Conejo de Ninja, o cómo Capi casi consiguió su Brokeback

Ninja Rabbit wasn’t created by me. Just wanted to mention that. Most people know where he came from anyway. From the brain (and what a brain it is) of Miles Lewis Horst (of course). To this day I’m not entirely sure where the rabbit outfit came from though. It’s pretty scary when you consider that someone in a fraternity had a rabbit outfit. Most likely some sort of fetish. If anyone would like to own up to the outfit, please post here. Then we will disseminate across the web and make ya famous. Possibly it was for when we had egg hunts for children. Did we do that at the time? I do distinctly remember Rob Hoffman dressed in a rabbit outfit. Krazy Kane Kids.

One day, Miles got this nutty idea to dress someone up in a rabbit costume, arm them with nunchakus and film it--Ninja Rabbit was born! I’m fairly certain the weapon was Bob’s, maybe Kintigh’s, maybe left over from a female party guest, who really knows, I guess? They were the foam kind--we were crazy but not certifiable! Yeah, right, you may ask, "What about mop bucket jousting?" "What about Tide Slide?" And I will say, "What about pointed sticks?" Well, anyway, I weaseled out of dressing up in the costume, for some reason not enjoying being in the spotlight (weird, huh?), so Miles got the next best thing (kidding), my roommate, Bob “Bubbles” Ross. By the way, I have another cartoon I drew about the same time as Bud’s de-evolution that posits how Bob may have gotten his nickname. To this day I still don’t know why they called him Bubbles. And who “they” were.

Back to the story. Miles was always filming things in school. I’m not sure if he was a film student or simply just a voyeur. Something I saw Miles do repeatedly on January 25, 1986 led me to believe he may be the latter. Nevertheless, I think there was filming involved on that one day (not 1/25/86, mind you) so long ago, my friend.

Well, one thing led to another and eventually Ninja Rabbit became a staple in my repertoire during those years. The image shown was actually done after I left school, I think. It was based on Carole K's comment about the new movie “Batman” with Michael Keaton and how Batman’s ears, in the opening sequence, reminded her of Ninja Rabbit. There are a few other drawings of said ninja as well (not shown). I had even done a few panels of a comic strip, but those are lost to history. You will eventually find other Ninja Rabbit drawings in the Photography and Illustration sidebar of this blog.

Funny, story: In the summer of ‘86 we had a foreign exchange student living with us at Sigma Nu named Capi (Juan Mañuel Garcia y Juan). Capi’s name derived from the Juan, etc. blah blah y Juan aspect of his name. That’s what I thought he told us. Of course, Capi means captain in Spanish, so whatever THAT had to do with, I’m not sure. Poodles may know. He was the only one who could actually speak with him as Capi never quite learned to speak English very well and Scott and Capi COULD converse in French. We DID teach Capi quite a bit of English, but alas, nothing he could really use, hahaha! Back to the story--one day as Capi was sleeping one off, Bubbles and I snuck into his room, Bob dressed as Ninja Rabbit and me dressed with a Buji Boy mask. When Capi woke up we heard the most eloquent string of Spanish obscenities we have ever heard. I miss Capi. We truly frightened him. Crazy Americans? You decide.

What Capi must have thought of us. This I remember, however: before he left he asked me to come to Spain and learn Judo under his tutelage. Once, at Triangle, he jumped gleefully into the fray after some dunce started a fight with me. This, despite his having been injured DUE to the Judo he practiced. I also remember when he finally left us that summer in the back seat of the car with Mike Zdan and Darryl. The look on Capi’s face--”Help me.”

I wonder: why didn’t Capi use his Judo to defend himself in that room so long ago against a ninja and de-evolved child? Maybe his Judo was no match for our Ninja Style.

Hm, we shall see!