August 2014 Blog Posts

Back in my May news post, I said we were really gonna start promoting our comic to the masses by doing things like paying for advertisements. However, we’ve since decided it’d be best to wait until issue 2 is all posted, since the first two issues are the setup act. The comic’s core concept really kicks in at the start of issue 3, so that’s when we'll begin pushing this thing out there.

The Midoricon convention in northern Ohio is coming up in just a little over a week. It’ll be our first time unsheathing Satan Ninja and stabbing it right into the public eye. The convention mostly focuses on anime, so it’ll be interesting to see how many anime fans are rad enough dudes to like our comic.

In related news, since we need something to actually sell at the convention, we ordered up some printed copies of issue one. We got the proof in the mail the other day, and it’s awesome to the max to actually hold a physical copy of our creation for the first time. Behold its glory:

These pictures were taken earlier today on the set of The Abominable Dr. Von Crypt. What the hell is that, you ask? Well, it’s basically a tribute to those horror host shows, like what Elvira used to do. It’s an Internet show that’ll feature old shitty movies about atomic monsters, robots, vampires, and all that fun stuff. It’s the brainchild of a friend of ours, Jay Barron, who’ll be writing, producing, and editing it, as well as portraying the titular doctor, while Jessica will be co-starring as his sexy assistant, Valeria. These pictures show Jessica in her, uh, pre-transformation form, as a bubbly blonde valley girl named Valerie (hence the blonde wig).

Here she is with the doctor himself:

Today was the first day of shooting, which basically consisted of Jessica being manacled in Von Crypt’s laboratory while the doctor poked and prodded her with an assortment of wacky gadgets (all handcrafted by Jay, who also created the awesome lab set). If all goes well, the results will be uploaded this weekend. If you’re curious, you can learn more about the show at the Von Crypt facebook page.

One of the big influences of Satan Ninja 198X is the satanic panic of the ‘80s. Since some of you readers might not know what the hell the “satanic panic” was, I thought I’d make it the topic of this week’s radical blog post.

Devo, of course, are mostly known for their big 1980 new wave hit, "Whip It." Which is bullshit.

What they should be known for, is the video for "Freedom of Choice," the title track off the same album "Whip It" is on. I hadn't seen this video until earlier this year, when Jessica subjected me to a marathon viewing of Devo music videos. It's . . . majestic.

The Octagon came first, but Enter the Ninja usually gets the credit for truly (jump)kickstarting the '80’s ninja craze. Or maybe people just think that because of its title. Whatever. At least it was smart enough to know that when you make a movie all about ninjas, you should have the word “Ninja” in the fucking title. Seriously, "The Octagon" has to be the worst name for a ninja movie, ever. But fuck that, this review is about Enter the Ninja (my review of The Octagon can be read here).

Enter the Ninja is the first in a trilogy of movies, followed by Revenge of the Ninja, and Ninja III: The Domination. The movies in this “Ninja Trilogy” share absolutely no plot continuity, but they’re all ninja movies starring Sho Kasugi and were produced by the same company, so good enough. In fact, this company, Cannon Films, then went on to produce the American Ninja franchise, so Cannon is basically the king of ‘80s ninja films.