[insert kung fu pose here]

Oh hey, it's Wednesday. I was supposed to do a post last Thursday. xP Apologies to all, I was enjoying the first day of Christmas break. Aaaand after that, it slipped my mind. Anyway, posting today, and hopefully I'll remember to post in two days as well. Anyways, enough excuses. On with today's webcomic plug: How I Killed Your Master.

HIKYM is a fantasy webcomic written by Brian Clevinger, of 8-Bit Theater and Atomic Robo (which is a print comic book, not an actual webcomic. I unfortunately don't have the funds to buy the issues and review them, but I'm impressed by what I've seen) fame, and Warbot in Accounting infamy. Set in medieval China (is medieval the right term?), we follow the path of Liu Wong, a young orphan who becomes the greatest martial artist of the century.

HIKYM is still a rather fledgling comic in its own right, with only 70 pages under its belt. So far it's got a solid storyline and the scripting shows a level of skill we've come to expect of Brian over the years, but most of the characters are rather two-dimensional. Granted, there hasn't been much time for character development, but so far I'm not seeing a whole lot of progress in that direction.

The main character, Liu Wong, is the son of Liu Fang, a renowned martial artist, and former member of the 5 Dragons, a peace-keeping organization consisting of 5 combat prodigies. After he has mellowed out and settled down, an old nemesis tracks him down and poisons him, seizes his land and his wife, and throws his son out on the streets. Liu is taken to Master Fei, an old friend of Liu Fang, with the intent that Wong should learn Fei's family style: the Five Mantis Fist. After proving his worth and natural potential to Fei, Wong is taught the art and sent on his way to the Tiger Knuckle school of martial arts in the desert. In the course of his training, Wong has learned that his father's inimitable style was a composite of his own style, as well as the styles of his four compatriots. Wong is currently trained in two of the five schools of martial arts... it will be interesting to see how he fights when he has mastered all of them.

I'd say this comic is PG overall. A bit of blood, lots of action, but minimal swearing, and no sexual content. It's a great webcomic, and maybe I just haven't given it enough time, but I'd have to give it a B average. The story is great, but the characters are rather flat, and the art... takes a bit of getting used to. It's not bad by any means, but it's a stark contrast to the cleaner styles of Atomic Robo and Warbot in Accounting. Still, very nicely done, Brian.

-Defender of the Blog, RTB

Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire

It's true. If you ever find yourself beset by ninja, all you have to do is set yourself on fire. Really. I saw it on the internet, so it must be true.

The focus of this week's review is Dr. McNinja, by Christopher Hastings. He's a doctor. And a ninja. He's also Irish. Enough said. ...Yeah, not really. Besides, I think you expect a bit more out of me than two puny paragraphs for a week's blog post.

Dr. McNinja is a practicing medical doctor in the small-ish town of Cumberland, Maryland. He is their self-appointed protector and investigator. As the firstborn son of Dan McNinja, it was somewhat expected that he would follow in his fathers footsteps and become a full-time ninja, but the Doctor had a different idea. In college, he cloned himself dozens of times for the sole purpose of gaining at least a Masters in every field imaginable (and some that aren't). After they all completed their mission, they amalgamated into one Doctor with all the knowledge of the combined McNinjas. One didn't make it back in time and was captured by pirates, but that's a different story.

The comic only shows a few years of his life in Cumberland, but what it does show is rather dramatic. The Doctor has faced down Ronald McDonald, cured Paul Bunyan's disease (make sure you read the alt text), used frozen shamrocks to defeat pirates, proven that working out too much gives you a jetpack crafted from your ab muscles and makes you crazy, fought off a horde of undead ninja, and done a lot of other awesome stuff that you probably don't want to hear about in a huge list.

The Doctor's companions are a rather heterogeneous lot. His family, consisting of his parents and younger brother, are all ninja (not really surprising, but definitely interesting at family reunions). The receptionist at his practice is a gorilla. His sidekick, 12 year-old Gordito, possesses a handlebar mustache that he grew by sheer will after his father was killed in a circus acrobatic accident. His preferred method of transportation is via a velociraptor named Yoshi. His mentor is a clone of Benjamin Franklin. The mayor of the town of Cumberland is a former astronaut with a severe aversion to zombies. The Doctor has crossed swords with mimes, pirates, and vampires, but his real nemesis is a man known only as King Radical. Recently instated as the head of the Cumberland Mafia, Radical is plotting to overthrow Cumberland through a series of philanthropic, community-oriented projects that only the Doctor can see through. This doesn't do a whole lot to help Dr. McNinja's public image, as most of the town's populace think he is, at best, extremely eccentric (of course he is, but this doesn't do anything to help his image, either).

I'd have to rate Dr. McNinja PG for a handful of reasons. There is a good bit of blood in a few of his story arcs, but it's not terribly excessive (usually), and gore is kept to a minimum. There is some censored swearing, but it's bleeped in such a way that your mind is drawn to what was written in the little black box over the words in question, rather than the word in question itself. There is no explicit content in the comic, which is a welcome change from some of the questionable content on other artists' pages. Outside of these minor issues, it's a solid comic that most anyone should be able to enjoy. Chris, you made an A.

Happy Katanakka!

-Defender of the Blog, RTB