Once Stan Sakai dies, should Nickelodeon buy the rights to Usagi Yojimbo?
 

Dark Horse currently owns the rights for Usagi to publish, but after Stan Sakai dies, should Nickelodeon buy the rights to Usagi? They would still let Dark Horse do reprints of the comic or collections, but after Stan dies the "canon" Usagi dies with him anyway, even if there's still new comics after by someone else.

I wonder if Nickelodeon has their eyes on Usagi.

are you saying a third season is possible?

What? No, screw that! Just let his estate have it.

Can I have some money when you die? You don’t have an heir, so why not me?

The thing is Asians tend to live the longest of any race of humans. He's 73 now but for all we know he could live to over 100+.

I wonder what it is in the Asian genes that causes them to live so much longer than most other races. I don't think it's just diet (sushi and white rice?), it's probably something passed down in their genes from the ancient Asians that lived B.C. in mongolia and Tibet as they migrated all over Asia. It may also be because all Asians grow up knowing martial arts so it becomes a part of their very being to live long.

It's all about Tai Chi, dude.
if you want the secret to life, go see "Shen Yun". Those people survived communism by escaping to America with their cult. It's all there in the show.

Nah, Stan Sakai's original wife passed away a few years ago and now a cougar married him. I don't want that cougar to get Usagi's rights and all the money after he dies. I'm not sure how much goes to his family and children otherwise though or how much money Dark Horse gets from the comic sales themselves.

I'd prefer Nick to buy the rights to Usagi Yojimbo full-stop, so he becomes a permanent mainstay of the TMNT universe even years after both Peter Laird and Stan Sakai are dead and buried. As said, Dark Horse would still put out the comics anyway. And if Nick sells TMNT in the far future, Usagi would go with the new owners too.

My answer to this question is "aboslutely f**king not."

I don't want Usagi without Stan. When he eventually dies, it should die with him. I don't want or need yet another beloved story in the hands of an immortal corporation who will no doubt ruin it. Usagi has always been Stan's. Making it without him would just feel wrong. When that day eventually comes, I'd rather it just remain in the past.

In case you didn't know, Stan is already letting other writers/artists make Usagi comics for Dark Horse now. I wonder if Stan is doing it because he's getting old and can only put out one set of 5 issues a year now (it's been like that the last couple of years). I don't think Stan considers issues not made by him canon, but there's going to be more non-Stan Usagi issues published by Dark Horse soon.

There is a distinction between "He is letting others make comics with his characters" and "The company keeps using his characters without him". The reason I prefer that the Sakai estate gets the rights instead of some corporation is because I know what happens when a company takes complete control and it's more often than not kinda sad. The estate getting the rights isn't perfect either (in many ways it might be preferable if the thing just goes public domain right away) but at least it means there will always be someone willing to negotiate reprints and such, as opposed to some guy just writing the back catalog off for taxes because the company has a billion other things to fall back on.

Like most casuals I know nothing of Usagi outside of his crossovers. Where would I start if I just want the essentials?
So it's just one big continous story? I'm guessing there's no main quest he has to get through so it doesn't matter if the creator just stops making stories? They're just random adventures?
All his adventures then are canon to mirage?

If there's so many decades to pull stuff from why was the animated series so poorly designed with the whole descendants things? That show alone just existing likely did more damage to the brand than any good.

To answer the question, I'm sure his estate will just sell it and since it isn't a big IP I doubt Viacom is going to buy it or whoever owns viacom, it'll likely be bought by some random company just to have it in their library of IPs and left there to rot. Kind of like all those 90s superheroes that were bought by Marvel/DC only to never be used.

Usagi is one continuous story but you can jump in at any time at the beginning of any story or arc. There's just minor continuity between the series and a few recurring characters but it doesn't really matter. There's like somewhere around 300 issues of Usagi now total but you can jump in at issue 100, issue 75, issue 135 or issue 1 and it doesn't really matter.

Couldn't agree more. Usagi Yojimbo deserves to have an ending instead of getting bought out to get milked for all it's worth. If Stan dies, or he just decides he's had enough, then that should be it.

It's really naive to think they won't make more Usagi stories after he dies. You don't have to consider them canon and they won't be, so it doesn't matter.

It's like saying there should be no more Batman stories after Bill Finger died, or Dragon Ball stories after Akira Toriyama died. The characters live on forever long after their creators.

Usagi has a long history and a lot of respect amongst comic readers. That being said, I don’t think Usagi is a particularly valuable IP. It would make some sense for Paramount to buy it, but they won’t pay much.

Personally I think it would be cool if he just let it go public domain upon his passing.

Dave Sim announced he would do that for Cerebus upon his and Gerhard's passing (although the second part might be questionable because Sim bought out Gerhard's interest in Cerebus) but Sim does not have any spouse or children to leave behind. I believe Stan Sakai is married and might have children.

It's not naive at all. I'm absolutely certain there will be stories after he dies. I just don't want them.

And comparing it to Batman, or any other mainstream comic, isn't really fair. Those are always collaborative efforts, intended to be picked up by tons of different people. Usagi is an indie comic, that was and has always been one man's sole vision.

Good point. Batman has always had a ton of different interpretations too. There are different versions of Usagi but they’re all very similar and his guest appearances got Stan’s blessing before being released.

Usagi is like a Japanese manga where it's drawn/written by one person. If Stan created Usagi in Japan instead of the U.S., it'd have a long running anime by now since the 80's. He created it in the wrong country.

Speaking of which, how sad is it that the first Usagi show made (after almost 40 years) isn't a serious adaptation? Instead it's some nonsense possible far future thing about characters who just coincidentally have the same names as the ones from the comic and has a really juvenile sense of humor? You'd think, that after that long, they would take the adaptation seriously but no...