the master-less swordsman
Did this on yesterday when I came home from work.
To celebrate my first day of a nice 10-day “break,” I decided to play around with some pens for the first time in a while. I’m pleasantly surprised at how well this turned out with just a handful of pens, no brush (like I’ve been working with primarily these days). Some days I’m reminded of how great pens can be when inking, and that if you do it right the solid unvarying line can look really clean and simple and effective.
I don’t read it regularly, but Stan Sakai’s USAGI YOJIMBO is an amazing comic, one of the titans in independent cartooning (something that isn’t from Marvel or DC). Plus, Stan’s work almost entirely in pens, his nonstop work ethic, his love of history, and his success with a comic that ISN’T superheroes, but rather a historical drama/action…it’s awesome.
Of course, I do have a bit of a bias thanks to my love of samurai movies (I even had the Usagi TMNT action figure when I was a kid, too), but I really do think that USAGI YOJIMBO is one of the great comics out there that everyone should encounter at least once if you like comic books at all.
