How would you like to read a graphic novel about a samurai rabbit in sixteenth century Japan, and discuss it with fellow graphic novel enthusiasts on Google Meet?

Well, here’s your chance. The next meeting of the Cobb Public Library‘s Graphic Novel Book Club will discuss Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 34, on this coming Monday April 25 at 6 p.m.

Even though there are only three days until the meeting, this month’s choice is a fast and fun read, complete with demon puppets.

The electronic edition of the novel is available for Cobb County Library patrons on Overdrive/Libby at https://cobbcounty.overdrive.com/media/7493470

Click Here to Register for the Program (https://forms.gle/7G5zMx9rtwkj2fQd6)

Click Here to Attend the Program (https://meet.google.com/ctm-nkzi-oko?hs=122&authuser=0)

About me and graphic novels

I became a fan of graphic novels pretty late in life. In the 1960s, from around the age of 12 to 16, I’d been a fan of Marvel Comics during what comic fans refer to as the “Silver Age.” I lost track of comics by about 1968 or so, and didn’t realize how far the art form had come along until I was about 55 years old, when my son bought me a copy of a volume of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

I was hooked.

The Cobb County Public Library hosts its Graphic Novel Book Club on the fourth Monday of each month on Google Meet from 6 to 7 p.m. I’ve been participating for the past two months, where the featured works were the second volume of March by John Lewis, and Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada.

About Usagi Yojimbo

This month’s selection, which we’ll discuss April 25 at 6 p.m. is a volume in Stan Sakai’s popular and long-running series Usagi Yojimbo.

The protaganist, Miyamoto Usagi, is a samurai rabbit in late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century Japan, the Edo period.

Sakai’s website describes the plot of this particular volume as follows:

Follow these all-new full-color adventures of rabbit ronin Miyamoto Usagi as he wanders Edo period Japan on his epic warrior’s journey!

This first volume of all-new material continues the saga of Usagi Yojimbo with the three-part “Bunraku,” as Usagi becomes embroiled in a puppet drama where the players are not quite what they seem! Will the aid of a supernatural ally be enough for Usagi to prevent more death? Then, Usagi goes back to his roots as a yojimbo (bodyguard) when he is hired by Lady Mura, a famous writer, to keep her safe on her perilous journey to her father’s home.