Stan Sakai is the Akira Kurosawa of comic books. Stan's stories are not those explosions of hyper-violence that seem to be the norm in contemporary comics. Nor is his stories an excuse for a series of pin-ups. When he tells a story, Stan does not need to resort to frium or bogus bravado. He is a man in full control, literary and artistic, of his discipline. Stan's rhythm is deliberate and, like Paul Chadwick, he is not afraid to slow down in order to address various issues, and this in a subtle but forceful way. As with Carl Barks, the simplicity of Stan's graphic art reinforces the legibility of the stories he illustrates. William Stout