'BUN' ANNIVERSAIRE!
By WOLFEN MOONDAUGHTER (SEQUENTIAL TART, VOL 7 #10, OCTOBER 2004)
It's hard to believe that it's been twenty years already since Usagi Yojimbo debuted in the comic world! Since then, he's starred in two books, made guest appearances on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and been made into an action figure. Sequential Tart caught up with creator Stan Sakai to ask how he plans to celebrate this milestone, as well as what we might expect for the future of our favorite samurai rabbit...
SEQUENTIAL TART: Looking back at the beginning, what kind of reflections do you have about your life and art then as compared to now?
STAN SAKAI: Twenty years ago, I was still deciding on a direction to take Usagi. Would it be a fantasy series, a historical series, or a combination of both?
Now I've got major story arcs planned for the next five years. Also, when I first started, doing an eight-page story a month was a major accomplishment. Now I try to write and draw 20 pages a month.
SEQUENTIAL TART: You've said that your parents threw out your comics when you were growing up. How did they react when you first started getting into the field professionally? How do they feel about it now?
STAN SAKAI: Actually, we've never discussed it. They're great parents and did what was best for their kids. They thought I should be reading books rather than comics. I hope I'm as good a parent as they were — except my kids do have a lot of comics.
SEQUENTIAL TART: You said in our previous interview with you that, back "before the black and white boom ... there was a prejudice against non-color comics so naturally we kind of gravitated to each other." You've been to plenty of conventions and belong to CAPS, an organization set up essentially to allow comic creators to socialize. How has the industry changed from a social Standpoint in the two decades you've been involved?
STAN SAKAI: Black and white books are common now and it is much easier to put out a comic, so there are a lot of new up and coming creators — much more than when I started. I'm now regarded as one of the old timers.
SEQUENTIAL TART: How do you think the unity between the mainstream and small press has changed since you first became a part of the industry?
STAN SAKAI: The line between mainstream and small press has almost disappeared. We now have seasoned pros leaving the big companies to either start their own, or create a new property for a smaller publisher. There is a great unity between the two. Many mainstream creators are very supportive of the small press. One person I can think of is Will Eisner. I remember how energized he was with all the new talent and projects that were at a Small Press Expo.
SEQUENTIAL TART: How do you think the boundaries between the two have shifted in recent years?
STAN SAKAI: The boundaries are gettin' thinner every year. I think a big factor was the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Independent comics — and comics in general — has never been the same since then.
SEQUENTIAL TART: How do you view the independent comics scene now?
STAN SAKAI: Certainly, the most creative work is being done by the independent companies. They're not concerned as much with market share, or what will sell. Their big focus is in getting their stories out there.
SEQUENTIAL TART: People often mistakenly believe you are a mangaka, that you live in Japan, and that you're a martial artist. What are some other misconceptions you find people have about you?
STAN SAKAI: I grew up in Hawaii and a lot of people think I still live there — or Japan — but I've been in Southern California for more than 25 years. I enjoy manga and anime, but I grew up on the classic stuff — Tezuka, Matsumoto, Monkey Punch. I do get invited to quite a few anime cons, and really enjoy them. My art influences and story telling however, are more Western than Japanese.
SEQUENTIAL TART: What do you have planned to celebrate Usagi's anniversary? What storylines can we look forward to? New characters? What about Space Usagi?
STAN SAKAI: The regular comics will still be coming out, but Dark Horse will also be publishing an Art of Usagi Yojimbo hardcover coffee table book, much like their Art of Hellboy or Sin City books. It will be 200 pages, with a nice color sections that, among other things, will reprint for the first time my two water-colored stories. The section I'm really looking forward to is tributes to Usagi by other creators such as Frank Miller, Sergio Aragones, Jeff Smith, Guy Davis, Matt Wagner, and other artists I admire.
Usagi will be featured, quite prominently, in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' TV series. He's in a four-part story titled "The Big Brawl", and will be in two or three episodes in the new season. Leonardo goes to Usagi's world in one episode and besides Usagi, a lot of my supporting characters are involved — Gen, Tomoe, Lord Noriyuki, Chizu, the cat, bat, and mole ninja clans, and Lord Hebi. There will even be a cameo by those two woodcutters that drift in and out of Usagi's adventures. There will also be some new action figures coming out from Playmate Toys.
As far as the comic books, I am currently doing an arc titled "Glimpses of Death" which features many of Usagi's supporting characters in solo adventures. After that, Usagi and Tomoe will meet again for "The Treasure of the Mother of Mountains." I do have a couple of out of continuity stories I would like to do, but do not have time for. One of them is the last Space Usagi mini series, and the other is a Usagi / War of the Worlds crossover — what if the Martians had landed in feudal Japan?
SEQUENTIAL TART: I think fans are still holding onto the hope of you doing a series — crossover or original — with your pal Sergio Aragones. What can you tell us on that front?
STAN SAKAI: Sergio and I had plotted out a Usagi/Cat Nippon crossover about 10 years ago, but neither of us has got the time to actually get started on it.
Sergio took a brief hiatus from comics, but he's back. We can look forward to a 12 issue Groo series titled "Friends and Enemies", and two Groo crossovers — one with Conan and the other with Tarzan. The entire Groo team of Sergio, Mark Evanier, Tom Luth, and I will be back together for these.
SEQUENTIAL TART: With your first comic story having been published in Albedo and Usagi being an anthropomorphic character, how much of your fandom, do you guess, is "furry"-related? What is your experience with that subculture?
STAN SAKAI: I went to my first furry con this summer. Anthrocon in Philadelphia is the largest funny animal con in the world, and I enjoyed it immensely. Whatever prejudices I might have had about that genre disappeared. It was a fun, family oriented convention. My two kids and I attended, and we have never had a better time at a convention of any kind.
SEQUENTIAL TART: How does the anthropomorphic nature of Usagi affect your storytelling?
STAN SAKAI: It really has no affect on my storytelling at all. When I first thought of doing a series based in feudal Japan, it was to be with human characters mainly because that is what I drew at that time. However, I'm glad I switched over to funny animals. I think it gives the series more character, it becomes much more distinctive.
SEQUENTIAL TART: Why do or don't you think readers identify more or less with Usagi than they would with someone who had human features?
STAN SAKAI: Being funny animal makes him much more universal, I think. But mainly, I like the design of Usagi. He looks pretty cool with his ears tied into a samurai chonmage.
SEQUENTIAL TART: With so many people thinking you're a manga artist, how do you think the popularity of manga in recent years has affected Usagi's readership?
STAN SAKAI: I don't think the popularity in the manga market has really has an effect on Usagi. He's been around for so long that most booksellers do not stock Usagi with the manga books.
SEQUENTIAL TART: You've said you stayed in Japan as guests of Osamu Tezuka Productions back in '98 — what did you do on your visit? Had you met Tezuka-sama before he died in '89?
STAN SAKAI: I did meet Dr. Tezuka twice, when he attended the San Diego Cons. My impression of him is that despite his great success, he was still a very humble person content to let his work speak for him. I did get to meet his widow, son, and daughter when we went to Japan. That visit was extraordinary. Tezuka Productions took us to meet publishers, mangaka, and animators. The trip culminated with a huge party at the Prince Asakusa Hotel, in which many of the top creators in Tokyo were in attendance. We also did a lot of sightseeing. One thing I really wanted to do was make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Nikko.
SEQUENTIAL TART: We know you grew up in Hawaii with others of Japanese descent. Are there many similarities, do you think, between Hawaiian and Japanese culture and language?
STAN SAKAI: If I remember my history right, King Kalakaua had made an agreement with the Emperor to bring Japanese to work in the pineapple and sugar cane fields, and so there is a large Japanese population in Hawaii. These "issei" preserved much of their native culture, and I grew up with the Japanese language and customs.
SEQUENTIAL TART: Any chance of Usagi visiting the Hawaiian Islands as they existed during the Feudal era?
STAN SAKAI: Japan was isolated from the western world during Usagi's time. Foreigners were relegated to certain port cities and kept away from the Japanese people. It was a crime for most people to even associate with a foreigner, much less leave the country. This has inspired a few Usagi stories. It was not until Commodore Perry's arrival that Japan was forced to open up to the rest of the world.
SEQUENTIAL TART: You told us last time that you had some autobiographical pieces that had yet to see print. What's their current status on the journey to the light of day?
STAN SAKAI: Again, it has to do with time. I do have a few stories, like the time I had to wear my wife's clothes on Spanish TV, or about my tuxedo which was in the beginning of the Vin Diesel movie XXX.
SEQUENTIAL TART: Do you listen to music while working on Usagi, and if so, does it affect how you work or the stories you write? What other things do you do while creating?
STAN SAKAI: I usually have the TV on to the news, or a DVD. I like action/adventure movies because I don't have to watch it to know what's going on. I don't usually watch foreign movies because I actually have to pay attention to what is on the screen.
SEQUENTIAL TART: Are you still doing the lettering for the Sunday edition of the Spider-Man newspaper strip?
STAN SAKAI: Yes, I am still lettering the Sunday strips. It is the only regular comics work that Stan Lee does. I've been doing it for 20 years as well. It's still a lot of fun working with Stan.
SEQUENTIAL TART: Last we talked to you, your son Matthew was reading superhero comics and just getting into Usagi, and Hannah was reading Archies. Are they getting more interested in your own work, now that they are older? Have they started bragging to their schoolmates about their cool comic book-writing dad yet?
STAN SAKAI: Matthew, and a lot of his friends, are into Usagi. Hannah is into manga and anime now. She was once asked how it felt like to have a dad who does comics. She answered that she had nothing to compare it to, because to her I was just "Dad".
SEQUENTIAL TART: Usagi has won a Parent's Choice award, and your own comic tastes, with Bone and Akiko, seem to lean towards "kid-friendly" books. What do you think draws you to those kinds of works?
STAN SAKAI: Usagi has received a few general readership awards since then — an American Library Association Award, and four Young Adult Library Services Awards (the YALSA — what a great name). Libraries and schools look at these lists when ordering, so we're hoping that Usagi will be more visible in those places.
As far as my personal tastes, it runs the gamut from kid-friendly books like Bone to adult material like Naughty Bits. Unfortunately, both these series have recently ended.
SEQUENTIAL TART: What movies have you enjoyed in the last year or so?
STAN SAKAI: I find it difficult to sit through a movie. I guess it's because I work with the TV on. It's hard to just sit and watch the screen. I feel like should be drawing.
SEQUENTIAL TART: What kind of non-comic works do you like to read? We know you read a lot on Japanese history and culture, but are you a fiction-lover at all?
STAN SAKAI: I particularly enjoy detective fiction. My favorite author is Max Allan Collins, particularly his Nate Heller books. I also like Ed McBain's 87th Precinct stories.
SEQUENTIAL TART: What conventions can your fans find you at in the next year or so, if they want to say "Omedeto Gozaimasu, Sakai-sama!" (or even just Happy Anniversary?)
STAN SAKAI: I will be going to Poland in two months for a book signing tour of that country. I will be at the Expo Comic Festival in Madrid, Spain in November.
There will be an exhibition of my art there as well, and an art book printed especially for the convention. I've received invitation to a few other conventions, but details have not yet been ironed out. However, you can check out my schedule as well as answers to any Usagi questions you might have at
www.usagiyojimbo.com.
SEQUENTIAL TART: Arigato, Sakai-sama!