"One of those times..." Thursday April 19th, 2007

Almost every webcomic artist or writer will know what I talk about when you have this really cool thing in your mind, but you know it's not going to come for years. You think about it a lot at first, but after a while it just gets shuffled into the background because let's face it, a few years is a LONG time. Then out of the blue you realize that one of your favorite ideas is about to come out. At first you're like this is going to be awesome, but then you get that lump of doubt. You start questioning whether or not it really was a good idea. You start downplaying it because you don't want to be disappointed when it happens. I can tell you that all this occurred from the day I drew up the designs for the Ninja Yoroi way before the comic started till this very day. You might guess that I took a little extra time with some of these panels. You might be very right. So now that the day for this reveal has arrived how do I feel? Pretty frickin psyched to tell the truth. I think it came out looking pretty swanky and I really am happy about the way it all played out.

Some people might wonder why I chose Tom to get his armor and not Yuki. Personally I like it when the "main character" doesn't get ALL the glory. I wanted every one of the characters to have their moments and this is one of Tom's. It also makes sense because out of Yuki, Joe, Dave, Tom, and Key, it really is Tom who is the trained ninja. I always felt bad for the character since he never gets to resolve his issues of what he did from the time Beth died till the end of Chapter 2. Now I think we will finally get to see the real Tom and as you might guess the real Tom Brisket is all about kicking ass!

I also want to dedicate today's comic to my favorite mangaka of all time, Masami Kurumada. Without Kurumada-san or his legendary Saint Seiya I would not be drawing Ninja Spirit and I probably wouldn't have gotten into anime when I did. I will fully admit using armor because of Kurumada's influence. I tried not to completely do something that was about the armor, but did have some cool looking armor in it and by waiting till this late in the story, I think I have made it more of a cool addition rather than the center piece like the individual ninja weapons are. I like thinking that I am somehow doing well in the 5 bishonen type story that he helped popularize. Although I will say that my characters aren't exactly bishies are they? It's because we're not all the bishie like in real life I guess. Except Joe... he's as bishie as they come. Heh. Anyway I just wanted to at least on this day pay an homage to the great Kurumada and say thanks for the inspiration and the great times.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed today's comic. We'll return to the action next week when you get to see some more cool stuff. Although if you can't wait till then... know that baseball is ALWAYS good for a few laughs. If you need to know the narration indicates this clip was from a sports blooper show. Bonus points if you were able to recognize the BGM was from Ranma 1/2. Japanese TV shows are ALWAYS using anime BGM during segments. I can only hope the US starts following suit.