Paul the Samurai

Paul the Samurai is a character in the Tick series of Comic books written by Ben Edlund and published by New England Comics Press, and later, in two spin-off comics of his own.

Overview

Paul is relic of medieval Japan in the modern world. He is completely loyal to the code of Bushido and its tenets of courage, honor and vengeance against wrongdoing, all of which he is prepared to follow to the death. His weapon is a katana which he wields with deadly efficiency and which, once drawn, must draw blood before being resheathed. Due to Paul’s understanding of U.S. weapons laws, he regularly carries his sword baked into a loaf of French bread in order to avoid problems with local police. Paul is also a third degree fuchsia belt in the martial art of Yubiwaza. Paul has a particular contempt for ninjas.

Fictional History

Paul first appeared in The Tick 4, when he follows his enemy, Sagin the Wolf, worldwide head of ninjas, from Japan to America. Sagin is traveling to recover the Thorn of Oblivion, a powerful ninja artifact from the renegade ninja, Oedipus. Paul helps Oedipus and the Tick defeat an army of ninjas, but is denied in his personal vendetta against Sagin when the Tick inadvertently drops the Thorn from a skyscraper and Sagin plummets to his death trying to save it.

Paul decides to become a private detective in the City, but lacking the money to start this venture or to fly home to Japan, he ends up living in a tenement building and takes a job at as a night...
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