Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

I saw this post written by Scott Dunbier (see photo). In a nutshell, Jack Kirby was open to fans, even to the point of inviting them over to his house for lunch and giving them a free sketch. I never met Jack but every story I hear about him gives me so much respect for him.

Which brings me to Stan.

Once Todd create this Dojoboard, Stan eventually logged on. He responded to people's questions here. He posted what he was working on and signings he would be at. He offered sketchbooks to mail SDCC sketchbooks to people who couldn't make it (including me).

When The Hundreds Usagi Yojimbo Limited T-Shirts signing was happening, I posted here I was going and offered to buy shirts for those who didn't live in LA. Stan reached out and offered to go to lunch with my family. A Jack Kirby moment.

When a few of us when the SD Comic Con Museum to see Stan's Opening Gallery Exihib, Stan reach out again. He said, "Santa Barbara is far away, why don't you sleep over my place so you can be rested before you head home." So we did and the next day, Stan cooked us a Japanese/Hawaiian breakfast of rice, spam, eggs, and shoyu. You can't have a better Jack Kirby experience than that.

When we did the UYD FB Charity Giveaway, Stan offered to sign all the UY comics, hard covers, merch. He again offered for us to stay with him overnight. When the day arrived, we made the trek down and Stan signed everything and remarqued the majority of the donations. Julie ordered a delicious Mexican dinner for us. I was sick so I didn't stay over night but Stan made it clear I could have.

It should be noted that Julie (like Roz) was amazing and accepting/putting up with us fanboys. She is super kind and reminds me of my Japanese family in her hospitality and warmth. Daniel was always willing to talk about Usagi stuff but also stuff he was interested in. Emi is calm and warm too. Stan wouldn't invite people over if his family weren't willing to have people over.

A few years ago, my family went through some really personal struggles. I was worried about Cheryl's mental health. I'm not a vacation planner but I really thought it was important for Cheryl to take a break from the intense hardships we were facing at home. Stan had offered for us to stay with him in the past. So I drew upon my courage and emailed him the request for Cheryl and I to stay with at his new home during our spring break. It really was out of character for me to ask for a favor of this level. I still look back and say to myself "That was pretty crazy to ask for that." I didn't hear from Stan for a couple of days, but then he said, "Julie and I would love to have you stay with us. We have a guest room you both can stay at."

We arranged for Cheryl's parents to stay with our kids and we drove to Arizona. Julie, Daniel, Emi, and Stan were such generous hosts. They gave us our space to do our hiking and exploring on our own. But they also treated us to a few meals. Stan took us on some hikes. Julie took us to a sound meditation (knowing that I teach meditation). We laughed and joked and did all things that friends do over meals. Stan offered for me to ink something in an issue, and Julie encouragingly said, "You should!"

This was actually more than a Jack Kirby moment.
This was more than a Stan Sakai moment.
This was a friend moment.
His family was there for Cheryl and I when we needed help.
I couldn't ask anything more from a friend.

So this subject line is wrong.
Stan Sakai isn't just my Jack Kirby.
Stan is my friend.

I hope I can return the favor someday.

Peace, maka

Stan is a saint.

Many years ago I shipped my entire run of the Fantagraphics series, my entire run of the Mirage series, and the first 25 issues of Dark Horse, all miniseries, and all color appearances outside of the regular series to a custom bindery to make 5 or 6 special hardcovers of my all-time favorite comics.

The issues were bound and sent to me, but never arrived, lost by the USPS somewhere between my local post office and my apartment, and never marked as "delivered" on tracking. I went through several frustrating months of trying to recover the books (or some kind of compensation), to no avail.

Eventually I posted here that I was looking to buy replacements for everything and Stan messaged me and sent me a full run of the Mirage issues from his archives at his expense.

Once I had tracked down and replaced all the books (took me over a year), I sent them to the binder again, this time insured via FedEx, and the binder was kind enough to re-do the job at cost.

There are truly kind people in the world, and Stan Sakai is one of them. Thanks again, Stan, that was incredibly generous of you, and I'm lucky to have these books to enjoy over and over.

My Stan Sakai story...

A bazillion years ago, Stan was a guest at a local Anime convention up here in Canada. So I went to get my stuff signed.

Only when the time came for him to start signing he didn't show. So I lingered for a hour. Now I had hurt my ankle and so waiting was a trial, so I decided to leave.

But wouldn't you know the timings were wrong and Stan arrived problably the moment I left. Ah well...

I wrote about this on a Comic Message Board I used to do reviews for and wouldn't you know Stan heard about it and wanted to make amends. I tried and tried to say it was fine, I'm a nerd and these things happen.

Noop. And so he sent me some original art, which is my avatar btw.

There aren't enough words to describe what a fine man he is, along with being a great artist and storyteller.