Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hello,

I have a vague memory of seeing an image posted somewhere of a drawing that Stan Sakai had done earlier, possibly before his professional career, of what (as far as I remember) was a realistic barbarian fighting on horseback. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread of Stan Sakai's pre-Usagi Yojimbo artwork, showcasing his artistic development throughout the years. If you own or have seen any of these rare masterpieces, please feel free to post!

A fanzine illustration, for a poem titled "To The Sword!" written by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Fantasae #1 (1975)

Steve Hubbell wrote:
A fanzine illustration, for a poem titled "To The Sword!" written by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Fantasae #1 (1975)

That is exactly it! Thank you so much!

Jessica is a writer and wrote, among others, three Tomoe Gozen fantasy novels.

Stan Sakai wrote:Jessica is a writer and wrote, among others, three Tomoe Gozen fantasy novels.

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing.

Some images that were posted a couple months ago for one of the trivia challenges.....

Steve Hubbell wrote:Some images that were posted a couple months ago for one of the trivia challenges.....

So neat!

Sooooo cool! Loving the Conan'esque look of those early prints.

Was it Barry Smith who did the early Conan comic illustrating? Stan, was he anything of an influence on you or were you an influence on him??? Not sure of the timeline there!

You can blame/thank me for the trivia contest question heh, but it was great seeing at least a couple of pieces I was not aware of get featured in the postings...

BuckRogers wrote:Sooooo cool! Loving the Conan'esque look of those early prints.

Was it Barry Smith who did the early Conan comic illustrating? Stan, was he anything of an influence on you or were you an influence on him??? Not sure of the timeline there!

Yes, it was Barry Windsor Smith who did some of the early Marvel Conan, but John Buscema quickly became their go to artist for drawing or penciling the pages. This should have been closer to the 60's, so I am going to guess the former, but who knows.

On a semi-related note, one day last week, while my older brother was looking at cars for when he goes off to college, my mom took me to the Half Price Books store. I picked up a copy of "The Savage Sword of Conan" as it is one of my favorite series, and the issue had pencils by the aforementioned John Buscema who is one of my favorite artists (though he is no Stan Sakai). While we were waiting on my brother to buy the car, I was showing my mom the comic book, and she read the opening paragraph that describes Conan from "The Nemedian Chronicles." She got to the credits and saw that Conan was created by Robert E. Howard, and said she thought we might be related to him. After a long series of research with the few resources I could find online and talking to my grandmother, it is most likely that he is my great-great-grandfather's cousin.

That was a long side-track, sorry! Still, I think it is pretty interesting nonetheless.

Mayhem wrote:You can blame/thank me for the trivia contest question heh, but it was great seeing at least a couple of pieces I was not aware of get featured in the postings...

It is definitely a big thank you! Loved seeing the art!