Navarro Ninja
So I was having dinner with my pal, the uber-talented Rafael Navarro, and we were musing on what a ninja would look like if drawn by the legendary Jack Kirby. He whipped this off on a napkin, and seeing as … Continued
Shirato Sanpei… NOT lazy.
Shirato Sanpei‘s manga epic Ninja Bugeicho had dozens of characters, and hundreds more victims of these characters, too. Being a ninja comic, he could have gone the easy route and just hooded-up most of these people, lessening the burdens of … Continued
Shame on you, kung-fu kangaroos!
Remember during the home video explosion how many low-end kung-fu movies got cheap new package art and “ninja”-centric re-titles? I got burned so many times at the video store by this, fuming when the 70’s ‘chop-sockey’ playing on my VHS … Continued
New DEAD RINGO trailer
Check out the latest from Eddie Mort! And see a pile of imagery at the Dead Ringo tumblr.
Sanpei sketches
These brush illos were used as chapter breaks in reprint collections of Shirato Sanpei‘s Ninja Bugeicho.
African movie posters
Some of the ninja-centric paintings from Ghana ‘movie theaters’ that were on display at last year’s Movie Mojo shows at Chicago gallery Primitive:
Bare-Armed Ninja
Something that came out the 80s and lived on into the 90’s was the bare-armed body-building look for ninja, a mutation driven by the painted covers of Ninja Magazine and video game package art. These roided-up shinobi sacrificed protection for … Continued
Brilliant strip about the heartbreak of shuko!
Many thanks to VN regular RG for sending me this link: Ninjerktsu! The Dreamworks storyboard artist who refers to himself only as ‘Michael’ really captures something here. Who didn’t hurt themselves with these things back in the day?
Shinobi-fied merch
With the 80s craze came a lot of repurposed merchandise – stuff that for the previous decade’s boom had been sold as kung-fu gear now emblazoned with ninja logos. The above looks to have been a Chinese-esque design probably inspired … Continued
Swordgirls of SHINOBI THE WIDE
These beautiful character design illos are from the 2003 video game artbook Shinobi THE WIDE. This sleeve-slinging swordgirl is ‘Ageha.’ I’m digging the flapper sensibilities of her hair and make-up. You can see the rest of this long-out-of-print book here. … Continued