"...early retirement EARNED."
January 19, 2017 10:38 PM   Subscribe

Dr. McNinja, the comedy/action webcomic created, written and mostly drawn by Christopher Hastings, has come to the end of its 12½ year saga (previously here, soon after it started). In his adventures he has defeated an Evil Fast Food Clown, Dracula, and a dimension-hopping King from the Radical Lands, with his allies including his McNinja family, the clone of Ben Franklin, a gorilla, a velociraptor and a 12-year-old boy with an awesome mustache. Hastings is now busy writing dead-tree comics, including the Adventure Time series, The Unbelievable Gwenpool and other Marvel projects. And he doesn't hire night janitors either.
posted by oneswellfoop (15 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've been following this for years. I think my favorite single panel in the entire run is McNinja raising a desk off the ground.

Guard 1: I didn't know ninjas had super strength!
Guard 2: He's also a *doctor*!
*they flee*

(I tried to find it to link, but I can't remember which storyline that was.)

Sad to see it ending, but I suppose all good things must. It's awesome that Hastings is so busy with a variety of projects now too.
posted by mordax at 10:54 PM on January 19, 2017 [4 favorites]


I bought the first volume of Doctor McNinja as a physical book many years after I started reading it. They have an option to sign it and let me write in whatever name or nickname I wanted, and I just wrote 'make something up.' On the one hand, "Ol' Slappy $real_name" is the worst nickname I've ever received, bar none, but on the other, I made what I now realize was a stupid and sort of selfish, time wasting request from a personal hero of more than ten years and one of the most talented artists I've ever seen, and he just went in and did it while drawing a kickass custom doodle of a pterodactyl with a mustache wearing a monocle.

Basically what I'm saying is Christopher Hastings is incredible and has earned every inch of success he's gotten several times over. Also, "He's a doctor too!"
posted by fomhar at 11:38 PM on January 19, 2017 [4 favorites]


Also, "He's a doctor too!"

Hahaha, thanks. Belated happy Katanakka, for that matter.
posted by mordax at 11:42 PM on January 19, 2017


Oh my, I just read the final panel and then I see this post, Metafilter is always there for McNinjas!
posted by reedcourtneyj at 12:13 AM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


My favorite line of all time is still "Killed by their one weakness. ... Bullets. From a gun."
posted by a car full of lions at 12:31 AM on January 20, 2017 [2 favorites]




I'll really miss this one. It's as though Chris Hastings had the same toybox as me, growing up, and has used it to tell the most outlandish, genuinely hilarious stories.

Thank you!
posted by mushhushshu at 1:17 AM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


So good. It's the Great Man theory of history with time travel, ninjas and dinosaurs.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:23 AM on January 20, 2017


If we're doing favourite moments, I'd like to mention the Axe Cop / Dr. McNinja crossover story, this panel particularly: "You look like my Dad."
posted by colin.jaquiery at 2:36 AM on January 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


After the Dr. McNinja/Axe Cop team-up, there were no more team-ups.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:33 AM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


oh wow, I can't believe it's been 12 years.... Thanks for the memories
posted by rebent at 6:07 AM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Dr McNinja came out when I was 18. I was on the Truth and Beauty Bombs forum for Dinosaur Comics and a few others. I wasn't very popular there... or my 18-year-old self didn't think I was anyway. I read a lot of webcomics then, maybe 15 a day and a lot of weeklies. We even collaborated in making a parody of Ctrl+Alt+Del which remains one of my proudest story telling exercises. There were some amazing people on that forum, some whose comics I still follow, but most who I don't even remember. We were excited when Dr McNinja launched, and Hitmen for Destiny, Thinkin Lincoln, we spent so much time agonizing over QC. One of my favorite things there were the themed avatar months - we all took a character from a show or movie or comic, and one month we took different pictures from a "self-portrait every day" project.

I've been trying to recollect how I found Metafilter. Likely it was via someone on that forum. I wasn't mature enough to really enjoy that forum for the good that it was, so I have a lot of bad memories. But it still remains a foundational experience for me, engaging with other fans of webcomics, building relationships, and trying, trying so hard to fit in and be cool. Even on a web forum.
posted by rebent at 6:13 AM on January 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


I've been reading this with my son, who introduced me to it. So much fun.
posted by doctornemo at 8:30 AM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


From the last blog post where he thanked people, I just found out Dr. McNinja's parents are named after Hastings' parents!

It was such a blast, I looked forward to it every week and now I'm a little sad it's gone. (Good thing I found out about Kill 6 Billion Demons from MeFi and have that going now)
posted by numaner at 8:52 AM on January 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


I've followed Dr McNinja since the days of Google Reader. It has long been one of my favorite webcomics, and while I'm sad to see it go, I'm thrilled for Chris' success, and I'm glad he ended it before any characters needed to go shark-jumping.

[Ninjas] can't catch you if you're on fire is one of my favorite gags.
posted by MengerSponge at 5:05 PM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


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