Canini, Brian – Bootleg Ninja

August 28, 2025

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Bootleg Ninja

You don’t see them very often these days, but I do love a tribute comic. This is Brian’s homage to the Ninja comics of his friend Michael Anthony Carroll, who I reviewed a fair amount back in the day (before the great website update of 2010), and then apparently stopped reviewing for some reason? Odd. I’ll have to grab some of ninja comics the next time I see him at a con to catch up/get some context for this one. Not that you need much context, because: ninjas! Everybody knows ninjas. This one starts off with a brief explanation of the concept, then it’s on to the “training video” portion. Other stories include a listing of their weapons, Godzilla dressed as a ninja, a very vocal movie critic who’s not having a good time watching a ninja movie in a darkened theater, and of course Franken-ninja. I also couldn’t possibly avoid talking about probably the longest story in here, about a silent fart who takes up ninja tools and goes on a rampage. I thought it was funny, but if your eyes just rolled out of your head, maybe this one isn’t for you. Which is fine; very few people have as many comics to choose from as Brian does. I found the whole comic to be a hoot, even if I was probably missing some context, so if you’re up for some ninja mockery I’d say you should give this one a shot. $5


Martin, Dale – Watusi the Talking Dog #23

April 24, 2010

Website

watusi231

Watusi the Talking Dog #23

Wow, there’s been a slight gap in coverage of this book over the years, wouldn’t you say?  I’m instantly impressed when a book gets as high as #23, even if, in this case, Dale is more of a ringleader than the sole force responsible for putting the book out.  OK, he is the one who does that, but his main job is to get people to finish their panels and get everything back to him.  All of these are four panel strips, Dale always has one panel (usually the first one to get the ball rolling), and in this issue Tom Cherry gets the last panel.  In between you get Mark Morehouse, Larned Justin, Chris Garrett, Jennifer Hachigan, Michael A. Carroll, Matthew Corrigan, Dan Lauer, Keith O’Brien, David McGhee, Drew Boynton, Steve Willhite, Greg Gildersleeve, Owen Egan, Ryan Curran and Joyce Curran.  Topics in here include inventions, China, late night, time travel, a barking contest, the lottery, Watusi’s sister, aliens, a flood, and health food.  Tom only goes to the “it was all just a dream” well once, which is good, but overall this thing is more than a little uneven.  Hey, it’s a jam comic, I think it’s supposed to be uneven.  There are a few funny moments, even more unfunny moments, and a whole lot of confusion in between.  Still, what Dale is doing here is admirable, and some of you artist types reading this should try putting together your own Watusi strips with a couple of your friends and see what happens.  I doubt that it’s as easy as it looks… $1

watusi232