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This week I posted an interview I did with Tracy Butler, creator of Lackadaisy, the gorgeous cat-noir hit webcomic. She interviewed me back, and we ended up having a rich and lengthy conversation about making comics. So I’m posting the co-interview in two parts. Today, part one. You can read it over on the Axe Cop Blog.
Old fans of AxeCop might remember Dr. McNinja from their epic team up. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s an intro to one of the funniest webcomics on the net… Dr. McNinja is a webcomic developed by Christopher Hastings, who has been a friend of Axe Cop and Bearmageddon from the early days of both. It started in 2003 as a one-off but has since been a regularly scheduled webcomic since.
It follows the misadventures of Dr. McNinja who’s a middle-aged doctor who happens to also be a ninja. It’s humor mixes well with the action and serves to fuel its unquestionable charm. What started out as a humble idea through an internet forum site, then as an art class comic, turned into a multi-media success story that continues to this day with video game ventures and other possibilities down the pipe.
Dr. McNinja is a ninja with uncanny speed, the agility and reaction time to be able to dodge bullets, and superhuman strength. His medical proficiency runs from his medical training under the clone of Benjamin Franklin. He has a degree in various fields making him an expert Dr., dentist, and podiatrist. One starts to notice that Dr. McNinja has some unique quirks about him. For one, he’s a die-hard Batman fanatic. He also has a propensity for lying about his past, telling others that he’s trained with Batman. His personality is actually more like Spiderman with the wit and banter during battles with various super-villains.
The artwork of Dr. McNinja is top notch, the artist has a great ability to switch up the camera angles in dynamic ways during action scenes, and manages to pace the more dialogue heavy scenes in a way that keeps it interesting, moving the scene along. There’s such an absurdity about the comic book that I can’t help but feel tantalized by every introduction to a new character or new place. The villains are over the top– pretty much all the supporting characters are a bit out there, especially his trusted sidekick Gordito Delgado who looks like a cowboy but is actually a 12-year-old who through sheer will-power has grown himself an EPIC handlebar mustache. Delgado also rides his beloved velociraptor called Yoshi. Yoshi has a bit of an attitude and doesn’t let anyone but Gordito ride him. In case you don’t know Spanish, Gordito is an endearing term which means “little fat one”.
What’s great about this comic is that it’s very self-aware and it unabashedly embraces it’s tongue in cheek humor. I love that it doesn’t hold punches and that it dares to be raw and funky. It’s assortment of weird stories and funky characters left me wanting more. Have no fear, there’s lots of material to read through since it’s been around for a while. If you’re looking for a webcomic that’s packed with action, story-arcs, and tons of aberrant humor, this is just what the Dr. ordered.– See what I did there?
You can check out Dr. McNinja at: DrMcNinja.com
Follow Chris Hastings on Twitter
Support Chris Hastings on Patreon
Duran Rivera
As an Illustrator, Writer, and Entrepreneur, I’ve had the boundless pleasure to work with various talents and creative organizations. I’ve thrown my hat in many circles to stimulate, challenge and improve myself as an overall creator. My goals are to create and publish my own stories as an artist and writer.
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This week, in place of Duran’s weekly webcomic, I took time to put up a conversation I had with Mac Smith, creator of Scurry. Scurry is an amazing fully painted, full color webcomic about mice and other animals living in a post apocalyptic world. For fans of amazing art, and stories like NIMH and Watership Down. Check out the full interview over on AxeCop.com.
I recently wrote a bear news article about a bearsplosion (which would be a great band name by the way).
To make the image, I created these photoshop brushes that will give you instant scattered, flailing bears. I’m giving them away so that more bearsplosions can happen all over the internet.
RIGHT CLICK AND “SAVE AS” HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE
Alternate download from DropBox.
I recently purchased the audiobook Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Volume 1)
The narrator, Carey Jones, has the Appalachian drawl of a country gentleman. He makes you feel like you are sitting around a campfire listening to true stories told by a mountain man who has had countless run-ins with every wild animal you can imagine, especially bears and wild hogs. He speaks with a jolly manliness that is warm and fun to listen to, reminsicent of Sam Elliott (Who–sidenote–played Axe Cop’s Dad on the TV show. Brag completed.).
I have a habit of listening to audiobooks on long drives and when I do the dishes. I do the dishes just about every night when the family is asleep because, for what little I have to offer my wife in terms of manliness and good looks, at least she wakes up to an empty sink most every morning. So I was listening to this book while spraying plates and silverware, but the real fun was on my birthday when I forced my family to go out to a podunk town to a country fair and watch bluegrass music (it was actually pretty fun, even if the kids won’t admit it). I really like to listen to an audiobook on my long drives, but I don’t usually subject the kids to them unless it’s Roald Dahl reading Roald Dahl. But I decided that, since it was my birthday and I was allowed to listen to whatever I wanted, after I forced them to listen to my Every Song is Perfect playlist (totally objective) for a while, I popped in Bear in the Back Seat and restarted the chapter I was on.
Each chapter is a self contained story, so starting them in the middle of the book worked out great. We finished the whole book in the four hours we spent in the car. My six year old son even requested I turn it back on the moment we got back in the car. He loved the story about the time Kim had a squirrel stuck in his pants and it climbed out the zipper. I think my daughter may have even taken a break from the iPad to listen in.
Other stories involved trying to haul an unrestrained, unconscious bear away on a helicopter hoping it didn’t wake up mid-flight, trying to save its life. There was a story about a guy hauling a truckload of skunks and they all got out of their cages and were running free while he was driving. Then one about a bear that was caged for treatment in one of the ranger stations and it managed to bust out, trash the place and escape through a window. This is just a sampling of the tales you will hear in this book.
My only complaint about the book is that Delozier can get a little carried away any time he starts talking about people feeding the bears in his park. Clearly, this makes him mad. Any time the topic is raised, it seems like he can’t stop and will go on about the ramifications of people feeding bears. I do not disagree, and it was very informative. I will definitely never feed a bear, especially after reading this book. But the tone of the book loses its steam when it feels more like a lecture and less like a campfire story. I think peppering the bear feeding lectures in a little more lightly would have done the book some good, but the man worked in one of the busiest national parks around a lot of very stupid people for 30+ years, so he’s entitled to blow off a little steam on the subject.
I am posting this mostly because I find it tough to find audiobooks that the whole family can enjoy. Listening with my kids and my wife may have been even more fun than the concert we were headed to. Anything that makes a family laugh together deserves praise. Kim Delozier, thank you for this book.
Now, I just noticed that there is a sequel to this book available. Bear in the Back Seat II: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Volume 2)
Ethan
