Interview: Samuel Sattin on Love, Kindness, & Fantasy in UNICO: AWAKENING

We’ve been fans of writer Samuel Sattin for years now, stretching back to his work on the moving and compelling comic Legend. That’s why we were so excited to hear about his involvement in a project introducing Unico–Osamu Tezuka’s magical unicorn–to a generation of new readers. Partnering with Eisner Award-winning artist Gurihiru (Superman Smashes the Klan), Sattin is crafting a new tale of Unico in Unico: Awakening, out now from Scholastic. This is Scholastic’s first manga, and the whole creative team has ensured that this will be a special outing for readers. In Awakening, Unico’s befriends a cat on Earth, whose huge heart could have dire consequences for them both.

I spoke with Mr. Sattin recently about the conceit of Unico: Awakening, what drew him to the project and the character, collaborating with Gurihiru, and how working in the kind and magical world of Unico is so rewarding.

Unico: Awakening is just gorgeous and heartfelt and is sure to bring a smile and swell of happiness to anyone who picks it up. I’m very excited to see this book get its much deserved flowers.

Unico: Awakening cover

FreakSugar: For folks who might be unfamiliar, who is Osamu Tezuka’s Unico?

Sam Sattin: Unico is a magical creature–a unicorn–whose ability to inspire others with love and kindness drew the ire of the gods. His powers awaken when he is loved, and so he must be hidden through space and time to avoid being captured and destroyed. But more than that, he’s a kind and brave creature who is trying to find out who he once was. He’ll always fight to save his friends, and contains incredible, mysterious power within him that awakens over time.

FS: Where do we find Unico in Unico: Awakening?

SS: Unico begins his journey in an American city park, where he finds himself confused and unsure of his surroundings. Before long he attracts the attention of passersby and is chased towards near-calamity, only to be saved by a brave watch cat, Chloe, who is soon to become Unico’s best friend in the entire universe. Soon after, they find themselves in a smaller town, where a dangerous hunter is threatening the nearby woods, and an evil goddess plots out how to find Unico and destroy him.

At the heart of the story is the friendship between Unico and Chloe. After being abandoned by her owners, Chloe wishes to leave her cat-hood behind and become a human. Unico helps her do this, but there are unintended consequences that come along with not accepting who you are. Unico will never abandon Chloe’s side, however, and vice versa. The two form a friendship that, as you’ll come to see, transcends the boundaries of time and space.

FS: How do you approach the character and his world and balancing being respectful of the source material while also adding your unique take on Unico?

SS: I do so respectfully, and in collaboration with both Gurihiru and Tezuka Productions in Japan. I have immense love and respect for Osamu Tezuka and his work. Rather than taking a character from Japan and doing whatever we’d like without engaging the country of its origin, the new Unico is a cross-cultural collaboration. Tezuka-sensei himself believed in the power of comics as an international language, and he himself adapted a lot of Western work through his own lens. He believed in the power of collaboration, and we are making our best effort to follow in his footsteps.

Unico: Awakening cover

Unico: Awakening page 22

Unico: Awakening page 23

Unico: Awakening page 36

Unico: Awakening page 37

FS: The art is so fun, dynamic, and just makes me smile. What has the collaboration process been like with Gurihiru?

SS: Gurihiru is brilliant. That’s the long and short of it. And their art makes me smile, too! Every page–every panel–is so beautifully considered, drawn, and colored. The collaboration process has been wonderful. Gurihiru is a consummate pro, and we have the same shared vision for this story. The way they depict emotion in the characters, the way they make them move, and the brilliance of how they draw otherworldly settings is beyond anything I’ve seen. They’re also able to combine Japanese and Western art seamlessly, creating something completely new and unique.

FS: What has been the most rewarding part of exploring Unico and his world?

SS: It’s a constant journey of discovery, mystery, and joy. As I move forward plotting Unico’s story, I draw upon the old to build the new. Tezuka-sensei never finished Unico. It doesn’t have an ending. But to our great surprise and delight, Tezuka Productions has given us permission to find one.  My feeling, then, is that in order to bring one of the God of Manga’s classic stories to an end, it has to be satisfying. To build the framework to do that has been the most rewarding professional experience of my life.

FS: You have written a whole host of comics that run the gamut of locales and moods and characters. What drew you to writing Unico?

SS: True! I’ve been at this game for a while, and it’s been quite the journey. The kinds of stories that interest me are ones with  characters who find themselves up against walls so high they seem impossible to climb. Though the moods and locales shift, it’s my hope that most of the stories I work on will help readers feel what it’s like to go up against the worst of it. And then, hopefully, overcome it all. Unico is a story that embodies those feelings in big ways. It’s a story about a good creature trying to find his way not just back home, but back to himself. All while the most powerful goddess in the universe wants him dead. He’s in trouble, to say the least. This is the kind of story I love to write.

I was also drawn to Unico because it was created by the God of Manga himself. When I was given the opportunity to send a pitch to Tezuka Productions, I looked for a character that I thought embodied what I love about storytelling. When they accepted the pitch, my jaw dropped. This is a dream project. It’s everything I ever could have wanted.

FS: If you had a final pitch for Unico: Awakening, what would it be?

SS: Come for the mystery, bravery, and high adventure, stay for the friendship, emotion, and magic. Unico is filled with lovable characters who really do have so much lose–from cats who want to become human to wind spirits searching beyond time and space for a cure to Unico’s curse, from dangerous humans to malevolent monsters, Unico is a lushly drawn story about danger, love, and hope that I can’t wait for you to crack open.