Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke manga arrives in September

Publisher New York Reviews Comics has announced that Sugiura Shigeru's much-loved manga Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke, will be released in English for the first time on September 10th. Described as "a spectacular romp through the Japanese countryside - with detours to the sets of American Westerns, the Jurassic period, down to the seafloor, and up into outer space"  the manga has delighted readers in Japan ever since its debut way back in 1969. For those of us in the West, it will be the first opportunity to see this seminal work.

The book will include an opening essay by comics historian, author, editor and Japanese-English translator Ryan Holmberg, whose translations include Tezuka Osamu's The Mysterious Underground Men. Tadao Tsuge's Slum Wolk and Toshiharu Tsuge's The Man Without Talent. 

From the Press Release:
Unapologetic and brazen, Ninja turns the dial up to 11 in a fireworks show of nonsense, slapstick, irreverent pop references (look out for cameos by Frankenstein’s monster and John Wayne, among others), and insatiable snacking. 

Ninja puts a hysterical twist on the centuries-old kōdan storytelling tradition and the legend of the samurai warrior Sanada Yukimura. Having trained with the famous Tozawa Sensei in the Koga School of ninjutsu, Sasuke is recruited into Yukimara’s clan of warriors and deployed on far-flung missions. Along the way, Sasuke encounters throngs of miscreants, would-be hustlers, Wild West bandits, spies, surfing grandmas, and, most of all, surreal monsters and extraterrestrial aliens—rich, crosshatched figures nabbed right out of a Dalí painting. But Sasuke, a shapeshifter and master prankster, is always one step ahead of the enemy.

You can read about the release on the NYRC website and order from any good bookshop. We'll have a review soon.