Another one of Usagi's descendants?
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 20:51 -0700
A preliminary sketch that I may someday expand to actually make Usagi recognizable, if I can't meet Stan at a convention someday and commission him to do it himself!
A bit of background: This is a crossover with a Keith Ferris painting of Saburo Sakai, as depicted in his memoir Samurai! Sakai was a Japanese Navy pilot during WWII, most famous for flying 800 miles in his damaged Mitsubishi Zero while severely wounded and half-blind. When I learned that Usagi had descendants in Space Usagi and a late-20th-century reporter (Terry Miyamoto?), the idea pretty much smacked me over the head then and there. Not only do the pilot and Usagi's creator share a name (wonder how common it is?) but Saburo was of a samurai family and his feat of endurance and airmanship was worthy of his heritage. Oh, and both Sakai and Usagi took severe blows to the head and survived.
A few weeks ago, I saw the Miyazaki film The Wind Rises, about the Zero's designer (one of my favorite planes), and I finally went ahead and sketched it out.
A bit of background: This is a crossover with a Keith Ferris painting of Saburo Sakai, as depicted in his memoir Samurai! Sakai was a Japanese Navy pilot during WWII, most famous for flying 800 miles in his damaged Mitsubishi Zero while severely wounded and half-blind. When I learned that Usagi had descendants in Space Usagi and a late-20th-century reporter (Terry Miyamoto?), the idea pretty much smacked me over the head then and there. Not only do the pilot and Usagi's creator share a name (wonder how common it is?) but Saburo was of a samurai family and his feat of endurance and airmanship was worthy of his heritage. Oh, and both Sakai and Usagi took severe blows to the head and survived.
A few weeks ago, I saw the Miyazaki film The Wind Rises, about the Zero's designer (one of my favorite planes), and I finally went ahead and sketched it out.