Usagi Yojimbo

From 1987 to 1993, Fantagraphics published the original thirty-eight-issue run of Usagi Yojimbo, a masterwork of anthropomorphic historical fiction created and drawn by Stan Sakai. Set in a meticulously researched, animal-populated version of feudal Japan, the series follows Miyamoto Usagi, a ronin samurai, as he wanders a landscape of honor, violence, and unexpected friendship alongside allies like the bounty hunter Gen and the bodyguard Tomoe Ame. Sakai’s clean, expressive linework and deep reverence for Japanese culture—blended with occasional contributions from Sergio Aragonés—established the series as a quiet, enduring classic of independent comics. Its patient storytelling and richly drawn world matter because it proved that a talking rabbit could carry a serious, emotionally resonant epic without ever feeling like a gimmick.