by MAS DOBASHI (TOZAI TIMES VOLUME 13 #148, FEBRUARY 1997)
As with most young Nisei kids, I grew up reading comics in the daily newspaper. Comic strips such as Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Tarzan, etc., were very popular in my day. Today, a new series of cartoons such as Peanuts, Cathy, Baby Blues, Jump Start, Garfield, Dr. Katz and others get our attention. Mickey Mouse and his gang have left the comic strip and are now brought into our homes via the TV screen. Calvin and Hobbs have gone into retirement. Tarzan can only be seen on the big screen. I guess what I'm trying to say is that comics are forever changing.
Some 12 years ago, a young artist from Hawaii, Stan Sakai, created a cartoon character named Usagi Yojimbo, a samurai rabbit who roamed throughout Japan a couple of centuries ago. Ten years ago, Sakai published his first comic book and today, Usagi Yojimbo comic books are more popular than ever.
What makes this series of books unique is that the story lines are based on the ancient history of Japan during the Shogun era. The characters and the story is fictional, but it is based on e vents that really took place in Japan during the samurai days--much like James Clavell's novel Shogun, is a fictional novel tied to the actual events during the civil war days of Japan.
Sakai's interest in 17th century Japan was inspired by his love of the chambara movies he used to watch in his early years. Another factor may be that he was born in Kyoto, the former capital city of Japan. His father was serving in the United States military in Japan when he met and married Teruko Aisaka. Stan's older brother, Kenneth, was born in Tokyo, the present capital city.
Sakai, now a Pasadena resident, resides with his wife Sharon and their two children Hannah and Matthew. His studio is just ten steps away from the family kitchen. This arrangement affords Sakai the luxury of going off to work and never having to leave the house. His wife is a pre-school teacher and with the children now attending school, Sakai has ample time to create his work and still be there for the family.
To create his storylines, Sakai researches volumes of history books for interesting facts that can be transformed into his comic series tales. He also studies various Japanese myths and again relates these tales in his storylines. If you want to know the origin of the “Tanabata Matsuri”, pick up a copy of Usagi Yojimbo and you'll get a simple, painless lesson in culture as well as learn why the Milky Way is called the River of Heaven. For his skillful weaving of facts and legends into his work, Sakai was given the Parents' Choice Literary Award in 1990. This past year, he was awarded a couple of Eisner Awards--one for his comic book lettering skills and another for talent deserving of better recognition.
For the past decade, Sakai has been drawing, writing and producing Usagi comic books at the rate of nine books per year. This is the commitment he has made with his new publisher, Dark Horse Comics. In achieving his goal, Sakai has to put in time at his drawing board every day, just to keep up with his busy schedule. In addition to conceptual time thinking out his storylines, Sakai has to put pen to paper and work out his storyboards. A complicated panel may require a half day's work, while others may be drawn in much less time. Sakai creates his comic book covers using watercolors. "Using oil medium (oil paints) takes too long," he reports.
Rounding out Sakai's plate are a few other commitments. He continues to do the lettering for the Spiderman Sunday comic strips, a task he took on years ago. He makes appearances at various book signing sessions and conducts "chalk talk" programs at the local libraries. All these outside projects leave the artist no free time to break away from work related projects and take a golf holiday or other things people do to escape their nine-to five lives.
Yet, Sakai feels no burn-out, even after ten years of drawing rabbits. "I love to work with Usagi and I never feel burnt out. I enjoy what I'm doing," he smiles. "Besides, I do other work for the publishers besides Usagi. I also do some advertising art and this gives me a variety of assignments."
Ever hear of cartoonist trading cards? Sakai has informed me that there's a series of trading cards which feature cartoonists and Sakai is proud to note that he has his own cartoonist card.
Branching out into every medium, there's even four or five Usagi websites on the Internet created and maintained by fans. The most interesting one comes out of Long Beach, California and is called Usagi Dojo.
"I've logged onto the site a few times and it's incredible the amount of work they do -- character descriptions, synopses of all the stories and printing history... There's one guy filing all the letters that appeared in Usagi Yojimbo comic books. I contribute every so often when I do a cover, anything I send them that day it is on the Internet," reports Sakai. Of course all this interest in Usagi pleases Sakai, although he admits he is rather overwhelmed by the attention his little bunny has created.
Sakai has another character he has created known as Space Usagi. Sakai works on this character from time to time, but has not found a home for him as yet. Space Usagi is an animated series on tape, and a pilot show has been made for television.
"Circumstances were we never went beyond that stage, the thing that stopped us was that we needed a toy company. The toy company would be the one to finance the TV series. We even had options for a movie, we had publishers internationally and investors, but the thing that was lacking was a toy company."
Then last year it was all set to go on the ABC network and be part of their Saturday morning cartoon line-up, they were even offered a time slot. But when Disney bought out the network, the plan was scrubbed. Unfortunately for Sakai's fans, Disney's policy is that only Disney creations are shown on their airwaves. Sakai reports however that another production company has shown interest in the series and they are waiting for the option rights to expire so they can move ahead.
Oddly, Usagi Yojimbo is a very popular strip in European countries, but this is not the case in Japan. Sakai's work can be found throughout Germany and is also translated into Croatian. Recently, a small town in Germany held a comic book festival and Sakai was asked to display his work. He shipped over some of his original watercolor book covers of Usagi which was greatly appreciated by the festival organizers who said there was a terrific response to Usagi and Sakai's work.
Sakai believes the reason his books are not translated into Japanese is that everything would have to be re-done in the reverse order to accommodate the Japanese way of printing. The books and magazines are read right to left in Japan, as opposed to the Western left to right. "Because of this there has never been an American comic book that has really made it big in Japan," says Sakai.
I asked if there were any physical changes in Usagi Yojimbo after ten years. Sakai stated, "Yes, but very subtle. He is leaner and taller, otherwise he's the same as he was a decade ago. The character evolves over the years. A lot of the changes in Usagi over the years was not done consciously. As I got used to the character, he just changed."
Usagi is a bachelor ronin samurai warrior who travels throughout Japan finding new adventures along the way. The question arose about his love life. Will he ever marry? Sakai smiles that Usagi Yojimbo met a wonderful girl during one of his travels, but due to circumstances beyond his control, had to move on. Much later, he revisited his former girlfriend's village and looked her up. As fate would have it, he discovered she had married. Sadly, she asked him to leave because she still harbored some passionate feelings for him and did not wish to jeopardize her marriage. Ever the gentleman, Usagi agreed.
If you are interested in purchasing some of Stan Sakai's work, the easiest way is to contact Carolyn Sanwo, owner of Heritage Source in Santa Clarita. She specializes in distributing Asian American books and has many of Sakai's books on hand. She may be reached by telephone or fax at (805) 263-0623. Sakai's books may be purchased by the individual issue or in collections of his stories. They are also available at the Comic Book Specialty Store in San Gabriel, California.
