It’s a challenge, especially if you’re Asian, yes. Asians go into doctors, they become lawyers or accountants or something. Actually, my father pushed me. “Well, you should go into computers, or take some business, get a business degree, you know.” But I really wanted to do artwork. I quit my job, I went full time into freelance artwork. And lived, moving up to LA from Hawaii. We did not know anyone here, so it was basically knocking on doors, calling, making phone calls, and basically taking whatever I could get. T-shirt designs, book illustrations, magazine illustrations, newspapers. But when Usagi [Yojimbo] happened, I was able to devote, pretty much full time to Usagi. And I remember my first book signing in Hawaii, my father thought he’d come over to see me. And he could not get into the store because of the crowds. So after that, “Well, I guess Stan’s doing okay then.” So I think that was the acceptance right there.
País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Entrevistados
Stan Sakai nasceu em Kyoto, no Japão, e cresceu no Havaí. O escritor e ilustrador sansei Stan Sakai é conhecido pela criação do popular personagem de histórias em quadrinhos Usagi Yojimbo em 1984. Desde 1987, uma série de novelas gráficas vem narrando as aventuras de Miyamoto Usagi, um coelho samurai do final do século XVI e começo do século XVII. Sakai é conhecido por incorporar a história e a cultura japonesa, tendo recebido um prêmio por “tecer de forma elaborada fatos e lendas em seu trabalho”. Uma exposição da sua obra foi organizada pelo Museu em 2011. (Agosto 2012)