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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,
"Images From a Winter's Day" is another masterwork with a superb twist at the end. This surely must be the most bitter defeat Usagi has ever suffered, to find he has been so ruthlessly manipulated into helping a murder take place. Yet to retaliate would only be a blessing for the villain, considering his poor health. It's a grim ending indeed and one Usagi will neither forget nor forgive himself for, because of the role he inadvertently played. However, I do have one question. The old man complained that the "foreign devils" were not human, but I don't see how that statement makes sense, since he and everyone else outside of Lord Hikiji are not human either. Was that dialogue a mistake, or is there some subtle distinction you can explain?
Ken Chisholm
kchishol@rogers.com
That bit of dialogue was very intentional. It underscored how much the "foreign barbarians" were scorned. That attitude went both ways. It would have been very different if he had said they were "not animals." I've long avoided terms like "man," "woman," and "human" when dealing with Usagi's world, because of the reason you mentioned, but have been slowly slipping them in when appropriate.
Dear Stan, Diana, and Jeremy,
I shall begin with a personal note. I'm near the end of a Robert B. Parker novel featuring Spenser, called A Catskill Eagle. I can't say I like the book much: it has a comic-book flavor to it that makes the fantastic comic-book events seem as realistic, in comparison, as my alarm going off at 5:45 a.m. But there is a nice passage where Spenser talks a little about his family, and we learn that he was born via Caesarean section and that he was raised by his father and his two uncles. That revelation lent a little extra pleasure to Usagi Yojimbo #55, as Rokuo and Usagi spoke prior to the meeting with the false Lord Yoshikawa.
Coming after the tie-in to Usagi's own continuity - Lady Koriko and the unlucky lovers of "Fire and Ice" - this was an extra delight. I certainly enjoyed the use of Usagi's past, for his father's position as headman of the village fell to his rival Kenichi, who has handled it well. Beyond that, of course, Kenichi is the father of Jotaro, now a pupil of Katsuichi, and Jotaro is in truth the son of ...
"Heh heh," as the toady in this story might say, reminding me to concentrate on the "Images From a Winter's Day." (A very evocative, almost poetic title - is it from a Japanese text? Or a part of a proverb?)
This was a knockout from the opening trudge in the snow (which recalled Will Eisner) to the envoi in the warmer, crowded streets seven months later (a wonderful illustration of how you could feel cold inside while it was warm outside). The story was straightforward yet twisty, with a splendid montage of Usagi's investigation (Was that the incomparable Ishida I saw? I hope so!) and a quiet but credible friendship growing between Usagi and Rokuo. The generic toady's sneakiness was as delightful as the equally generic woodcutter's decency in other tales, and I found the historical element appealing: the foreign (Western) disease killing Lord Hojo set me to thinking about the illnesses cultures bring to one another. The one comfort here was that this wasn't deliberately caused illness, as was smallpox among Native Americans from purposely infected blankets.
And I liked the ending very much: I guess that Usagi didn't slay Lord Hojo, preferring to let the disease killing him complete its grim task, but his anguish (so evidenced in the body language from the back that we didn't need to see his expression) implied that he could have.
No doubt about it: no matter how much we want to get to Kitanoji temple (and I am eager to see if this is where Jotaro will learn that he shouldn't call Usagi "Uncle"!), we can always accommodate "detours" as fine as this, no matter how late they make the rabbit ronin.
Tom Luth, whom I thought couldn't get any better, outdid himself on the color for the front cover! On the back cover, Jason Hvam had less to work with, but he did almost as well.
One last note: I bought the issue not at my usual store, but at Forbidden Planet on Broadway, where someone had stuck a sign under it on the rack declaring it an employee's Pick of the Week. Inasmuch as I could not agree more, I hope that sign caused a lot more people to buy Usagi Yojimbo than might have otherwise.
Charles J. Sperling
37-15 Parsons Blvd. #4-C
Flushing, NY 11354-5814
P.S. In recent leners I've been complaining about the fact that you've been footnoting a translation of saké. I think I have to raise a similar objection to the definition of shogun. If you can't do away with both, I would phase out saké: your characters call for it in a context which your readers can get; in contrast, no one calls for a round of shogun at an inn!
I was a big fan of Parker's Spenser series, though I stopped reading them after the 14th novel. If you're interested in detective fiction, I would recommend Max Allan Collins's excellent Nate Heller mysteries as well as Ed McBain's 87th precinct books.
I include those translations for the benefit of newer readers, I did take them out of the word balloons after it was pointed out they interfered with the flow of the dialogue. I may move them all to the bottom of the pages if readers feel they interfere with the art.
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STAN SAKAI'S UPCOMING APPEARANCES
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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.