Yes. Yes, I am. The second place entry on my list of authors is one Stan Sakai. That sounds well until I tell you that most of the books are trade-paperback collections of comic books. That sounds bad until you've actually read some of his work and realize that, despite the talking, anthropomorphic animals, the stories have real depth. There is comedy, tragedy, and drama in these stories because they're well done tales of Japan in the feudal era and the characters just happen to have fur and whiskers on occasion.
I guess I could put it this way: I don't read comics, but I do read
Usagi Yojimbo.
- The Ronin
- Samurai
- The Wanderer's Road
- The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy
- Lone Goat and Kid
- Circles
- Gen's Story
- Shades of Death
- Daisho
- The Brink of Life and Death
- Seasons
- Grasscutter
- Grey Shadows
- Demon Mask
- Grasscutter II
- The Shrouded Moon
- Duel at Kitanoji
- Travels with Jotaro
- Fathers and Sons
- Glimpses of Death
- The Mother of the Mountains
- Tomoe's Story
- Bridge of Tears
- Yokai
- Return of the Black Soul
- Fox Hunt
- The Art of Usagi Yojimbo: 20th Anniversary Edition
- Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition (two volumes)
It's an epic tale that really kicks into high gear around book 6,
Circles. Don't get me wrong, the earlier stories are good too, but it was around then that Sakai appears to have realized that he had a long term character which he could deal with in depth and not merely telling one-offs. You can see the art evolve as it goes along too. The early books were still good, but some of the later books have amazing panels that any artist would envy, I think.
If you like Usagi Yojimbo, give Lone Wolf and Cub a try.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase you - I don't read manga, but I do (did) read "Lone Wolf and Cub"
Unlike Usagi Yojimbo, LW&C is a finite story with a definitive ending, but it is an awesome 28 volumes long and has stunning artwork.
Try to picture what Usagi Yojimbo might have looked like if it was not an anthropomorphic story!
In my opinion, Usagi Yojimbo is the best comic out there, and Lone Wolf and Cub is the best manga ever published.....
I did read the entire Lone Wolf and Cub series. In fact, I owned the whole set at one point. It was a pretty fantastic tale and I might read them again sometime. They do have a lot more graphic violence and a majority of the books have pretty explicit depictions of sex too. Not only that, by the end of the book the sex gets pretty unusual. They bothered my wife a great deal, so I got rid of them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting; drop by any time!