Project Description

INKTOBER 2025 Day #10: SWEEP.

“I have been studying and practicing Shotokan karate since 1995. It is a big part of my life and of who I am today. I have dabbled in other martial arts over the decades and have found them all fascinating and fun. I only wish I had more time to spend diving deeper into all the different styles. At the end of the day, they are all based on human anatomy and basic human movement, so they are a lot more similar than they are different. Still, there are differences in focus and philosophy that give each art its own character and therefore make them more attractive to certain personalities or body types. I love karate, but I have always wanted to explore some kung fu styles, particularly the more acrobatic ones and the ones influenced by animals (and yes, there are monkey styles). The low spinning sweep shows up in many of the Chinese arts, but isn’t found or trained in Shotokan in my experience. I’ve always thought it looked cool, though. I messed around trying to learn it when I was younger, but never quite got it down. I have since watched videos about it in more recent years, maybe one of these days I’ll give it a shot again.
Oh, for those that are wondering, the recipient of PMD’s sweep attack is none other than Mokujin, the wooden, sentient training dummy from the Tekken fighting game franchise that I love. Tekken has a tradition of including special characters from other games, and I think it would be awesome if someday Plunger Monkey made an appearance. If not, and if I ever get a handle on making my own video games, a PMD-themed fighting game would definitely be on the short list.”

Do you enjoy these silly pen and ink illustrations starring Plunger Monkey? Wish you had a whole book full of them to gaze at lovingly whenever you wanted? You’re in luck! Get a copy of Inklings to satisfy that need: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AO28074KOTGC&keywords=inklings+by+toby+gray&qid=1689026488&s=books&sprefix=inklings+by+toby+gray%2Cstripbooks%2C103&sr=1-1