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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:33:43 GMT -5
UY Book 32 Cover step-by-stepUsagi Yojimbo Book 31: The Hell Screen just came out a few weeks ago, and the cover for 32 is already due. Here is a look at the process. Ink and watercolor on Strathmore illustration board. Another Inspector Ishida themed book. I've tentatively titled it "UY: Mysteries". This is the first rough. The roughs were done in a 5.25x8.25 inch moleskin sketchbook. I like this rough composition, but thought it was too different that the other covers in the series. I will probably do this as the tip-in art for the hardcover. This is the one I went with. This is a scene from UY #163: Mouse Trap part 1. I roughed out the art on illustration board. The first time I used this in a long while. I prefer 5-ply Bristol, but Strathmore discontinued it. After using the illustration board, I still prefer the Bristol. The size of the board is 11x15 inches. Penciled with a .5 mm H mechanical pencil. Detailed pencils, using a .5 mm B mechanical pencil. I also determined the vanishing point for perspective. Inked with a Koh-i-noor Art Pen using Platinum Carbon Ink, the first time I used this ink with watercolors. Erased with Sumo black eraser. I masked off the art and laid in the background color. I knew this would take place at night, but had to make the area around Usagi and Nezumi lighter as they both wear dark colors and needed them to stand out. I chose to put a cloud form behind them. I removed the mask from the roof tops. Working on the roofs with watercolors. Removed the masks from the figures. There are two ways to mask. There is a liquid frisket that you paint on and rub off, and a sheet frisket that you cut with an Xacto knife. I prefer the sheets. In my case, I use tracing paper and rubber cement. I posted a couple of tutorial on this on FB. I'll do it again when I do another cover. Working on Usagi. I made him lit from the bottom to add drama to the moment Working on both figures. Still working on the figures and the roof. It seemed too cold, so added some warmer colors on the figures. Almost there. Stripped off the borders, and done.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:32:06 GMT -5
Usagi Yojimbo #168 Cover ProcessI'm still in Hawaii, but deadlines are deadlines and I am spending much of my time drawing. I sent off the art for UY 166 and the cover for 168 today. The cover was drawn on 2-ply 500 series11x17 inch Strathmore Bristol with a 10x15.5 image area. rough pencils drawn with .5mm HB mechanical pencil. I an just dealing with shapes and composition at this stage. Finished pencils with .7mm B mechanical pencil. Inked with Koh-i-Noor ArtPen and Platinum Carbon Black ink. Erased with Sumo Grip eraser. the finished cover. Alternate, unused, cover design. farm5.staticflickr.com/4532/37554254905_0ca08ce360_b.jpg
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:30:56 GMT -5
Cover process for new TMNT / Usagi 2nd printingThe TMNT/Usagi Namazu hardcover did well enough to warrant a second printing from IDW. I believe it will be solicited for March. Here is the process for the new cover. As usual, this was drawn on a 11x17 inch, 2-ply 500 series Strathmore Bristol with a 10.5x15 inch image area. Rough pencils drawn with .3 mm 2H mechanical pencil Finished pencils with .5 mm HB lead. Inked with Koh-i-Noor Sketch Pen and Platinum Carbon Ink. Erased inks. Finished B/W drawing.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:29:19 GMT -5
Cover process for Usagi Yojimbo #167October 6, 2017 We scheduled out the deadlines for Usagi 166-172 a few days ago, and I'm already behind on turning in covers. Here is the one for UY 167. As usual, covers are 10x15.5 inches on 11x17 inch 2-ply, 500 series, cold press Strathmore Bristol. Rough pencils drawn with a .3 HB mechanical pencil. I am just dealing with shapes, staging the scene, and laying out perspectives. Finished pencils drawn with a .5 B mechanical pencil. I drew the basic figures and determined the background and perspectives. Inked but not erased. Erased inks. The finished piece. with textures and details inked in. I scanned it, uploaded it onto the Dark Horse Files, and the next stage is with Tom Luth who will color it. These are most of the tools I used--triangle, meter stick for perspective, .3 pencil, .5 pencil, ink, technical pen for ruling the borders, Koh-i-Noor Art Pen (discontinued), Sumo black eraser, and pen brush filled with Carbon Ink for spotting blacks. You can't fake perspective, so I used the meter stick to pencil in the lines from the vanishing point. The Platinum Carbon Ink is one I have been trying out to various levels of success. It is nice and free-flowing, but not as dark as I would like. The Art Pen has a nice flex to the nib that can give wonderful variations in line weights but, unfortunately, it was discontinued many years ago. I use the nylon tipped brush pens because I don't need to wash it out after every use. I fill it with the Carbon Ink.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:28:08 GMT -5
Cover process for Usagi Yojimbo #166September 29, 2017 Turned in the cover for Usagi Yojimbo 166. 10x15.5 image area on 11x17 inch 2-ply, 500 series Strathmore Bristol. Penciled with .5 mm B mechanical pencil. Inked with Koh-i-Noor Art Pen and Platinum Carbon Ink. Pencils erased with Sakura Sumo eraser. The finished b/w piece. Now it is off to Tom Luth for coloring.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:25:26 GMT -5
Usagi Yojimbo: The Hidden Part 6 cover processI just turned in the cover for Dark Horse Usagi Yojimbo #171 (issue #237 in the complete UY series). Here is the process. As usual, the image area is 10x15.5 inches on 11x17 inch 2-ply Strathmore cold press Bristol. The story is The Hidden, part 6 of a 7-part story. Roughing out shapes with a 2H .3mm mechanical pencil. Finished pencils drawn with a HB .5mm mechanical pencil. I used a meter stick to determine the vanishing points for the perspectives and a French curve for the swords. Inked with an Koh-i-Noor ArtPen (now discontinued) and Platinum Carbon Black ink. Erased with a Sumo Black eraser. Background textures added with the ArtPen. I wanted this piece to be bottom lit to increase the drama and mood. Details added to finish the art. Now it will go to Tom Luth for coloring.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:10:30 GMT -5
TMNT/Usagi: Namazu 2nd ed. HC variant processThe TMNT/Usagi: Namazu 2nd edition HC will also have a variant cover. It was done with ink and watercolor on 4-ply Strathmore 500 series, cold press Bristol. The art was penciled and inked and background watercolors laid in. Base colors for Usagi and the Turtles were added. Base browns. Working on Leo…. The other Turtles.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:08:42 GMT -5
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:06:26 GMT -5
Usagi Yojimbo #172 cover processI turned in the cover art for Usagi Yojimbo #172, The Hidden part 7. On 11x17 inch 2-ply, 500 series, cold press Strathmore Bristol paper with a 10x15.5 image area. Rough pencils, using loose shapes to define elements and composition. Always have to be aware that the logo will take up about the top quarter of the cover. Detailed pencils, including determining the perspective. I had been a master's thesis advisor for years and perspective is consistently one aspect of drawing that is ignored. You just can't fake it. I inked the foreground figures using an older Koh-i-Noor ArtPen that has a very broken in, flexible nib that makes a thicker line. I used Platinum Carbon black ink. I've been using this brand pretty consistently since the change in the Badger Black Opaque formula. Background and other figures are inked with a newer pen with a much stiffer nib that lends itself to thinner lines with less variation. Pencils erased with SumoGrip eraser. I like this brand as the erased "dirt" is slivers rather than dust and so makes clean up easier. It does dry up faster than other erasers so you've got to use them fairly quickly. The finished art with details and textures added. I scanned it as a 1200 dpi tif and sent it off to Dark Horse.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 19:04:15 GMT -5
Usagi Yojimbo Book 32 Endpaper processI finished the endpaper art for the Usagi Yojimbo Book 32: Mouse Trap hardcover, scheduled for June. Rough layout using .3 mm 2H mechanical pencil. I am just dealing with shapes and positioning at this stage with a rough idea of the background. Finished pencils on the characters using .5 mm B-lead mechanical pencil. Figures inked with Koh-i-Noor Art Pen and Platinum Carbon black ink. Perspectives for the background penciled using .5 mm B mechanical pencil, a meter stick and triangle. Background inked. Erased, then blacks spotted with Pentel Brush Pen filled with Platinum Carbon ink. All that needs to be done now is the addition of the details and textures. The finished art on 11x17 inch 2-ply, 500 series, cold press Strathmore Bristol. These are the tools I used: .3 mm 2H mechanical pencil .5 mm B mechanical pencil Sumo Grip eraser Platinum Carbon Black ink Pentel Brush Pen Koh-i-Noor Art Pen Triangle Meter stick
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 18:59:59 GMT -5
Thomas Vera commissionJanuary 19, 2018 Finished up a commission for Thomas Vera. Ink and watercolor on 11x17 inch, 4-ply, 500 series Strathmore Bristol. I had drawn Rocket before, but first time for Kung Fu Panda. Thomas Vera did not specify if he wanted portrait or landscape format so I did rough sketches for both. He went with landscape. These were done on one 9x12 inch sketch paper. Full size drawn with .5mm HB mechanical pencils. Inked with Koh-i-Noor Art Pen and Platinum Carbon Black ink and erased with Sakura Sumo Grip eraser. He did not have a preference for background color, but mentioned blue so went with that. Worked on Rocket first. Did a really dark gray for KF Panda. It is much more subtle on the original art. Used a dilution of the same gray for the tones. Worked on Usagi, a few details like the flame coming out of Rocket's gun, and finished.
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 13:49:51 GMT -5
Introduction USAGI YOJIMBO BOOK 31: THE HELL SCREEN
Great stories transcend their medium. Reading a wonderful novel, you forget that you’re flipping through pages and deciphering little characters on a printed page. Watching a terrific movie, you become immersed in the images that are playing across the screen; you become part of that world, the adventure, and the romance. Listening to someone spin a ghost story sitting around a campfire, you feel the hair prick up on the back of your neck and you start looking worriedly over your shoulder.
Great comics - like the comics you’ll find in this collection - transcend the medium, too. As you read these stories, you’ll forget that your eyes are moving from panel to panel. You’ll forget that you are processing images and word balloons. You’ll feel like you’re part of something… bigger.
To me, the stories in this collection feel like ancient parables and classic fables. Sure, when I sit down to read a new issue of Usagi Yojimbo, I know Stan Sakai wrote and drew the tale relatively recently. Soon enough. I get lost in the telling of the tale, and it feels like I’m reading something that should have been inked on crumbling scrolls, something detailing the lives of samurai and bandits and peasants - and a rabbit ronin. These stories feel like they are part of a much larger tapestry of myth and legend. These are folktales that have lessons and morals to teach.
Part of that is because of Stan’s love and reverence for the history and legends of Japan, from which he draws inspiration for every chapter in this epic. But Stan’s astounding ability as a storyteller is not to be underestimated. There are nods to time-lost legends. There are bits and pieces that will teach you something about how people lived in feudal Japan, the struggles they faced, the hardships, but also the simple beauty and soul in every panel of every page, and he doesn’t shy away from the emotional roller coaster, either. The first story in this collection is sweet and heartwarming. The next delves into some dark places. There’s humor and sadness, and fear and joy, all right here, waiting to lure you into the story, to make you part of it, to make you forget you’re reading a comic at all.
That’s an amazing feat for a storyteller. After decades, after hundreds of issues, Stan Sakai still has fresh, exciting, expressive tales to tell, all of them starring a sword-wielding rabbit who is - like the reader, like Stan himself - part of a world that just feels… bigger.
Since I was tapped to write these words, I’ve wondered many times: why me? Probably because this collection has plenty of creepy-crawlies and ghastly myths; maybe because some of the chapters cover the Hell Screen, and I seem to write a lot of stories with “hell” in the title. I don’t guess it matters. I’ve been following the storied of Usagi Yojimbo for many, many years. I don’t know that I’ve ever said this to Stan, but I consider him to be a huge influence and inspiration. These days, I also consider him a friend, so to write these few words is an honor, to say the least.
Cullen Bunn (2017)
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 13:49:28 GMT -5
Introduction USAGI YOJIMBO BOOK 30: THIEVES AND SPIES
Here in Pasadena, California, Miyamoto Usagi is legendary. The samurai rabbit has been around longer than his young fans. And his creator, the understated Stan Sakai with his impish grin, magically appears at community festivals, attracting fans like a high-powered magnet pulling in flacks of iron. The young ones finger an Usagi figurine, looking up at their parents with hopeful expectation. And, of course, the parents cannot resist because they want the figurine as much as their children do.
I’m not quite sure when I entered the Usagi Yojimbo fold. But when I perused my personal library, I found the first book that I purchased in the 1980s. It’s autographed with Stan’s signature Usagi drawing. Just that is worth the price of the whole issue.
Reading the story lines in this volume, I’m reminded of how Stan can embrace equally a sense of kawaii and the slashing of a bloodcurdling killing. It’s a curious combination that works due to Stan’s storytelling abilities. Just like Dickens and Shakespeare, characters abound. A pompous foreign aristocrat, the honorable tea master, the woman ninja. The mayhem is peppered with humor, making the journey all the more enjoyable.
Miyamoto Usagi is much like us, at least how we are and how we hope to be - goofy and unsteady at times, but when it comes down to a moral injustice, he steps forward with his sword, courageous.
There’s a lot of violence resulting from the action in these particular stories. The skulls of death haunt many a scene. That’s the everyday reality of a ronin, a masterless samurai. It doesn’t matter that our hero has two very long white ears tied together on top of his head.
A new generation of graphic novelists (such as Yumi Sakugawa) also use animals to tell very human stories. While these storytellers’ aims may be different from Stan’s, the animals in both situations seem to be able to transport me beyond this material world. I adopted a Jack Russell two years ago, my first pet as an adult. Living with another species in the house has caused me to be in a state of wonder. “Tell me what you’re thinking.” I say to the dog, Tulo, as he cocks his ears.
Luckily, in the world of Usagi Yojimbo, we know exactly what the animals are thinking and sometimes scheming. My favorite tales are the ones in which Usagi represents the interests of the underdog, like the loyal vassel Yoshi in “The Distant Mountain.” Yoshi is committed to his mission, no matter how nonsensical it seems. Usagi respects Yoshi’s devotopn to duty, and when it seems unappreciated by Yoshi’s master, Usagi makes sure to get the last laugh.
I hope there is a Usagi hiding in the shadows of my life. I imagine him watching over the innocent and identifying the black hearts of evildoers. The next time I’m walking Tulo at night and we encounter trouble, I hope he transforms into a samurai warrior, ready to take appropriate action.
Naomi Hirahara (2016)
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 13:49:04 GMT -5
Time and Timeless Again! USAGI YOJIMBO BOOK 29: TWO HUNDRED JIZO
It seems only yesterday that Stan reached the milestone of two hundred issues with Usagi Yojimbo, a feat that most artists can only dream of through a variety of deadlines and titles over the years - let alone accomplish singlehanded with a character of their own creation! But Stan did it and continues to do it with effortless imagination issue after issue. And after 144 Dark Horse issues (the last six collected in this volume), at first I found myself worrying what more could I say that others hadn’t already written about, and more eloquently. It’s pretty much all been said, with everyone in agreement about Stan’s amazing stories and his ability to draw many different situations - and, of course, to draw them in a way that keeps the reader captivated.
But after reading the latest issue (and enjoying the hell out of it as always), I was finally struck by something we almost take for granted: that the series consistently hits a high mark with each issue, right from the start. Sure, Stan’s refined his art over the years, and the characters have grown - artwork evolves, and characters will take on a life of their own - but very few comics series stand the test of time. (And, believe me, having done a bunch of comics in the ‘80s, I can tell ya that standing the test of time is hard and rare!)
Credit for that longevity, of course, all goes to Stan, a storytelling sensei who brings an endless variety of stories to life from his imagination and onto the page, and, with crafted pacing, keeps you turning those pages for more. Variety that, in this volume alone, includes murder mysteries - with the return of Inspector Ishida - and tales of intrigue, from ice-running to the making of shoyu. Stan knows storytelling, and he has a big catalog of stories to tell.
Which is one of the reasons Usagi is an easy choice when I’m asked to recommend comics to artists who want to learn sequential art. To me it’s not about flashy layouts or word balloons around a pinup, it’s about world building and character creation, storytelling and the flow of action from panel to panel - done in a way that moves the story and keeps the reader’s eye invested. If you’re an artist, there’s a lot to learn from Stan, and the lessons are right there on the page.
So here we are, over two hundred issues and twenty-nine collections later, and I think it’s safe to say that catalog of stories will continue to grow, with no ending in sight. I can’t imagine an ending to Usagi, even if Stan has one in mind. To me it seems there is always another Usagi story that must need to be told, and I’m sure we’ll look back another hundred issues later and say the same thing. If there is one thing Stan and Usagi have proven over the years, it’s that his ronin rabbit in feudal Japan is timeless.
Guy Davis (2015)
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Post by usagigoya on Mar 2, 2021 13:48:42 GMT -5
Introduction USAGI YOJIMBO BOOK 28: RED SCORPION
As a kid, I listened with bated breath to the exploits of the Lone Ranger on our radio. I was captivated by the adventures of good guys who fought for the underdog.
When I was a preteen, I went to the movies and saw Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood. It was fantastic. I was transported to Sherwood Forest and the swashbuckling derring-do of Robin Hood. He took from the rich and gave to the poor. And I loved the sword fights up and down the castle stairs.
As a teenager, I had an absolutely unforgettable experience at the movies. I saw Yojimbo by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. It was mind-blowing. A ragged, flea-bitten, lone samuraiwith no master, a “ronin,” roams the countryside fighting to bring justice to the downtrodden. He risks his life for no payment, no glory - only for his code of honor as a samurai. And he is a terrific swordsman. He can wipe out a couple dozen enemy samurai in one spectacular, bloody combat.
In 2011, the Japanese American National Museum, of which I am Chairman Emeritus and a Trustee, put on an exhibit of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. It was a retrospective of the twenty-five-year scope of his graphic novel series about a “ronin,” a vagabond samurai just like the one played by the incomparable Toshio Mifune in the movie Yojimbo - but, of all things, in the form of a rabbit! A “ronin” rabbit in a world inhabited by comic anthropomorphic animals. What a deliciously whimsical notion. It was a world I had never heard of. Where had I been for twenty-five years? Usagi Yojimbo was enthrallingly engaging. Since my boyhood, the demands of life and career had drawn me away from my love of fantasy heroes. The Stan Sakai exhibit took me back to a fantastical place that was yet so familiar.
The hero is a rabbit samurai dressed in well worn “hakama” pantaloons and swords, with his ears gathered up on his head like a “chonmage,” the samurai topknot. He has a strong sense of decency and empathy for the common people - a rabbit Lone Ranger. And he is a magnificent swordsman. Every frame of Stan Sakai’s fight scenes captures with ferocious cinematic rhythm the rabbit samurai’s amazing swordsmanship.
The villains are equally fully developed animal baddies. They are as powerful as hippos and as devious as foxes can be. They are as dangerious as wolves. They are shysters and gangsters. They are human animals in an imaginatively detailed universe. And the exploits of our rabbit “Yojimbo” are all watched by cute little lizards and observant newts. There are witnesses.
This, however, is not mere whimsy. Stan Sakai places our rabbit in the authentic world of seventeenth-century feudal Japan. The details of culture and history are finely researched. Every frame has the look and smell of reality. This specificity of detail in customs and time transforms our rabbit into a very human animal. He becomes the hero that we all would like to be, whether we live in Buenos Aires or Berlin, Osaka or Omaha. Usagi Yojimbo becomes as timeless and as mythic as the lone good guy roaming the Wild West or Sherwood Forest, coming to the aid of the oppressed. The “ronin” rabbit’s stories become universal.
Congratulations, Stan, on your thirtieth anniversary! Usagi Yojimbo transports me at once to a fantastical world and to my long-ago boyhood.
George Takei (2014)
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