In April, artist Stan Sakai was in California for
Fanime Con. In May, Sakai was in Belgium for an art festival. And in June,
he was in Texas for Project: A-Kon. "I've eaten sheep's head in Norway
and eels in Flanders," Sakai jokes. "I've never had fugu." These travels
- and Sakai's devoted fans - mostly came from the success of his Usagi
Yojimbo series. this industry veteran, who comes from the traditions of
American comics, continues to create new Usagi tales. He plans shorter
stories for those people who have not yet discovered the samurai rabbit,
and then creates longer epics for those fans who are familiar with his
large cast of characters.
Sakai used his Project: A-Kon presentation to show
his fans how he lays out a story for the paneled page of a comic book,
from the cinema-style establishing shots to drawings that advance the action.
When Sakai started in the comics industry, nearly every store in the country
had large comic book racks, but those stores have stopped carrying the
books, which have moved now to comics specialty stores. Sakai thinks that
Pac-Man and other video games became so popular and profitable that stores
stopped carrying comics. Another factor in the decline of general-release
comics is that Americans don't read as much as they once did, Sakai feels.
Since Sakai appears at several anime conventions
each year, a fan wanted to know if he had considered becoming an animator?
After all, Sakai has lettered and inked comics other than Usagi Yojimbo.
His answer was in the form of a story: 25 years ago, a friend arranged
for him to tour the Hanna-Barbera animation studio. After seing the work
that animators went through, "I promised I would never work in animation."
