From the article entitled: "Why a Duck: Three Dozen Cartoonists Explain Why They Decided to Use Funny-Animal Characters in Their Work"
[Stan Sakai is the creator of Usagi Yojimbo and Nilson Groundthumper, as well as a top letterer.]
Stan Sakai: "At first, all my characters (Usagi, and Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy) were human. I have an entire eight-page pre-funny animal Nilson story somewhere cluttering up my files. Of course, he wasn't called "Groundthumper" at the time. His name was Torin Oakenshield or something equally pretentious and Marvel-esque. Hermy was always Hermy but was a troll.
Usagi was just called "Miyamoto" and only existed as sketches. He was a secondary character in the Oakenshield storyline.
One day, I turned Miyamoto into a rabbit, tied his ears into a samurai topknot, and was delighted with the result. He wasn't the present-day Usagi -- he had black ears and hair -- but he looked visually unique and took on an entirely new personality. I named him "Usagi" (which wasn't a stroke of genius since it means "rabbit" in Japanese).
I immediately added long, floppy ears to Torin and gave him a new name. I changed Hermy to a...I have no idea. I've called him a mole, hamster, hedgehog and gerbil but his head looks almost like an odd-shaped potato with ears (maybe I'll create a new line of funny vegetables).
And so my present funny-animal characters were born -- and you know what? I like them this way."
Last change: 30. Sep 2002
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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.
