Critters #10
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCritters #10 (March 1987) contains the first appearance of Jotaro — Miyamoto Usagi's secret biological son — along with his mother Mariko and her husband Kenichi, three characters who form the emotional backbone of Usagi's personal life across decades of storytelling. The 'Homecoming' storyline that begins here is the first time Stan Sakai's wandering ronin returns to his home village, and the tragic, unspoken family secret it introduces gives the otherwise episodic series its deepest ongoing dramatic thread. That a funny-animal black-and-white anthology published on the indie margins of the direct market could introduce such lasting, emotionally resonant characters underscores both Sakai's craft and the creative ambition Fantagraphics editor Kim Thompson brought to Critters.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Critters was an anthropomorphic animal anthology published by Fantagraphics Books from 1985 to 1990 under the editorship of Kim Thompson, serving as the flagship of the publisher's talking-animal line. Stan Sakai had moved Usagi Yojimbo to the title after the character's debut in Albedo Anthropomorphics, and by issue #10 — cover-dated March 1987, the same year Usagi received his own solo series — Sakai was deep enough into the Critters run to introduce major supporting characters. The 'Homecoming' story printed here was part one of a multi-part arc; part two ran in Critters #11, and both chapters were subsequently collected in Usagi Yojimbo Book 1: The Ronin (Fantagraphics, 1987), the first of many trade collections.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Jotaro, Miyamoto Usagi's biological son (creator: Stan Sakai); his debut is confirmed by multiple sources including ComicBase/Amazon metadata, the CBSI collector guide, and the Usagi Yojimbo Wiki.
- First appearance of Mariko, Usagi's childhood love and Jotaro's mother, and of Kenichi, Usagi's childhood rival who married Mariko — both created by Stan Sakai.
- The Usagi Yojimbo story is titled 'Homecoming Part I'; the cover of Critters #10 is drawn by Stan Sakai.
- Also features 'Gnuff in The Ultimate Orva' by Freddy Milton and 'Lionheart in Suspicion, Part Three' by Tom Stazer — standard anthology companions throughout the run.
- Published March 1987 by Fantagraphics Books, edited by Kim Thompson; black and white, 32 pages.
- The 'Homecoming' story was reprinted in Usagi Yojimbo Book 1: The Ronin (Fantagraphics, 1987), which collects Usagi's earliest appearances across Albedo Anthropomorphics, Critters, Doomsday Squad, and the Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special.
- Critters ran for 50 issues (1985–1990) and was, prior to Furrlough and Genus, the longest-running talking-animal anthology comic book series in the American direct market.
- Usagi Yojimbo appeared in ten issues of Critters in total (#1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 23, 38, and 50); Critters #10 is the issue that introduced the series' central emotional family dynamic.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Usagi Yojimbo #1 (1987), Usagi Yojimbo #2 (1996), Usagi Yojimbo #[1] (2000), Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition #1 (2010), Usagi Yojimbo Gallery Edition #1 (2015), Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition #1 (2015), Usagi Yojimbo: La Colección Fantagraphics #1 (2017), Usagi Yojimbo #1 (2017), Nuft and the Last Dragons #2 (2022)
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