Stan Sakai's wife has passed away...
 

Not sure if this has been posted yet but Stan's wife passed away today:

Stan via his FB:
Please keep Stan and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

RIP Mrs. Sakai, at least she died peacefully with her family. :cry:

How sad. :( RIP

Very sad indeed. R.I.P. :(

Such a shame, R.I.P.

Damn, I remember reading about his wife's condition for months and thought she had recovered. Very sad. :(

I've been following his updates on Facebook. Its wild how strong he was during such a trial. At least his wife's at rest, finally.

*usagi weeps*

I was lucky enough to get to speak to her a few years ago at the SDCC.
She was very kind. I'm sorry to hear of her passing.

R.I.P! So ver sad :( :(

R.I.P. She'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

So sad... I was fortunate to meet Sharon a couple of times at shows, and I was fortunate to show both her and Stan around London for a day. Her smile and energy lit up any room. This is very sad day indeed :(

Oh man. I really hope he doesn't get depressed.

I hope Stan's OK, I heard his grandson also passed away a few years ago.

Never had a chance to meet her or Stan, but I consider him one of my all-time creative heroes and a huge inspiration, and I've heard many wonderful things about her and them together. He's shown a remarkable amount of strength during all this. I hope he has a lot of support coping with this loss. It's so unfair that he's had to endure so much hardship recently.

It as a few months ago...

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Stan has one of the biggest hearts in the business. Sharon was his source of strength and he always kept her close to his heart. Condolences to his family fro the Drome family... many prayers

Can do. Sad news.

So sorry to hear of his loss. I was always fond of the Usagi characters, especially after their depiction in the 4Kids series.

May you find much hope, Stan.

Poor Stan. I wish him and his family well during this tremendously difficult time.

R.I.P.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Stan and the family.

Oh... Yeah that has to be hard on him...:cry:

This is deeply saddening. :tcry: I'm amazed he can carry on with Usagi while going through all this, but in another sense I'm sure his comics are good therapy. I wonder if the bleak and drastic events of Usagi: Senso are relative to the loss he's been experiencing in his personal life? I met him for the first time last summer at BCC and he was the nicest guy despite everything. I hope it's smooth sailing for him and his family from here on out, they never deserved this tragic fate.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear this :tsad:

Condolences...

Sucks.
Thoughts and prayers go out to Stan and his family.

I hadn't really considered it, but... that makes a lot of sense. If so, I really hope it's been helpful for him to put his experiences and emotions into his art. I took a moment and considered how much he's been through this year and just started tearing up - and I've never met the man. It's deeply unfair.

And as an aside, Senso has been really excellent. Though Usagi always is. The man's track record is incredible.

wow sorry about stan's loss and all her family in my prayer. rip :(

At first I found it a bit melodramatic and thought it was throwing away characters for shock value and little else, but when I started to look at it in this context of reflecting what he's been through recently it really hit home. We've known and loved these characters for decades and they always seemed safe from harm, but Senso is reminding us that life can throw us devastating twists, and no one, good or evil, is immune from a sudden death.

I have not kept up with recent Usagi comics (I would describe myself as very casual fan of the character), so I can't really comment on any themes or alike. Is it good? Do you think Stan would retire after all this?

the idea for usagi:senso has been in stans head for more than ten years.he posted it on a 'whats in store for usagis future' tableau on the uy website back then...having said that I am sure there is ALWAYS a cartoonists life flowing into his work..

Do you think Stan would retire after all this?

-I don't think stan would EVER retire from creating comics...especially NOW with so much emotional turmoil on his path...

Agreed. Comics to cope. He still seems thrilled to work with Usagi and the fans undying adoration for the series must be a driving light in darker times. I wouldn't be surprised if he surpasses Dave Sim's 300 issue count on Cerebus someday. Between the 3 main volumes, space usagi, specials, and senso, he's around 220 issues as it is...

Right, of course. But it's always possible that his current mindframe played a role in the execution of it. Maybe not - based on his online posts, he seems to be very even-keeled with his emotions - but I've definitely felt a real harshness and pain to Senso that I've found very impacting.

For purely selfish reasons... I really hope he wouldn't. I hope that creating comics is a helpful outlet for him right now. But he should do whatever helps him emotionally at this time.

Haven't read the Usagi comics but I liked the portrayal of the character in 4kids.

R.I.P. Sharon Sakai.

Usagi Yojimbo has been running since 1985 as one long continuous comic. Its like the manga/anime of American comics. Its hard to believe Stan also writes and draws every single Usgai comic, unlike other American comics where different writers and artists come in with different issues.

Stan should have started Usagi in Japan instead of America. He would have gotten an anime adaption for Usagi and it would have been the next Dragonball or Naruto if it started there.

Don't get me wrong, his stuff looks brilliant. The idea of a ronin in feudal Japan is obviously very intriguing, but it's overwhelming and hard to know where to start.

I'm pretty sure I heard that a new Usagi comic just started.

Btw, the graphic novel "Ronin" is fantastic as well, and one of Eastman and Laird's inspirations for the TMNT.

Dark Horse releases collections of the entire comic, you don't have to track down individual issues.

The collections are called "Books" and they collect around 7 Usagi issues into one. They're up to Book 27 now, you can buy them all on amazon or anywhere.

not to blow your shell, cubedm but they are actually already up to book 28:the red scorpion.these collected books are released annually and usually collect a string of 5 or 6 issues plus a few short stories that stan published elsewhere for example...
june is usually the month of publication of such a new book and you can get it in trade paperback format or chose the limited hardcover versions released simultanuesly(they each come with a signed and sketched plate inside)

but if you really wanna check out usagi then I can suggest you a great new publication by dark horse comics: the usagi yojimbo saga books..they collect all the material that came out by dark horse(I think a saga book contains 3 tpbs...) the first of those has JUST come out and has a super price...

but I should mention that each single usagi yojimbo issue is written extremely reader-friendly and smart.

about your notion:
Stan should have started Usagi in Japan instead of America

stan has told many a time that NO ONE from outside of japan does make any big impression on the japanese market.that includes usagi who has a 30 year life span already and is really well researched(a great thing about usagis comics is also that you learn a lot of the culture and the people of that era in japanese history but it doesn't feel forced at all...) but apart from a few dedicated fans usagi is as well a gajin as ronald mcdonald,)

great comics.unbelievably well written characters and stories.LOVE them so much.
they first appeard in the fanzine albedo#2 in 1984...

I meant if Stan lived in Japan and started Usagi there.

Thanks mate, will look into that.

I actually only got into Usagi around....2003 or so? That's now a decade ago, but considering Usagi started in 1984 I got into it almost 20 years after it started and caught up.

Thank god for collections. I never would have been able to track down each individual comic.