Zen: Intergalactic Ninja

Zen the Intergalactic Ninja
Zen the Intergalactic Ninja video game cover
Publication information
Publisher	Zen Comics Publishing, Archie Comics, Entity Comics, Devil's Due
First appearance	Zen, Intergalactic Ninja #1 (1987)
Created by	Stephen L. Stern and Dan Cote
In-story information
Species	Baltoonian
Place of origin	Baltoon
Abilities	Skilled martial artist

Zen the Intergalactic Ninja is a fictional character created in 1987 by Steve Stern and Dan Cote, and initially published under their Zen Comics imprint. In the early nineties Zen was licensed to Archie Comics, and then to Entity Comics.

Zen has been depicted by many well-known comics artists, including Paul Pelletier, Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy and Sam Keith, creator of The Maxx, as well as silver age legends Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. Other artists who have drawn Zen include Jae Lee, Frank Brunner, and Bill Maus. Maus has been credited with redesigning the character's classic look from the late '80s to the popular version seen today, of a taller, more muscular character who is bit rough around the edges. The first appearance of Zen's new look was in Entity Comic's Zen #0, published in 1993.

Alien Hero is a collection of novellas and short stories about Zen, written by Steve Stern. Zen has also appeared in magazines as varied as Mixx, published by Tokyopop, and Heavy metal.

In 2008, a new series of Zen trade paperbacks was to be launched by publisher Devil's Due. In addition, Devil's Due has announced an all-new continuing Zen comic-book series, written by fan favorite Joe Casey and illustrated by Joe Abraham. Devil's Due published only the first book in limited amounts. When the creators refused to surrender shares in their IP, Devil's Due discontinued the project. First Comics stepped up in 2010 publishing a full immersion 3D comic. Artist/creator Dan Cote retro-fitted his Earth day annual original pen and ink book into anaglyph 3D (red/blue, readable only with anaglyph red/blue glasses). First comics published "the best of zen" in 2012. A compilation of stories including full color version of book 1, (originally published in airbrushed black and white), and ending with a short story never before published in the current digital rendering style Cote devised using a combination of 80% adobe illustrator and 20% photoshop. Sandwiched in between are stories by noted contributors throughout Zen's publishing history.