The Sakai Project--book and fundraiser

Stan Sakai, author and artist of the Usagi Yojimbo comic is often described by his colleagues as "one of the nicest guys I've ever met." This isn't just exaggeration or flattery--I had the good fortune to meet him at a convention several years ago, and he is indeed one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Admittedly, I only sat through a couple of his panels and chatted with him at the autograph table for a short time, but he was incredibly nice and gracious and down-to-earth. I walked away from the encounter wanting to buy more of his books because he was just such a darn nice guy. Incidentally, he also draws incredibly fast--he did a full page sketch on my The Art of Usagi Yojimbo book in, I swear, less than 30 seconds. His hand just flew across the page and it was like, "scribble scribble scribble--done!" It was just a rough sketch, but it was large and fairly detailed, and I was so impressed. It's one of my prized possessions.

Unfortunately, sometimes bad things happen to nice people, and Sakai's wife, Sharon, suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. In order to raise funds for Sharon's medical expenses and to celebrate Usagi's 30th anniversary, his fellow comic book artists contributed artwork of Usagi that was auctioned off, with some of the best pieces being collected into The Sakai Project: Artists Celebrate 30 Years of Usagi Yojimbo. It's a beautiful hardcover book with mostly color illustrations of various artists' tributes to Usagi.

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