Usagi Yojimbo, Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy [Paperback]

Stan Sakai (Author), Alejandro Jodorowsky (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

The novel-length "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" is jam-packed with lethal sword battles alternating with humor, horror, suspense and slapstick. This beautifully crafted, exciting volume is a great starting point for new readers!

One of the great epics in the comic book field stars a rabbit? That's right, Stan Sakai's enormous dramatic saga of death and treachery, of ambition and honor, is the comics equivalent of Akira Kurosawa's classics such as The Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress. This volume of the Usagi series features the novel-length "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy," which originally ran in six consecutive issues of the Usagi comics series. Jam-packed with lethal sword battles alternating with humor, horror, suspense, and slapstick, this beautifully crafted and exciting volume features all of the most popular supporting characters from the series, including Tomoe Ame, Gen the rhino, and Zato-Ino the blind swordspig. Both an excellent starting point for new readers, and an absolute necessity for Usagi completists! Black-and-white comics throughout

Editorial Reviews

Review

These bittersweet adventure stories offer entertaining reading, especially for young Asian-Americans who feel excluded from mainstream juvenile literature. (Los Angeles Times )

One of the most original, innovative, well-executed comic books anywhere to be found. (Stan Lee )

I’ve just finished the fourth Usagi Yojimbo trade and the fifth is sitting next to me... If you’re like me, throw away your preconceptions about anthropomorphic comics and get on board. As a fan of samurai fiction (to the point of having a Seven Samurai tattoo) and comics, I can’t recommend Stan Sakai’s beautifully drawn, note-perfect reinvention of the genre highly enough. (Kevin Church - BeaucoupKevin.com )

About the Author

Stan Sakai is a third-generation Japanese American and multiple Eisner-Award-winning cartoonist, creator of the popular and long-running Usagi Yojimbo comic book. Born in Japan, he grew up in Hawaii and lives in Pasadena, CA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560970634
• ISBN-13: 978-1560970637
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #406,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Usagi's first major epic, June 14, 2008

By 

shaxper (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Usagi Yojimbo, Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy (Paperback)

Usagi Yojimbo is the kind of quality work that transcends time, genres, demographics, and even age groups. It crafts a delicate and beautiful balance between honor and savagery, cute innocence and dark brutality, simple heart-warming stories and multi-part epics that shape a dense continuity. Whether or not you've ever been a fan of feudal Japanese culture, furry anthro characters, or independent, non-superhero comics, Usagi Yojimbo is a comic that can't help but impress even the harshest critic.

While "The Wanderer's Road" (volume 3) proved that Stan Sakai was master of the stand-alone adventure, "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" (volume 4) raises the stakes a thousand-fold. Here, Usagi takes part in a 7 part epic, tying together much of Sakai's established universe and characters in a complex story of intense battles, political intrigue, interpersonal drama, and great pathos. Miyamato Usagi's world almost literally explodes on the page, proving without a doubt that you haven't seen anything yet. If this volume doesn't leave you panting, reeling, and in tears by its conclusion, then something is terribly wrong.

Of course, this is just another step in the development of the Usagi Yojimbo universe. Bigger and better things are yet to come, but that will almost seem impossible after reading this explosive installment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Rare with hard to find extras only in the H/C Limited Edition, April 26, 2010

By 

Joseph Coolidge Shaw "where_is_it" (Mamaroneck, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Usagi Yojimbo Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy (Hardcover)

Usagi Yojimbo Book Four "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" was the first Hard Cover Limited Edition book published by Fantagraphics Books, in the Usagi series. It was such a success, that Fantagraphics proceeded to publish Books 1-3 in both Hard Cover and Soft Cover editions. Since it was the first in a series, it had some special additions that differentiate it from all of the other Usagi Hard Covers to follow. It contains a water color painted story at the end of the book titled "Return to Adachigahara Plain" which for a long time was unavailable anywhere else. The book was one of the hardest to find and most expensive of the Hard Cover line because of this addition. When the "20th Anniversary Art of Usagi Yojimbo" book came out with a reprinting of the Adachigahara story, recently, prices which had climbed to $400-$500 level fell to a more respectable $200-$300 level, if and when the book ever came on the market.

This was one of the largest print runs of the Usagi Hard Cover series. As Stan Sakai relates in the wonderful Usagi Yojimbo Dojo website, "Editor Kim had estimated that the initial orders would not exceed 500, so I offered to do a full figure drawing on each of the signature plates. The orders came in for 1,500. It took me a full 3 weeks to do those drawings. Nowadays I just draw an Usagi head sketch."

So in addition to the original color print story of Return to Adachigahara Plain, every copy of this limited edition run has an original full figure sketch by Stan Sakai on the signature plate. See the photo's I've posted to appreciate the effort that went into 1,500 completely original sketches for this edition.

Although one might think that this particular edition would be the easiest to find because the 1,500 print run was much higher than the subsequent volumes (usually 300-500 copies) that went hardcover, many speculate it is so difficult to find at times because it was the first Usagi HC ever produced without a softcover edition alongside it (the SC edition came out later with an entirely different cover -- probably adding to the scarcity of for-sale copies of the HC). Other HC editions were produced alongside or after the SC editions, with often little differences, making them less coveted then this HC edition with the fully painted color 8 page addition of the story of Adachigahara and original full figure sketch by the author.

It was revealed in "Return to Adachigahara Plain" who it was that gave Usagi his scar during that final battle. That 8-page story was fully painted in color and until recently had not been reprinted.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deep and Entertaining All the Way Through!, June 15, 2009

By 

romevi (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Usagi Yojimbo, Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy (Paperback)

As many people have asserted, Usagi Yojimbo gets deeper and better the further it's read, and the more Stan Sakai has experience in developing the character.

This book out of the Fantagraphics series is the best yet (I'm reading them in order, so I'm sure it'll get better than this), and has the most complex and detailed plot line. Again, I'm no expert in Japanese history, but from what critics have stated before, Sakai is very well versed in the history of samurai, and his integration of the rabbit-bodyguard to create historical fiction is very welcome and adds for the creator's own sense of imagination and humor.

Onward to the next installment!