Ninja High School Textbook, Vol. 2

Ninja High School #2

by Ben Dunn

Attention, class! NHS Textbook #2 is back on the syllabus! Another 600 pages of laughs and adventure with Jeremy, Ichi, Asrial and the Quagmire crew. This volume contains issues 21-40, starting off with tale which proves that, yes, you CAN have too much of a good thing!

600 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Ben Dunn is an American comic book artist. Although born in Taiwan, he grew up in Kentucky, Taiwan and San Antonio, Texas. It was in Taiwan that he was first exposed to Japanese manga. In 1984 he founded Antarctic Press, an American comic book company specializing in Manga-style titles. In 2003, he sold Antarctic to start his own development company, Sentai Studios.

Dunn was also one of the primary artists involved in the short-lived Marvel Mangaverse project.

Reviews

[Allan Olley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The eclectic manga, anime and various pop culture referencing adventures of Jeremy Feeple, his friends, classmates, teachers, childhood prearranged marriage fiancé and alien house guests continue. More aliens, time travelers, giant robots, monsters, witches, super powered teenagers and demons appear to threaten the town of Quagmire. Most if not all of these are parodies of famous bits of pop culture especially 1980s anime and manga, but including plenty of American movies and the like. The action is fast, told in broad strokes, but has some excitement, the comedy is zany but will get a few laughs.

The characters are a bit one-dimensional, the plots likewise tend to be simple (although usually include the complexity that they are a parody or satire of some famous bit of pop culture) and so the comedy a bit direct and unsubtle. However things are allowed at least a bit of complexity and although it often plays the clichés it parodies very straight an occasional deviation is allowed that keeps things interesting. Social issues like homophobia and prejudice against women come up occasionally and the takes while a bit unsubtle are usually not wrong headed by my lights. The art is not always perfectly masterful but it conveys fun and emotion well.

The collection adds the much later written story Super NHS about video games in between the classic issues of the comic at about where it should have happened in terms of internal chronology. However since the Super NHS makes lots of references to video games and movies that occurred decades later it is a bit of a head trip, also it probably borrows some characterization of characters from later parts of the comic. There is also a section at the end that I think is new material and acts as an epilogue to issue 43.

I own this as an ebook. One or two the the pages that splash across the divide are missing a bit and this detracts from the artwork but you can usually tell what is going on. The ebook lacks a cover or information about the sources of the comics within and so on, so read the description at the estore or from some other source.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

600 pages of Ben Dunn goodness! The cast is all here and while you see the great progression in his talent...this volume shows the pretty solid and complete style that you see on all his work moving forward. This took me a while to read as I enjoyed it but would not have been as fun for me to have binged the chaotic life of Jeremy and his love triangle which at times expands! I love the story, art, fun and of course the homage moments and items found throughout the series. Truly one for manga and anime fans...you will be treated to so many goodies you won't know what to do with this. This is such a thick book, but so much goodness the only comparable books in my opinion are Dave Sims Cerebus and Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon phone books. That is rare company to be in. Definitely a fun ride and excellent presentation.

[Chris Nersinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

An homage to several manga/anime including Ranma 1/2

Awesome. Hilarious and always keeping the readers audience intrigued and wanting more......action, adventure, fantasy- not your average high school.....👍👍👍👍 rating.