The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
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| The Adventures of Dr. McNinja | |
|---|---|
 Dr. McNinja leaps, slaughtering pirates in the second issue of the series. |
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| Author(s) | Chris Hastings, inked by Kent Archer |
| Website | http://www.drmcninja.com/ |
| Current status | Weekly: Monday, Wednesday, Friday |
| Launch date | Summer 2004: Issue 1/2 |
| Genre(s) | Action, Parody |
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a webcomic written and drawn by Chris Hastings and inked by his roommate Kent Archer. Published three times a week on its own website, it features the adventures of a ninja who also happens to be a doctor. Strips are usually presented in a large format and high contrast black-and-white. Dr. McNinja is highly story-driven, with twenty- to forty-page issues. The first story was published in the summer of 2004 as a one-off, and the comic has been in regular publication since late 2005. The site also sells Dr. McNinja merchandise.
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a member of Dayfree Press. An August 31, 2006 announcement in the news section of the Dr. McNinja website indicates that an exclusive monthly installment of Dr. McNinja will appear in the British magazine .net.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
Dr. McNinja, the title character is, in general, the cliché ninja, with the exception that he is, in fact, a doctor as well. He has amazing speed and agility, plus superhuman strength. He studied under the clone of Benjamin Franklin in medical school and his medical expertise ranges from medicine to podiatry and dentistry. He is always seen wearing slacks, a button-down shirt and tie, a lab coat, a ninja mask, and a stethoscope around his neck.
While a skilled superhero, Dr. McNinja has several personality quirks. He desperately wants to be Batman and has obsessively studied his movies, comics and TV shows to that effect; despite this, his personality is rather more similar to Spider-Man in terms of lighthearted banter; whenever he disguises himself as someone else he never removes his mask (making his disguise useless) and is highly sensitive to criticism by his parents.
Due to Dr. McNinja being a certain asset to society as a crimefighter, the local police force has agreed that he automatically be acquitted of all crimes and misdemeanors committed while superheroing, provided that he is able to reach his office and claim "base" before getting caught. He has to carry the burden of being both a ninja and a doctor, and having conflicting motives to both heal and kill. He drives a Honda Accord with a useful sunroof and a "fine leather interior" and enjoys listening to Pavarotti and Johnny Cash. Much to McNinja's rage, his car was destroyed by his enemies in a recent storyline.
Judy, a large gorilla and McNinja's secretary. She is extremely strong and has the ability to understand her boss. She also can communicate with sign language, which McNinja cannot understand. She is also apparently a very efficient worker.
Yoshi, a velociraptor who wrecked McNinja's office in a previous storyline. McNinja, upon finding out that similar raptors (who had been attacking people) had riders, claimed the unconscious raptor for himself. He has since been in a battle with Judy over hot dogs he ate and served as McNinja's steed when Gordito was in trouble. He was named by Dr. McNinja after the Nintendo character Yoshi when he learned that he had been first seen with a rider.
Gordito, is a 12-year-old Mexican boy who McNinja took on as a sidekick at the end of the third storyline. According to Gordito, he was able to grow a full moustache with his sheer force of will. He uses two revolvers, and is an excellent shot. He's also the only person Yoshi normally lets ride him, though Yoshi has allowed McNinja to ride him when Gordito is in trouble.
An amusing situation with Gordito is that, due to McNinja's obsession with Batman, the doctor only took Gordito on as a "happy" sidekick to rival his "dark" side. Unfortunately, Gordito is considerably darker than McNinja himself- just as McNinja is thinking about a counter to his "darkness", Gordito is describing that he "doesn't kick people, he shoots them. So they die."
He was captured by Dr. McNinja's latest nemesis for experimentation, to learn how he grew his fine mustache, which Gordito is very proud of.
Ronald McDonald, a rival of Dr. McNinja. He secretly has mime powers and is the CEO of McDonalds. He is responsible for the creation of the disastrous McNinja burgers, which are high in methane and nitrogen, providing fuel for people with organic jetpacks (albeit that McDonald didn't know that an organic jetpack user was eating them at the time).
Dan, Dr. McNinja's father. A full time ninja with a very impressive moustache. He is very talented as a ninja, but his conduct as a father is notably average. He is disappointed at his son's choice to be a doctor. In the latest issue, he is working with the FBI to get rid of a dangerous drug that gives people ninja-like abilities. Him, his wife Mitzi, and their son 'Dark Smoke Puncher' live together in a house located deep in a cave.
Mitzi, Dr. McNinja's mother. Like Dan, a full time ninja who disapproves of her son's choice to be a doctor and lets him know at every possible opportunity. Every time Dr. McNinja wants to visit he must either sneak past or fight her. She has expertise with both pickled beets and precisely aimed demolitions.
Dark Smoke Puncher, Dr. McNinja's younger brother. His real name is Sean, after author Chris Hastings' brother, Sean Hastings. His attire consists of a mix between ninja gear and modern gangster styles of clothing. Dr. McNinja openly mocks both his name and his poseur-like ways, and even Dan admits that his skills are inferior to those of Dr. McNinja, though this is probably because he is younger.
Frans Rayner, AKA The Great Dane. Evil Danish martial arts film star and longtime rival of Dr. McNinja's father, Dan. "Almost solely responsible for the ninja holocaust of the '80s," according to Dr. McNinja, who then notes that Rayner proceeded to make movies about it. According to rollover text, "Every Chuck Norris movie was one Frans Rayner turned down first."
[edit] History of the Comic
In 2003, when Chris Hastings was a forum member of Something Awful Forums, his screen name happened to be "Dr. McNinja". During a drawing contest involving a characterization of user screen names, Hastings drew an image of Dr. McNinja behind his desk with a sword on his wall and a speech bubble reading, "Should anyone need the services of a ninja or a doctor, my office is always open." [1] Shortly afterward, Chris made a full-length comic about McNinja for an art class (here).
[edit] Story
Dr. McNinja's story has many absurd plot twists, and often makes allusions to outside works, most prominently Dr. McNinja's quote of "What would Batman do?" Each page, also, uses rollover text to add background information and in-jokes, such as the author comparing the comic's visual style to Frank Miller's comic Sin City.
In the first comic, Dr. McNinja Vs. McDonald's, Dr. McNinja must face off against McDonald's, which happens to be a corporation of robots run by evil mime Ronald McDonald.
In the second (and the first official) comic, Meet The Doctor And His Friendly Staff, Dr.McNinja is called upon to investigate a young boy's illness. The boy, whose condition causes him to frequently vomit large amounts of maple syrup, is soon diagnosed with Paul Bunyan's Disease. The boy then turns into a giant lumberjack and bursts through the ceiling, enraged at how many trees stand within the area.
In the third issue, So What Is A McNinja?, Dr. McNinja returns home for Thanksgiving, which his family (all of whom are also ninjas) refer to as "Katanakka" (a separate Ninja holiday, decided to be celebrated on Thanksgiving so "that we still get the day off"). Soon McNinja's family is captured by pirates, and Dr. McNinja is the only one who can save them and restore his own honor at the same time.
In the fourth issue, There is a Raptor in my Office, Dr. McNinja comes to work and finds that a velociraptor has wrecked his office. He knocks out the dinosaur and soon discovers that this raptor is not the only one abroad.
The current storyline, D.A.R.E To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence, has been split across the fifth and sixth issues in two parts. It involves a drug that heightens one's ninja skills, the McNinja family's attempts to handle the situation, Dr. McNinja's training of Gordito, a clone of Benjamin Franklin who is working to make eternal life medically possible, and an evil Danish martial arts film star named Frans Rayner. Rayner is plotting to kill Dr. McNinja with the aid of his midget henchman, Knickerbockers, in hopes of baiting McNinja's father into the open. The goons succeeded in dispatching both Dr. McNinja and Benjamin Franklin, resulting in Dr. McNinja splitting into two different spirits (one for his ninja half and one for his doctor half). However, when Death came to claim their souls, the two worked together to dispatch Death and reunite in their old body.
The second half of this storyline involves Dr. McNinja's return to life and mission to get revenge against Rayner and his ninja minions. Teaming up with his father (disguised as a pirate to evade detection) Dr. McNinja synthesizes a drug to temporarily rob ninja of their abilities, and launches an attack on Rayner's mansion.
[edit] Awards
Dr. McNinja won the 2007 Web Cartoonist's Choice Award for Outstanding Superhero / Action Comic.
[edit] Cameos
Dr. McNinja has been featured in a few other webcomics, examples of which are listed below:
- Bunny - February 03, 2006 (here)-The comic depicts a bunny in Dr. McNinja garb with the caption "The Adventures of Dentist MacNinjaBunny."
- Shortpacked! - August 31, 2006 (here)- Dr. McNinja is shown in a single-frame reference to "Filthy Cartoonists." The reference indicates that Dr. McNinja is an exception to "those who pose as ninja."
- EddEgg - (here)- In the eighth frame, the artist has a list of potential comic ideas. One of the ideas is "A doctor who is also a ninja".
