I own a great many graphic novels. Some would argue too many. Awhile back, I dated a librarian so my books are now in some sort of library of congress set-up that she came up with when she helped me move. This means that there really is a method to the madness of the organization on the four shelves in my apartment. Some are Marvel, some are Oni, some are Dark Horse, etc. One shelf, though, contains its own dedicated area to a series that not a lot of people are familiar with: Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. This classic series chronicles the adventures of Miyamoto Usagi, a wandering samurai (or ronin) who travels the countryside of ancient Japan performing his musha shugyo (warrior’s pilgrimage). Oh, and all of the characters are rendered as animals. I can say, without fail, that this is one of the best comics being published today and I happen to have five handy dandy reasons why you should be buying it.
1. 25 years and still going strong
Stan Sakai began publishing this book in 1984 with various anthologies until officially starting at Fantagraphics as the titles first home. The title then moved to Mirage Studios and finally settled in at Dark Horse Comics where it is still published today. Sakai has written and drawn every issue to date and has only built the level of quality that Usagi started with. It’s also constantly accessible. I personally started reading the series in trade paperback with book 8 and while I’ve gone back and read 1 through 7, it wasn’t hard to jump in and keep reading forward without feeling lost.
2. Cast of characters
The best part of the fact that the title has been going for so long is that the storylines have had time to develop one of the richest and most endearing cast of characters ever captured on paper. Even though versions of classic manga icons like Lone Wolf and Cub (in Usagi they’re referred to as Lone Goat and Kid) and Zato-Ino, the blind swordpig (in reference to the blind swordsman Zatoichi of Japanese film and television fame) to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crowd the pages, Usagi never feels like a parody since the characters are fully three-dimensional and written with respect. If the guest stars and pop culture-referenced characters are handled with that level of quality, then you can imagine what the rest of the cast is written like. There is no such thing as a throwaway guest star and Sakai never panders or insults his audience with simple personalities.
3. Based on actual events… kinda
Many of Sakai’s Usagi stories are based on actual Japanese history such as battles or political intrigue. Others are steeped in classic fairy tales and legends of the Japanese culture. Even when the original stories and continuity stretch through the book, Sakai’s dedication to authenticity has him citing facts and reference notes left and right in the glossary (yes, this comic even gets a glossary).
4. Kids can read it (and adults can love it)
The book never panders to the adults that read it, but at the same time it never becomes TOO adult that you couldn’t let your kids enjoy it also. In a day and age where super-villains rape and murder and Wolverine is the most popular super-hero on the shelves, a title that is universally appealing and safe is a rarity. Every issue is safe to hand off to a young kid without even needing to be sanitized and they’ll get to watch massive badass samurai battles with no gore. It’s like if Pixar made Seven Samurai.
5. One of the greatest comic book protagonists of all time. Yeah, f’real.
Miyamoto Usagi is a well-rounded, fully developed, and extremely memorable comic book character that stays with you from the moment you first meet him. Sakai writes him with a charm that helps you buy that one minute he can be lovable and caring and the next minute he can be a deadly warrior with a code of honor. This is handled not only in the writing, but also the art. The myriad of expressions that Sakai crafts show his skills as a master cartoonist and allows Usagi to come to life on the page making him memorable in appearence as well as personality.
I can’t recommend this series enough. I’ve been a fan from the moment I read my first issue of Usagi Yojimbo and every time I read a new trade paperback, I curse that I’ll have to wait another six months to grab the next few issues. One day, I know I’ll most likely break down and just start reading it monthly. Few comics can have that much versatility and maintain quality for so long with no end in sight of sliding off into the land of repetition and poor story-telling. We’re lucky to have Stan Sakai still working on one of the best comic book characters to ever be a guest star on a Ninja Turtles episode. More than that, we’re lucky to have Usagi Yojimbo when we need to be reminded just how great comics can be.
