Joe Musashi - Shinobi III Tribute

The One, the only, Joe Musashi (you could not do more tacky back in the day and that was 1993 on Sega Megadrive, the Genesis name for Europe, for probably the best 2D Ninja beat'em Up of all times). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epdselGCXkI

for some nostalgic gameplay feedback

Joe had to be part of this gallery.

He has lost popularity over the years due to extreme competition from Ryu Hayabuza, the protagonist of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden License, and we don't see him very much. There was a shinobi 3D that had nice features but maybe Joe just got old. Or he simply won and retired. 

Joe Musashi, Shinobi III Revenge of the Ninja Master, Megadrive and Genesis are trademarks copyrights Sega corp. 

Ryu Hayabuza and Ninja Gaiden mentioned here are trademarks and copyrights of Tecmo co, Ltd. 

This is just Fan Art. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinobi_III

  

Hattori Hanzo (1542-1596), Head of the Iga suppa

One of the most famous so called "Ninja", we should say "Shinobi", Hanzo can be found in movies, comic books and video games all over.

I thought it interesting to try to get away from these extravagant gothic designs with a version closer to Goseki Kojima's in "The Path of the Assassin" (a must read by the duo who created Lone Wolf and Cub, rendering the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu as a teenager helped by his faithful retainer, Hanzo the best of Iga).
However, the manga stops as Ieyasu attains a position of major warlord ready for the next political struggle, so that Hanzo is rather young looking the whole story.

He supposedly died in blaze of fire as his boats were lured in against Fuma Kotaro's and trapped in the middle of the river where they had been fighting.

Although, there has been at least 3 more Hanzos in the Hattori Clan that wore that name, we are here talking about the most famous one of them all. At his death, his men became officially some kind of pretorian elite guard  for the Japanese governement and the shogun whose family thereafter ruled for 300 years.

I shall join others sketches and pieces that I did on him as well, such as his 14 feet spear (yari) which he used in battle or his final stand against Fuma.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattori_Hanzo

Childhood Hero n°1 : Dragon Ball's Goku

Son Goku (or SanGoku as I knew him in France) was a major hero for millions of kids all over the world. At least 2 generations, one of "big brothers" (1980s) with Dragon Ball and one of "Lil'brothers" (1990s) with Dragon Ball Z (the Z means II by the way), enjoyed his adventures every morning on holidays and at least twice per school week (from 1988 until 1996 on TV in France and from 1993 on in paper version, not including the myriad of video games and OAVs that the license created in the following success).

 I personally lost track of the story around the time mr. Toriyama Akira sold the rights (for Dragon Ball GT) and therefore felt more at ease trying a take on the Son Goku I remember.
The one who Kame Sen'nin (Tortue Géniale in the french version, which translates approximately by "Genius/Amazing Turtle"), in one of those genius moments of Toriyama storytelling, sent along with Krilin to fetch him a sexy girl when the kid doesn't even know what a girl is, the one who courageously fought Tao PaiPai, the evil killer and the Red Ruban army and could transform into King Kong once every moonlight.

The innocence of the character is his best asset all along the story as he is tough enough to always trust everybody at the risk of being betrayed.
The fun coming from that same innocence depicted as dumb but always in an unharmful way which I found again later, discovering Dr Slump (a hilarious manga revolving this time around a frankenstein inspired robot girl under the care of her innocent father/creator).

So here he is as I remember him best, ready to start the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai (Martial Arts Tournament) with his uniform from Kame Sen'nin school.