I'm starting a new project: "Martial Arts in Comics."
I intend to highlight some series I feel are good reads, aspects of philosophy, great art or even general/specific techniques. Source material will be mostly American comics, however, don't be surprised if there will be entries from manhua (Hong Kong comics) or manga (Japanese comics).
Kicking (pun intended!) my "Martial Arts in Comics" project off with a page from Marvel Comics' Master of Kung Fu highlighting some philosophy.
So much Zen and Tao in this page :) Enjoy!
Background
Master of Kung Fu was an American comic book series from 1974 to 1983. The series is alternately known as Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu or MOKF. Written primarily by Doug Moench, Master of Kung Fu featured martial arts secret agent Shang-Chi (Chinese: 上氣; pinyin: shà ng qì; literally: "rising of the spirit"). He was created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin. Although Shang-Chi was an original Marvel Comics character, many of his supporting cast members, including Fu Manchu, Fah Lo Suee, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and Doctor Petrie, were in fact the creation of pulp crime novelist Sax Rohmer.
In late 1972, Marvel Comics acquired the comic book rights to Rohmer's characters while they held the rights to the Kung Fu television program. Instead of producing a straight adaptation of either source, Marvel combined the two.
The series began by introducing Shang Chi as a man raised by his father Fu Manchu to be the ultimate lackey for the would-be world conqueror. In Shang Chi's first mission, he kills one of his father's old enemies, Dr. Petrie, and learns of Fu Manchu's true, evil nature. Disillusioned, Shang Chi swears eternal opposition to his father's ambitions and fights him as an agent of British intelligence, under the orders of Nayland Smith. Amidst the martial arts craze in the United States in the 1970s, the book became very popular, surviving until issue #125 (June 1983)
Check out this page and wax philosophical!
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Transcript
Master of Kung Fu #90 July 1980 "Triumphs of the Flesh!" Page 16
Writer: Doug Moench Penciler: Mike Zeck
Panel 1
Shang Chi: “Finally, Chinatown lies just ahead…”
Police Officer (off panel): “Hey, you! Can’t ya read?”
Shang Chi: “What?”
Panel 2
Police Officer: “The sign! It says: Don’t Walk!”
Shang Chi: “But there are no cars. What do you say?”
Panel 3
Police Officer: “I say never mind – just obey the sign.”
Shang Chi: “Even when the sign serves no purpose?”
Police Officer: “What do you mean ‘No purpose?’ That sign’s there to protect your life!”
Panel 4
Shang Chi: “I can serve that purpose better than a sign.”
Police Officer: “Don’t get wise with me you little punk! Just obey the sign!”
Shang Chi: “If the sign said “Walk” while a car was rushing down the street - -“
Panel 5
Shang Chi: “- -would you have me walk in front of it?”
Police Officer: “Of course not! The sign can’t see when some idiot on the cross-street is disobeying the law!”
Panel 6
Shang Chi: “Yet I can see that there are no cars now. You can also see it. But the sign as you say, can see nothing.”
Panel 7
Shang Chi: “Had you not stopped me, I would now be two blocks down the street and the sign would nei
ther know nor care.”
Police Officer: “Never mind! Just get outta here – back to Chinatown where ya belong – killin’ each other!”
Shang Chi: “I belong – where I am!”
Was that great or what?
Please let me know if you like this or not by leaving a comment. As a reminder, comments are moderated, you will have to fill a 'captcha code' to verify you are not a spambot :)
The beautiful Yau Chingmy is probably best known to Western audiences for her portrayal of Kitty in the cult classic, "Naked Killer." She starred opposite some of the biggest Hong Kong actors of her time including: Simon Yam, Stephen Chow, Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat!
I'm posting the movie I found on YouTube in Cantonese with English subtitles!
Happy Birthday Yau Suk-zing!!
Enjoy!
Naked Killer (1992)
(Chinese: 赤裸羔羊)
Cantonese with English subtitles - 1 hr 11 mins cut
WARNING: Graphic violence as well as sexual situations and nudity.
Description
The story of a young flirty feral woman named Kitty Chingmy who is trained by a martial arts specialist to become a professional assassin. She's subsequently recruited by the real killer, a hit woman who targets rapists at large and practices on drooling sex-mad psychos chained up in the attic. When they finally head out for the real thing, they take out victims in a display of midair somersaults, cracking whips, flying ropes, and flashing guns. This kind of foreplay attracts the lustful attentions of rival assassin Carrie Ng, a lesbian killer ready to abandon her purring sex kitten for the savage Chingmy.
Trivia
In spite of the title, the film shows little in the way of actual nudity. At the time, appearing naked in Asian movies was seen as detrimental to an actor or actress' career prospects, though many A-list actors chose to star in Category III films. Although she does appear topless while making love to Simon Yam, Chingmy Yau keeps her breasts covered with her arm.
This was one of a number of movies in which Yam and Yau starred together in the 1990s.
The controversial nature of the film with its violent content and sexual themes led to extensive cutting by the censors in both Hong Kong and abroad.
Japanese actress Madoka Sugawara does appear topless and her posterior is shown during her love scenes with Carrie Ng, who remained clothed and insisted on wearing gloves while fondling Sugawara's body.
Studio shots were taken of Yau nude with Ng fully clothed.
My friend Kneeblock posted a thread highlighting the Metamoris 6 competitors which takes place later today.
Here is the card of Metamoris 6:
Main Event:
Josh Barnett vs Ryron Gracie
Co Main Event:
Chael Sonnen vs Renato Sobral
Dillon Danis vs Joe Lauzon
Xande Ribeiro vs Keenan Cornelius
Clark Gracie vs Roberto Satoshi
Jeff Monson vs RTM Champion
Without further ado, excerpted from The MMA Community, my friend Kneeblock's comments on the Metamoris 6 competitors:
So Metamoris is coming up and since not everyone is a big grappling fan, I figured I'd post some vids of the competitors in action.
First, here's the official Metamoris promo:
Note that Barnett vs. Cyborg has been replaced with Barnett vs. Ryron Gracie.
Josh Barnett in Action:
Here's Josh in the gi vs. BJJ standout Otavio Souza. I figure this is a good vid to show how Josh handles traditional BJJ. Otavio is much lighter, but highly technical, having previously defeated Kron Gracie among others.
Recently Josh dominated ADCC champ Dean Lister, but the match is ridiculously long and plenty boring. Still, Josh does the unthinkable by finishing Dean so there's that.
Ryron Gracie is Rorion Gracie's son and a very good competitor in his own right. Of the three sons, Ryron, Rener and Ralek, he's definitely the best in terms of competition results. Here he is "keeping it playful" against Andre Galvao. I suspect the Barnett match will be similar, especially since it's short notice.
Here he is keeping it less playful back in the day against convicted rapist Cameron Earle.
We all know Chael Sonnen. No intro necessary. We also know he's pretty susceptible to submissions. Here he is in one of his few grappling competitions (at Metamoris) vs. Andre Galvao:
Weirdly, I found it very difficult to find wrestling footage of Chael. Anyone got?
Sonnen's opponent, Renato Babalu Sobral has been grappling for a long long time. He started out as a wrestler, I believe, then transitioned to Ruas Vale Tudo. He messed around with the luta livre guys for awhile before transitioning to Gracie Barra. I'm not sure where he trains now, but he's only gotten more skilled over the years. Here he is in a grappling match with former UFC HW champ Frank Mir:
Dillon Danis is considered the future of BJJ and is one of Marcelo Garcia's many killers he's breeding in his academy alongside teammates like Jon Satava, Mansher "Munch" Khera, Mattheus Diniz and others. Here's a highlight.
And here's his match against another young gun in AJ Souza at the 2014 Worlds.
Dillon's opponent is no stranger to MMA fans. Joe Lauzon has been around BJJ and MMA for quite some time. He and his brother Danny are both wizards on the mat, but have been away for a long time. Will the time in MMA make him fall prey to young gun Dillon? We'll see.
Unfortunately, Joe has been out of the grappling game so long, the most recent vid I could find was him rolling with Marcelo Garcia and well, Marcelo makes anyone look bad. Still, Joe does okay.
Xande Ribeiro is one of the most decorated black belts in BJJ with 2 IBJJF Absolute World Championships to his name, 4 golds at weight, 2 ADCC gold medals at weight and various other wins. At the beginning of his career, he was mostly known as Saulo's little brother, but he's long escaped that shadow. Now he's actually an old dog going up against a young gun. Xande seems to have lost a step over the past 4 years, but he's always dangerous.
Here he is in perhaps his greatest moment, beating Roger Gracie in the 2008 worlds:
Xande's opponent is none other than "The Chosen One" Keenan Cornelius. Keenan is at the vanguard of the new wave of American BJJ competitors. His dad is the legendary Tom Callos who among other things got BJ Penn into MMA. Keenan did a lot of his training at Team Lloyd Irvin and was widely regarded as the best Brown belt of his era. Now he's considered one of the top black belts of his era as well. He left Irvin in the wake of that team falling apart due to widespread sexual abuse allegations, but landed on his feet at Atos Academy where he's training with the Mendes Brothers and Andre Galvao, possibly one of the best training environments in the US. Here's Keenan being Keenan:
And here he is vs. Garry Tonon in an incredibly fun match that he absolutely dominates.
Clark Gracie is the son of the so-called "Lion of the Gracie Family" Carley Gracie. He's been around the competition scene for awhile, but only recently started having very high profile matches. You probably best know him as "ridiculously photogenic jiu jitsu guy" from his match with good old Ken Primola. Clark has been dialed in lately, but he has a tough opponent in front of him. Here's Clark vs. Primola in the match that made him a meme.
Clark's opponent Roberto Satoshi comes from a strong family of BJJers. He's been burning up the competition scene of late and is one of the most exciting grapplers around. He keeps a fast pace and combines impressive agility with a willingness to take risks. Check out his highlight:
Then check out his win over the always game, but sadly perennially second place JT Torres:
Jeff Monson is no stranger to MMA fans. He was one of Fedor's last fights, once competed for the UFC HW title and is of course a radical anarchist politically. Weirdly, Jeff's grappling has always been a lot more measured and less free than the loose political structures he advocates for. Monson was always the guy you didn't want to face in a tournament because he was incredibly strong and could just shut the game down completely. Over the last few years, age seems to have caught up to him as he's not imposing his will as well as he once did, but there's still some stuff in the basement, one hopes.
It's actually very hard to find entertaining Monson clips, but here's a match against some random guy at the FILA games
Monson's opponent is the mostly unheralded Jimmy Friedrich. He won the Road to Metamoris heavyweight championship, earning him a slot against Monson. He's a student at the Mendes Brothers Academy, which means we know he comes from a good pedigree, but he's only been training for a few years. Despite that, he got a recent submission win over the legendary Eduardo Telles, which means he belongs in my book. Here's his lightning tap of Telles.
Note also that there will be a secret match, as is Metamoris' custom. Because it was so much fun, here's a look at a previous secret match they did:
Baret Yoshida vs. Jeff Glover:
My deepest gratitude to my friend Kneeblock for his kind permission in archving his thread to my site.
OK Readers, who do you think will win? Please let me and others know and post a comment below!
Posting the nineteenth episode of the TV series, Stingray, to mirror the airdate from 31 years ago on this date of Apr 3, 1987. Seri...
Site Under Construction
Slowly but surely I've implemented changes to the site's look and functionality. I'm sure you have noticed the changes.Ecstatic that I've finally been able to successfully update my site closer more in line with my vision of it.
Not sure if it will be the final look of the site or not, but the Sojourn of Septillion Steps with respect to the site's look has already taken quite a few steps beyond the first!
I will still be endeavoring to put up information I think will benefit your martial arts training as well as your self-defense. I sincerely thank you for visiting/reading!
I remain very truly yours in the martial arts and self-defense,
