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Usagi yojimbo characters8/8/2023 Or still like it, more to the point, and here lie my feelings on what I (perhaps cruelly and dismissively) call gimmick books. And I’m surprised I was asked for that very reason… because I’m surprised that I like the book at all. I was asked to write this introduction because, I presume, I’ve made it known in interviews and to Stan himself how much I like the book. Take pleasure and contentment in the knowledge that during your relaxed state a city full of studio executives are frantically trying to outbid each other for the film rights to the book that you are reading. Sosit back in your favorite chair and enjoy a rich classic. His sensitivity to color is rare to comics. Tom has studied those relationships well. It’s easy to argue that no better comic than Usagi Yojimbo could be found to exploit this influence on one’s retinal memory. Usagi Yojimbo colorist Tom Luth is no exception. I’ve found that any colorist worth his or her paintbox has been smart enough to study the world’s greatest art form in terms of sensually subtle “flat” (as opposed to painted or modeled) color: ukiyo-e (“floating world”: the Japanese name for their woodblock prints). Perhaps you’ll be inspired to search out the original publications of these stories just to savor them in their intended color form. Nevertheless, I would like to briefly discuss the color that graded the first appearance of these stories. Unfortunately, the valuable film containing the color separations for the comics has been lost, so the stories are reprinted here in black and white. This influence is also felt in the book’s color. His art reflects the influence of the best Japanese prints. There is real clarity to Stan’s design, a seeming rarity at this time in the history of comics. With masterful restraint, Stan dances a delicate line between fulfilling that required story expectation and resisting the depiction of the overtly graphic consequences of the inevitable. The violence is here, but I don’t know that I would call it heavy. The samurai subject matter provokes expectations of heavy violence. Stan is a master of all of these forms (my own personal favorites are the short and powerfully poetic back-up stories). This volume includes two long stories, one medium-length story, and four short stories from the Mirage editions (volume two, issues one through six, and back-up tales from issues seven and eight). Some writers excel at the short form of storytelling others find their strengths within a more epic form. In Usagi Yojimbo, a richness of contrasts abounds: gentleness / violence quiet story pause / explosions of action lowbrow guffaws / subtle and sophisticated wit. Kurosawa has always understood that contrast is the essence of good art. Like Carl Barks, Stan’s graphic simplicity reinforces the readability of his storytelling. Stan’s pacing is deliberate, and, like Paul Chadwick, he is not afraid to slow it down a little bit to make a subtle but powerful point. He is a man who is in full literary and artistic control of his medium. Stan does not have to resort to cheap flash and false bravado in order to tell a story. His stories are not an excuse for a series of pinup pages. Stan’s stories are not the hyper-shriek blasts that seem the norm for most comics nowadays. Stan Sakai is the Akira Kurosawa of comic books. It is the many artistic and literary qualities of Usagi Yojimbo that put this particular rabbit on the Endangered Species list. No, the comic books from which the particular stories in this volume were collected are not rare (yet). Each compendium of Usagi Yojimbo is a collection of rarities. Now buy this book, damn it, take it home, and read it.įor the rest of you with patience that extends beyond the MTV attention span, let’s savor the exquisite qualities that make Usagi Yojimbo so special. Usagi Yojimbo is Carl Barks meets Akira Kurosawa - with more nudity. So for those of you impatient readers and studio executives who are scanning this introduction to find out whether or not to buy (or option) this book, let me put it this way: The Entertainment Business is a world where concepts need to be condensed into just a few words (typical pitch: “I’ve got a great story here: it’s Tootsie meets Die Hard - with more nudity”).
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