It’s not every day we get to read a new story by its original creator, especially 30 years later. Comic book readers are getting just that this summer as Japanese-American comic book writer/artist Stan Sakai returns to his creation Miyamoto Usagi, a samurai rabbit living in late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century Japan whose exploits were chronicled in his Usagi Yojimbo saga. Usagi will partner with The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a one-shot graphic novel crossover event. Both series were created in 1984, the Turtles created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
The new story written and illustrated by Sakai is called Namazu, and the conflict centers on the Japanese myth about a giant catfish that lives under the islands of Japan. A god named Kashima trapped the fish and it now threatens to free itself and destroy the islands, helped in Sakai’s story by Jei, a character on a mission to destroy all the evil in the world. Can Usagi and the Turtles join forces to save the future of Japan?
The catfish is featured prominently in a beautiful variant cover by Mouse Guard artist David Petersen (below). Sakai will provide the standard cover for the book. A softcover and hardcover edition will be available, the hardcover edition including extras like concept art and story notes selected by Sakai. Sakai has won a total of seven Eisner and Harvey Awards, and was nominated for 21 Eisners, over his long career.
, a series of comic books that when compiled read like classic children’s storybooks. Norton and Petersen have this niche in common with their books–you want to sit down and have storytime. These guys are among the best Eisner Award winning comic book artists that write as well as they draw, and they are both among the nicest guys in the business you’ll ever meet. With Battlepug you have beautiful images, interesting and funny surprise characters, and a narrative structure and tale that would fall alongside any other classic tale on your bookshelf. It’s no wonder Norton was recognized by the Eisner committee–this isn’t only crazy silliness, it’s a story with roots in classic fiction and the beginnings of a character who could hold his own with Conan and Tarzan.
