KENJA The Last Ninja

Because face masks are in vogue this season...

Authored by a writer known only as Shintaru and illustrated by Karl Comendador, Kenja the Last Ninja appeared in Ninja Pocketkomiks (published by Atlas Publishing Co., Inc.) from issues #1 to 97 (August 1985-June 24, 1987).

ENTER THE NINJA

When Morito, a Japanese man living in the Philippines, is murdered for his half of the map to Yamashita's treasure, his brother Kenja, a ninja who has the other half of the map tattooed on his back, seeks revenge against the Dakuza crime syndicate.

SKILLS AND WEAPONS

A master of Ninjutsu, Kenja is an expert in the arts of stealth, unarmed and armed combat, employing traditional ninja weapons such as the katana and the shuriken.

In a later adventure, Kenja was handcuffed to a burning plane and was forced to cut off his left hand to escape.  He then has it replaced with a prosthetic steel hand.

Kenja's new hand is equipped with razor-sharp claws, is impervious to bullets and most damage, and can punch with superhuman force.

ALLY

MORI

Kenja's father.  Forced to hide his family from the Dakuza, he later joins his son in his war against the syndicate.

ENEMIES

ZHINGAKI

The Dakuza boss behind Morito's murder.  Kenja would eventually slice off his arms and legs, but they are later replaced with a set of artificial limbs.

TOMO

A crooked scientist in Zhingaki's employ.

THE EXTERMINATOR

The Dakuza's cyborg enforcer.

SHOGUN

Supreme leader of the Dakuza.

RED NINJA

The Shogun's top ninja warrior.

TANAKA

The Shogun's new right-hand man replacing Zhingaki, a gymnastic martial artist with a laser-firing glove.

COVERS

 

One-Shot Wonders: SUPER IDOL

From Super Action Komiks #108 (September 8, 1987), writer Leonard R. Roa and artist Sebastian present a hero who fights to save a young boy's life.

MICRO SQUAD

Created by writer/artist Al Cabral, Micro Squad appeared in Speed Komiks (published by Graphic Arts Service, Inc.) for an appropriately short run from issues 29 (February 22, 1986, during the start of the People Power Revolution) to 34 (March 29, 1986).

Inspired by the 1966 science-fiction film Fantastic Voyage, the 6-part "micro" series involved a team of Filipino operatives shrunken to microscopic size and injected into the body of a Russian minister to save him from a deadly virus.

COVERS

 

IKABOD Da Ninjah!

It's 2020.  Welcome to the Year of the Rat.

Created by the late cartoonist Nonoy Marcelo (January 22, 1939-October 22, 2002), Ikabod was a long-running comic strip that ran from 1978 until the author's passing in 2002.  A satire on Philippine society and politics, it was named for its main protagonist, Ikabod Bubwit ("Ikabod the Small Rat"), who lived in the nation of Dagalandia, a rodent-populated stand-in for the Philippines.  The strip was also spun-off into a comic book series published by Rat Race Publishing Corporation (D.C. Robert Publishing).  It initially ran from 1988 to 1990, followed by a second run from 2000 to 2002.

Just as other anthropomorphic comic strip characters had their own heroic alter egos, such as Garfield as the Caped Avenger or our very own Polgas as secret agent Dobermaxx, Ikabod would occasionally go into action as a swashbuckling ninja.  In this excerpt from issue 13 of the comic book, he takes on an army of rebel--or rather ratbel soldiers in a parody of the 1989 coup d'etat attempt.

You can purchase digital copies of the comic book series at the official website Ikabod.com.