Wicked awesome 80’s stickers!
Last post was all about centuries-old woodcut print masters, y’know, all high-artsy and stuff, so for the sake of balance we’ll take it down a notch or two and bring things screaming into the 80’s. As, according to some people, … Continued
REALLY vintage ninja, courtesy of Uncle Sam?
Found these antique woodcut images on, of all places, the Library of Congress image archive website! See, the government is good for something… I like to think of these as Socialized Shinobi. Details of the above follow: According to the … Continued
ONE HUNDRED!
It takes 100 ninja to properly celebrate the 100th post on Vintage Ninja! Since going live in June, enthusiastic response from readers and thousands of visits from every continent on the globe have given me a real sense of connecting … Continued
Animated credits – FURAI NINPOCHO (1965)
I absolutely adore 60’s animated movie credits, and these somewhat DePatie-esque panels from the opening of the 1965 ninja comedy Furai Ninpocho are just great. The rest of the movie, despite a good cast (including Mie Hama of You Only Live … Continued
SOMA ninja – mid 80’s
PVC figurine and cheap toy purveyors SOMA had all sorts of lines in what I call “Smurf-scale” – cartoon characters, animals, pro wrestlers, whatever… Here’s three of what I think were an assortment of 8 or 9 ninja in various … Continued
Generic sticker – Japan 70’s-80’s
3″ sticker featuring a generic (albeit derivative) illo of two playful ninja. This came from a box of Botan Rice Candy my uncle gave me in the mid-80’s, but I’m thinking the art could have been done well before the … Continued
Love the art of HR-FM!
…or Hirofumi Sugimoto, a Japanese illustrator whose influences include futurist Syd Mead (designer of my beloved Blade Runner!) and Klimt – both of which are (somehow) apparent in these ninja pieces: Official website here and prints for sale on Deviant … Continued
ZANPEI KUMOTORI
Takao Saito, best known as creator of Golgo 13, was also responsible for two ninja manga: Kage Gari in the 70’s (the Shadow Hunters, which also spawned two films), and Zanpei Kumotori in the 80’s. The latter featured a Connery-esque … Continued
CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA
If you haven’t seen them, don’t dismiss low-brow Thai/HK exploitation flicks like Challenge of the Lady Ninja (aka Chinese Super Ninjas II) or Deadly Life of a Ninja as mere crap. They are BRILLIANT CRAP – utterly BAT-SHIT, full of … Continued
SHINOBI painting
Part of an anonymous package painting for the video game Shinobi.