USAGI YOJIMBO
Storytelling from a Master
by William Stout

William Stout has worked as a designer on over 25 major feature films (including the Conan films). Acknowledged by Michael Crichton as an inspiration for Jurassic Park, Stout is the author/illustrator of the best-selling book The Dinosaurs – A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era. Stout is the co-creator of the entertainment industry comic-book satire Mickey at 60 and the chief designer for Steven Spielberg's GameWorks. He is currently working on a book that will be the first visual history of prehistoric and contemporary life in Antarctica.

The entertainment business is a world where concepts need to be condensed into just a few words (typical pitch: "I've got a great story here: it's Tootsie meets Die Hard – with more nudity"). So for those of you impatient readers and studio executives who are scanning this introduction to find out whether or not to buy (or option) this book, let me put it this way:

Usagi Yojimbo is Carl Barks meets Akira Kurosawa – with more nudity.

Now buy this book, damn it, take it home, and read it.

For the rest of you with patience that extends beyond the MTV attention span, let's savor the exquisite qualities that make Usagi Yojimbo so special. Each compendium of Usagi Yojimbo is a collection of rarities. No, the comic books from which the particular stories in this volume were collected are not rare (yet). It is the many artistic and literary qualities of Usagi Yojimbo that put this particular rabbit on the Endangered Species list.

Stan Sakai is the Akira Kurosawa of comic books. Stan's stories are not the hyper-shriek blasts that seem the norm for most comics nowadays. His stories are not an excuse for a series of pinup pages. Stan does not have to resort to cheap flash and false bravado in order to tell a story. He is a man who is in full literary and artistic control of his medium. Stan's pacing is deliberate, and, like Paul Chadwick, he is not afraid to slow it down a little bit to make a subtle but powerful point. Like Carl Barks, Stan's graphic simplicity reinforces the readability of his storytelling.

Kurosawa has always understood that contrast is the essence of good art. In Usagi Yojimbo, a richness of contrasts abounds: gentleness/violence; quiet story pauses/explosions of action; lowbrow guffaws/subtle and sophisticated wit.

Some writers excel at the short form of storytelling; others find their strengths within a more epic form. This volume include two long stories, one medium-length story, and four short stories from the Mirage editions (volume two, issues one through six, and back-up tales from issues seven and eight). Stan is a master of all of these forms (my own personal favorites are the short and powerfully poetic back-up stories).

The samurai subject matter provokes expectations of heavy violence. The violence is here, but I don't know that I would call it heavy. With masterful restraint, Stan dances a delicate line between fulfilling that required story expectation and resisting the depiction of the overly graphic consequences of the inevitable.

There is a real clarity to Stan's design, a seeming rarity at this time in the history of comics. His art reflects the influence of the best Japanese prints. This influence is also felt in the book's color. Unfortunately, the valuable film containing the color separations for the comics has been lost, so the stories are reprinted here in black and white.

Nevertheless, I would like to briefly discuss the color that graded the first appearance of these stories. perhaps you'll be inspired to search out the original publications of these stories just to savor them in their intended color form.

I've found that any colorist worth his or her paintbox has been smart enough to study the world's greatest art form in terms of sensually subtle "flat" (as opposed to painted or modeled) color: ukiyo-e ("floating world": the Japanese name for their woodblock prints). Usagi Yojimbo colorist Tom Luth is no exception. It's easy to argue that no better comic than Usagi Yojimbo could be found to exploit this influence on one's retinal memory. Tom has studied those color relationships well. His sensitivity to color is rare to comics.

So sit back in your favorite chair and enjoy a rich classic. Take pleasure and contentment in the knowledge that during your relaxed state a city full of studio executives are frantically trying to outbid each other for the film rights to the book that you are reading.

– William Stout

“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.