My Albedo #2 untold tale
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 15:25 -0700
This one's probably quite a bit different than most of the untold tales of Albedo #2, because I've actually had my copy of it since around early 1986. I had just turned 6 years old, and my dad (Steve Adams) had been working on the pencils for another Thought & Images title, 'Zell Sworddancer'. He had to copy Steve Gallacci's art style for the comic, and so Gallacci sent him home with a bunch of Albedo comics, including—you guessed it—Albedo #2! And of course you can't keep a kid who's just learned to read away from comics with samurai bunnies in them! Those comics set off a lifelong obsession with Usagi Yojimbo which continues to this day. I'm a few collections behind at the moment, but at least once a year I like to just read through the 20 volumes I have. (21 if you include Space Usagi.) I'm also looking forward to 47 Ronin, which might end up being the first series I follow digitally.
The stack also included Albedo #0, which has a funny anthropomorphic Blade Runner parody in it called "Bad Rubber". There were also Albedo issues #3 and #4, although #3 is either at my dad's house or lost to the ages. The comics themselves are a little... well-loved, but I'd never sell them anyway so I'm okay with their condition.
When it was published, the back of Zell Sworddancer even had a full-page Usagi Yojimbo ad!
Funny enough, though, those Albedo comics actually weren't my first exposure to Stan Sakai's work (though I didn't know it at the time): the very first comic I ever read (which I still have) was Groo #5 from the Marvel/Epic run, lettered of course by Mr. Sakai himself! I got to briefly meet Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier at a Comicon here in Seattle when I was a kid—and got them to sign my copy of Groo #1 (Pacific), though now I wish they'd signed that Groo #5 instead—but have sadly never met Stan in all of the 26 years that I've been a fan of his. If I ever get the opportunity to, I would love to have him sign my copy of Albedo #2. Usagi has been a constant companion in my life pretty much since I learned to read back in the mid-80s, and it all started with that copy of Albedo #2.
The stack also included Albedo #0, which has a funny anthropomorphic Blade Runner parody in it called "Bad Rubber". There were also Albedo issues #3 and #4, although #3 is either at my dad's house or lost to the ages. The comics themselves are a little... well-loved, but I'd never sell them anyway so I'm okay with their condition.
When it was published, the back of Zell Sworddancer even had a full-page Usagi Yojimbo ad!
Funny enough, though, those Albedo comics actually weren't my first exposure to Stan Sakai's work (though I didn't know it at the time): the very first comic I ever read (which I still have) was Groo #5 from the Marvel/Epic run, lettered of course by Mr. Sakai himself! I got to briefly meet Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier at a Comicon here in Seattle when I was a kid—and got them to sign my copy of Groo #1 (Pacific), though now I wish they'd signed that Groo #5 instead—but have sadly never met Stan in all of the 26 years that I've been a fan of his. If I ever get the opportunity to, I would love to have him sign my copy of Albedo #2. Usagi has been a constant companion in my life pretty much since I learned to read back in the mid-80s, and it all started with that copy of Albedo #2.
