USAGI YOJIMBO Book Five

Stan Lee is well-known as the creator of such popular comics as
The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and Silver Surfer.

How talented can you get?

Some years ago, when my Spider-Man newspaper strip needed a new letterer for the Sunday pages, a friend suggested that I call Stan Sakai. After meeting Stan and seeing his lettering I knew he'd be perfect for the strip. But I had no forewarning of the surprise that was yet to come!

As good as Stan's lettering was, he managed to improve upon it with each new page. Best of all, I could tell by the way he positioned the balloons that he had a wonderful sense of layout, an innate feeling for composition and design. Still, I had no suspicion that Stan was any more than a fine letterer.

Then came the surprise.

While bringing some freshly-lettered pages one day, Stan casually handed me a copy of Usagi Yojimbo. It was a great-looking strip with fascinating artwork and I almost dropped my Marvel Booster Button when, upon seeing the credits, I realized that Stan Sakai was both the author and the artist!

From that moment on I was hooked. I've since followed the exploits of Usagi-san as eagerly as any other fan, and each time I read an issue, I can't help being impressed by the extent of Stan's versatility. You see, many strips might be created by someone, scripted by someone else and pencilled by another person. After that, the strip is given to a letterer and might finally be inked by a different artist. But the fact is, in the case of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai does it all!

Just think of it. First he invented an entire cast of exciting, anthropomorphic characters, then he fashioned a uniquely colorful world for them to inhabit. It's a fictitious world to be sure, and yet, due to his careful research and painstaking attention to detail, Usagi's world contains a tremendous wealth of authenticity in the customs and artifacts depicted in every meticulously detailed panel.

But it's the quality of Stan's scripting and artwork that really impresses me the most. In his writing, with an economy of dialogue, he manages to capture subtle and dramatic emotions as well as to convey the sense of honor and tradition embodied in the centuries-old code of the Samurai. As for his illustrations, which he himself letters, the more you study the amazing clarity and simplicity of each drawing and the deft, finely-detailed inking of his figures and backgrounds, the more you realize that Stan is both a superb designer and an innovative stylist. He has created not only a new strip, but a new type of visual storytelling.

At first glance, they may seem like cute little animals in a whimsical world starring in somewhat simplistic stories. But once you come under the spell of Usagi Yojimbo, you realize, as I did, that they're the stuff of which legends are made. For you're in the presence of a gifted storyteller and artist whose delicately woven tales have many complex layers and interpretations, and you may find yourself wanting to raise your glass and say "Kansha suru" (thank you) to one of the nicest guys in comics, a man I'm proud to call my friend, the multi-talented Stan Sakai.

Excelsior!

- Stan Lee, 1992

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.