I started reading the Special Edition books last night, and I stopped right before this story.
I loved all the stories, and maybe it's a fresh mind from last night to today, but it seems to me that, from this point on, the stories got...richer/thicker? I'm not sure.
It was this point that I found it super difficult to put the book down.

I guess the humor stuck with me in this story.  How he led both the magistrate and his people to the thieves (on accident), and both groups end up fighting him and each other.  But he slipped out because the two parties got so involved with fighting each other that he was able to make his escape.
He decided the horse was more trouble than it was worth, so he left the horse with the poor folks on the road.
And then "Village of Fear" happened right after, and I love shape-shifters, so that drew me in.
I guess as the stories go on, I feel like I am just getting to know Usagi better, and the repeat appearances of Gen are allowing me to learn that character as well.  You know how it is when you start reading a book, you don't know the characters yet, or you aren't quite used to the stories just yet, but then there is that point where it just happens, and you finally are warmed up to it.

As I told you, I read 100+ pages of Usagi Yojimbo today, and though I really tried to pace myself so that I could make sure to absorb it properly, it was just so good that I was through all those pages before I had even realized I had read that much.

Summary: Usagi happens upon bandits attacking porters and guards and thinks there may be a reward in helping. He drives off the bandits, but too late to save their victims. His only reward is a horse. He takes the horse to town to sell.

He finds a magistrate in need of a horse and offers to sell his. But the horse was the magistrate's and had been stolen! Usagi is accused of thievery and takes the horse and rides out of town. He approaches a cabin with horse traders and hopes to make a trade. But they are not horse traders, but the bandits he had encountered earlier, still angry with him.

The magistrate and his guards had followed Usagi to the cabin, where they see many stolen items, and get into a fight with the bandits. Both sides blame Usagi.

Usagi thinks the horse is nothing but trouble. He comes across two peasants transporting wood, who complain how a greedy magistrate had confiscated their horse, making their work harder. So Usagi gives them the horse.

Thoughts: This is a fun story of circles and coincidences. Simple plot, meant for a laugh, but with karmic underpinnings.

What is Usagi's motivation in these stories? Throughout the series, we see him as a wandering do-gooder. But his thought balloons reveal his do-gooding is rooted in a desire for profit. This will fade away over the course of the series. And even here, it's not quite clear. He seems to be rushing to stop the bandits because they need to be stopped. Only a single isolated thought balloon suggests selfish motive. Without that one detail, the scene would play out with Usagi as gallant rescuer. It's possible Stan is still figuring out the character's motivation.

This issue has a lot of characters in the background, so Stan uses a sketchier pencil style to depict the further away people, something he will continue throughout the series. The greedy magistrate is a very cartoonishly exaggerated character, fitting with the comedic tone of the story, continuing the tonal departure from the more serious Albedo issues. The tone of the Summer Special issue is more in keeping with the Albedo issues than this story, giving more evidence it is best read first, and making me wonder if the publication history is not precisely in line with the order the stories were created. "The Confession" seems to be the older story.

We also meet the peasant woodcutter and his wife, two monkeys whom we will see again. Or at least we'll see people very much like them.

Grade: B