Mike and the Ninja began as a small-time, low-quality
comic strip that was created in a desperate and
panicked attempt to come up with some form of fresh
content for an old website of mine. While I was
struggling for ideas one day in the spring of 2000,
my friend Lucas approached me with a thought (the
quotation is probably embellished somewhat, but
not much, as Lucas is a genius): “You need
to come up with something so ridiculous that people
will love it, even though they know they shouldn’t.
Remember that Hamsterdance thing? So popular, but
soooo stupid… stoop to that level and you
will be the master.”
Completely
unaware of the existence of webcomics at the time,
I eventually stumbled upon an internet comic strip
called Joe the Circle. First of all, my head exploded
upon seeing such a ridiculous title. I
spent the next several hours perusing the Joe archives
and gathering the scattered pieces of my head that
I thought were necessary for survival. More importantly,
however, reading strip after strip gave me an idea.
Late that Saturday night, as my brother-in-law pecked
away at the keyboard during a rousing session
of Ultima Online, I sat down at the other
desk with a pen, a Sharpie, and a piece of paper,
and set to work on the first edition of Chewy Ninja
Monkey Bars (the original name for Mike and the Ninja). An hour and a half later, my crude
scribbles and words coalesced into a (somewhat)
coherent comic strip, and I continued to produce
strips for years with varying degrees of interest
and frequency (or infrequency, to be cynically precise)
before shifting the operation to this particular
website.
In January of 2008, I finally
got serious about doing the comic strip and have
dedicated myself to getting the strip out on a regular
schedule. And since you’re not bored to tears
just yet, now seems like a nice time to say welcome,
thanks for reading, special thanks to those of you
who kept prodding me to make more strips all these
years, and I hope you enjoy.
-
Brian Rhodes
Frequently
Asked Questions
Q:
Hey, wait a second! Didn't this comic strip used to be called Chewy Ninja Monkey Bars?
A:
Yeah, that's right.
Q:
What a stupid title!
A: Look, that's all well and good that you think that, but you ain't following the rules, pal. If you're gonna contribute to this list of freqeuntly asked questions, it's gonna have to be in the form of the question.
Q: Fine...why did your comic strip have such a stupid title?
A:
That’s better. Chewy Ninja Monkey Bars was a play on "super karate monkey death car,"
a phrase that appeared in a couple of episodes of
the NBC sitcom Newsradio, once as the title
of a video game, and once as a poorly translated
line in a book written by Jimmy James (Stephen Root)
that failed in America, became a hit in Japan, and
was then translated back into English and re-released
in America. I couldn’t think of a name for
the strip at first, and I had no idea where the
story was going or who was going to be involved,
so I was at a loss for a decent title. Instead of
coming up with my own, I did the next best thing:
leech off someone else’s creativity.
Q:
Oh great, another comic with ninjas in
it. You must think you’re really clever and
hip, don’t you?
A:
Well, I always have thought I was clever, but if you're going to throw hip in there, too, I guess I can't complain. But anyway, like most reasonable human beings, I have been hopelessly infatuated with ninjas since Snake Eyes hit the scene, and I’m pretty sure that I was playing
a lot of Ninja Gaiden when I came up with
the idea of inserting ninjas into the story, and
I’d also recently read some early issues of The Tick, which feature the aptly-titled
story, “Night of a Million-Zillion Ninjas.” Hey, go with what you know and what works.
Q:
Oh yeah? Well are you aware that everything in the strip regarding
ninjas, including history, abilities, costuming,
etc. is entirely inaccurate?
A:
Yes.
Q:
How do you make a strip?
A:
Back in the day, in a very minimalist and un-me
fashion (I’m a perfectionist), I used to just
draw everything with an ink pen and a Sharpie on
a 8.5” x 11” sheet of typing paper.
As a result, all illustration flaws, anatomical
errors, and boo-boos were either whited out or left
in for comedic purposes. These days, I first write
a script (or at the very least a rough outline)
some days or weeks before drawing anything. I use
bigger and more durable paper called Bristol board,
on which I pencil and ink the whole thing. After that, I scan the sucker
and do color fills, lighting effects, crazy filters,
etc. in Photoshop. Honestly,
you can do a comic strip however you want, though--use a process and tools that work for you.
Q:
Is Mike based on Mike [insert last name here]?
A:
No. While I know a good number of Mikes, many of
whom have probably in some way acted like Mike in
one way or another, Mike is not really based on
any of them. (Take that, Mike Wilson!)
Q:
I can’t figure out what’s going on!
Did I miss something?
A:
It’s very likely. Mike and the Ninja
is a serialized, long-form comic strip. If you’re
new around here, I highly recommend checking out
the New Readers page and starting with the beginning
of the series, no matter how crappy it looks.
More
frequently asked questions to be added as they are
asked!
About
the Author
Brian
Rhodes is a 20-something writer, freelance illustrator and cartoonist
currently living and working in Cape Girardeau,
Missouri, as a graphic designer and former sports blogger
for his local newspaper. When not exploring the cosmos in search of riches and adventure, Brian enjoys video games, filmmaking,
watching and playing a variety of sports, fiction
of many sorts, traveling, woodworking, exercise, being stingy with money, and an endless
amount of other activities. (I heard he also writes and
draws on occasion.) Most of all, he enjoys the company
and inspiration of his friends, his family, and his fiancee Amanda, all of
whom do a pretty good job of keeping him going.
Brian is the quiet, nice guy of the group. He has been making comics in some
form or another since age 9.
Brian's
biggest influences include Tony Kornheiser, Charles
Schulz, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Bob
Gibson, Bob Uecker (Man, that's a lot of Bobs), Scott Kurtz, and probably a number of others.
He also gives his family tremendous credit for molding him into the person he is today.
Fun
Facts:
-
Never takes naps
- Left-handed
- Likes Duran Duran. A lot.
