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Stan Lee once drew Usagi Yojimbo in a Spider-Man costume as a gift for Stan Sakai

Who doesn't love Spider-Man? Who doesn't love Usagi Yojimbo?

Image of Usagi Yojimbo and Spider-Man
Image credit: IDW, Marvel

Have you ever wanted to see a Usagi Yojimbo and Spider-Man crossover? Well, it’s happened. Not officially, of course, but it did come from a fairly official-ish source, even if it was fanart.

Screenshot of a tweet from Stan Sakai featuring an image of a drawing of Usagi Yojimbo
Image credit: Stan Sakai

At Emerald City Comic Con’s Stan Sakai 40 years of Usagi Yojimbo panel, Stan Sakai shared some fun facts about his long career. One fun fact was that he lettered the weekly Spider-Man newspaper strip, which put him in regular contact with Stan Lee. Sakai mentioned that he was surprised that Stan Lee always had the energy you expected from him, even on a simple phone call. “That’s not an act he puts on for the camera,” Sakai shared.

But Sakai mentioned that one interesting thing Stan Lee would do was send him drawings that he made, sometimes a Spider-Man head in profile, once a piece of paper covered in a new smiley face stamp Lee had procured, and once, at the 25th anniversary of the book, a drawing of Usagi Yojimbo wearing a Spider-Man costume.

“He sent me all these letters and things, and one year - this was for the Usagi 25th anniversary. He did a great Usagi dressed as Spider-Man drawing, full figure, and he said, 'Now you see why I write rather than draw.'”

While Sakai didn't share the image in the panel, he did tweet it a few years ago (you can see the image on the right). It's pretty cool.


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Tiffany Babb

Tiffany Babb: Tiffany Babb is a professional lurker (aka critic) who once served as Popverse’s deputy editor and resident Sondheim enthusiast.

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