Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Will Eisner's New York: From The Spirit to the Modern Graphic Novel exhibit will open at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in NY this week. In addition to a 100 piece exhibit covering Will's career, there will be tribute pieces done by 30 other creators, including Sergio and myself.

My piece was printed in a San Diego Comic-con program book many years ago. I gave it to Will, and the Denis Kitchen, who is curating the show, found it in his archives and asked permission to display it.

wow, do you know how long this exhibit wil run?
always loved his work...the look and feel of it....did you get to know will on a personal level actually?

um...that is...if I may ask..

Yes, I did know Will. He received so many requests to write introductions for books and declined most of them, but he did write one for UY Book 12: Grasscutter. That book received an Eisner Award, which I received personally from Will and was able to thank him publicly. I even asked him to sign the award, my third.

The first time I really met him was so intimidating. I was doing Usagi for, maybe 5 years. I had met Will a few times, though just in passing. I doubt he even knew my name at that time. However, I was scheduled to be on a panel with Will, Neal Adams, and Stan Lee. Just the 4 of us. I knew Stan, but not the others, and really felt overshadowed by them. Why the con put me with them, I don't know. Anyway, I just said a couple of things at the beginning, then shut up and listened to them talk about the old days. I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember a word anyone said.

Will was a real gentleman. An early San Diego con program book had a Spirit theme. I contributed something, and later received a thank you card from Will. I received another card after he was honored at a CAPS (Comics Arts Professional Society) banquet.

wow, they sound like sweet memories....what an opportunity to sit next to them and just listen to their opinions and stories...hhahaha, I can imagine how you must have felt when they asked you to sit with them in the pannel;)....
about not remembering a word they said that day, maybe it is just as good to remember how it felt in their presence.....
I knew about will's intro in uy 12, that was one of my first uy books;)
I read in an interview with you that you spent 5 years setting the grasscutter story up all in all so to receive the eisner award(and to be presented with it by the guy himself) for such a hard effort must have been satisfying;)
thanks for sharing your notions...
greetings