Monday, March 22, 2010

Monday Night Murals: Who's to say where the wind will take you

Let's do a nice, simple, springtime mural today to celebrate the first week of spring! And what better time than spring for...flying kites!

Usagi Yojimbo #46-47

Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse) #46-47 (March-April 2001), art by Stan Sakai and Tom Luth

(Click picture to kite-eating-tree-size)


Here's a lovely pastoral landscape from the world of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo #47 and 46. Yep, I got those in the right order...if open up the issues and lay them down, the back and front of #47 go to the left of #46. This isn't Usagi's first encounter with kites:—there's an earlier comic called "A Kite Story" in the Fantagraphics Usagi #20:

Usagi Yojimbo #20


I had a Batman kite when I was a tiny bull, but nothing like the wonderful colorful Japanese kites featured on these covers. Here's a great site on the creation, design, and multiple purposes of Japanese kites.

Now stop hanging around staring at a computer screen and go outside and fly one!


5 comments:

rscarbonneau said...

The face on the kite in the second image looks suspiciously like Sergio Aragones.

bob said...

What I especially like about the covers of #46 and #47 is that you can line them up the other way, and they also fit (well, almost, there's a small gap trimmed off between them). So you could wrap them around a tube and get an endless panel...

Bully said...

Bob, it doesn't quite match up the other way around (believe me, I tried!) If it is intended to do that, then Dark Horse trimmed a bit more from that edge to prevent it from being obvious.

Speaking of circular murals, make sure you tune in next week!

usagigoya said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
usagigoya said...

Definitely a cool mural. Two additional bits of information....

1. Dark Horse issued a free promotional poster a few years back featuring the artwork from both covers that is just a little larger in size than the original comics.

2. The original artwork was originally done as a commission for a Usagi Yojimbo fan, a job which took a couple years between when the request was made at a San Diego Comic Con meeting and when it was finally completed.