Wondercon 2009 Day 3
Day 3 was the last day. I of course started it off right by getting to the convention without my Badge. The reason this was so bad was that I wanted to make it back in time for a panel. In order to do so I had to grab a cab back to my brother’s apartment. I was able to make it back about 5 minutes before the panel I wanted to see started.
I waited most of the weekend to go my last panel so I was not about to miss it. The panel is question was titled, “25 Years of Usagi Yojimbo.” After meeting Stan Sakai in the first 10 minutes of the con I was super excited to watch him at his panel. Any creator that tells me I should buy one of his books off of Ebay because it will be cheaper is awesome. It obviously shows how much he cares about getting his work into people’s hands. For those of you who sadly don’t know who Usagi Yojimbo is check out his Wikipedia page.
Stan Sakai really put on a show for the panel. He talked about some of the history around publishing Usagi Yojimbo. Did you know that Croatia was one of the first places to have Usagi Yojimbo in other then English? When Sakai talked to the people in Croatia that wanted to localize it he asked them about the war going on. They assured him it was nothing to worry about since it was 50 miles away. The other fun tid bit was at one point Oliver Stone had the option to make a Usagi movie. It would have been interesting to see.
I was awesome to see the man at work as well. Seeing him sketch was fluid and fast, it’s obvious he has no plans of slowing down at any time. It was also interesting to see him go over his process a little bit. When someone asked him if he had an end to Usagi he responded that of course there would be an end, but not anytime soon. Sakai very much made it sound like he plans on doing Usagi Yojimbo as long as he can. I of course plan on reading it for as long as he can produce it.
The rest of the day was relegated to last minute shopping. I planned on going to another panel, but I just didn’t have it in me. I got a few last minute steals, such as Fell Vol 1 for five dollars and Blankets for twenty, so overall it was a good day.
As for the con as a whole, I really enjoyed myself. I can’t wait to go again next year when I have the chance.
