If I had a bigger pad, I’d do nothing but trawl used bookstores and paperback collector shows for vintage martial arts pulps. Fill an entire wall like it was an old Walden Books from Shopper’s World in Framingham. (apologies for … Continued
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
It was August of 1981, a few months before Enter the Ninja would kick off the outright “boom.” The word “ninja” wasn’t a household term yet, but between Shogun on TV, Eric Van Lustbader (The Ninja was already a bestseller) and Andrew Adams’ … Continued
These brush illos were used as chapter breaks in reprint collections of Shirato Sanpei‘s Ninja Bugeicho.
Earlier this year Marvel had a one-off vampire comic set in Japan’s feudal era. Was artist Goran Parlov just going for stylized over-folding of the material on this shadowy agent of a samurai vampire, or are we looking at some kind … Continued
Interesting, villain-centric book covers featuring tokusatsu hero Masked Ninja Akagage. I guess if the character or book series is established enough, the different villain-du-jour becomes the selling point.
Depending on what school of thought you believe, the stereotypical ‘Ninja-To’ is either pure myth propagated by popular media or martial tradition traced back centuries in Japan. Well, if EITHER of those is true, then you’d think the short, straight … Continued
Takao Saito‘s rather fun manga Kage Gari was turned into a veeeery grim, nigh-emo film in 1972. Whereas the trio of vengeful “Shadow Hunters” in the books are sort of a jaunty, anti-shinobi three musketeers, in the film they are … Continued
Well, folks. I TRIED. I really did try to write a fair, even, and generally supportive piece on KAMUI GAIDEN. But seriously… how can it possibly live up to the source? This is even more compounded by some terrible effects, … Continued
OK, so the Kamui Gaiden manga had a major pedigree in Japan, and its ground-breaking U.S. release separated the men from the boys of late-craze ninja fans. So why are we just getting a movie now? The “Island of Sugaru” … Continued