“Usagi Yojimbo” – the genesis and fate of a comic book about a samurai rabbit

Stan Sakai created a comic that has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity for thirty-five years. Where did the long-eared ronin come from and what makes Usagi Yojimbo special?

 

The author of Miyamoto Usagi’s character, Stan Sakai, is an American cartoonist born in 1953 in Japan. He grew up and grew up in Hawaii, graduated in Art from the University of Hawaii and the Pasadena School of Art and Design. He began his career in the comics industry with lettering in the Groo the Wanderer series by Sergio Aragonés. A humorous story set in the Middle Ages inspired him to create his own cartoon story, with a warrior rabbit as the protagonist. This is how he was born …

Nilson Groundthumper?

In 1982, Sakai began working on his original comic book The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy , the first episode of which was published in the pages of Albedo Antropomorpics magazine belonging to Fantagraphics publishing house.in June 1984. The artist set his action in the Europe of the Middle Ages inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, and the main characters were a rabbit and a mole. The original plan was that the series would be roughly two and a half thousand pages long. The story was to focus on the conflict between animal characters and people who grow in strength. The initial episodes were supposed to be more humorous, and over time, they would move on to more dramatic, epic themes, often spanning generations of heroes. About a thousandth page, the action was to move to feudal Japan, where the protagonists would meet a samurai rabbit named Usagi. The main antagonist of the series would be the Japanese magnate Hikiji, who eventually appeared in Usagi Yojimbo (which explains his unusual appearance for the series).

However, it happened otherwise. After finishing the first short comic with the new character in the lead role, the author liked her so much that he decided to develop his idea and create a separate series set in Japan from the shogunate times. However, he did not publish the material he drew, but began work on a new episode titled The Goblin of Adachigahara. In November 1984, just five months after Nilson, Miyamoto Usagi made his debut in Albedo . Over the next several years, both heroes appeared in magazines with similar frequency, and in 1987 Usagi Yojimbobegan to be published by Fantagraphics in the form of notebooks. Sakai redrawn the previously unpublished charts of Usagi’s first adventure and made them the beginning of the first issue. What about Nilson? The author, in love with his new project, put it aside. In total, about a hundred pages of his adventures were written , the last of which, ironically, were additions to special editions of Usagi Yojimbo .

Usagi Yojimbo – More Than a Comic Book

The rabbit ronin also appeared in other media. He made a cameo appearance in several episodes of various series of animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . In 1994, a pilot episode of the cartoon Space Usagi was made, based on the comic book Usagi in space about a descendant of Miyamoto Usagi from the distant future. Unfortunately, after the failure of the Bucky O’Hare animation, it was not possible to find a toy company that would be interested in financing another series about a space rabbit. French studio Gaumont is currently working on a TV adaptation of Usagi Yojimbo .

There are two RPG manuals set in the series world. In addition, Usagi has two video games. Commodore 64 owners may remember the title of Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo from 1988 , which was also featured on Polish computer exchanges. In 2015, the PC production of Usagi Yojimbo: Way of the Ronin was released , which in the style of the game referred to both the Samurai Warrior and the games under the sign of Tenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .

Usagi Yojimbo  also hit the stage. In 2014 and 2015, it was performed on the stage of the Southwark Stayhouse in London in the form of a family performance about how a young rabbit became a samurai.

The rabbit’s path never ends

In 1993, the right to publish comic books about Usagi was bought by Mirage publishing house. After the next three years, the license was obtained by Dark Horse, which was published by Usagi Yojimbo until 2018. The episodes originally published by Mirage and Dark Horse were included in the collective volumes of Usagi Yojimbo Saga , which from April 2019 has been published in Polish by Egmont.

The state of Sakai remains the sole copyright holder of the title and character of the samurai rabbit. Thanks to this, he not only retained complete control over the shape of his work, but also had the opportunity to publish side stories regardless of the current publisher, including as part of charity events. Over the years, more than three hundred comics about Miyamoto Usagi have been published. In June, new issues under the IDW Publishing banner began to appear in the US, and so far there are no indications that the series will end soon.