What is the Vagabond VIZBIG edition?

Viz's three-in-one paperback line: bigger pages, new covers, twelve books.

In 2008, Viz Media began re-releasing Vagabond in its VIZBIG format, the house omnibus line that binds three tankobon into one thick paperback at a larger trim than the singles. The first VIZBIG volume appeared on September 16, 2008, the same day Viz published Inoue's art books in English, a coordinated relaunch of the series for the collector shelf.

The line ran to twelve volumes, the last on April 21, 2015, and it is the edition most English readers actually own. It is also, quietly, an incomplete one, for the simplest of reasons: twelve times three is thirty-six, and Vagabond has thirty-seven volumes.

THE FIRST VOLUME, IN HAND

September 16, 2008

VIZBIG Volume 1

Three volumes, one brick, a new face

The VIZBIG formula, applied to Vagabond first in 2008: three tankobon per book, a trim size a step up from the singles, bonus color content, and updated text. Twelve of them, released between 2008 and April 21, 2015, carry the story through volume 36.

THE VIZBIG FACTS

The line, in brief

12 volumes, 36 of 37

The arithmetic of threes leaves one orphan: the VIZBIG line stops at tankobon volume 36. Volume 37 exists in English only as a single, or in the Definitive hardcovers.

Bigger page, same art

At 5.75 by 8.63 inches the VIZBIG page is noticeably larger than the standard Viz single, which matters for a manga whose selling point is the drawing.

Bonus color

The omnibuses advertise bonus color content and updated text against the singles: the magazine color pages, gathered where the singles sometimes trimmed them.

The covers are new

Unlike the singles, the VIZBIG books wear redesigned covers, cropped duotone close-ups with a brush numeral, made for the omnibus line alone.

What is the Definitive Edition? →

Which edition should a collector buy? →

What is the Vagabond VIZBIG edition?

THE FIRST VOLUME, IN HAND

VIZBIG Volume 1

THE VIZBIG FACTS

THE FIRST WORD