A classic character of Japanese literature is reimagined as a mischievous, shapeshifting adventurer in this zany, Pop Art–flavored gag manga by a titan of the genre.
Ninja! Samurai! Cowboys! Aliens! Amoebas! Join Japan’s favorite ninja, Sarutobi Sasuke, on this psychedelic romp across a land beyond time by the legendary manga author and Pop Art pioneer Sugiura Shigeru.
In this 1969 take on the beloved ninja, the carefree young Sasuke pranks his way through a radically reimagined old Japan, opening wormholes to America’s Wild West and outer space as he goes. This wild adventure overflows with eye-popping sights: UFOs, absurd monsters, Hollywood stars, gun-toting outlaws, submarines, towering mushroom clouds, and much more.
Available for the first time in English and with an essay by Ryan Holmberg, Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is a must-read for its trippy visuals and outrageous storytelling.
“Eye-popping images rendered in styles both hyperrealistic and playfully childish abound across virtually every panel of this long overdue collection of classic comics. . . . Suguira Shigeru . . . 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. . . . Suguira 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.” —Library Journal
“As a madcap tour of a truly artistic mind, Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is hard to beat” —Ross Locksley, UK Anime Network
Sugiura Shigeru (1908–2000) was one of the most popular manga artists of the mid-twentieth century and a pioneer of Pop Art in Japan. Originally trained as a painter, he debuted as a cartoonist in 1932 under the tutelage of Tagawa Suihō, a leading author of children’s manga in the prewar period. In the 1950s, Sugiura himself became a star for his zany, slapstick children’s adventure comics featuring ninja, samurai, cowboys, aliens, and other fantastical characters culled from Japanese popular fiction, Hollywood movies, and American comic books. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he experienced a second boom in popularity, this time for absurdist, surrealistic comics drawn for an adult audience. Due to his inclusion in seminal art comics publications such as Raw and The Ganzfeld, he is also recognized as a progenitor of avant-garde comics globally.
Ryan Holmberg is an award-winning translator and historian of Japanese comics. He has worked on over three dozen books with publishers such as Drawn & Quarterly, New York Review Comics, Bubbles, Living the Line, and Breakdown Press. He is the author of The Translator Without Talent (Bubbles, 2020) and Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010). A full bibliography of his work can be found at mangaberg.com.
A classic character of Japanese literature is reimagined as a mischievous, shapeshifting adventurer in this zany, Pop Art–flavored gag manga by a titan of the genre.
Ninja! Samurai! Cowboys! Aliens! Amoebas! Join Japan’s favorite ninja, Sarutobi Sasuke, on this psychedelic romp across a land beyond time by the legendary manga author and Pop Art pioneer Sugiura Shigeru.
In this 1969 take on the beloved ninja, the carefree young Sasuke pranks his way through a radically reimagined old Japan, opening wormholes to America’s Wild West and outer space as he goes. This wild adventure overflows with eye-popping sights: UFOs, absurd monsters, Hollywood stars, gun-toting outlaws, submarines, towering mushroom clouds, and much more.
Available for the first time in English and with an essay by Ryan Holmberg, Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is a must-read for its trippy visuals and outrageous storytelling.
Praise
“Eye-popping images rendered in styles both hyperrealistic and playfully childish abound across virtually every panel of this long overdue collection of classic comics. . . . Suguira Shigeru . . . 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. . . . Suguira 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.” —Library Journal
“As a madcap tour of a truly artistic mind, Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is hard to beat” —Ross Locksley, UK Anime Network
Author
Sugiura Shigeru (1908–2000) was one of the most popular manga artists of the mid-twentieth century and a pioneer of Pop Art in Japan. Originally trained as a painter, he debuted as a cartoonist in 1932 under the tutelage of Tagawa Suihō, a leading author of children’s manga in the prewar period. In the 1950s, Sugiura himself became a star for his zany, slapstick children’s adventure comics featuring ninja, samurai, cowboys, aliens, and other fantastical characters culled from Japanese popular fiction, Hollywood movies, and American comic books. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he experienced a second boom in popularity, this time for absurdist, surrealistic comics drawn for an adult audience. Due to his inclusion in seminal art comics publications such as Raw and The Ganzfeld, he is also recognized as a progenitor of avant-garde comics globally.
Ryan Holmberg is an award-winning translator and historian of Japanese comics. He has worked on over three dozen books with publishers such as Drawn & Quarterly, New York Review Comics, Bubbles, Living the Line, and Breakdown Press. He is the author of The Translator Without Talent (Bubbles, 2020) and Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010). A full bibliography of his work can be found at mangaberg.com.
