagraphics platform and introduced Murakami 'Gen' Gennosuke, the gruff rhinoceros bounty hunter who would become one of the most enduring supporting characters in Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo universe. By gathering Sakai alongside Steve Gallacci and Joshua Quagmire under one roof, the issue announced that creator-owned, black-and-white independent anthologies could sustain ambitious, tonally varied storytelling — a demonstration with real consequence for the mid-1980s indie comics scene.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Critters was conceived and edited by Kim Thompson at Fantagraphics Books, where it served as the centerpiece of the publisher's broader line of anthropomorphic titles throughout the 1980s. The debut issue arrived in the summer of 1986 — right in the thick of the post-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles black-and-white boom — and reportedly became Fantagraphics' best-selling black-and-white comic at the time, moving approximately 14,000 copies. The cover was a collaborative effort credited to Sakai, Gallacci, and Quagmire, and the series logo was designed by Freddy Milton and rendered by Ingo Milton. Gallacci's contribution, 'Birthright,' functioned as an indirect sequel to his 'Erma Felna: EDF' series from Albedo Anthropomorphics, effectively threading the Fantagraphics anthology into the wider independent sci-fi/furry comics ecosystem of the era.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Contains three anchor strips: Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo story 'Bounty Hunter,' Joshua Quagmire's Cutey Bunny story 'The Day After Forever,' and Chapter One of Steve Gallacci's 'Birthright.'
- First appearance of Murakami 'Gen' Gennosuke — an anthropomorphic rhinoceros bounty hunter and one of Usagi Yojimbo's most prominent recurring supporting characters — introduced in the 'Bounty Hunter' story.
- Miyamoto Usagi's appearance here is an early Fantagraphics outing for the character; his true first appearance was in Albedo Anthropomorphics #2 (1984), and Critters served as a key serialization vehicle before his own Fantagraphics ongoing series launched in July 1987.
- The 'Bounty Hunter' Critters #1 story was later collected in Usagi Yojimbo Book 1: The Ronin (Fantagraphics), alongside material from Albedo #2–4, the Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special, and The Doomsday Squad #3.
- Gallacci's 'Birthright' is set in a dystopian future that functions as an indirect sequel to his 'Erma Felna: EDF' continuity from Albedo Anthropomorphics.
- Cutey Bunny, created by Joshua Quagmire, had previously appeared in the self-published underground comic Army Surplus Komikz (1982–1985); Critters marked her move to a Fantagraphics-distributed platform.
- Critters ran for 50 issues (1986–1990) and, prior to Furrlough and Genus, was the longest-running anthropomorphic anthology comic book series in American comics.
Cast · 4 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
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Usagi meets Gennosuke, a rhinoceros bounty hunter whose code of ethics is much more fluid than his own.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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