Mirage Publishing Usagi Yojimbo #5  Shi , Part 2 November 1993 (Click on the thumbnails to view full size cover art)

LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

Honorable Stan Sakai,

As the mother of a six year old, strong and strong-willed son (Dennis), I'd like you to know how much he and I appreciate Usagi Yojimbo. It is very empowering for him to see a normally small, helpless animal (rabbit) in the same league as a rhino or Ninja Turtle. And to know it was not a freak accident but was attained slowly and with great effort as beautifully depicted in your "Young Usagi" pages. Dennis loves seeing the struggle to channel young energies toward good ends acknowledged and appreciated. So many comics have superheroes whose powers are as effortless as they are unattainable. While entertaining, they do not engender the respect and careful attention Usagi receives from Dennis, who is very aware that here is someone he can profitably emulate. Your exceptional insight as to the nature and needs of your younger audience is deeply appreciated.

Syndi Riley
Landers, CA

Dear Mr. Sakai:

I am positive that you will have already have heard many various forms of any kind of praise that I might (and most certainly could) heap upon you, so I will simply omit any of the usual exaltations (which everyone knows, you certainly deserve) and get right to my sole complaint about Usagi Yojimbo: I CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!! Do you know how frustrating it is to get one of your most favorite things in life only once every two months, in the form of only twenty to thirty full-color pages?!? I need more!! So do many others, just like me!!

"What more do you need?" you may ask. Well, I've made one of those dreaded "List of Suggestions"!

1. Compile all of the characters in Usagi Yojimbo, Space Usagi, and Nilson Groundthumper's universe, along with their personality traits, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Add some maps that show certain clans' whereabouts, and you've got the greatest Who's Who volume ever created!

2. We need more Usagi Yojimbo T-shirts! Space Usagi too! And a few sweatshirts for the winter months wouldn't hurt!

3. And posters! I have a couple of walls in my house that will just never look up to par, unless they have a few high quality, frameable Usagi Yojimbo and Space Usagi posters hanging upon them!

4. A role-playing game! Everyone would want it! Everyone would buy it! Everyone would play it! I can see it now! Usagi Yojimbo…live the adventure!

5. Usagi Yojimbo trading cards! High quality, UV coated, on acid-free paper! Collect ‘em all! Trade ‘em with a friend!

6. One of the most demanded! Usagi Yojimbo and Space Usagi feature-length animation! Not some re-envisionment of the characters that have been toned down and sweetened up for a younger audience, but the characters themselves, the way you portray them. The possibilities come in many forms. You could try for a regular series, a prime time mini-series (on a major network), a movie, or best of all, direct video release! (All of your stories are great movie or mini-series material. "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" and "Shades of Green" from Usagi Yojimbo, and "Death and Honor" from Space Usagi would all make handsome video collections. Maybe there could be a Nilson Groundthumper short at the beginning of each video!

7. New Usagi Yojimbo and Space Usagi action figures! There should be a figure of Usagi in his usual blue kimono, designed and sculpted the way you draw him! (And he should come with authentically detailed versions of Aoyagi and Yagi no Eda. He could also come with a naginata, a tanto, and bow and arrows, and (I think this would be great!) you could unplug his ears, and place his shield on his head, like he always does! Space Usagi would be at his best if he were in his battle armor (like in Usagi Yojimbo color special #3), again, designed and sculpted the way you draw him! He should come equipped with his arcane katana, tanto, and laser pistol. On S.U.'s figure, you could unplug his ears, so that you could place him samurai battle/aviation helmet on his head! (Maybe he could come with a flivver that makes various sounds, as a boxed collector's set!) I seriously think you should discuss this with Mr. Eastman, Mr. Laird, and Playmates Toys Inc., because these would make very nice action figures. (Or maybe you could get your very own line of figures, because you have many characters that would make excellent, fresh, bright, original action figures, such as Jei, Lone Goat and Kid, Tomoe, Gunichi, Gennosuké, Zato Ino, Shingen and Komori Ninja from Usagi Yojimbo, and Matabe, Lord Niiro, Lady Ryoko, and Tomoe from Space Usagi! The list could go on for pages!

One last thing before I go. (Did I hear a sigh of relief? Well, I can't blame ya!) Since you plan on doing most of the back-up stories in Usagi Yojimbo Volume 2, could you please do many stories about Space Usagi? This guy needs more exposure! Please consider all of these options, because I always did say, "Man cannot live on bi-monthly sequential graphics alone!!"

Gordon Danzey
Morristown, TN

You may get your wish sooner than you realize, Gordon. We are already in negotiations for a bunch of Usagi and Space Usagi merchandise. As for a TV series, we'll see. Meanwhile, you can content yourself with the Space Usagi II mini-series beginning in November, entitled "White Star Rising".

Dear Stan,

I'm still here and I still think your comic is one of the best I have ever read. I am sorry that you felt you had to go into colour for financial reasons. Your b/w art allowed for a striking visual style that colour can't truly reproduce. The colour also robs your art of the ambiance that your creation has of your personal artistic vision, considering I now see b/w comics as the true source of comic's artistic cutting edge. Now your comic seems a little closer to the all-too-often impersonally designed characters of the mainstream companies. The team-up with the Turtles seems to back that up as well as the absence of the intriguing guest-talent back-ups you used to have. It all gives me the feeling that is dangerously close to thinking you sold out. I would never have discovered some of the best talents you showcased without that forum. I am still definitely keeping with your series, but I will always treasure your Fantagraphics work and remember the element that seems to be missing now.

With the latest battle with the Neko Ninja over, it seems obvious that Usagi might have less trouble with them in the future. However, it seems obvious that Lord Hikiji favours the Ninja Bats which leaves Chizu's clan unemployed. May I suggest that the clan should look for a new employer, namely Lord Noriyuki? Before you laugh it off please, think about it, it would make sense for a clan lord who is so often targeted by ninja to have a counter force to use. I know that Tomoe and Usagi would be less than enthusiastic about this option, but surely Noriyuki is capable of being Machiavellian enough to survive clan politics.

It's too bad you decided not to use Tomoe for your premier story in the new series. Could you please compensate by putting her in a story soon? Another word of advice: the sideways V you draw on his neck when Usagi twists it to show a jaw makes Usagi seem gangly and not as fuzzy as we prefer him. Could you please explore another way to depict that part of his anatomy?

May Usagi be that master cut-up for years to come!

Kenneth Chisholm
Brantford, Ontario

Usagi's battles with the Neko Ninja are far from over and they will be back in the very near future.

Perhaps Lord Hikiji could employ both clans against Noriyuki. It's not unprecedented for a lord to hire rival ninja clans. The Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa at one time employed both the Koga and the Iga clans as his personal bodyguards when he moved Japan's capital from Kyoto to Edo (now present-day Tokyo).

Dear Mr. Sakai:

I live in Sweden and I'm an Usagi-fan. It all started when Usagi Yojimbo came out in Swedish. I fell in love with the little samurai rabbit and the world he lived in.

This was two years ago. I bought every issue that came out, and I thought that Usagi was going on forever, but…Not!

After a year Usagi Yojimbo ended. The publishers said that there weren't enough people who bought the Usagi comic. My life was almost destroyed. (How sad!)

A few months later I bought number 38 of Usagi Vol. 1. It was great!! But when I read the letter pages I read that Usagi was going to start up from number 1, Vol. 2, published by Mirage.

This was my chance to begin a new collection of Usagi Yojimbo. I ran around in every shop I knew, but no Usagi. After six months (!) I found number one.

I read it and it was great, wonderful. Usagi in colour wasn't so bad as I had thought. Now, numbers 2, 3 and 4 are on their way to me in this minute. And hopefully, all the Usagi books are on their way from the USA soon.

Usagi Yojimbo is the paint in my paintings, it's great, I love Usagi. I really must agree with Thomas [Chester-Yamano] in Usagi number 38; his letter hits right on the spot.

I hope Stan will read this. He is wonderful!!! Stan…keep up your good work. I'm glad that you exist.

Rickard Johansson
Skoude, Sweden

Stan –

The enclosed drawing is what happens when, on the way to sushi, someone misreads a Usagi Yojimbo T-shirt. I've enclosed a b&w copy. Anna misread it; I designed and drew it.

R'ykandar Korra'ti
Seattle, WA

Fan Art by R'ykandar Korra'ti

For those who don't speak Japanese, "unagi" means "eel". Broiled unagi, especially on sushi, is delicious.

I've recommended a few books in the past and now that the holidays are just around the corner, here's a couple more.

If you haven't been reading Bone, you're missing out on some great story and art. Cartoon Books has just released The Complete Bone Vol. 1 which collects the first six issues of the series. Run out and find out why Jeff Smith received the Eisner, Manning and Inkpot awards at this past San Diego Comic Con.

The Collegiate Hepcats by Martin Wagner, published by Double Diamond Press, collects daily strips from the Daily Texan and Daily Cougar university newspapers as well as the first issue of the Hepcats comics. Regular Usagi readers may be familiar with Martin's detailed work from his back-up story done for UY Vol. 1, #37. It's neat stuff but be advised that it does contain some funny-animals nudity.

Space Usagi Vol. 2, #2 lands in your universe this January!