Post by shaxper on May 4, 2018 23:31:04 GMT -5
#3
Usagi Yojimbo
by Stan Sakai
originally published in: Albedo #2-4, Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special, Critters #1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 23, 27, 38, 50, Doomsday Squad #3, Usagi Yojimbo (vol. 1) #1-38, Usagi Yojimbo (vol. 2) #1-16, Usagi Yojimbo (vol. 3) #1-93, Usagi Yojimbo Color Special #1-4 (1984-2006)
Nominated by: shaxper, coke & comics, thwhtguardian, Crimebuster, brutalis, and Icctrombone
shaxper says:
"I've done more write-ups for this series than any other out there, repeatedly attempting to capture in words what makes it so amazing because I've felt so strongly that others need to be reading it. Yet, no matter what I say to describe it, my words never seem to do the work justice. I go back, read it some more, and each time realize I love it even more than I thought I did because there's a certain je ne sais quoi to it that compels a short-attention-span-prone man like myself, sitting in uncomfortable positions on a floor for hours at a time, to fly through literally fifty to sixty issues in a single sitting without a sense of time passing whenever I start opening those darn Saga editions. Normally, I reserve that kind of focus for Shakespeare, Joyce, and Hugo.
So forget everything I've said before, and let's leave it at this: You take a creator who is passionate about his work as well as a consummate professional, always striving to improve his artistry. You have him do ten issues a year like clockwork for over three decades, taking only three sabbaticals in all that time, and that work has to grow from decent, to great, to art, to something utterly superb. There's no way to explain it better; just come see the master at work.
By the way, I end with issue #93 both because that's close to the ten year cut-off (of course I'd nominate everything including the current issue, if I could) and because it's possibly the most powerful single issue of the entire run, providing a poignant but brilliantly understated parting, deeply enmeshed in painstaking historical accuracy, that provides a sort of bookend to a relationship begun in Usagi's second ever appearance. A great ending point if you were going to stop several issues after anyway."
