P.S. In a future issue, could you please include some kind of Stan Sakai bibliography, listing all the books you've ever pencilled or written?

I had wanted to do a comic based upon the life of Miyamoto Musashi, the 17th-century samurai. However, while doodling in one of my sketchbooks, I drew a rabbit with his ears tied into a chonmage, and Usagi was born. I should point out that the current Usagi has almost nothing in common with the historical Musashi.

I believe there is a Stan Sakai checklist on the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo web site. Actually, almost anything you could ever want to know about Usagi is probably on that site.

[Also, check out Stan's contribution to The Comics Journal's special winter 2002 edition, wherein he recounts how he came to love comics and describes the "typical" process if creating them. A delightful little piece. - Diana]

Dear Stan,

I have no doubt that you write and draw the greatest comic in the world. However, since recently changing management, my local comics shop no longer carries Usagi Yojimbo. Now I can no longer get it! I was wondering if there was some way to get a subscription?

Also, I am going around to conventions and having people sign a shirt of mine. I already have you, Jeff Smith, Will Eisner, Peter Laird, and a whole bunch of others. The problem is, I can't find Sergio or Mark Crilley. I love Groo and Akiko! Do you know of a convention that they'll be at (preferably near the east coast)? Thanks, and keep up the awesome work!

Aladdin Lee Grant Rutledge Collar
Baltimore, MD

While Dark Horse doesn't offer a subscription service, you can order back issues directly from the company through their web site, which is listed below. Also, the Usagi Yojimbo trade paperback collections are available at most bookstores. Have you tried special-ordering new issues through your local comics shop? Even if they don't stock a specific title on their shelves, most stores are happy to advance-order just about anything their customers ask for.

Mark Crilley doesn't do many conventions, but he'll probably be at a Motor City Con in Novi, near Detroit. Keep checking his fine comics or his web site for updates.

Sergio travels so much that it's difficult to think of a major convention he won't be at. He will definitely be at Comic-Con International: San Diego, as will I. [Coming up August 1-4, 2002.]

Usagi Yojimbo, 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 authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.