Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke
(Graphic Novel)

"Ninjutsu Is Awesome!" blares the opening of this rollicking ride through manga's back alleys, created in 1969 by Sugiura--an artist who drew children's gag manga before developing a postmodern pastiche of his own style aimed at older readers. Sasuke, a master ninja drawn to look like a mischievous little boy, uses his ninjutsu to steal food, wanders into rambling conversations peppered with fart jokes and pop music references, gets into slapstick fights with bizarre rival ninja and even more bizarre monsters, and occasionally, as if by afterthought, participates in vaguely historical samurai adventures. Sugiura mixes rubbery cartoon characters, realistic figures painstakingly copied from American comic books and movie stills (the ninja frequently fight cowboys and dinosaurs), imaginatively freakish monsters that sometimes wander behind the panels, and whatever else he feels like drawing, turning his pages into frenetic collages with surrealist and pop art notes. Manga expert Holmberg supplies an appropriately irreverent translation ("Eat my topknot!") as well as a scholarly essay on the cultural context behind Sugiura's freewheeling, relentlessly wacked-out visions. This eye-popping mash-up of kiddie cartoons and underground art is perfectly weird. (Sept.)

Eye-popping images rendered in styles both hyperrealistic and playfully childish abound across virtually every panel of this long overdue collection of classic comics from the 1960s, created by legendary Japanese artist Shigeru, famed as a pioneer of surrealism and pop art in Japan as well as a progenitor of avant-garde comics around the world. Here, Shigeru, who died in 2000, reimagines Sarutobi Sasuke, a heroic ninja from Japanese folklore, as an anarchic, shape-shifting prankster set loose in feudal Japan to bedevil whoever crosses his path. Shigeru's sense of humor emphasizes rapid-fire sight gags, slapstick, and non sequiturs, causing the average story to unfold with thrilling unpredictability. A tale that begins with Sasuke chasing a thief through the forest is less likely to end with the thief apprehended than with an alien invasion, or a group of time- and space-displaced cowboys from the American Wild West wandering by, or Sasuke deciding to experiment with life as a cow in a pasture. VERDICT Shigeru's sense of design and bold use of collage and montage effects result in an enjoyably silly and absurd masterpiece of early psychedelic art.

Eye-popping images rendered in styles both hyperrealistic and playfully childish abound across virtually every panel of this long overdue collection of classic comics from the 1960s, created by legendary Japanese artist Shigeru, famed as a pioneer of surrealism and pop art in Japan as well as a progenitor of avant-garde comics around the world. Here, Shigeru, who died in 2000, reimagines Sarutobi Sasuke, a heroic ninja from Japanese folklore, as an anarchic, shape-shifting prankster set loose in feudal Japan to bedevil whoever crosses his path. Shigeru's sense of humor emphasizes rapid-fire sight gags, slapstick, and non sequiturs, causing the average story to unfold with thrilling unpredictability. A tale that begins with Sasuke chasing a thief through the forest is less likely to end with the thief apprehended than with an alien invasion, or a group of time- and space-displaced cowboys from the American Wild West wandering by, or Sasuke deciding to experiment with life as a cow in a pasture. VERDICT Shigeru's sense of design and bold use of collage and montage effects result in an enjoyably silly and absurd masterpiece of early psychedelic art.

"Ninjutsu Is Awesome!" blares the opening of this rollicking ride through manga's back alleys, created in 1969 by Sugiura—an artist who drew children's gag manga before developing a postmodern pastiche of his own style aimed at older readers. Sasuke, a master ninja drawn to look like a mischievous little boy, uses his ninjutsu to steal food, wanders into rambling conversations peppered with fart jokes and pop music references, gets into slapstick fights with bizarre rival ninja and even more bizarre monsters, and occasionally, as if by afterthought, participates in vaguely historical samurai adventures. Sugiura mixes rubbery cartoon characters, realistic figures painstakingly copied from American comic books and movie stills (the ninja frequently fight cowboys and dinosaurs), imaginatively freakish monsters that sometimes wander behind the panels, and whatever else he feels like drawing, turning his pages into frenetic collages with surrealist and pop art notes. Manga expert Holmberg supplies an appropriately irreverent translation ("Eat my topknot!") as well as a scholarly essay on the cultural context behind Sugiura's freewheeling, relentlessly wacked-out visions. This eye-popping mash-up of kiddie cartoons and underground art is perfectly weird. (Sept.)