A tokusatsu series very popular in Brazil back then was called "ninja Jiraiya". To this day the word is kind of a colloquial term for "ninja" around here. I wonder if it was the same name, 児雷也?

Oh, and the comic is awesome :D

The warthog's body reminds me of Dürer's rhinoceros.

It does seem awfully well-armored for a warthog.

Leonardo: is this the one? If so, according to Wikipedia, they wrote the name in katakana or, when pressed, "磁雷矢" ("magnetic lightning arrow"). But I'm sure it's a pun referring to the same source -- it's an old Chinese story, I think.

(You can see the character named 児雷也 in the first panel of this scan, perched on top of a mountain in the background.)