INDIE COMIC ASSAULT Hosted by Adam Lipkina
A look at usagi yojimbo and Shanda the Panda. Nice write-up.
7.22.02
By Adam Lipkin
Source:
Read last week's column
I'm almost embarrassed by this week's theme. You see, I tend to find the whole "furry" movement a wee bit disturbing. There are folks who take the idea of anthropomorphic comics (stories about humanoid characters with animal faces and some animal traits) and pursue it with the same dedication as the worst of Trekkies. And like the latter group, they've given some of the good stuff from their genre a bad rap.
One of the best is Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai's superb historical comic. Set in late 16th/early 17th Century Japan, the series tells the story of Miyamoto Usagi, a ronin (masterless samurai), and his adventures across the land. His companions include Gennosuke (usually called "Gen," a rhino and fellow ronin) and Tomoe Ame, a female samurai (and cat), with whom Usagi may or may not enjoy a romantic attraction (their chemisty is hampered by their respective positions, as well as the nature of Japanese society at the time.
Usagi's travels across the Japanese countryside are set against a Japan that is in the midst of civil war, as various clans of ninja and samurai are involved in intrigues against the Emperor. Sakai has done his homework on this book, even to the point of footnoting many of the collections. Every detail of Japanese society, from food to entertainment, has been researched. Sakai's characters are utterly believable, interacting with their society perfectly, but managing to be completely accessibly to us readers with Twentieth Century mindsets. I won't be the first to say it, but Usagi Yojimbo is the closest comics have come and ever will come to capturing the feel of an Akira Kurosawa movie.
And the art! Sakai has a feel for line art that's amongst the best in the industry, although he does so little non-Usagi work that I doubt many people have gotten the opportunity to see it (other than his lettering gigs for Groo and the Spider-Man newspaper strip, I'm not sure if I could name another Sakai project outside the Usagiverse). Sakai's crisp black and white lines manage to convey an incredible amount of realism in the motion of the characters (or lack of motion - dead bodies pile up faster than you can count). But he manages to also use cartoonish art (he has a visual "death rattle" he uses when sword strokes are fatal) that somehow never manages to undermine the plot. Scott McCloud could learn a lesson or two from Sakai's brilliant use of icons for storytelling.
There are currently fourteen Usagi Yojimbo graphic novels in print (from Fantagraphics and Dark Horse), as well as the superb Space Usagi graphic novel (a story of Usagi's descendent in the future). All come with the highest of recommendations for all comics fans.
A bit more of a "traditional" furry title is Shanda the Panda, an unfortunately named, but very readable, title from Shanda Fantasy Arts. I picked an issue up a few years back because Carla Speed McNeil (of Finder fame - a title I'll be covering in a few weeks) had been drawing for them, and I was, much to my surprise, instantly hooked.
The titular character of Shanda is a young woman running a movie theatre, and the book tells the story of her family, friends, and co-workers, as they deal with day-to-day life, as well as a few more serious issues that crop up. On paper, the comic is yet another slice-of-life title (see last week's Box Office Poison column). However, there's lots here to really separate it from the pack.
For starters, there's the sheer diversity of characters here. Unlike most titles, Shanda includes everything from teenagers (mostly the crowd of employees at the movie theater and their friends) and young adults (Shanda and her crowd), to young kids and older adults. It's one of the few titles to really throw all generations into the mix.
The stories themselves have dealt with some hefty issues, including Shanda's girlfriend Terri (who, unlike the bisexual Shanda, is CENSORED) dealing with a pregnancy, Shanda's entire family dealing with issues of arranged marriages, and the various teens dealing with sex and drug issues. If you haven't figured it out, this is not a comic for kids.
Mike Curtis is the creator and writer of the comic, and he's got a very good ear for dialogue, managing to create distinct personalities for the dozens of characters who have appeared throughout the title. He's also taken a really interesting, and effective, approach with the "furry' aspect of the title, using the different breeds of animals to represent different ethnicities. The pandas, thus, are of Chinese heritage, the koalas from Australia, etc. It's interesting, since the different breeds also have different traits, but he makes it work.
The art on the title had been inconsistent (frankly, no artist can follow up McNeil), but Terri Smith and Michelle Light have clearly found their legs in recent years, and the comic again has art that easily rivals most of the Marvel fold (at risk of offering a backhanded compliment). As a bonus, each cover is a tribute to a famous movie poster, and although some are just typical parodies (Drivng Miss Daisy cover on the current issue comes to mind), others, like the Nosferatu one coming up next issue, are surprisingly subtle.
Is the existence of Shanda and Usagi enough to make me a furry convert? No. But they are enough to destroy the assumption that a comic can't transcend the movement that created it.
Next week, I'll be taking a look at some of the exceptions from another genre known more for its chaff than its wheat: Manga. Believe it or not, there's some surprisingly good, non-clichéd stuff out there.