Geekerias

Welcome to the deep dive.

Today we are strapping on our katana and heading into feudal Japan.

But, well, there’s a twist.

A pretty big twist.

Yeah, we’re talking about Miyamoto Usagi.

He’s a masterless samurai, a ronin, totally fearless, helps the vulnerable.

You know the type.

Classic wandering hero stuff.

Exactly.

Except he’s, famously, a rabbit.

Eh, oh rabbit.

In that contrast, right?

A fluffy bunny who’s also a deadly swordsman fighting for justice.

It’s kind of why we needed to dive into this.

It really is the perfect hook for the whole series.

We’re talking Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, and this isn’t just, you know, some comic.

It’s one of the longest running creator-owned series out there.

Like 42 years of continuous publication.

42 years, that’s incredible in the comics world.

So, our mission today really is to unpack how this happened.

How did Sakai keep total creative control, keep the story going without breaks, across six different publishers, and build this, well, this classic blend of history and anthropomorphic action?

That’s the core question.

We’ve looked at, gosh, tons of interviews with Sakai, talks with comics experts, articles digging into the whole publishing history.

It gives you a pretty full picture of how this thing was built, and, maybe more importantly, how it lasted.

Okay, so let’s start at the start, the origins.

Sakai was born in Kyoto, raised in Hawaii, and his influences seem really key here.

Oh, absolutely.

Two main tracks, really.

You’ve got the movies, Akira Kurosawa films, especially those starring Toshiro Mifune, the classic rogue samurai.

Right, he apparently spent whole Saturdays watching those.

And Yojimbo, the Mifune film, that’s in the title, isn’t it?

Directly.

Usagi means rabbit in Japanese, Yojimbo means bodyguard, or maybe bouncer, so rabbit bodyguard.

It tells you exactly what he is right from the title.

Okay, so Kurosawa’s one track, what’s the other?

Early Marvel comics, think Fantastic Four, issue number two specifically he’s mentioned, and artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko.

That dynamic, maybe slightly weird energy.

Interesting mix, epic samurai cinema and that Kirby crackle.

So the idea for Usagi, it didn’t start with a rabbit.

No, not at all.

Originally, Sakai wanted to do a story about the actual historical figure, Miyamoto Musashi, the famous 17th century swordsman.

A straight historical epic.

Yeah, but then apparently he was just doodling one day, and he drew a rabbit but gave it a samurai topknot, the shanmash.

Huh, just like that.

Pretty much.

He said he just loved the look instantly, that simple visual, the rabbit in full samurai gear, it was unique.

So he ditched the idea of human characters and decided everyone would be an animal.

Which brings up the big question, why animals?

We read he felt having Usagi interact only with humans just didn’t make sense.

Right, it was an aesthetic choice first, but it turned out to have huge practical benefits.

You know, for a lot of the characters, you kind of stop noticing they’re animals after a while, they just read as figures.

But Usagi, with those distinct large ears, Sakai realized he could use those for instant recognition, even in really long shots, those wide cinematic panels he loved from Kurosawa.

Ah, you could always spot Usagi because of the ears, even if he’s tiny on the horizon.

Exactly, it’s actually kind of a genius bit of design that came out of that initial almost accidental choice.

So he’s got this great idea, this great design, but how does he make it happen?

Comics aren’t cheap to produce, especially back then.

Well, he funded it through his day job, basically.

He was a professional letterer, he taught calligraphy, and then through connections, like the Comics Arts Professional Society, CAPS, he started lettering Sergio Aragoni’s Gru the Wanderer.

Wow, Gru, that’s a classic itself.

It is, and that led to probably his biggest lettering gig, the daily Spider-Man newspaper strip.

He did that for 25 years.

25 years, on top of doing Usagi.

Yep, apparently he got the call from Stan Lee himself.

He tells this great story about giving Stan Lee a photo of his daughter, Hana, and later seeing it framed on Stan Lee’s desk right next to a photo of Stan Lee with President Reagan.

No way, that’s amazing.

It shows the kind of respect he earned, even while just trying to fund his own project.

Totally.

That work ethic is crucial to the whole Usagi story.

Okay, so he’s funding it, but then comes the publishing marathon you mentioned.

Six publishers over 42 years.

How does a comic even survive that?

It’s a real testament to the core strength of the book and Sakai’s resolve.

It started small in an anthology called Albedo Anthropomorphics in 84, then Fantagraphics, first in their Critters anthology, then his own title in 87.

Right.

Then Mirage Comics in 93, that’s when it first went to full color.

Then a really long run, 21 years, at Dark Horse starting in 96, back to black and white mostly.

21 years at one place is huge stability.

It was.

Then a brief move to IDW in 2019, back to color, and now he’s actually back at Dark Horse, but under his own imprint, Dogu Publishing.

Wow.

Okay, so through all those moves, the key constant has to be Sakai himself, right?

Absolutely.

It’s the only reason it works.

He owns the intellectual property completely, so when he moves publishers, the story just continues.

There’s no break in continuity.

That’s the secret sauce then.

He said publishers basically get a one-paragraph synopsis and have no input as far as story or art goes.

Zero input, which is almost unheard of.

That absolute creator control is the bedrock.

It means the series is structured as one single unbroken life story.

We watch Usagi grow, not just physically, but his character evolves over decades.

So none of the constant reboots or retcons you see in mainstream comics?

None.

It’s a much more adult kind of change, you could say.

Steady evolution.

It allows for incredible narrative patience, too.

Yeah, you mentioned plot seeds taking decades to pay off.

Literally decades.

He might set up a rival and the rematch happens, you know, 10 volumes later, or a revenge plot that simmers for 20 years.

That kind of long-term storytelling really rewards long-time readers.

Okay, let’s pivot a bit, because there’s this fascinating paradox at the heart of the narrative, isn’t there?

The tone versus the content?

Oh, yeah.

Well, it’s profoundly violent.

Usagi kills a lot of people.

One critic actually called him a super murderer.

A super murderer bunny?

Pretty much.

But the way Sakai depicts it, it’s not visceral, it’s almost gentle, which sounds weird to say.

How does he manage that?

He almost never shows blood.

When Usagi’s sword strikes someone, the character might just look suddenly ill, and then they fall.

And sometimes there’s a little cartoonish word balloon with a skull in it.

A skull?

Yeah, or sometimes just little sounds like ooh or eek.

He calls them death clouds.

It makes the violence symbolic, almost abstract, rather than graphic and gory.

So it’s approachable, even with all the killing.

Ah! Which leads to the audience question.

The cute animal look, the action figures.

Kids were drawn to it, right?

Massively.

Those action figures sold something like 2.2 million units.

Huge numbers.

But the actual story content.

Yeah.

It’s not really kid stuff, is it?

Not at all.

It deals with really mature themes.

Poverty, injustice, even things like prostitution.

And there are some genuinely graphic historical moments depicted, like a character being crucified and stabbed with spears.

Wow.

Okay, so it looks accessible, but it’s really an enriching adult reading experience, as one source put it.

Exactly.

Mature themes, just starring a rabbit ronin.

And because Usagi himself is so honorable, almost pure, Sakai needs other characters to bounce off, characters in the gray areas.

Like Jen, the rhino bounty hunter.

Perfect example.

Jen’s great.

He’s inspired by those rough-around-the-edges Mifune characters.

He’s Usagi’s occasional partner, but mostly just annoys him.

Always has a scheme going on.

Always.

But Sakai says he’s got a good heart underneath.

Jen’s self-interest makes Usagi’s unwavering honor stand out even more.

It adds texture.

And on the other end, you have the big villain?

Jay, Usagi’s deadliest foe.

And the inspiration there is kind of fun.

Apparently, it’s Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th.

Seriously?

Jason.

Yeah, that relentless, almost silent, unstoppable killer vibe just translated into this feudal animal world.

That ability to just blend all these things, history, horror tropes, animal comedy, that specific art style, it’s really something.

It is.

And that blend plus the structure makes it really easy to get into.

The pacing is a big part of that.

Right, the short stories, usually around 20 pages.

Self-contained adventures.

Yeah, 20 or 24 pages, typically.

It means you can pick up almost any volume, even one from, say, 20 years ago, read a story, and get it.

You’re immediately hooked.

It’s incredibly reader-friendly.

But how does he keep those short stories from feeling slight?

How does he build stakes and, well, credibility?

Through research