USAGI YOJIMBO Volume 2, Number 11

[Story notes copied to story - P. Dark]

To All Those who have ever worked on Usagi:

I'd just like to say thanks for the most enjoyable comic I've found. Through all of Usagi's trials and tribulations, I've found myself crying, laughing, cheering, and displaying any other emotion we humans can conjure up. From the first Usagi page I read, right down to the one I just read, it's been a blast. Comments on Usagi:

The art - Way to go Stan, you've proven that art in black and white can be just as good.

The lettering - Way to go Stan!

The coloring - Way to go Tom, your colors have been great!

The editing - Way to go Kim, and to our new editor, whoever you are!

On a couple other notes I'd just like to say that although I will not claim to be the biggest Usagi fan, I believe I can claim to be up there. I've scoured the U.S. of A., from New York to Hawaii, looking for every Usagi comic, promo, toy, and art that I could possibly find. I may not have it all, but I'm darn close, and the thing that I would say puts me over the top into the collaboration of big time Usagi fans is the fact that I am, for certain, the only person in Missouri with the license plate "USAGI".

So, for my last comment, I would just like to tell all you Usagi fans out there that have only become a fan since the new color series, go get the old ones, they're just as good.

Thanks for the fun,
Bill Burge
Ballwin, MO

[You're the second person I know of to have a "Usagi" license plate. I met the first just a few months ago at the San Diego Comic Con. He even brought a photo of his car and no, it wasn't a Volkswagen Rabbit.

[Most of the old black & white stories have been reprinted in trade paperback books. Book Six came out just a few months ago and Book Three will have a second edition printed in the Spring. Book Seven is scheduled for 1995. The entire series is available through any bookstore or from the publisher, Fantagraphics Books (you can call them toll-free at 1.800.657.1100).]

Dear Mr. Sakai,

First let me say that I love Usagi, and I hope he will be around for many years to come.

I am currently rereading my Usagi collection. While doing so, some questions came to me.

1. In UY Book 1, Lord Hikiji made Kenichi magistrate of Usagi's hometown. Does this mean that Kenichi is now a samurai in service to Lord Hikiji?

2. Will Usagi ever meet another samurai who served under Lord Mifune? If so, would the samurai see Usagi as a failure because Lord Mifune died?

3. When will Jei be back? He is one of my favorite characters in comics.

Well, that's it for the questions. Now a suggestion: I know that you are a fan of Bone, and Jeff Smith is a fan of Usagi, sooo.... Why not have a Usagi and Bone team-up?! Great fun!! Great art!! Great reading!! PLEASE consider this. It would make a lot of us fans VERY happy!

Well, that's it for now. Thank you for your time and keep up the good work!

Your fan,
Brent Newton
Huntsville, AL

[1. Since Hikiji is the lord of the province, Kenichi is in service to him. Remember, though, that it's just a small town and would probably never again be noticed by the lord.

[2. If the samurai saw Usagi as a failure wouldn't he, as another ex-vassal, have to consider himself a failure also?

[Actually, Usagi ran into Gunichi, a fellow bodyguard to Lord Mifune, way back in Usagi Vol. 1, #1 (reprinted in UY Book Two). We don't know what Gunichi thought of Usagi since he was killed before he said a word.

[3. Talk about anticipating my readers' requests! Jei came back last issue and will make another appearance in issue #13.

[I doubt there will ever be a Bone/Usagi cross-over aside from a pin-up or two (as in Bone #14). Our concepts are a bit too different. It'll be like teaming up Archie with The Punisher. Hey, wait a minute...that has been done!]

Dear Stan,

I have to congratulate you. Usagi Yojimbo is extremely well-written and well done all around to the point that it is almost awe-inspiring and even is inspiring in another sense. (I'm a poet of sorts when the feeling hits me and so far two poems have come from this ronin and his 'life'.) I was introduced to Miyamoto Usagi in what is not the most glorified of ways. An issue was handed to me by a friend who, of all things, was cleaning his room and who thought it would interest me. Quickly I became hooked, and now I'm almost afraid I'm going to wear out the staples in the issues I have!

Dave Raynor
Baltimore, MD

Dear Stan,

I have been an avid follower of Usagi Yojimbo since issue #24 of the black and white series. to heap more praise on the quality of your writing and artistic storytelling would be redundant. From Stan Lee to Jeff Smith, many of your loyal readers have said it better than I ever could.

In a time when your average comic seems to be nothing more than pin-ups of guns and spandex, Usagi Yojimbo is breath of fresh air. We need more comics like Usagi. We need more heroes like Usagi. We need more readers for Usagi.

I work at a comics store in northern California. (Shameless plug alert: it's Flying Colors in Concord.) Every now and then, I begin an aggressive campaign to try and bolster sales of titles that, I believe, are not getting the attention they deserve. In the past, I have significantly affected our sales of books like The Batman Adventures, Bone, Danger Unlimited, Hellboy, Nexus, Grendel & various other titles & special projects. Usagi Yojimbo was another of these titles. I get a copy in the customer's hands. I talk to them about it. I give it the Flying Colors employee endorsement, whatever it takes to get them to read it. After that, it's up to you. As I said before, you do a quality job. It works. Sales, and orders, for Usagi have risen since we began.

I just wanted you to know that at least one retailer was trying to cultivate new readers for quality titles. Retailers have a responsibility to do more than let those books sink or swim in the cutthroat war for rack space. Well, I guess it's time to get down off my soapbox.

Alan Travis
Vallejo, CA

[Thanks Alan. We need more retailers like you promoting those overlooked gems.]

Dear Stan,

I am a long time lover of all things anthropomorphic, and amongst the many publications in the 'funny animal' genera, I have always considered your work to be outstanding. I have been a fan of Usagi Yojimbo since he first appeared in 'Critters' and I love the way you bring authentic Japanese folklore and culture into the realms of anthropomorphism. One of the things that makes your stories so good is that besides Usagi you have created many other memorable characters, each with enough personality to be worthy of their own stories.

Now that I've just read Usagi #10 volume 2, the story 'Nature of the Viper' has given me an idea I'd like to suggest to you. Of the characters you've created I think that Jei the black-souled samurai is a great character with a wonderfully demonic look and deserves his own storyline.

I have always been fascinated by the concept of the anti-hero and Jei would make a wonderful villain-as-hero given circumstances in which he ends up defeating other forms of evil and in doing so sometimes is mistaken for a hero by those saved by his actions. Proving that just because someone fights a common evil doesn't make him good, and Jei would always fight for his own agendas and no one else's.

He should have his own style of stories in which the main focus is more supernatural in nature. The stories, while seated in Japanese folklore, could take on a 'Lovecraftian' flavor in that sometimes it takes evil to defeat evil.

Jei has always stated he was touched by the gods. That the gods speak to him. In his first appearance he mentioned that this came to him after a fever. Well why not make this literally so? Perhaps that fever opened his mind to the realms beyond the veil of reality and he actually witnessed other-worldly battles between demonic spirit forces that consequently drove him insane.

He would be on a quest to purge the horrors he had seen in his dreams from the world of mortals. He would be Jei black-sword, the demon hunter. Seen as a dangerous madman by most, an unlikely savior by some, and to a bare handful of people who know him for what he is, a haunted man pathetically chasing the ghosts of his own soul.

I also love stories with ironic twists to them, so why not have this mad killer acquire very unlikely people as his few friends. Maybe a small blind girl whom Jei considers an icon of purity, but who in reality is a shape-shifting fox spirit in disguise that ends up manipulating him into actually destroying evil in the world. He could also be friends with an owl that only talks to him, but that taunts him terribly for in truth the owl is really a reflection of his own lost soul. There could be a ghost of a lost love that visits occasionally, perhaps demanding his death because of something he did or because she longs for him to join her, etc. In short, this is a character with one foot in the world or mortals and the other in the spirit realms and the line between the two is confused and blurred by his twisted mind.

Also, it would be nice if the stories were narrated by Jei, which could be used to show just how mad he really is because the story doesn't have to follow his narration. For example, he might tell of how a person he kills 'thanked him' for killing them while the reader sees the person begging for mercy as Jei murders him.

Well anyway this was the vision that popped into my head when I saw Jei stride across the room in his latest appearance. Hope you might consider actually using it. Either way, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,
J.T. Myers
Baltimore, MD

[Jei is one of my favorites too. I guess it's because he's so different from the other characters in Usagi's world. He'll be back in two issues and you can judge for yourself how close your ideas are to mine.

[I almost never bring books to conventions in the hopes of getting them signed. However, I knew one of my favorite authors, Max Allan Collins, was to be a guest at the last San Diego Comic Con so I packed his last two novels and carried them around with me hoping I would bump into him.

[I went to the Tekno-Comix exhibit where I knew he would show up sooner or later - but not when I was there. I did get a free T-shirt, though.

[I was signing at my table on Saturday when I heard someone yell out my name. It was Max. It seems he and his son, Nate, are fans of Usagi and he had been looking for me throughout the Con. Anyway, I got my books signed as well as a huge ego boost and Max was able to fill a few holes in Nate's Usagi collection.

[It wasn't until much later, though, that I realized I had swiped his pen.

[This is just a roundabout way of saying that if you're a fan of good detective stories, or good writing in general, pick up one of Max's books. I recommend them highly, especially his award-winning Nate Heller series.]

Brawling bandits are no match for this sword seeking samurai!
Usagi Yojimbo #12
Coming in February!

Last change: 19. May 2003

Back to UY Dojo Home Page

Because of getting swamped by spam eMail, we don't publish an eMail adress here but you can always reach us via the DojoBoard.

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.