(Remix culture lives on.) Combining the cinematic source with his own research really helps set the tone and themes of the book. And as Dave Sim did with Cerebus, drawing inspiration from Marx Brothers movies for the aardvark’s adventures, Sakai draws from Akira Kurosawa films. Even for comic books it feels like a stretch dictated by marketing rather than a fun, organic outgrowth of the stories, and since I have no affinity for the pizza addicts, it fell flat for me.įortunately that sort of thing is balanced out by better, more engaging tales which delve into both the various characters and the setting, as Usagi wanders through this version of Japan. This book doesn’t present its best face at the beginning as it’s a weird mash-up of UY and TMNT, where a rat wizard pulls the spirits of the turtles from their universe and imbues them into turtles in Usagi’s medieval Japan. Unfortunately there are still some weak entries which feel hastily-written and in need of a polish. I’m happy to report that isn’t always the case for Usagi-san, whose tale becomes deeper and more involved the longer it goes. I did enjoy the snarky aardvark Cerebus back in the day, and had a collection of Pogo as a kid, but by comparison UY and TMNT seemed like kiddie versions of those types of stories. Part of the problem is that both the rabbit samurai and turtle ninjas debuted in 1984 when I was in college. As a result, I always placed Usagi Yojimbo in the same category as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: cute idea but not really worth my time. I’ve only ever read single issues here and there of Usagi Yojimbo and somehow managed to encounter weaker installments over the years this was the first time I’ve read entire stories. It's going to be a lot of fun catching up. I'm sorry I didn't pick up this series sooner but at least I have quite a few volumes in front of me. Some of the stories are sweet, some are sad, and some of them are Usagi kicking ass. Usagi goes up against bandits, ghosts, and assassins, all while wandering feudal Japan, looking for peace. The stories themselves draw from Japanese history, folklore, and cinema. His style reminds me of Moebius in some ways and of Miyazaki in others, minimalist yet simultaneously intricate. It's amazing how much emotion he's able to convey with so little. Stan Sakai uses clean lines and great composition to put his stories together. The straight-forward, minimalist style grabbed my attention right away. The first story was a little rocky, a team-up with the Ninja Turtles to save a rat. Did I mention all the characters are animals? The violence is tame and there's no blood. I have no idea why I enjoyed this as much as I did. I was vaguely aware there was a Usagi Yojimbo comic but I didn't imagine the rabbit could carry his own book. I first encountered Usagi on an episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon where he was yanked from his own time period and teamed up with the aforementioned turtles. He's also a rabbit in a world of anthropomorphic animals. Miyamoto Usagi is a ronin, a masterless samurai, wandering feudal Japan in search of peace. His favorite movie is Satomi Hakkenden (1959). He also made a futuristic spin-off series Space Usagi. First published in 1984, the comic continues to this day, with Sakai as the lone author and nearly-sole artist (Tom Luth serves as the main colorist on the series, and Sergio Aragonés has made two small contributions to the series: the story "Broken Ritual" is based on an idea by Aragonés, and he served as a guest inker for the black and white version of the story "Return to Adachi Plain" that is featured in the Volume 11 trade paper-back edition of Usagi Yojimbo). He began his career by lettering comic books (notably Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier) and became famous with the production of Usagi Yojimbo, the epic saga of Miyamoto Usagi, a samurai rabbit living in late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century Japan. He and his wife, Sharon, presently reside and work in Pasadena. He later attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Stan Sakai (Japanese: 坂井 スタンSakai Sutan born May 25, 1953) is an artist who became known as an Eisner Award-winning comic book originator.īorn in Kyoto, Sakai grew up in Hawaii and studied fine arts at the University of Hawaii.
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