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USAGI YOJIMBO LETTERS COLUMN
Send comments to: Usagi Yojimbo ~ Letters Column c/o Dark Horse Comics
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Dear Stan and Diana:
One hundred issues of Usagi Yojimbo? Quite an achievement these days! May you have another hundred, and may I be here for all of them.
Strangely enough, your 100th issue [UY Vol. 3, #39] didn't feature Miyamoto Usagi save in passing, but in the adventure of Prince Yamato-Dake, we could see quite a lot of the rabbit ronin. Like Usagi, the Prince was unquestionably a good man, bound to Bushido as only a true bushi could be. Also like Usagi, he loved deeply when he loved. But most like Usagi, he was a tad too confident of his own powers: Usagi has lost duels that he could have won and seen a war when there were only dyers at the water, and Yamato-Dake went out to fight the kami without his army and without Kusanagi, that "good and faithful blade." This undid him: the kami's venom would most likely have poisoned him in the battle, but Grasscutter would have made defeating the deity a little easier, and perhaps under such circumstances a "healer" would not have been "useless." Thus, Stan gave us a prologue to a Usagi Yojimbo sequence centering on a true yet flawed hero who embarked on a quest to slay a monster, which he completed successfully...albeit at the cost of his own life. How this will carry over into the sequel with Usagi, another true yet flawed hero, should be fascinating.
Stan Sakai, you are as terrific with a two-page travelogue as you are with a 24-page prologue. I take my cap off to you.
Charles J.
Sperling
37-15 Parsons Boulevard, Apt. 4-C
Flushing,
NY 11354-5814
The " travelogue" was a two-page feature in last summer's Dark Horse Maverick 2000. It described my trip to Norway with Sergio Aragonés. Among the highlights was a dinner of turnips and boiled sheep's head (Sergio got the tongue).
Incidentally, there were two versions of the cover to issue #39; the original featured Usagi battling the serpent. I chose to change it to Yamato-Dake as that was truer to the story. The unused cover, as well as other unprinted art, will be published in a forthcoming Art of Usagi collection.
Dear Mr. Stan Sakai,
The "Prologue" to "Journey to Atsuta Shrine" [UY Vol. 3, #39] was charming in every sense of the word. It was charming as the final story of Prince Yamato-Dake, but more so, it had that indefinable quality that all long-lasting myths and legends have. It had greater-than-human heroism and all-too-human vanity side by side.
To begin with, the cover design was very good. Framing the cover art within a boundary was effective and different (although it's such a great cover, it really deserved to be full-sized). The first page was an excellent introduction, placing Yamato-Dake in historical and geographical context and summing up his accomplishments, all without feeling ponderous or forced.
The hero's pledge of love in the form of the sacred sword was heartfelt. the newlyweds' farewells and Miyazu-hime's fears were touching. Was her premonition of doom in the original story?
Yamato-Dake's fatal flaw, pride, is dramatically exposed as he rages against the kami, taunting it during the storm. Mood and feeling are shown so effectively by the hero's facial expressions and the pouring rain that the entire page could have been done without any dialogue. The serpent kami of Mount Ibuki was excellently rendered, a truly formidable monster. The hero's hand-to-hand struggle against the monster and his slow descent show us both a powerful warrior and a man who is as mortal as any other. The hero completes his task but must sacrifice himself in order to do so. The gathering of his family and ascent of his spirit into the sky gives the story a fine, lyrical ending. Were the song lyrics you used from actual traditional funeral songs? And is there any tradition regarding the identity of the white bird? Your portrayal almost looks like a large tern or large white sandpiper.
Finally, the back cover design is terrific: such a dynamic silhouette of Usagi! And what do the four kanji characters (seen on both the front and back covers) translate to?
Thank you for fine retelling of this story, Mr. Sakai. How fitting that it should be the 100th issue of Usagi Yojimbo.
Larry Hilf
85 Willowcrest Drive
Rochester, NY 14618
The credit for the book's design has to go to the wonderfully talented Cary Grazzini. I'm especially delighted with those inside front covers he's been coming up with.
Certainly Miyazu-hime was reluctant to accept the sword, but her premonition was not in any of the resources I found. I added that to punctuate a flaw in Yamato-Dake's character.
The funeral songs were actually sung at the emperor's death until the early 20th century, though I did take liberties in paraphrasing the lyrics.
It is unclear what species of white bird was intended. Chidori is defined as "any kind of dotterel, plover, or sandpiper."
The kanji translates as "usagi yo-jim-bo." However, I just noticed a small stroke missing from the first character. I apologize for not noticing it sooner.
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Stan will be attending the Mid-Ohio Convention in Columbus, Ohio on Thanksgiving weekend, November 25-26, 2000.
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