COMIC BOOK THEORY: THE "CAKE AND EAT IT TOO" GAMBIT - PART 2 (The Sequel to Part 1...this time it's personal)

When last we spoke on this subject, I cobbled together a bunch of funny pictures and talked a bit about Batgirl, and somehow I made a few good points. Ben Dunn re-posted the first entry on his Facebook page and this site here, cgmcginn.com saw unprecedented traffic, almost hitting 45 page views…almost. And for funzies, Ben posted Part 1 again today and I hit that sweet sweet 42 page views.

Seeing how I’m trending now, I figure now would be as good a time as any to release Part 2 of my thoughts on a Ninja High School reboot, comic books, and whatever the hell else comes to mind while I type and drink. Strap on your seat-belts kids and crank up the Nickelback. You’re in for a nerd-fueled ride into the mind on an obscure comic book fan! Roll the intro:

“Look at this photograph…something-something…it makes me laugh…”

In Part 1, I wrote about what DC Comics did right with the Batgirl story line during New 52. Re-read Part 1 for there will be no recap here.

If I were writing Ninja High School, here’s what I’d keep, and what I’d do differently—starting with characters.

Jeremy

I’m going to make the radical suggestion that Batgirl, and Jeremy Feeple are very similar, perhaps even two sides of the same coin. (There’s a Two-Face reference in there somewhere).

Jeremy is not violent by nature. He’s ordinary. He looks at the world in a certain way and makes judgments based on past experience and a moral code that he’s still forming. He’s only 16—he has a lot of growing up to do.

For much of the original run I felt that Jeremy was, ‘along for the ride’. He was pulled into a lot of strange situations that he didn’t ask for. He was the object of affection by both a ninja and an alien—hot. Every boy’s dream. It’s a great male fantasy and damnit it works!

But Jeremy’s ability to assert himself was often lacking. My teenage self at the time didn’t care about these sorts of heavy topics, but the dude who just turned 40 tends to look at things with, well, more experienced eyes—eyes which now need glasses to see.

Jeremy was the vehicle that my teenage self rode through these stories. He had personality but it was muted much of the time in order for us to see all the action and hilarity from everyone else.

It would be nice for there to be a bit more depth to Jeremy Feeple. Under the currently timeline, he experienced his father leaving him. In my proposed timeline, mom is out of the picture. In both cases that loss should impact him much more. He should have an edge. He shouldn’t be a punk, but there should be more grit around his character. Maybe he does well in school, but is also a bit full of himself. Maybe he’s aggressive in gym class. Maybe he’s a loaner, with only a small circle of friends. Maybe it takes a lot for him to warm to someone. Maybe the loss of his mother made him icy, so he’s had a string of sour relationships. He was burned by a first love and now he’s closed himself off. Enter Ichi and Asrial and suddenly their job to win his affection has gotten that much more difficult. The two smoke-shows show up and the boy just isn’t interested. How does one win the boy who doesn’t want to get hurt again?

Asrial

Let’s get this out of the way: Asrial is fun and sexy eye-candy. She’s strong, she can do techie/mechanical/other-worldly shit. She looks great in short-shots, crop-tops, tank-tops, cut-offs, and body-suites. And there’s that whole furry thing with the ears…er…if that’s what you’re into.

If works! It’s great! The whole look sticks in the mind and has become synonymous with Ninja High School. All of what I just said has to stay. She’s one of the most well-rounded characters. She’s smart and sexy. She could be Batgirl. She should be Batgirl. She should fight crime when she’s not trying to woo Jeremy. I would read a series based entirely on Asrial, the same way I would play an entire Arkham game where Batgirl was the main character. More about that in a near-future post.

What Asrial needs in a reboot is more storylines that develop her and show that she can stand on her own, without Jeremy. She’s a strong female lead. She can kick ass and be independent. She don’t need no man!

But at the same time, I’m really happy with how she and Jeremy end up together in the original run. I feel like she went from the best-friend tag-along to the lover. Though I never fully understood where Jermey and Ichi, turned into Jeremy and Asrial. That was lost in the cobwebs of my mind or was never made clear.

Were the same scenario to play out again, there needs to be a breakup. There needs to be time to heal. Since it’s Ninja High School, there needs to be ninja’s sent to kill Jeremy, who are later called back when Ichi sees that revenge only works when your parents are shot outside of a theater and you have a strange obsession with bats.

Ichi

Ichi is the wild-card in all this. Like Asrial, she’s strong and independent. What makes her different? Ambition? The Ninja Clan. Out of all the NHS primary character, she is the hardest to wrap my head around. She’s always been the most selfish character in the story—at first. And her development into someone who actually cares for Jeremy is a very well done transformation.

Storylines I Loved from the Original Run that should be Explored with Modern Themes

Lendo Rivalsan goes to Hell. The entire plot line where Lendo goes to Hell to save Jeremy’s soul was amazing to both my young mind, and as a concept. It was never fully developed but Lendo changed during that time in Hell. He sort of revert back to his old self once the story had run its course. It was a missed opportunity that could be rekindled in the reboot.

We also learned a great deal about Mimi Master. It was also a great tie-in to the Warrior Nun Areala, which is becoming a Netflix something-or-other, so it would be topical. Speaking of…

Mimi Masters as a character, in a story about Ninjas and Technology—both alien and steam, the fact that there magic is interesting. Magic, in a world that could otherwise be categorized as science fiction with martial arts—like the Matrix.

Mimi brings the whole philosophical, spiritual, supernatural element into the series—again, like the Matrix. It makes for a great tool to have in your comic-writing toolbox. It falls in line with Dr. Strange being part of the Avengers. You have Iron Man technology, but there’s also some dark and mysterious shit going down that not even Iron Man is prepared for. With Mimi, you have magic and demons and the idea of an afterlife, and magic missiles. There could be an entire story-line that would label the comic, fantasy, before bouncing back into something based in technology and/or Kung-Fu.

Kung-Fu: For much of the series, Jeremy’s girlfriend was a ninja. Let that sink in. Jeremy was dating a ninja. Why oh why did he not think to ask her to learn some moves? Not only would it help develop his relationship with Ichi, but it would be both humorous and maybe even rewarding. Jeremy learns some moves and then gets himself out of a jam. Jeremy and Ichi train together, and grow closer. Jeremy looks more like a developed character and less like a prop for the ladies.

His brother, Ricky was the ninja in the family while Jeremy remained ordinary. I say, make Jeremy start the story ordinary and develop into something more.

Here’s a small tangent. As you may have gathered from the first post, I’m a fan of Batgirl. Again, there should be an Arkham game for Batgirl. Recently I read Batgirl of Burnsides. Didn’t much care for it, but what they tried to do was make Batgirl—and a comic for that matter, hip to shit like social media. There were clones of Facebook, Tinder, and Spotify all over the place in that damn book. An underlying theme in Burnsides was how social media could be used for evil and nefarious ways, instead of, ya know, being used for evil and nefarious ways…

I think Burnsides went overboard with social media. But what was cool to see was that everyone had a smartphone, or a computer, or something that made them connected to everyone and everything else. Good or bad, it showed the kind of world we live in and didn’t try to remake some ideal time from days gone by. It’s a question that is asked in a lot of older science fiction: in a world with cell phones, how would this story be different. Think about a movie like Starwars. What if they had cell phones, text messaging, social media platforms?

What if Ninja High School had a social media platform? What would a computer powered by steam look like? What if Dimension X were a computer simulation instead of another realm that exists in the backwaters of space and time?

I’m going to stop here. This series of posts probably requires a part 3, or a well paying job, or a side-hustle, or no money at all but commissions from time to time. Whatever the case, I’m not finished with these ideas. I just have to stop writing before I start vomiting words on paper.

Comic Book Theory: The "Cake and Eat it Too" Gambit - Part 1

This will be one of those posts that most of the non-comic book audience will probably stop reading after this very sentence. By the end of the paragraph, the rest of you will stop reading. We're not talking about Batman here, or Iron Man, or even Squirrel Girl. We're going to discuss a recent poll taken over on the FaceBag pertaining to the one comic I go all fan-boy over. I'm of course talking about, Ninja High School. Stick around and you may learn something.

Ben Dunn

NHS had a good run for a book that caused many a comic book store owners to glaze over when I, in my youth, asked if their store carried it. It was an obscure title that one would randomly find on the comic shelf at Newbury Comics or Strawberries. Remember Strawberries? But typically one had to have a subscription set up with their local comic book store, and have the title special ordered. At least, this was the case in my area or the world, and I'd like to think that with the copy reserved for me, and the one ordered for the store, that I single-handed-ly made Ben Dunn a household name on the entire East Coast. I feel similarly about being the one who brought Nickelback to Maine during my college years. Take that, Maine!

Look at this photograph!

The series began back in 1986 and closed out in 2009 with issue 175. In that time, earlier parts of the series saw reprints and Full Color versions of issues, along with special issues like Year Books, and crossovers with other titles published by Antarctic Press. It had a good run. The core story revolved around Jeremy Feeple--a 16 year old high school student who is the object of attention by a ninja and an alien.

In 2014, Ben teamed up to Steve Ross, and issue #176 was released. I don't have the issue in front of me but the gist of it was essentially the last episode on the cusp of a reboot. I need to stress, I don't have #176 or the other comics in the initial series in front of me. They are in storage. Don't be this guy:

Worst. Blog. Ever.

But I did talk to Steve about it. #176 goes as follows: The universe in which the story takes place gets corrupted. Two characters are removed from Space/Time on a machine powered by steam. The mission: Shit's gots to get fixed, yo! The End

Issue #176 came and went. No #177.

Until...

Thanks FaceBag Polls!

Should the series be rebooted?

A lot of folks weighed in and said they didn't want all the content since 1986 to be wiped out. This is a legitimate fear where the fictitious world one has been reading or watching is actually rendered meaningless, because the creator of said world decides to start fresh. Normally I wouldn't care about such things, but--Hello! FanBoy#1!

I choose the former. Not the later.

Issue 176, the universe we've been reading about is literally corrupted. Had Ben ended with 175, there'd be no reason to worry, however 176 was a turning-point, a critical place in the story were its very existence lay precariously teetering on the edge of space and time. It was a line drawn in the sand. A piece of Ninja High Schooly history that can't be unmade.

It was also a damn good story and one that had to be told. I for one loved it and since we hadn't seen any Ninjas in High School since '09, it was great to get back in the saddle with Ninjas in High School. (I'm sure that sounded better in my head).

Where it ended...or began, anew?

This is what JJ Abrams did when he rebooted Star Trek. The first new Star Trek movie goes back in time and wipes out the history of everything that we all know, love, and hate about Star Trek. No Kirk, no Picard, no DS9, no 7-of-9, no Picard memes.

"Shut up, Wesley!" -Picard

We're left with a cast and crew of super models, and an optometrist's bill costing thousands in gold-pressed latinum due to all the damn lens flares. I hate the new Star Trek movies because of what they removed. I understand the importance of a long running series and would hate to see it go away.

However I also see the reason for a fresh new start. NHS began in the late 80s. The comic book industry is a very different place in 2018. Social Media and smart phones have left us with the attention spans of goldfish. And for Ninja High School to be successful, it needs to recapture its fan-base and attract a hip new audience. For this, I am proposing the patent-pending CGMcGinn Cake and Eat it Too gambit of comic book reboots.

But first, let's look at DC Comic's "New 52" for the extent of this paragraph. Specifically we'll be talking about Batgirl. Prior to New 52, Barbara Gordon was Oracle, a computer hacker extraordinaire, member of the Birds of Prey, who also helped Batman from time to time. Prior to that she was Batgirl, but thanks to Alan Moore and the Joker, she'd been rendered bound to a wheelchair and her Batgirl position was reassigned. New 52 happened and thanks to a vague surgical procedure, Barbara could walk again, was reinstated as Batgirl and went back to fighting crimes in cape and cowl.

This is an example of a soft reboot. Batgirl remembers her life prior to New 52 as Oracle, but for the extent of the  New 52 run, she is doing the whole Batgirl, walking-thing again. It's a Batgirl story, not an Oracle story. The origin story wasn't retold. It was a continuation of the character's arch, but at the same time a reinvention of the character.

This sort of reboot was possible because Batgirl is a superhero. She's timeless like the Simpsons. She can be college age forever. What defines her is her ability to kickass like Batman, but she comes at it from a very different perspective. She's a woman. Her motives are very different. Because of The Killing Joke--thanks a bunch Alan Moore, you too Joker--she's darker, but because of her ability to walk again that darkness gives way to rays of optimism.

Anyway, enough about Batgirl. Jeremy Feeple is not a superhero, nor is he secretly Batgirl (as far as I know). Part of the original run involves his awkward trek to adulthood. I think part of the appeal to a book like NHS was watching Jeremy stumble towards adulthood, finding and falling out of love, dealing with bullies, and getting into the occasional skirmishes with aliens, monsters, and ninjas.

The Cake and Eat it Too gambit

Issue #176 is the new Star Trek movies, only better. It's new Star Trek because the timeline is reset. It's better, because screwing with Time is not an exact science and events that we read about in the initial NHS run, happen differently.

Here are some bullet-points:

• This would be a full reboot of the series

• Jeremy Feeple is 16

• Because time is wonky, the reboot starts in 2018 instead of 1986

• In the initial series, Jeremy's mom took care of Jeremy and his younger brother, Ricky because their father got trapped in Dimension X when Jeremy was very young. Since mom was the one taken out of time to save the universe in #176, the reboot will have Jeremy and Ricky being raised by their father. Where is mom? Do the Feeple's know? It's a new wrinkle in the reboot.

• More on mom: She is one of the few characters who knows about the 2 different timelines. This could come into play later in the series or not at all. But she could be a guiding force in Jeremy's success.

• The war between Sulusian and Zardon has changed dramatically in some way. Perhaps Zardon is no longer the antagonists in the conflict. Perhaps the war has yet to begin. Perhaps the Sulusian royal family is not as well liked as they were in the initial series.

• Asrial had always been handy, mechanical and less girly. This is more apparent because her royal family status no longer means as much. Perhaps the whole Princess in Exile angle is less imposed by her royal parents and more to do with conflicts at home.

• Since Prof Steamhead was also removed from time in #176, someone else fills his place as a mentor to Jeremy. Their motives may not be noble, and could possibly be downright malevolent.

• Rivalsan Lendo keeps having nightmares about Hell. This is in reference to the plotline in the initial series where Lendo indeed goes to Hell in order to rescue Jeremy's soul. This was a favorite plotline of mine. Lendo is also less of a dick to Jeremy, probably because of the dreams.

• WW2 Ends differently. The Allies still win, but with greater losses. Steamhead isn't around. Hitler is taken alive. Ichi's grandfather is a different kind of Ninja Clan leader.

• 9/11 happened. Quagmire was a target. Perhaps Tomorrowman failed to stop it in time. Perhaps Tomorrowman was never able to get over this and all those who were lost that day.

• Something HUGE is happening in Hawaii. ;-p

• There's no rats in Dimension X. None.

• Dogsupreme is no longer a slave to Zardon and is the Thanos of the known universe.

Well this was a very long post. Level 100 Fan-Boy in the house, yo!

Welcome to my lair...not that I'm some sort of animal...

...Or maybe I am...

Breaking the format for this entry as it's been a while and I need to get back into the swing of things. 

Books worth reading:

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Skip the audio version. All things nerd-culture have a raging hard-on for Wil Wheaton. I, thankfully, do not. Tips for reading a non-fiction book: No, it's not OK to put on a British accent when quoting something from the Guardian. Yes, I realize it's a British newspaper. It doesn't matter. Would you put on a stereotypical Japanese accent when quoting something out of Yomiuri Shimbun? No, no you wouldn't. Also, don't put on a Joseph Lieberman or Bill Clinton voice when quoting them either. It might also help not to sound like such a damn fanboy when reading the rest of the pros. Just few tips from me to you.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

It was on sale so I picked it up cheap. I'm a fan of the Dark Tower series, especially the first 4 books. King went back and updated the Gunslinger in 2003 and the end result was a really polished piece of work. I read an interview with him not long ago. Turns out the Dark Tower books were never edited. O.o I know, right! If you're looking for something from King that isn't hard horror, and more dark fantasy/sci-fi, then give this one a solid read.

3 books by JD Robb

Ok, so the Wife got me into this. I didn't think I'd like them, but they're pretty damn good. For those of you who don't know, JD Robb and Nora Roberts are the same person. No, I haven't started reading romance books, at least, not yet. The "In Death" series takes place in a Blade Runner-esk future New York City where drugs and prostitution are both legal and corporations buy planets and build fancy space station resorts. The main character is a detective. The books are mysteries. Since the author got her success in romance, the sex scenes are well done and pull no punches. Where some authors might 'fade to black' or gloss over the sex, Robb/Roberts dives right in, and it makes for both good storytelling and something different in what can be a formulaic genre.

What else is going on:

Got one of the main characters from my novel preserved for posterity. Here's another great piece drawn by Ben Dunn. He did a great job! I really like how the pic came out. He'll have my business for quite a while and if he's up for it, there are 10-plus characters in the novel who would look great next to this one, in my office.

And speaking of my office

Here's mine!

My Father-In-Law is the best. He realizes that sometime I just need to get away from the Wife, and now I can! (However, what you don't see in the picture is that the wall behind me is only half-finished, so I won't be doing much hiding).

Seriously though, it's good to have my own space, for writing, for gaming, to just chill. When the computer was in the living room, it was easy for both me and the Wife to zone out on the computer/tv. With the office, it helps us appreciate the time we spend together, in-part, because there's a clearly defined border for the time spent apart. I don't know if I'm making much sense, but, bottom line: it's a good thing.

"Shift" & "Dust" by Hugh Howey

Book Book

It's a double-whammy tonight! I picked up Shift by Hugh Howey, for the beginning of the year. I like the book because I'm a sucker for the nitty-gritty back-story of a story. I think that's why It's taking me so long to write a damn book, because I'm all about the back-story. Shift was a prequel to Wool and explained how things got the way they got. 

Dust was the thrilling conclusion of the Silo Trilogy. It tied up a lot of the ends from both Wool and Shift. As a complete set, the trilogy was good, with Wool as the dominant book. Wool was very character-driven. You couldn't help but develop an attachment to the majority of characters, including the jerky head of IT. Shift and Dust were more about telling a story based on events. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't as emotionally stirring as the first book.

I like Howey's writing style and look forward to reading more of his stuff.

Errr...Write Write

A lot has happened in the writing world.

1. It took some hair-pulling, head-banging, and tears, lots of tears, but I was finally able to create an outline of the novel. I also figured out how I write: I create a first draft by just writing the shit out of things. I do best when this is done in a notebook. Sometime, usually between these pen-and-paper sessions, I'll put what I wrote into the computer, and during this time I'll expand on the ideas scribbled in ink and develop the story. We'll call this, Draft 1.5. Once the story is written, from roughly start to finish, I'll do myself a huge favor and outline the damn thing. The outline, in this instance, is my road map, something to keep me on track. By this point it's a game of fill-in-the-blanks. The outline helps me flesh out the plot and what I've missed, and where to include what information. After that, re-write, revise, proof and polish. It's probably not the way Stephen King does it, but shit, I'm not Stephen King.

2. Because the outline wasn't done I got into a rut. I'd been in a rut since Christmas. But that's all over. The outline is done and I'm writing strong again. I hammered out 2 major scenes over the weekend and snow days. 

3. Contacted Ben Dunn, and gave him a overly detailed character sketch for my main character, Aryel. For weeks now I had and idea of how she should look. And at the last minute I scrapped this idea for something 1000 times awesomer! Both The Wife, and Samson approve, so the commission promises to be kick-ass. Ben is unbelievably awesome, so I know the pic is going to come out looking great.

4. I want to start a simple D&D campaign that doesn't involve a lot of stats and number crunching, focusing almost entirely on the story, and taking place in the universe of the novel. I think that'd be really cool and would help me further build the world. Player's would create unique characters, not characters from the book, and they'd get lost in this crazy dream world. I don't know what kind of interest people would have for that, and I'm not the best DM, but hey, it could be fun. Any takers?

Ninja High School #176

Reading Books:

I've written about Ninja High School before. I think it's awesome that it holds the Number 1 slot in the Top 5 Influences to my Writing. It's in a category shared with Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Cat's Cradle, The Matrix, and Big Trouble in Little China ("We really shook the pillars of Heaven, didn't we, Wang?")

There's something awesome about the 'high school kids with exceptional strengths/powers' genre. TV Tropes calls this the, Academy of Adventure and it's a genre with significant appeal and seems to work across many different mediums. The focus tends to be on the institution, however were the students in attendance of said institution normal disillusioned youth, the story would be over on page 1, issue 1, episode 1. No, what goes hand-in-hand with the school for wizards, gifted youngsters, and sailor-girls blessed with moon power is that they are, by their own right, exceptional.

The original run of Ninja High School has this in seemingly every character with the exception of the main character, who is an average American teenage boy. He plays the part of 'damsel in distress' to two striking female leads, one with exceptional skills in martial arts, raised in a family of ninjas, while the other is the princess to an alien race of skunk people. As the series progresses, this normal teen encounters other, larger-than-life characters, both friend and foe, and eventually shows both bravery and courage despite a lack of superhuman ability. 

Possible Spoilers lay ahead. The series has been rebooted. And it's been rebooted in similar fashion to the more recent Star Trek films, staring Chris Pine, and Sylar. When the first film came out, I was not a fan because they literally erased everything that happened before, with a major disruption to the space-time continuum. And who, who I ask you would want to live in a world without Captain Picard!?!?! But I understand why they went in this direction though, and I think it's the same path Ben Dunn and Steven Ross are taking Ninja High School.

In both cases what is gained is creative freedom. When a familiar world is made new again, one has the ability to create without having to worry about the years of past continuity. What NHS has over Star Trek is this idea of multiple dimensions that are accessible through both magical and scientific means. This allows for stories to not only exist within the context of the rebooted universe, but can also pull from other dimensional plains that the long time reader will find familiar, and perhaps even a little nostalgic.

This first issue had a Sliders vibe to it. Remember Sliders? Great show. The whole premise was about 4 lost interdenominational travelers trying to get back to their version of Earth. Along the way they met their doppelgangers and some very cool 'what if' scenarios. The rules of continuity were fast and loose because each episode rebooted the gaming console that was the known universe.

I see very good things ahead for Ninja High School: Reloaded (that's what I'm calling it anyway). The potential is there for fresh new stories while maintaining the would-be hero and superhuman heroines that brought so much appeal to the original series run. I'm really looking forward to where Dunn and Ross take us.

On Writing:

Writing for Ninja High School!

Just kidding. I wish.

Seriously though, I'm writing a lot of new scenes for my novel. I'm not paying too much attention to writing chronologically (which is how I tend to write). I'm finding that I have a lot of possibilities open to me and seem to be stressing about how and if I should change some major plot points in the story that will deviate significantly from the First Draft.

Here's what I do know:

There will be one central character in this story and the story will be told from her perspective. The development and thoughts of the 2nd main character will be revealed in a series of letters/journal entries that he dictates as audio recordings. 

Like in The Rook, even my minor characters are somewhat larger than life. They all have compelling stories that should be told. I'm thinking that each subsequent story in this series will be told/viewed through the eyes of one of these characters. Everyone gets a book!

I've started proofreading Part 1. Even if I'm changing the perspective, I have a lot of solid writing here that could possibly be used in other stories, or sections of this story. It's also a good way for me to gain some perspective, as I lost a lot of that during the extra busy month of June.

Also, without getting into all the details, as it would sound like bragging, I'm currently in possession of a Surface Pro 3, so I've been able to proof the Word doc of Part 1, using the Inking feature. So I've been able to write in red digital pen all over my document. It's working out really well.

Kids these days have it easy

If you're 30+ you'll know what I'm talking about. Anyone 20 and under will probably start scratching their heads in confusion while wandering into their local bookstore's anime/manga section to peruse the mountains upon mountains of available titles from the cute, to the demonic to the disturbing, and everything else in between. Kids today do not realize how easy they have it. They can trip over manga. It's completely embedded into our culture.

It wasn't so easy for the 30+ anime/manga fan when we were kids. For anime, you had to know a guy. Some would put this person on the same level as drug dealer as far as the logistics for acquiring said titles. This guy for me was an unusually tall mix between heavy-metal rocker and alternative music junkie who always wore black combat boots and a matching black trench coat. And he had everything! And it was all on VHS! This was a time that predates CD burners being the standard in all new computers. This guy had an entire dresser filled with VHS copies of titles he had received from his overseas supplier in Japan. (At least that was what I was told between playing a Japan-only version of Tekken on his modded Playstation). And he had the titles we all knew and had probably seen though they were interrupted by commercials, censored, and poorly dubbed because we first watched them on the Sci-Fi Channel's "Saturday Anime": For the longest time I didn't realize Ninja Scroll had an implied rape scene, and Vampire Hunter D had brief full-frontal.

But it was the manga that was not only impossible to find, but if you didn't know Japanese you were pretty much shit-out-of-luck on understanding the plot. The manga section at your local B&N did not exist back-in-the-day. Many may wonder what they did with all that empty space. I suspect that the space was used for CDs, which at the time were packaged in large rectangular plastic or cardboard security cases in order to discourage would-be thieves from pocketing the goods. But needless to say, in the US, manga was whispered about being this thing that everyone, young and old, professional and homeless had access to in Japan.

In walks, Ben Dunn and everything changes. Ben Dunn has become synonymous with American Manga. Here's a guy who cut out the supplier, (Japan)  from the equation. He was creating the manga style and it was also in English designed specifically for an American audience. The uncouth may look at the title Ben is most known for, "Ninja High School" and proclaim that it's a comic about Ninja's and Aliens, and there's this normal dude who the audience is supposed to relate to, and there's something going on with the power of steam. But what they fail to see is that Ninja High School contained remarkable parody, humor, and pop-culture references from both American and Japanese culture. Who can forget the Chef of the North Star, the controversial Archie parody, or iconic characters from popular movies/tv drawn into frames, often simply lurking in the background (Tom Servo, I'm looking at you). Those are three examples. I know there are more but I haven't read through the original run in quite a while. I'm sure now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I'll get a lot more of the references.

Obviously I'm writing once again about Ben Dunn and Ninja High School to help promote Ben's Kickstarter that is now in it's final days. This will be the last of these for a while. What you have to understand is that as a kid, Ninja High School was comic books for me, and Ben Dunn might as well have been Stan Lee. I wasn't really into the super hero genre. Even now I'll occasionally read a Batman book. And being only in middle school at the time, I wasn't allowed to read anything from DC's Vertigo line. (Laugh all you want. I had parents). NHS was both entertaining and it was drawn to be provocative without being pornographic. It was an important part of my childhood and it's still important.

It's also pretty clear that I like complaining like a curmudgeon about how incredibly easy these pesky kids have it these days.

Now get off my lawn!

Ninja High School Vol. 3

Ok, this is another shameless plug for my buddy Ben Dun. We're reaching the final days of his Ninja High School Kickstarter. You should consider donating. Maybe you'd get into something you would have never considered doing before...like knitting...or becoming a dominatrix.

1. Even if you don't know who Ben Dunn is, and hate Manga, you should considering donating to his Kickstarter.

2. Even if you don't know Ben Dunn but are into Manga, but not that freaky tentacle shit,  you should donate to his Kickstarter.

3. Perhaps you know who Ben Dunn is, like Mange and are into Sailor Moon as well, then you are probably my wife, who should also donate to Ben Dunn's Kickstarter.

4. If you're into sports, don't care for Manga and blog for Place To Be Nation, you're probably my Bro and should go check out his blog, but first donate to Ben Dunn's Kickstarter.

Too hot for TV

I've not posted in a while. Bad for blogging. Bad AT blogging.  

The Steam Summer Sale has ruined me this past week. Picked up both Batman Arkham games for $12.12, Dues Ex 2 for under $5, and New Vegas for all the Fallout fans out there.  

Onto other things: 

Ben Dunn has been running a very successful Kickstarter campaign for a book of sketches and other work that he's done, including commissioned work that he's done. He's reached the halfway make of the campaign and has exceeded his initial goal by a tone. But please, still donate, even if it's just a buck. I get the impression that he was very surprised at the turnout. I've always felt that Ben Dunn's work was awesome. Now it would appear that I was right and that others think so as well. 

I'm thinking about pitching one of my stories to him. I think it'd make an impressive comic. I just need to put together a summery and treatment first and send it over through the proper channels. 1 in a million shot, but definitely worth asking.

I'll be taking the week of 8/5 off, so expect more out of me then. Until then, perhaps you'll hear more about how New Vegas is much harder than vanilla Fallout 3, and that Arkham Asylum and City are sooooo much better on the PC than on the xBox.  

And in the meantime, go donate to Ben Dunn's Kickstarter. And if you're interested in his work, head over to AP's website, or hit me up in the comment section. 

Support your Indie Comic Book Companies

​Hey!

So!​

I've referenced Antarctic Press in the past and they totally got me through those awkward pre-adult years. Now they're in a bit of a bind and I think it would be really great if people would donate to keep an independent comic publisher like AP going. In creative media, whether it's books, media or comics, there should always be a 'little' guy and a 'medium-sized' guy to serve as a refreshing alternative to the big-guys. Where the big movies studios will pump out an endless line of crap like Spiderman reboots, and the big comic book companies will pump out endless crap...er...like Spiderman reboots, companies like Antarctic press will put out compelling, creator-driven material. ​

Donate a buck and feel all good and happy inside. It's like giving blood, or voting, or maybe jumping over the flagpole in Super Mario Bros. Or give more and get some awesome AP swag. Maybe you've never heard of AP and with this quick and easy donation you'll get some awesome titles that you never knew existed.​

Anyway, get on it and help out the guys who make great titles and keep the big companies from completely monopolizing the comic book industry.​

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.​

Totally Stoked!

I'm not the most patient person.​

Growing up I was the kid who would be so excited for Christmas that I'd not be able to fall asleep and then would cry about it because if I didn't sleep then Santa wouldn't bring me presents. One year I was such a pain in the ass to my wonderful parents that I set the alarm clock to go off at 2AM. They were not happy.​

​I say all this to set the stage for what happens when my favorite comic book author, Ben Dunn, agreed to commission a drawing for me. I became like the little kid waiting for Christmas again.

But it was totally worth the wait, for here is the awesome work that he did for me:​

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​This is actually my character in Warcraft that you can easily find under Links at the top of the page. Really awesome and I'm really happy how it came out.

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It was first brought to my attention that artists like Ben Dunn did commissioned work after receiving a joint gift between my brother and friend. ​

​As you can see, Ben Dunn has become my go-to artist for all things video game related. Castlevania: CHECK. World of Warcraft: CHECK

In which We Discuss ​Comic Books and Coolness after the Fact

​Ninja High School was the obscure comic I was into back before high school and throughout college. It was unique in that it was American Manga during a time when manga was the stuff of black & white World Wide Web scans, and VHS bootlegs. The days of Anime sections in every video store, and even Manga sections at the comic shops were still several years away. What also made Ninja High School special, at least to me, was that is wasn't until a few years ago that you could Google the title and find more than a Yahoo Group and a couple other pages on the Web that actually knew anything about it. Even today, the amount of information in this Information Age would barely equate to a Ninja High School village, to the overcrowded cities of Batman, Superman or even Hellblazer. 

While I was scouring the globe for Ninja High School, other comic nerds of the day were reading Batman and a trove of other superheros. The Hipsters of the day we probably reading Sandman and seeing the irony in Neil Gaiman's use of the word "book". Some would also be reading Hellblaze, which would later be made into a movie starring Keanu Reeves. For those of you confused and thinking I'm talking about A Walk in the Clouds, I'm referring to John Constantine, the magic wielding occultist who battled demons, traveled to the places between Heaven and Hell, and even did a lot of drugs with Euro-Hippies.

​It's a safe bet that I was probably not allowed to reach Hellblazer when I was of the impressionable age of 13-15ish. I'm sure I could have if I really wanted, but instead I settled for American Manga, Ben Dunn's "Ninja High School". 

They have comic books on computers now! Did you know? A new day has dawned and now you can purchase comics on any number of tablets. This'll probably end up putting small-time comic book businesses, well, out-of-business the same way digital books put Borders out-of-business. This is sad to me, as I have many of fond memories walking downtown to ML Comics in Marlborough, and later, in college, going to Casablanca Comics in Windham Maine to shoot the shit with the guy who ran it and pick up some more of that American Manga.

Although going digital did cause me to start expanding the scope of my comic book intake. It got me into Batman and I'm completely hooks on DCs New 52 reboot, or whatever it is. I've also started reading Hellblazer, which is another awesome book. I recommend both to anyone who likes...well...who likes Batman and/or British occultists..​

​It's funny how the things that were cool or mainstream way back when, were the things I was never really into back then. And now, here I am, thinking those things I rejected are cool after all. It's the same way with music. I hated Nine Inch Nails when they were popular. Now: I like their old stuff. None of that Year One bullshit. What does that say about what is popular now? Will I be a Justin Beiber fan ten years from now? Oh God, I hope that's not how these things work.

I have two Lava Lamps. One was a Christmas gift back in high school and the other was a gift from my wife a few years ago. Lava Lamps were big in the 70's. I wanted the High School one because it was retro, and retro was cool, like bow ties and the Beatles.​ The other day my wife's sister saw the two Lava Lamps on my desk and stated, 'we used to have those'. This would be perfectly normal if she were a child of the 70's, but alas, she's a woman in her early 20's, Here I thought I was somehow cool in a retro sort of way, only to discover that the generation ten years my younger, found the same cool-factor in the exact same thing. How does that old saying go? The more things change...