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Sakai bridged the gap in this first story in a way that befits the loose, anything-goes style of the early ninja turtles comics: Leonardo simply randomly appears in Usagi’s Japan, and randomly disappears near the end of the six-page story.
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Usagi, however, is a rabbit in the same way that Donald Duck is a duck in Disney comics that is, he’s a human being drawn as an anthropomorphic animal, and his world is a faithfully recreated feudal Japan…in which all of the humans are drawn as one kind of animal or another. The turtles are, as the name states, mutants, and they are meant to be read as literal turtle-men in a more-or-less realistic, modern version of New York City. Despite the similarities between the two milieus, there are somewhat challenging differences, too. They had still more in common behind the scenes, as Sakai and Eastman and Laird were fans of one another’s work, and they occupied similar space in the comics scene of the time (Eastman and Laird even published Usagi Yojimbo for a time through their Mirage Studios company).Īside from some early fan art Sakai sent the Turtles guys, the first crossover was 1987’s “Turtle Soup and Rabbit Stew,” which, like all but one of the stories in this trade, is written, drawn and lettered by Sakai. On paper, the characters bear much in common, being anthropomorphic animals whose seriocomic adventures are inspired to a greater or lesser degree by Japanese history and culture (for the turtles, it was definitely a lesser degree), and who originally appeared in early 1980s, black-and-white, small-run comics. Exactly how long? This new hardcover collection of every single one of their comic crossovers provides the answer: Five stories over 31 years.
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It was the latest in a long line of meetings between the ninja turtles and the samurai rabbit.
#TMNT COMICS LICENSE#
Last year IDW, the publisher that currently holds the license to publish comics starring Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, enlisted Stan Sakai to create a brand-new, full-color crossover between the TMNT and Sakai’s own Usagi Yojimbo character. Writer/artists: Stan Sakai and Peter Laird Usagi Yojimbo/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Collection