Here are a couple of color Usagi pieces from Ken Steacy and Olivier Vatine.


I knew of Ken Steacy's work since Star Reach first serialized The Sacred and the Profane in the early 1980's. I met him a couple of years later in LA--probably at a CAPS meeting after the San Diego Con.
We were both invited to be guests at a convention in Winnipeg in 1990. I was probably there with Steve Rude. We traveled to a bunch of conventions together at that time. Anyway, Ken was looking through my portfolio and suggested an art trade, to which I quickly and enthusiastically agreed. He could not decide between two pieces, so I told him to take both. He promised to give me a drawing the next time we saw each other. True to his word, a few months later at the 1991 San Diego Con, he gave me this beautiful airbrushed piece. Yes, it is an actual colored piece, this is long before Photoshop was around.


Vatine is one of my favorite French artists. For me, he is right up there with Moebius and Loisel. He is best known for Aqua Blue, though I prefer his westerns Adios Palomita and Angela. I also have Pink Planet, a beautiful artbook. I was at the 2006 Angouleme festival, signing at my publisher's booth, when someone came up to me and said, "Vatine likes your work. He did this for you." I marveled at the art, but, by the time I looked up, the guy was gone. I have no idea who he was, and I have never met Vatine, though I would like to. I love this piece.


Vatine did the festival poster for the 2006 Quai de Bulles in St Malo.