by BRUCE COSTA (COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1235, JULY 18, 1997)
I must begin the transcription of this interview with a personal note. Stan Sakai was an absolute pleasure to speak with. His mild, friendly voice answered each of my questions with humility and joy. He was not only willing to share the most detailed aspects of his life and work with me, he was also genuinely interested in mine. At the end of our conversation, Stan wanted to make sure I had all of the Dark Horse Usagi Yojimbos. After telling him of the couple of issues I was missing, he graciously sent them (each signed with a Usagi sketch) along with a gorgeous cloisonne pin, a nice letter (which also featured a sketch), and other goodies. I'll cherish them always - not just because I've become so wrapped up in the wandering rabbit's world, but because his creator is a rare thing indeed: a gentleman.
COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE: Stan, I've greatly looked forward to this conversation; I've been a fan of your work for a long time. I must say, it's getting to the point where you need some pretty strong bookshelves to be a Sakai completist. You've produced quite a bundle of work!
STAN SAKAI: Mm-hmm. Well, Usagi was first published in 1984, so he's been around for...what, 12 or 13 years now?
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: What was your career prior to Usagi?
STAN SAKAI: I was a freelance commercial artist here in Los Angeles. I did, oh, book illustrations, magazine advertising, record album covers, you know, that kind of stuff. But I've *always* loved comic books. I grew up reading comic books and I just wanted to get into it.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: What was your art training?
STAN SAKAI: I have a fine arts degree from the University of Hawaii - I grew up in Hawaii. And I went to Art Center here in Pasadena for a few years.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: What made you decide to not take the traditional route into the comic book business?
STAN SAKAI: Traditional route?
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: You know, work for hire, standard superhero stuff.
STAN SAKAI: Oh, well, I grew up reading superheroes. But at one point I really got into the Japanese culture. I'm third generation Japanese, for one thing. But I really wanted to do a series, an historical series, based upon a samurai who lived at the turn of the seventeenth century named Miyamoto Musashi. Basically, one day I just drew a rabbit, tied up his ears to make a samurai top-knot, and fell in love with the design. Instead of Miyamoto Musashi, he became Miyamoto Usagi (usagi means rabbit). From then on, I just stayed with the rabbit!
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: That was pretty much a turning point of your career.
STAN SAKAI: That, and also meeting Sergio Aragones. At that time I was doing freelance work, and I also taught calligraphy. Sergio asked if I could letter his new comic book, Groo, that was coming out from Pacific. From then on I got into comics.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Other than your heritage, what drove you to make the thorough discovery of Japanese culture that you have?
STAN SAKAI: Hawaii has a mixed culture, so I grew up with a great deal of Japanese culture around me. There was a movie theater down the street that showed Japanese movies every weekend. I'd go down every weekend and see the samurai films and the old serials. As I got older I got more into it - not just the filmmaking, but also the history of Japan.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: And I assume that you chose the 17th century because of Musashi.
STAN SAKAI: Musashi and also because there was a lot happening at that time. The Tokugawa Shogunate had just become established, the age of civil wars had just ended. This is a time of turmoil, not only for the country, but for the samurai class itself. Suddenly, because of the peace brought to the land by the shogun, there are a lot of unemployed samurai, or ronin, walking around. Usagi is [such] a wanderer. It was a really interesting time in history for Japan.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: I can only imagine what your library must be like.
STAN SAKAI: It's pretty big. It spills over onto the floor and takes up about half the studio here.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: One of the reasons I so enjoy your books is the research notes you tend to include at the end. They always provide the answers to the questions I'd ask if you were sitting in the room as I finished the story. I'd think they're similarly valuable to the entirety of your readership.
STAN SAKAI: Usagi is pretty much just a fantasy series, but it's rooted in Japanese culture and history. I try to do as much research as I can. There are a few things that I take liberties with...
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Well, there weren't a lot of little dinosaurs running around at the time...
STAN SAKAI: No - and fans have actually asked if those dinosaurs existed at that time in Japan! The dinosaurs came about because, well...I like drawing dinosaurs! Also, I needed something to take the place of the pets and scavengers of Usagi's world. Rats, cats, dogs and things are potential people! So I needed something to fill that niche, and the dinosaurs are perfect.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Who is Usagi Yojimbo?
STAN SAKAI: He's a creature of honor. He follows the path of bushido, which is the path of the warrior. It teaches that honor and loyalty are above all things. First of all, he has to be true to himself. He's been offered positions with other lords but he's always maintained that a samurai only serves one lord in his lifetime. His lord died a while back, so to remain true to himself he takes the path of the wanderer.
Usagi grew up in a small, northern village. He was sent away to learn swordsmanship under a mountain hermit. From there he served a lord. This was right at the end of the age of civil wars with the great wars coming. Then, when his lord was killed he became a wanderer.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: In his first adventure he meets Tomoe.
STAN SAKAI: And she'll be in Grass Cutter, too. She's one of my favorite characters, and one of the most popular.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: I'll bet! She's got such strength...
STAN SAKAI: All my female characters tend to be strong characters. Grass Cutter, in fact, has a lot to do with fan requests.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Let's hear about it!
STAN SAKAI: There are three treasures given by the gods to the emperor of Japan. There was a jewel, a mirror, and a sword. The sword was named Kusanagi or, literally, Grass Cutter and was lost at sea during the 12th century during the great civil war of Japan. To make a long story short, there was a conspiracy of nobles wanting to overthrow the shogunate and reinstate the power of the emperor. To do this, they wanted to gather all three treasures together. The jewel and the mirror were already in their possession. However, since Grass Cutter was lost at sea, they had to find it. They did find it, and Usagi got hold of it. So you've got the emperor loyalists and you've got the shogunate faction after the sword, with Usagi in the middle.
Besides making a good story, I also had to keep it in line with history. There is a replica of Grass Cutter existing. Some say it's the actual sword, some say it's just a replica. So I had to justify everything and make it all historically accurate.
Grass Cutter is an 8-issue story. The first two issues are just prologue. It begins with the mythological creation of the Japanese islands, goes off through the discovery of Grass Cutter by Susano-O-No-Mikoto in the dragon's tail, and it follows Grass Cutter through history to Yamato-Dake and how he named the sword Grass Cutter. Issue 14 deals with the Genji Wars, the death of the emperor, and how Grass Cutter was lost during the Wars. Everything's historically [accurate].
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: What else is coming to stores that features the Ronin Rabbit?
STAN SAKAI: The eighth trade paperback will be out in the fall, entitled Usagi Yojimbo: Shades of Death. It will be 200 pages, which will make it the thickest trade paperback so far. It's the first one out by Dark Horse.
It contains the first six issues of the Mirage run, a story called Shades of Green. In it, Usagi meets up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I really liked the way that turned out - it was a fun story to do. Usagi helps a village that the local magistrate wants to try to take over, since gold, that the villagers don't know about, was found there. He tries to drive the villagers out, but Usagi is there standing his ground against [the magistrate's] hired assassins. Plus there are backup stories from issues seven and eight. Most of these stories deal with Usagi as a young boy when he's still learning the arts of the samurai under his teacher. I like those stories the best. Usagi's personality is a lot more... well, not more mischievous, but a lot more fun. In each story he learns a lesson at the end - how the sword is the soul of a samurai, or just lessons about life.
The trade paperback will be in black and white, but I went back and touched up the artwork for black and white production.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Will it be in a format compatible with the Fantagraphics trades?
STAN SAKAI: Yes it will. I'm really happy with the way the trade paperbacks have been going. They look so nice on bookshelves. One thing about Fantagraphics is that they have been keeping those books in print.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: All of them?
STAN SAKAI: Oh, yes. Book One is in its fifth printing now.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Then we've got the one shot serializing the story seen in Diamond Previews - The Green Persimmon.
STAN SAKAI: Yes. Jamie Rich, my editor, offered me the chance to serialize the story in Previews, which meant 2 pages every month for a year. That, in itself, set up some challenges. Every other page had to end in a cliffhanger. I had to recap the story every few pages, but not be so blatant as to make it boring, since I knew it would be collected as a single issue down the line.
Usagi comes upon a dying samurai who is retainer to his friend, Lord Noriyuki. The samurai asks Usagi to deliver a cheap, porcelain persimmon to the lord. He doesn't say what it's for or what it is. Usagi tries to carry out the dying man's last request, when suddenly he's besieged by all these assassins who are after the persimmon. He keeps trying to figure out what it is and what its significance is.
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: What are your thoughts about the amazing Usagi Yojimbo Dojo website?
STAN SAKAI: It's put together completely by fans. I'm frankly flabbergasted by the amount of work that they put into it. I'm just floored by all that they have on there! Graphics, histories of each character, synopses of all the stories, upcoming storylines, artwork - black and white as well as color, some limited animation, a website specifically made for Grass Cutter. Like I say, I'm amazed. I'm so grateful for what Todd Shogun has done - it's incredible!
COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE: Here is perhaps an impossible question. Who is the average Usagi Yojimbo reader?
STAN SAKAI: The audience that I aimed for is myself. I just write whatever I feel comfortable with, whatever I like drawing. It seems to have clicked with so many people; I'm up for four Eisner awards this year! This year it's the most for any creator. And last year I received two Eisners! Just to be nominated for those is incredible. I'm up against people like Joe Kubert and Osama Tezuka. It's, it's, it's just...overwhelming. [Laughter] I don't expect to win, but it's terrific!