"Now we only have two more to go... or do we?" Thursday March 6th, 2008

Well I hope you enjoyed today's comic and the ending to Chapter 5. I'll talk about this comic first and then I'll move into the bigger picture. First, as you can see the cameo I had mentioned in last week's post was none other than a small red herring in the form of Mr. McMurphy. (For those of you who might have forgotten him, he was seen way, WAY back in Spirit 24 in Chapter One.) I know some of you were expecting someone a little more ummm... maybe "relevant", but I figured that while true, it would keep the main surprise of the finale a secret till you actually saw it. Hopefully it was a cool moment for you and a small pay off for continuing to read this rather humble webcomic.

I will note that in my original script I was going to use some nameless never before seen character instead of Mr. McMurphy. However, somewhere in the middle of this chapter I suddenly brainstormed the idea to use Mr. McMurphy instead. It was cool to go back and use a character from Chapter One. Plus it also helped tie into the possibility that Reiko helped Amatsu secure the temporary body till Julienne could be convinced to join Amatsu.

Also of note is the funky helmet/mask that Julienne is wearing. I completely redesigned it last week after fussing about it for years. Again it was another one of those moments. I was at work and I was suddenly struck with the idea of designing the face plate to look like a Hannya mask. It was even better since it kinda fit into Julienne's character as well. For those of you who are wondering, it is a helmet with a full head of fake black hair as well as a front face mask that flips up and down. I loved the final design and if I ever get around to that Ninja Spirit book, I will be sure to include the sketches of the different evolutions the helmet went through. I did try and keep the basic outline the same since Mr. McMurphy was also wearing it while he was the temporary host of Amatsu's soul.

Well now that I'm done with the comic, I'll move on to the bigger picture of Ninja Spirit. With chapter five in the books, my original Ninja Spirit outline calls for two more chapters. That should equate out to about 3 more years of comics at my current pace. My thoughts right now are conflicted. I have been working on a altered storyline that would kind of condense the last two chapters into one longer chapter that would go for about a year and a half. I've been going back and forth and all I can tell you now is that I'm about 70% sure that I will go ahead with the story as planned.

As for now, there will be a short hiatus till I begin Chapter 6. I'm going to have something up next week to commemorate Ninja Spirit's 6th birthday. I can't actually believe it either, but it's true. I've been doing this webcomic for 5 years now. It really doesn't seem like it's been 5 years, but I guess time flies when you are having fun. I just want to take the time to once again thank everyone who has helped me and supported me in this endeavor. My life has radically changed since I began writing and drawing this webcomic, but my love for the comic hasn't changed a bit. It's been a chore at times, but I really can't imagine not doing it even when my life was a mess. So thank you to my family who has supported me and my friends for being the inspiration for this comic. Lastly, thank all of you readers of this comic. It's thanks to you that I am able to force myself to stay up at nights to finish this comic on time for a weekly update when I feel like playing video games or watching TV. If it wasn't for all of you and the emails and the PM's and the forum posts, the DA notes, and meet ups at Otakon, I wouldn't have made it to year 3 much less Year 6. Thank you for motivating me to always make something better and better with every single day.

In one final bit I want to mention that after next week, I might just have fillers up for a bit as I take the time to update some portions of the website, finish the Spirit 400 Limited Edition Poster (which by the way should be the BEST ONE YET BY FAR!!!), and quite possibly finish the special NS project for the site. We'll see how it goes. At the very least expect a 2 to 4 week hiatus before I start Chapter 6. I promise it'll be well worth the wait. In fact I will even let you know that we'll begin Chapter 6 festivities with the 4th Battle of Spirit contest where you fans will decide who the most popular Ninja Spirit character is. Not only that, but the one person who does the best at guessing how it all goes down will win an autographed Spirit 400 Limited Edition poster! It's going to be one hell of a contest this time around! I'll post more details when Chapter 6 gets ready to start.

Anyway, thanks again everyone!! Chapter 5 turned out to be one of my favorite chapters and it's easily the best drawn chapter by FAR. Whether or not Chapter 6 is the last or next to last chapter, it should turn out to be a hell of a story. It's time to start finding out the answers to a bunch of questions that you may have had. I'll see you back here next week for a special NS birthday filler.

River's Top 5 Favorite San Francisco Giants
1. Willie Mays
2. Atlee Hammaker
3. Will Clark
4. Omar Vizquel
5. Tim Lincecum