Arigatou Gozaimasu, Mr. Sakai

In 1982, a young artist from Hawaii named Stan Sakai sketched a rabbit with a samurai sword and his ears pulled up into a top knot.

That sketch turned into the critically-lauded Usagi Yojimbo, the epic comic book tale of a fantastical medieval Japan, now entering its 25th year in print. Its 23rd collected edition, Bridge of Tears, will be published in July, and last week Sakai was nominated for the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for best ongoing series.

Sakai was one of the headline guests at last's month's Staple! The Indie Media Expo (read Wayne Allen Brenner's interview with Staple!'s other big name, Jeffrey Brown) and took some time to talk about the changing comic book industry.

Austin Chronicle: You talked in the panel about working with Sergio Aragones (Sakai is the long-time letterer on Groo the Wanderer.) How does that relationship work?

Stan Sakai: We started off as friends first. The way we met is that I found his name in the phone book. Strangely, right after that, he withdrew his name from the phone book. But I found his name, I sent him a letter, he gave me a call, and we've been friends for about 30 years.

AC: But being a comic artist is often a very solitary experience

SS: Most of the time, freelancers work within their own studios, which are very isolated. That's why, in Los Angeles, we have an organization of print cartoonists. We get together once a month, and I also have a lunch group, and we get together once a week. I'm one of the newer ones in the group, I've been going for 18 years. The group's been going for 25 years, and we get together every Friday. You have to get that relationship with other cartoonists so that you'll be at least normal. You have to get out of the studio.

AC: At the same time, Usagi is very much all-your-own-work.

SS: Most of Usagi is just my own. I write the stories myself, I do the penciling, the lettering, the inking all by myself. I do have an editor, and she's terrific, but all my contracts with all my publishers' have always been, "Usagi is mine."

AC: In the panel, you discussed how much research you do before writing a story (Sakai spent five years researching the mythical sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi before writing the Grasscutter arc.) Does that keep your writing fresh?

SS: It does inspire me. I may read a book about a certain subject, like Japanese pottery making, and think of a story around that. Sometimes friends give me an idea. I remember, I had to do a story for Wizard magazine, just a three page story, and I was having a hard time. In conversation one day, he says, oh, I'll think of a story for you, and he just starts rabbiting on, and it turns out to be a terrific story, but it's a 20-page story, and I said, I can't use that, that's too long. So I did something about netsuke, which are those little ornamental carvings they use for bags. But more often, the story comes from sitting there and think of a story in time for deadlines. Because you have to be practical, because Usagi has to appear at a certain frequency.

AC: When you started publishing Usagi, comics were monthly and trade paperbacks were virtually unheard of. Now monthly issues have almost become a promotional tool for trades and graphic novels.

SS: When we started making Usagi as trade paperbacks, there was no graphic novel market whatsoever. That's why Usagi is in that strange format that's not the same proportion as other books and graphic novels. However, when I wanted to turn it into trade paperbacks, there was no graphic novel market, but there was a trade paperback market, and it was hot. I think it started with 101 Uses For a Dead Cat, so that's why I went into that market. It has given it a longer shelf life. Book one is, I think, in its ninth print, and it's a good seller for Fantagraphics, so they keep reprinting it.

AC: But in all that time, you've always maintained ownership of Usagi.

SS: That was very important to me. So because of that there's been no loss of continuity between Fantagraphics and Mirage and Dark Horse. It's always been one continuous story.

AC: Trades have changed that reading experience, and a lot of comic buyers just wait for the collections these days.

SS: At the same time, it's taking comics out of the collectors' market and more into the readers' market. My trades are in libraries and school libraries and everywhere, which is something that is very gratifying for me. Usagi was voted one of 2009's best graphic novels for teens by the American Library Association, and I got an email from one the judges saying that it was voted on unanimously. That was very nice, and in May I'm talking to a conference of librarians in DC.

AC: Are there still stories that you really want to tell, anything non-Usagi?

SS: They'll still be within the Usagi realm. I do have a few other things, but they're still in the 'I want to do these' stage rather than the "This is what I'm going to do' stage." Right now, I'm really happy working with Usagi, and because I own it, I can do what I want with it. That's why Grey Shadows, the trade paperback, is all mysteries, because I love mysteries. I can do love stories or any kind of genre I want.