If I recall correctly, the highly technical, next-level gun nuttery in panels 3 and 4 is courtesy of my late friend Toren Smith, who sent along an impressively math-heavy email discussing possible Big-Ass Gun replacements after poor Thugboy lost his aforementioned .50 Barrett rifle in the story “Diseased Wench.”

I suspected that panel 4’s mention of a fighting move floridly dubbed “Carry A Fierce Tiger on Your Back” was a reference to an actual martial arts technique, but had to Google the phrase to make sure. Yeahp, turns out this was cribbed from the book Analysis of Shaolin Chin Na by Yang Jwing Ming, a helpful tome that’s lurked beside my drawing table for a decade or more. (For the uninitiated, the term “chin na” refers to a series of grappling, locking and trapping techniques used in multiple Chinese martial arts.) In fact, I further suspect that the sequence of moves Ninjette used on Major Havoc a few pages back was referenced from the very same book.

This does beg the question of exactly why a kunoichi (lady ninja) versed in Japanese ninjutsu is referring to a Chinese grappling move. Well, perhaps some of the hand-to-hand techniques of her clan were borrowed from a Chinese source—or maybe Ninjette herself might have directly learned how to “Carry A Fierce Tiger on [Her] Back” from a wing chun stylist. (For the record, a line of dialogue in the ninja-tastic Empowered vol. 7 does imply that Ninjette’s clan has crossed paths with an apparently mystical form of Chinese martial arts.)

-Adam Warren