Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

For those of you who don't read the News section, there is an on-line interview with me at:

www.comicon.com

Okay, it's really nothing you haven't read before but there are comments posted after the interview.

Stan Sakai wrote:Okay, it's really nothing you haven't read before but there are comments posted after the interview.

But no link to the Dojo... tsktsktsk

There was one thing which already intrigued me when I heard that first:

Stan Sakai wrote:It seems that one plot line generates a couple more.

Why isn't there more UY per month? Would a thicker UY comic be too expensive? Or can't you draw more and it wouldn't pay a second artist?

digulla wrote: But no link to the Dojo... tsktsktsk

There was one thing which already intrigued me when I heard that first:

Stan Sakai wrote:It seems that one plot line generates a couple more.

Why isn't there more UY per month? Would a thicker UY comic be too expensive? Or can't you draw more and it wouldn't pay a second artist?

I posted a link to the Dojo website. Thanks for pointing that out.

A 24 page Usagi book is about all I can handle. I'm reluctant to pass Usagi over to another artist. We may do a mini-series called Usagi: Kagemusha that will have stories and/or art with other creators.

Stan Sakai wrote:

digulla wrote: But no link to the Dojo... tsktsktsk

I posted a link to the Dojo website. Thanks for pointing that out.

cgknight1 mentioned that he's looking for some of your stories. Maybe you should mention in the COMICON forum and future interviews that you're one of the few authors whose works never go out of print and that one can still buy every UY story (if not every comic) you ever did.

I think this is something which speaks volumes about your work. Other stuff may have more dedicated readers but tell me where I can buy the first Superman story today?

Stan Sakai wrote:

digulla wrote:Why isn't there more UY per month? Would a thicker UY comic be too expensive? Or can't you draw more and it wouldn't pay a second artist?

A 24 page Usagi book is about all I can handle. I'm reluctant to pass Usagi over to another artist.

Is that because you are you hesitant to impose your style on someone else? (Background: AFAIK, many comics are drawn by groups of artists who have to follow quite strict rules how to pencil/ink/color them so that they all look alike even if someone else did them).

As a reader, I'm quite undecided. As an author I don't like the idea of someone telling me how to express my fantasy but as a reader, I hate it when I can't easily recognize something. What is your position?

Stan Sakai wrote:We may do a mini-series called Usagi: Kagemusha that will have stories and/or art with other creators.

"Kagemusha"?

Heh. "Kagemusha" ....shadow warrior....does that mean the guests would be "kagemangaka" - shadow comic artists?

digulla wrote: Is that because you are you hesitant to impose your style on someone else? (Background: AFAIK, many comics are drawn by groups of artists who have to follow quite strict rules how to pencil/ink/color them so that they all look alike even if someone else did them).

As a reader, I'm quite undecided. As an author I don't like the idea of someone telling me how to express my fantasy but as a reader, I hate it when I can't easily recognize something. What is your position?

Actually, I enjoy seeing other artists' interpretations of Usagi. Much of my "please-draw-for-me-book" (one of those black sketch books that people take to cons for artists to sketch in) has drawings of Usagi by people such as Peter Laird, Matt Feazel, Sergio, Paul Chadwick, Jeff Smith, Guy Davis, Mark Crilley, Charles Vess, Zander Cannon, Geoff Darrow, Steve Leiber, Adam Warren, Mike Kazaleh, and others. However, it's a big difference from doing one drawing to doing a whole story about a different culture. There are a lot of subtleties involved. It can be fun to do a story or two but to extend it for a length of time is difficult. It's like when I did a Simpsons story--I had a great time but those 16 pages took as long as I take for a 24 page Usagi story, but I was under a lot more pressure and wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis. However, if asked again, I would jump at the chance to do another.

WOW! I'd like to see those drawings of Usagi (by other artists)! I'm really curious to see how they would do Usagi.
Don't get me wrong. I don't really want to see anyone but Mr. Sakai doing Usagi comics (of course, that's me. I'm limiting myself to one UY comic a month, so I have plenty left! Perhaps once I've caught up, I'll want more and be eager enough to accept other artists -- but NEVER other writers. The best thing about Usagi is how CONSISTENTLY awesome Mr. Sakai's stories are. I've read three graphic novels so far, as well as about six more recent comics, and EVERY ONE of them is of superb quality. I think that that, more than anything else, is what keeps me coming back for more. I KNOW it will be good EVERY time! And THAT is what makes Mr. Sakai such a daunting role model. How will I EVER be as consistently awesome? I'm not sure I can do it.) Back to the topic at hand. My two cents: I'd rather Mr. Sakai be the only one doing Usagi. It's the only way to keep the quality at it's incredibly high standard. Now, perhaps if you did a series of one-shots, and said the stories weren't ACTUALLY a part of the Usagi Continuum, THEN I'd buy it! That would be neat! Various artists all doing their BEST takes on Usagi. And only the BEST of those get published.
MAN I just go ON and ON, don't I?
And another thing--
I'm done.

Stan Sakai wrote:For those of you who don't read the News section, there is an on-line interview with me at:

www.comicon.com

Okay, it's really nothing you haven't read before but there are comments posted after the interview.

Stan Sakai wrote:For those of you who don't read the News section, there is an on-line interview with me at:

www.comicon.com

Okay, it's really nothing you haven't read before but there are comments posted after the interview.

Actually no, I didn't know about it yet. Thanks for posting the link, just to be sure.

The bit with Sergio walking up & down the street whistling showtunes to locate you (a shared interest between you two, Stan?) was roflmao material. Thanks for dropping in that anecdote.

Nice choice of sampled UY material to "sweeten" the artle as well, especially the VERY now-classic kite festival cover. To be honest, that was the pic (full version, natch)I was considerring for that "special project" I discussed with you over email last Fall. If only Dark Horse would ever make cloth banners of that.

Stan Sakai wrote:It's like when I did a Simpsons story--I had a great time but those 16 pages took as long as I take for a 24 page Usagi story, but I was under a lot more pressure and wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis. However, if asked again, I would jump at the chance to do another.

I tried to find a way to draw something on the computer but eventually, I gave up. My problem is that my drawing hand is not steady enough for curves (I always end the curve at an unexpected spot) and I thought that maybe creating a 3D version of my character would help but then, I'd either have to spend $4500 on Maya Pro plus about six months of training or I'd use something like Blender and spend six months to figure out how to create my character.

I also thought about using a 2D drawing tool like CorelDraw plus a graphics tablet but then my drawing problem comes back plus I'd have to draw every scene from scratch while a 3D tool would allow me to rearrange characters.

Maybe I could cut&paste a story together using existing artwork but after what happened with my fan fiction story, I guess it would again cause only grief and pain.

So is that a no? Perhaps I should just forget it...

Logan Myrddin wrote:So is that a no?

Huh? What are you referring to, now?

Stan Sakai wrote:We may do a mini-series called Usagi: Kagemusha that will have stories and/or art with other creators.

That would be fantastic. Kind of like the old "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" comics of old. When might we see this sort of mini series?