Transcribed by Julie "Hisuterii/Kousagi" Miyamoto: 24 Feb 1997
(Hey Rocky, Watch Me Pull a Rabbit Outta My Hat
by Mas Dobashi
As with most young Nisei kids, I grew up reading comics in the daily newspaper. Comic strips such as Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Tarzan, etc., were very popular in my day. Today, a new series of cartoons such as Peanuts, Cat hy, Baby Blues, Jump Start, Garfield, Dr. Katz and others get our attention. Mickey Mouse and his gang have left the comic strip and are now brought into our homes via the TV screen. Calvin and Hobbs have gone into retirement. Tarzan can only be seen on the big screen. I guess what I'm trying to say is that comics are forever changing.
Some 12 years ago, a young artist from Hawaii, Stan
Sakai, created a cartoon character named Usagi Yojimbo, a samurai
rabbit who roamed throughout Japan a couple of centuries ago. Ten years ago,
Sakai published his first comic book and today, Usagi Yojimbo comic books
are more popular than ever.
What makes this series of books unique is that the
story lines are based on the ancient history of Japan during the Shogun era.
The characters and the story is fictional, but it is based on e vents that
really took place in Japan during the samurai days--much like James
Clavell's novel Shogun, is a fictional novel tied to the actual
events during the civil war days of Japan.
Sakai's interest in 17th century Japan was inspired by
his love of the chambara movies he used to watch in his early years.
Another factor may be that he was born in Kyoto, the former capital city of
Japan. His father was serving in the United States military in Japan when he
met and married Teruko Aisaka. Stan's older brother, Kenneth, was born in
Tokyo, the present capital city.
Sakai, now a Pasadena resident, resides with his wife Sharon and
their two children Hannah and Matthew. His studio is just ten steps away
from the family kitchen. This arrangement affords Sak ai the luxury of going
off to work and never having to leave the house. His wife is a pre-school
teacher and with the children now attending school, Sakai has ample time to
create his work and still be there for the family.
To create his storylines, Sakai researches volumes of
history books for interesting facts that can be transformed into his comic
series tales. He also studies various Japanese myths and again relates these
tales in his storylines. If you want to know the origin of the Tanabata
Matsuri, pick up a copy of Usagi Yojimbo and you'll get a simple,
painless lesson in culture as well as learn why the Milky Way is called the
River of Heaven. For his skillful weaving of facts and legends into his
work, Sakai was given the Parents' Choice Literary Award in 1990. This past
year, he was awarded a couple of Eisner Awards--one for his comic book
lettering skills and another for talent deserving of better recognition.
For the past decade, Sakai has been drawing, writing
and producing Usagi comic books at the rate of nine books per year. This is
the commitment he has made with his new publisher, Dark Horse Comics. In
achieving his goal, Sakai has to put in time at his drawing board every day,
just to keep up with his busy schedule. In addition to conceptual time
thinking out his storylines, Sakai has to put pen to paper and work out his
storyboards. A comp licated panel may require a half day's work, while
others may be drawn in much less time. Sakai creates his comic book covers
using watercolors. "Using oil medium (oil paints) takes too long," he
reports.
Rounding out Sakai's plate are a few other commitments.
He continues to do the lettering for the Spiderman Sunday comic strips, a
task he took on years ago. He makes appearances at various bo ok signing
sessions and conducts "chalk talk" programs at the local libraries. All
these outside projects leave the artist no free time to break away from work
related projects and take a golf holiday or other things people do to escape
their nine-to fiv e lives.
Yet, Sakai feels no burn-out, even after ten years of
drawing rabbits. "I love to work with Usagi and I never feel burnt out. I
enjoy what I'm doing," he smiles. "Besides, I do other work for the
publishers besides Usagi. I also do some advertising art and this gives me a
variety of assignments."
Ever hear of cartoonist trading cards? Sakai has
informed me that there's a series of trading cards which feature cartoonists
and Sakai is proud to note that he has his own cartoonist card.
Branching out into every medium, there's even four or
five Usagi websites on the Internet created and maintained by fans. The most
interesting one comes out of Long Beach, California and is called Usagi
Dojo.
"I've logged onto the site a few times and it's
incredible the amount of work they do -- character descriptions, synopses of
all the stories and printing history... There's one guy filing all the
letters that appeared in Usagi Yojimbo comic books. I contribute every so
often when I do a cover, anything I send them that day it is on the
Internet," reports Sakai. Of course all this interest in Usagi pleases
Sakai, although he admits he is rather overwhelmed by the attention his
little bunny has created.
Sakai has another character he has created known as
Space Usagi. Sakai works on this character from time to time, but has not
found a home for him as yet. Space Usagi is an animated series on tape, and
a pilot show has been made for television.
"Circumstances were we never went beyond that stage,
the thing that stopped us was that we needed a toy company. The toy company
would be the one to finance the TV series. We even had options for a movie,
we had publishers internationally and investors, but the thing that was
lacking was a toy company."
Then last year it was all set to go on the ABC network
and be part of their Saturday morning cartoon line-up, they were even
offered a time slot. But when Disney bought out the network, the plan was
scrubbed. Unfortunately for Sakai's fans, Disney's policy is that only
Disney creations are shown on their airwaves. Sakai reports however that
another production company has shown interest in the series and they are
waiting for the option rights to expire so they can move ahead.
Oddly, Usagi Yojimbo is a very popular strip in
European countries, but this is not the case in Japan. Sakai's work can be
found throughout Germany and is also translated into Croatian. Recently, a
small town in Germany held a comic book festival and Sakai was asked to
display his work. He shipped over some of his original watercolor book
covers of Usagi which was greatly appreciated by the festival organizers who
said there was a terrific response to Usagi and Sakai's work.
Sakai believes the reason his books are not translated
into Japanese is that everything would have to be re-done in the reverse
order to accommodate the Japanese way of printing. The books and magazines
are read right to left in Japan, as opposed to the Western left to right.
"Because of this there has never been an American comic book that has really
made it big in Japan," says Sakai.
I asked if there were any physical changes in Usagi
Yojimbo after ten years. Sakai stated, "Yes, but very subtle. He is leaner
and taller, otherwise he's the same as he was a decade ago. The character
evolves over the years. A lot of the changes in Usagi over the years was not
done consciously. As I got used to the character, he just changed."
Usagi is a bachelor ronin samurai warrior who
travels throughout Japan finding new adventures along the way. The question
arose about his love life. Will he ever marry? Sakai smiles that Usagi
Yojimbo met a wonderful girl during one of his travels, but due to
circumstances beyond his control, had to move on. Much later, he revisited
his former girlfriend's village and looked her up. As fate would have it, he
discovered she had married. Sadly, she asked him to leave because she still
harbored some passionate feelings for him and did not wish to jeopardize her
marriage. Ever the gentleman, Usagi agreed.
If you are interested in purchasing some of Stan
Sakai's work, the easiest way is to contact Carolyn Sanwo, owner of Heritage
Source in Santa Clarita. She specializes in distributing Asian American
books and has many of Sakai's books on hand. She may be reached by telephone
or fax at (805) 263-0623. Sakai's books may be purchased by the individual
issue or in collections of his stories. They are also available at the Comic
Book Specialty Store in San Gabriel, California.
In service to the Dojo...
Julie Miyamoto zjlm18@access.etsu-tn.edu
All typos, grammatical errors, etc. as they appear in Tozai Times.
Last change: 30. Sep 2002
Because of getting swamped by spam eMail, we don't publish an eMail adress here but you can always reach us via the DojoBoard.
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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.
