USAGI YOJIMBO Summer Special #1

Let's be real honest about this: Sergio Aragonés and I have done everything possible to harm the career of this man and yet, here he is with a whole book of his own. How is this possible?

As long as there has been Groo, Stan Sakai has been lettering Groo. And doing a fine job of it, I might add. Hiring him was the first rotten thing we did to him. To be affiliated with that aberrant comic would certainly help no one's career, as witness the fact that Sergio now has to work nights at a Wendy's Hamburgers in Van Nuys and I have embarked on a budding career in Motel Management. So working on Groo doesn't help your financial status and it sure doesn't do much for your mental equilibrium. Working over the Groo pages drove our first colorist, Gordon Kent, to a catatonic breakdown and we were forced to replace him, not with a human being, but with a newly-invented graphic color enhancement computer, the Transparent Optical Media Luthitron-7 (or "T.O.M. Luth" for short). For years now, we have routinely forced Mr. Sakai to letter the same stupid jokes, over and over, ad nauseum. I mean, how many times can you letter "Did I err?" Why he hasn't run screaming after us both with a machete is beyond me.

Plus, publishers keep writing Stan, care of the Groo letter column, offering him thousands of dollars to publish his work...and I keep throwing those letters away. Plus, Sergio is now drawing Groo on Kleenex so that it takes Stan weeks to letter each page, thereby keeping him from devoting time to his own work. Plus, we pay him in Bolivian money, forcing him to travel to La Paz, every time he wants to cash a paycheck. We do everything we can to stop him and yet...here he is with a whole book of his work! How is this possible?

Sure, "Usagi Yojimbo" is a terrific feature, springing fullform into a comics world that has much too much of that other kind of stuff, not nearly enough of this kind of stuff. Sure, Stan's work has attracted a considerable following in the pages of Albedo and Critters. Just try finding the early numbers of Albedo, I dare you. But this does not explain why Sergio and I (easily, two of the six nicest people in the comic book field) have tried so hard to torpedo the life and times of the splendidly-talented Stan Sakai.

Well, if you look over these pages, the answer should be obvious. He can do it without us, folks! On Groo, it takes Sergio plus M.E. plus Stan to write/draw/letter a comic book. And Stan can do it all, sans help. This is extremely embarrassing to us. Moreover, with a fine book of his own on the stands, (a) he will earn tons of cash and (b) all those folks who want to hire him for Big Bucks will send their offers, not to the Groo. And since Stan's lettering is the only thing about the book even remotely professional - not counting the fine work of the T.O.M. Luth - sales will plummet, the book will be cancelled and Sergio and I will be forced completely out of the comic book industry in shame.

What I'm getting at is that the existence of this book may completely destroy the lives of both Sergio Aragonés and M.E.. And you know what? Now that I look over Sakai's pages, I'd say it's not such a bad swap.

- Mark Evanier

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.