USAGI YOJIMBO Color Special #2

Well, here we are again, a mere year and a half after the previous issue of Usagi Yojimbo Color Special. It took us that long to recover from the rigors of producing an actual color comic (what a bunch of black-and-white weenies, huh?), but we're bouncing back with an issue that, while a tad thinner than its predecessor, features a precedent-shattering thirty-eight pages of all-new all-Sakai artwork!

An alert longtime reader might notice that the range of colors in this issue is broader and more subtle than in the previous issue. And she or he would be right: with this issue, we've started using a color separator whose capacity for shading gives us literally ten times as many colors as in Usagi Color Special #1 - which itself had four times as many colors as your average garden-variety issue of X-Men. (In fact, we ought to charge you $40.00 for it, not a mere $3.50.)

New technology is nice, but it's nothing if it isn't backed up with skillful humans, and that end is covered by that Pavarotti of the Polychromic, Mr. Tom Luth (who has, over the past seven years, colored every single piece of Usagi artwork not colored by Stan himself). Working with a palette of over ten thousand colors, Tom has made a series of inventive and impeccably right choices. When I think of the soul-searching I used to go through as a wee tad trying to stay inside the lines and being confronted with a choice between the orange and the ochre crayon, or the purple and the mauve, my head spins at the thought. No doubt other colorists will be green with envy (a slightly bluish green, with just a touch of gray...no. not quite that much...yes, that's it, exactly)!

Actually, all kidding aside, the new leaps forward in coloring technology have been followed by similar leaps in human ability. Just looking over this year's coloring nominations in the prestigious Harvey Awards for excellence in comics work, I'm stunned by the range and quality of the work. Nominees Claude Legris (Hard Boiled), Steve Oliff (Akira), Sherilyn van Valkenburgh (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), Lynn Varley (Elektra Lives Again), and Mark Wheatley (Breathtaker) offer a remarkable range of creative and exciting coloring jobs, none of which would have been possible 15 or 20 years ago, when the main creative challenge was to remember whether the Hulk was green or gray, and how to color characters of Asian descent without making them look jaundiced or apoplectic.

Anyway, we're pleased as punch with this issue's coloring and unless the printer messes it up horribly, this will be not just the best-colored Usagi story ever (of which there have admittedly been only four to date), but one of the best-colored stories of the year, period.

Speaking of Usagi color stories, if you ever wanted to get a close look at the originals to the eight-page watercolor Usagi story that appeared in the hardcover edition of Usagi Yojimbo Book 4, and if you happen to live in Vancouver, Seattle, Minneapolis, or Los Angeles, you'll have your chance when the "Misfit Lit" comics show stops in your hometown this summer. Browsing through this eclectic and electric compilation of works by over 60 cartoonists (among them our own Stan) is a great way to spend an afternoon. For information, call 206-682-4568. (Note to younger readers and their parents: This show covers the full spectrum of comics art and has some pretty wild and raunchy stuff in it, so be warned!)

This wouldn't be a real Usagi editorial without at least a few commercial messages, so here we go. The softcover edition of Usagi Yojimbo Book 4 isn't quite out yet, all because of a bottleneck in the production department - it's not Stan's fault, so don't blame him. Meanwhile, Book 1 and Book 2 are almost sold out; the good news is that when we go back to print, we'll also be printing hardcover versions - this, as you may have guessed, in response to the phenomenal response to the Book 4 hardcover editions.

Finally, in response to that most-asked question, "Will there ever be another Usagi Yojimbo T-shirt?"

No.

There will, in fact, be...two. At least.

More details in the next "regular" issue of Usagi, [Vol. 1] #30, on sale next month. We'll be seeing you then.

And even though these Color Specials don't have a letters column, we'd love to hear your comments, and will print them in the regular Usagi letter column a few months down the road. So after you've slaked your thirst for hare-brained samurai adventure, sit down at the ol' Smith-Corona, or grab a pen or pencil, and let us know your thoughts!

- KIM THOMPSON, ED.

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.