Question for Stan

[Steve Hubbell]

Hi Stan,
I have been wondering about a couple questions which I'd like to ask you.

Where (or when) in the evolution of the creation of Usagi, does the Nilson Groundthumper epic fit in?

Were you doodling possible characters for the Nilson story when you created Usagi, or were you actively working on a Musashi story at the time?

Thanks....
Abayo

[Stan Sakai]

The origins for Nilson goes way back to my high school days. I was doing a comic strip for the paper--about bugs and mushrooms.

In my freshman year in college, I read Lord of the Rings and wanted to do a similar story. I took some of my bug characters and started an epic. I soon lost interest in that.

Many, many years later, after graduating, marrying Sharon, and moving to the Mainland, I dug up that old story and changed it a lot. Nilson was a human and Hermy was a dwarf. I completed an 8 page story.

I later redrew the story with Nilson as a rabbit, and Hermy as a--whatever (a contest later determined he was a guinea pig). This was published in Albedo #1, but I don't remember if I had redrawn the strip before or after I heard about Steve Gallaci wanting to publish a funny animal anthology.

I liked these characters, and developed that original epic from so long ago, again radically changing the story. It told the tale of a world of anthromorphs devolving into real animals, and of the goblins that would evolve into humans. After many adventures, Nilson would become a king and Hermy was still his companion. There would be a great war at the end, so I needed supporting characters.

At about this time, my interest in doing a series based on the life of Miyamoto Musashi kicked in. Then I drew him as a rabbit, and thought he would be a great supporting character in the Nilson story--there were others such as Bhoar the Norseman (he was a boar) and Slipknot (who had already been introduced. Usagi would become one of Nilson's generals. I worked out how they would meet--Hermy would be kidnapped by a wizard and taken to "Japan", and Nilson would pedal over on the wizard's "flycycle". I even figured out how they would be able to communicate in different languages. Hermy would have to travel solo with Usagi for awhile--which sounded fun, because Usagi was to be a much more stoic and gruff person than what he actually became. However, the more I developed the story, the better I liked Usagi, and now my focus is completely on the samurai rabbit.

[Anjin-san]

The origins for Nilson goes way back to my high school days. I was doing a comic strip for the paper--about bugs and mushrooms.

In my freshman year in college, I read Lord of the Rings and wanted to do a similar story. I took some of my bug characters and started an epic. I soon lost interest in that.

Many, many years later, after graduating, marrying Sharon, and moving to the Mainland, I dug up that old story and changed it a lot. Nilson was a human and Hermy was a dwarf. I completed an 8 page story.

I later redrew the story with Nilson as a rabbit, and Hermy as a--whatever (a contest later determined he was a guinea pig). This was published in Albedo #1, but I don't remember if I had redrawn the strip before or after I heard about Steve Gallaci wanting to publish a funny animal anthology.

I liked these characters, and developed that original epic from so long ago, again radically changing the story. It told the tale of a world of anthromorphs devolving into real animals, and of the goblins that would evolve into humans. After many adventures, Nilson would become a king and Hermy was still his companion. There would be a great war at the end, so I needed supporting characters.

At about this time, my interest in doing a series based on the life of Miyamoto Musashi kicked in. Then I drew him as a rabbit, and thought he would be a great supporting character in the Nilson story--there were others such as Bhoar the Norseman (he was a boar) and Slipknot (who had already been introduced. Usagi would become one of Nilson's generals. I worked out how they would meet--Hermy would be kidnapped by a wizard and taken to "Japan", and Nilson would pedal over on the wizard's "flycycle". I even figured out how they would be able to communicate in different languages. Hermy would have to travel solo with Usagi for awhile--which sounded fun, because Usagi was to be a much more stoic and gruff person than what he actually became. However, the more I developed the story, the better I liked Usagi, and now my focus is completely on the samurai rabbit.

Wow. Just from the general description, the original concept sounds very "Ralph Bakshi." Or, to be more contemporary, very "Miyazaki."

Great ideas ! If you ever get the opportunity to develop the original ideas into a graphic novel or an animated film, go for it ! I'm sure folks would love to see it. I know I would. . . .