During the part of the interview where both Stan and I were in front of the cameras, Stan mentioned in passing that both TMNT and Usagi were having their twentieth anniversary years in 2004. I hadn’t previously made that connection, and it got me thinking about those last twenty years, and specifically how Usagi had come into my life. I realized pretty quickly that while some things from the last twenty years are crystal clear, others are a little fuzzy.

One of those fuzzy things is where and when I first became aware of Usagi. I’m pretty sure it was in the pages of Steve Gallacci’s Albedo comic, which featured a variety of anthropomorphic characters, including a nicely drawn samurai rabbit named Usagi Yojimbo. After that, I started picking up the regular issues of Stan’s Usagi comic published by Fantagraphics, and I was hooked. Part of it was my interest in martial arts and Japanese culture, but I was also fascinated that this guy Sakai was able to create one of the most formidable fighting characters in comics history using a rabbit. I mean - a bunny! How much more cute and cuddly and soft and unthreatening a critter can you get? In less talented, more unimaginative hands, Usagi would probably have been eight feet tall, hugely and veinily muscled, with big gnashy teeth and glowering eyes. He’d probably wear armor and carry a gun of some kind, along with all kinds of hidden weapons. And he’d likely cross his arms and pose a lot.

But Stan’s Usagi is the antithesis of all that. Miyamoto Usagi is somewhat slightly built, not very tall, and usually carries only two weapons - the samurai’s two swords, the katana and wakizashi. His demeanor is nearly always calm and centered, even in battle. In fact, in Stan’s Usagi comics, very often Usagi’s adversaries come to bad ends because they arrogantly misinterpret Usagi’s calm manner to mean he is weak or unwilling - or unable - to fight. Hah! The fools...

I’m pretty sure the first time I ever met Stan was at the first San Diego Comic-Con that I attended, back in (if memory serves) 1985 or 1986. That was my first trip to California as well, and it was all pretty overwhelming. I wish I had a more clear memory of our first meeting, but in all honesty all I can remember is coming home with the impression that Stan seemed quite a lot like Jack Kirby had seemed, the first time I’d met him - an incredibly talented yet simultaneously really nice, humble guy. (The perfect combination of qualities, if you ask me.)

I know that a lot of people have already commented on just what a great guy Stan is, so I won’t go on too much about it. But it really is true. If you spend enough time in this industry, you come to realize that some of the smallest talents come with the biggest egos. It definitely makes you appreciate people like Stan.

Over the last twenty years, I’ve had the great pleasure of maintaining both a friendship and a good business relationship with Stan. I wish we could see each other more often, for the sake of the friendship...but unless Stan suddenly moves to the east coast or I start flying again, that’s not going to happen. I’ll just have to be satisfied with those times - like Stan’s visit to Northampton this past year - when our paths cross and it feels like almost no time has passed since we saw each other last.

Business-wise, I think that anyone would be hard-pressed to find a better person to work with. My dealings with Stan, mostly through my company Mirage Studios, have included publishing Usagi (and Stan’s spin-off Space Usagi) for a time, doing a few “crossover” comic book stories where Usagi meets one or more of the Turtles, co-developing a Space Usagi licensing proposal, getting an Usagi action figure into the original TMNT toy line as well as a couple of appearances of Usagi in the first TMNT animated series, and now incorporating Usagi into four episodes of the new animated series and into the new toy line as an action figure (which I must, happily, note will look much closer to the “real” Usagi of the comics than the old toy). And in all of that, Stan has shown what I think is perhaps the most valuable - but, sadly, least prevalent, in my opinion - trait in someone with whom one would want to do business: Stan is reasonable. He is no demanding prima donna, but he’s no pushover, either. And it’s refreshing to deal with someone like that.

Many people have noted the recent publication of the 300th and final issue of Dave Sim’s Cerebus comic as a significant event in the history of comics, and it certainly is - anyone who has ever tried to do one issue of a comic, let alone three hundred, can grasp at least part of that significance. But I think it could be argued - even though, given the very different natures of the two comics, it is sort of like comparing apples to oranges - that Stan’s accomplishment with Usagi over the last twenty years and into the future is perhaps even more significant. And Stan has - except for the efforts of his cover colorists and publishers, which, while not inconsequential, are surely in the final analysis relatively small - done it all himself. He has - by himself, no background artist or co-writer, etc. - written, pencilled, inked and lettered all 130-plus issues of Usagi to date. That simply boggles my mind.

And even more mind-boggling is that through all of that time and all those issues, Stan has maintained the high level of quality both in art and writing. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that Stan has maintained a steady increase in the level of quality in his Usagi comics as he becomes ever more adept and skilled, and his research into and knowledge of Japanese history and culture even more comprehensive. I have seen this in the last couple of years of reading Usagi, specifically in Stan’s inking; always solid and appropriate, Stan’s line work lately (at least to my eyes) has become deliciously lyrical, with wonderful gestures even in the simplest of lines.

I feel honored to have been asked to write the introduction to this Travels With Jotaro collection. I wonder if Stan thought of asking me to do it because when we saw each other last, I expressed to him my great delight with the fantastical elements of some key parts of this volume. As much as I like Stan’s work on Usagi in general, I really like it when he lets loose with some more fantastic concepts and characters, as he does it so well. I think the last three or four chapters of Travels With Jotaro are probably my favorite Usagi tales of all.

Usagi Yojimbo is a character who is always growing, changing, developing. As good as he is right now, he knows he can get better. He still makes mistakes (not many), and learns from them. This wandering samurai knows that there is a long road ahead of him, filled with new and old friends and foes, wonders, and adventures. His journey is far from over.

For the last twenty years, I’ve been fortunate to watch this journey of the rabbit ronin, shepherded by the capable hands of his creator, Stan Sakai. And I hope to be around to see the rest of it.

Peter Laird
Northampton, MA
March 19, 2004

“Usagi Yojimbo” and "Space Usagi", including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai.  Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.