When I got out of high school I joined the Army not really having any skill or having a computer I signed up to be a multimedia graphic illustrator. Reason for that getting in that job was that I loved comics, and I was thinking that this would be the stepping-stone for the thing that I loved the most. Whether it was the writing or just the pure art form of it.
I got stationed in South Korea which is great location considering the current events happening elsewhere. I saved up a lot of money to get a computer and a Wacom tablet while practicing little by little on my art. At the time in comics there wasn’t really anything amazing in comics, there were several comics that were very great but nothing with depth or feeling into it. I was also kind of in a rut on where my art should go and if I should keep on going with it.
Usagi wasn’t in my life until I had got a two month long driving detail in the middle of South Korea. I was driving an officer and his family to post, when I noticed their little boy was reading a Usagi Yojimbo comic. I’ve heard by a lot of comic book dealers that Usagi Yojimbo was what all comics need to be, but to my navieness I picked up Batman and other medicore writen comics instead.
Intrigued about the comic I asked when he was done if could look at it when we when to their stop. The little boy excitedly said sure like I just gave him a Christmas present. When we stopped I looked at the cover seeing a goat boy with a boy rabbit and I wondered if this was going to a silly animal comic, but as I’m sure you all know I was completely wrong as soon as I was quickly reading it I was sucked in.
That’s when it was over for me there was nothing I could do now. When I got back to my post I ordered the first volume. When it came in I read it was everything to me. It had it all emotion, depth, action, and it was just cool. I had to buy the next one, and it would come in and it would be better than the next. I was totally amazed. One after the other would be better and better, and every book touched me in some way.
This motivated me to take my art to a place like this and also to keep constantly improving myself. Over the year or so I’ve became the 2nd highest Army Webmaster in South Korea and one of the top in my field which lead me to the position I am at today which is the Pentagon. And I’m still loving Usagi and his adventures.
So thank you Stan for sharing your wonderful characters and stories to us all. Also I want to thank Todd and the many people that made this site happen. I'm now going on the long quest to find all the Usagi Yojimbo comics. Wish me luck
. As I said in the beginning I owe a person something if they help me out. I did this digital painting for you, Stan. The pic is here http://www.deviantart.com/view/24914260/ I didn't want to put the pic up cause its kind of big and I really didn't know how to put the image up on here:( Thank you everyone for this.
-Trent
