TOZAI TIMES VOLUME 3 #30, MARCH 1987

[Steve Hubbell]

STAN SAKA: CARTOONIST
by DARRELL V. HAMAMOTO (TOZAI TIMES VOLUME 3 #30, MARCH 1987)

You remember him: The kid in grade school who was incessantly drawing in class when he should have been listening to the teacher. The one who enjoyed a rich fantasy life animated by characters from Disney, Marvel, DC, and Warner Brothers. He was probably physically unimposing, totally unlike the jocks, maybe even a little pale and underfed looking. But he didn’t stand out as an egghead. He might have been lucky enough to have had sympathetic teachers who encouraged his budding skills. If not, he probably had to live with his talent in secret, or else he spent a lot of time cleaning chalkboards. Ever wonder what became of that kid?

Stan Sakai is a 33-year old Pasadena-based artist born in Kyoto, Japan, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii with a degree in fine arts. He has done book illustrations and is a calligrapher for both the Sunday comics edition of Spider Man and the comic book Groo. To his legion of fans across the country, however, he is best known as the artist behind the wildly successful comic book Usagi Yojimbo published by Fantagraphics Books of Agoura, California.

Stan Sakai’s interest in comic books extends back into his childhood and his growing up days in Hawaii. He was an avid reader of DC and Marvel comics and took delight in the animated characters created by Disney and Warner Brothers. Sakai frequented the local movie houses to watch Japanese films that featured swordplay (chambara), an influence that figures strongly in Usagi Yojimbo.

His fascination with comics was shared by neighborhood pals Dennis Fujitake and Gary Kato. In the late 1960s they worked on “fanzines” - - amateur publications put together by fans - - which served as a training ground for their future vocations. Together they would dream of what it might be like to one day produce their own comic books.

Then, about eight years ago, Sakai wrote to the noted illustrator Sergio Aragones, an artist greatly admired by Sakai. Aragones is probably best known for his work in Mad Magazine. He is the fellow who draws those delightfully absurdist cartoon mini-dramas in the margins of the magazine. From this initial contact came a professional relationship that began in 1982 when Aragones asked Sakai to do the lettering for a new comic book called Groo.

Meanwhile, a renaissance of black and white comic books was taking place. The new wave in such books gained popularity with an audience who had grown tired of the larger mainstream publishers such as Marvel and DC. The widespread acceptance of a black and white comic book called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles demonstrated that there was indeed an enthusiastic audience that would support work that was not done in color. Due to the success of a book published by Thoughts and Images entitled Albedo, editor Kim Thompson approached Stan Sakai to do a “funny animals” book to be called Critters. (Incidentally, early numbers of Albedo are very difficult to find and sell for as much as $150 among collectors.)

Stan Sakai introduced the character of Usagi Yojimbo in the first issue of Critters and continued to draw him in later issues. In the summer of 1986, the Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special hit the stands nationwide and within three days all 18,000 copies promptly sold out. Fantagraphics Books was so pleased that in April of this year Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo will be published as a bi-monthly. Stan Sakai has now reached his goal, he will actualize his ambition to write his own comic book series.

The character of Usagi Miyamoto is loosely modeled after the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. The primary difference between the two characters is that Usagi Miyamoto is a samurai rabbit: complete with a topknot that cinches his rabbit ears.

“The use of animals has a long history in both Japanese and Western folklore,” explains Sakai. “Aesop’s Fables is a good example of this.” The anthropomorphic characters, or “funny animals” as Sakai refers to them, allow Sakai to endow his creations with supra-human rather than superhuman traits.

There are strong visual traces of Mifune, Toshiro and narrative sequences reminiscent of director Kurosawa, Akira. In one panel, for example, Usagi is seen scratching himself like Mifune did throughout the film Yojimbo. Like many of the heroes in Japanese films, Usagi is a ronin, (literally a “wave man”) riding the crests and troughs of “dharma” in a disordered world composed of corrupt individuals. Usagi possesses a silent strength which he unleashes only when personally provoked or to correct a grievous wrong suffered by the helpless. On those occasions it is used with a deadly finality.

The degree of detail Sakai puts into each panel of Usagi Yojimbo sets it apart from lesser books. Each story is meticulously researched beforehand at the public library or in the private reference library Sakai keeps at his home studio. Early in their relationship Sergio Aragones impressed upon Sakai the necessity of performing the required research before ever setting pen to paper. Sakai does his homework, too. Clothing, architecture, weaponry, household furnishings, and everything else pictured is rendered as accurately as possible in Usagi Yojimbo.

Sakai prefers to render his books in black and white rather than in color because it allows for greater purity in composition. “You can’t hide anything working in black and white,” he explains. “Using color doesn’t allow for the sort of textures I like to put into my art.” Neither does the artist take any shortcuts in producing his books. He does not use “shading sheets,” for example, because he prefers to create his unique textures by hand.

“I once counted over 2,000 dots in one panel I drew,” says Sakai. It is this painstaking attention to visual detail that has established Stan Sakai as one of the top artists of the new wave in comic books.

At this point in his career, Stan Sakai spends about 75 percent of his time engaged in cartoon-related work. The rest of his workload consists of free-lance assignments. “The time spent in art work apart from comic books keeps me fresh to write Usagi Yojimbo,” explains Sakai.

When he first came to the U.S. mainland from Hawaii nine years ago, Sakai, like any other young artist, scrambled to get whatever commercial art assignments he could. In addition to being young and inexperienced, he suffered the further handicap of coming to a city where he had, virtually no professional contacts. It has been only within the last few years that he has had the luxury of being able to freely choose the projects which he undertakes.

Sakai takes every opportunity he can to putting his energies back into the community that supports him. He enjoys the chance to meet his readers at the various comic book conventions and book signings he attends in the area. Today, not only has Stan Sakai attained prominence in his chosen profession, but his boyhood friends Gary Kato and Dennis Fujitake are now also producing their own comic books and attracting their own avid following.

For Stan Sakai, things are beginning to look just the way he had dreamed they would back when he and his buddies were growing up in Hawaii.