Comic Artist Dave Rapoza Gives Take On Goku, Naruto, and Yusuke

If you haven't ever seen the artwork of Dave Rapoza, we're happy to introduce you to one of the [...]

By Evan Valentine

If you haven't ever seen the artwork of Dave Rapoza, we're happy to introduce you to one of the best artists on the world wide web. Creating realistic takes on comic book characters, pop culture icons, and other fictional landmarks, the artist has decided to try his hand at characters from Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Yu Yu Hakusho by interpreting the three protagonists of these franchises in his realistic style.

Dave Rapoza posted the three realistic takes on your anime favorites on his Official Twitter Account, showing off his amazing artwork and style through some rough sketches that manage to retain the spirits of the characters in an entirely new take:

Dave Rapoza has done a huge amount of work for some well known entities across the board. His work includes clients such as Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, MTV, Riot Games, Epic Games, 20th Century Fox, Blizzard Entertainment, Bethesda, Hasbro, ID Software, and CD Projekt to name a few. He's used his artistic talents to create new realistic styles for characters such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the heroes and villains of the old cartoon favorite He-Man, and so much more.

If you want to dive into some of Dave's original work, he has plenty of comics for you to dive into for free online, including the hilarious Steve Lichman, which follows a Dungeons and Dragons style villain attempting to overcome barbarians, wizards, and the mundane trials of day to day life as a skeleton. You can also check out his other two comics titled StarVeil and the Insecure Warrior, which are obviously both original properties that still manage to link Rapoza's unique sense of humor into each panel.

Rapoza's most recent artwork, aside from these anime characters pictured here, include other creations from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, with Dave taking his pen to the protagonists of Chrono Trigger. Though the game was released decades ago for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the fan following is still as passionate as ever and video game enthusiasts around the world are still crossing their fingers that the world of Chrono and friends will be revisited at some point in the future.

All three of the anime characters portrayed by Rapoza also recently appeared in the video game, Jump Force, from Bandai Namco. The fighting game took on the epic task of attempting to weave a narrative that introduces numerous Shonen characters under one storyline.

What do you think of Dave Rapoza's new artistic interpretations of Goku, Yusuke, and Naruto? What's your favorite work from the popular online artist? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime!

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