I have been a long-time fan of Stan Sakai's
Usagi Yojimbo series, since waaaay back when Fantagraphics put out
Usagi Yojimbo Volume 1. I had every single issue of the first series, but kind of lost track of the character when the Samurai rabbit switched publishers and hopped over to Mirage Studios. That being said, I still managed to snag the odd issue here and there. And of course, I saw his appearances on the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series (the first one) when they aired. I remember being pissed that Usagi wasn't in the third Nina Turtle movie (I mean, COME ON!!! How was he NOT in that movie???). And yes, I even owned a Usagi action figure or two.
Sometime before Dark Horse Comics started publishing the character, he TOTALLY dropped off my radar. I mean, completely gone. Don't know how it happened, and I wish it hadn't. Needless to say, my secret love affair with that awesome rabbit bodyguard had come to an end.
Then came my Bounty Hunter character, and Dave Ryan's
War of the Independents series. For those of you that don't know, WoTI is a huge crossover series featuring tons and tons of Independent comic book characters teaming up to defeat an evil to the comic book multiverse at large. My Bounty Hunter character is in it, and so is Usagi Yojimbo! Yeah, I flipped my s**t when I found that out, and added the rabbit on to my list of Things To Buy.
It took a while, but I have finally gotten around to it. I'm currently buying up as many of the
Usagi Yojimbo trades as I can get my hands on, and there
are a few, but I'm slowly getting back up to speed. While talking with a buddy about the new Michael Bay Ninja Turtle movie (mostly negative things were being said), Usagi came up, and my friend went into his room, and handed me this:
Usagi Yojimbo #100! He asked if I wanted it, and of course, like I always do when offered something for free, I said "HELLS YEAH!!! GIMME THAT FREE THING!"
Number 100 is basically set up like a celebrity roast type of deal. Featured in the issue, doing the roasting, are quite a few popular people from the comic book industry (you can see exactly who by clicking on the image of the cover above). But...whoa...hey, hold on a second. Do I see Scott Shaw's name there? And what the Hell does any of this have to do with
Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew?
Well, I'll just post the pages done by Scott, and not just the Captain Carrot cameo panel as I was originally going to do, as his whole section is freaking amazing! Feast your eyes on these puppies...uh, bunnies?? Yeah, bunnies is more appropriate.
As you can see, Scott and Mark Evanier really knocked it out of the ballpark with those pages.
It's just too bad Captain Carrot had to be kept in silhouette due to legal reasons. But he's there nonetheless.
Well, off to see if I can track down any more obscure appearances. They pop up in the strangest places. Hope you enjoyed this one.
And read
Usagi Yojimbo if you're not already. You wont regret it.
