Artists I Like: Stan Sakai

This week I'm looking at Stan Sakai... legendary creator of legendary rabbit samurai Usagi Yojimbo!

Usagi the protector... he's just a good guy, you know? He does the right thing most of the time. And his skills are off the charts.

He is brought to life by Stan Sakai's masterful pen. The stories are great. Simple, and direct. But it is the high quality linework that makes them stand out. There's a nifty walkthrough of his process on Stan Sakai's website.

I saw Usagi here and there as a youth but never in the wild, always in a magazine or something. I didn't get my hands on any of the comics until I picked up Fantagraphics' volume one collection. I was probably 30 by then. But since my 30s were extremely formative for me, artistically, it was good timing and I hope something of Sakai's magic rubbed off somewhere in my doodles.