Weed was written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Takahashi. It is a sequel to his 1980s series Silver Fang -The Shooting Star Gin-, and follows the son of Gin, the title character from the original series.[1] It began serialization in Weekly Manga Goraku magazine in 1999.[1][2][3] The Japanese publisher Nihon Bungeisha released the series in collected volumes from January 2000[4] to September 2009.[5] Cumulatively, 60 volumes were published.[5] In October 2006, Nihon Bungeisha released the first volume of a reprinted edition of Weed.[6] The company has released 22 volumes of the reprint edition, with the latest published in December 2007.[7] The American company ComicsOne licensed the series for release in the United States and Canada in 2000 with the first three volumes released between March and June 2001.[8][9] Additionally, they provided an Adobe Digital Editionse-book version.[3] ComicsOne later went bankrupt. American publisher DrMaster acquired the rights to some of ComicsOne's titles, but not Weed.[10] While the physical copies are out-of-print, the e-book version is still available.[3]
Under their G-Comics imprint, Nihon Bungeisha released several Weed omnibus editions labeled as "specials". A series of three specials were released in April 2004 called Gajō no Kettō Hen (牙城の血闘編).[11] Throughout 2009 and 2010, another set of eight "specials" were produced: Tabidachi Hen (September 2009),[12]Senshi no Shōmei Hen (October 2009),[13]Inuzoku no Tsutome Hen (November 2009),[14]Otoko no Yakusoku Hen (December 2009),[15]Taiman Shōbu Hen (January 2010),[16]Taishō no Utsuwa Hen (February 2010),[17]Dōshu Taiketsu Hen (March 2010),[18] and Uketsuga Reshi Kiba Hen (April 2010).[19]