It's Ming The Merciless alright:

That doesn't look the Rip I remember - smoking a cigarette, pointing a gun at a courteous gentleman, beer belly, making stupid jokes, less than immaculately dressed. Desmond and Honey would be ashamed.
Ming, on the other hand, is in fine form. One of comicdom's greatest villains.

And it is not. He is not quite himself!

Anyway; the story is now here:

Rip Kirby - Ming The Merciless

I'm always sad when an old, classic strip goes. I feel the same way when a classic film actor passes away. We'll never see their like again, and that saddens me.

Time marches on inexorably, wraith, making change the only constant, change of form of everything we hold dear, making the process heartless, brutal, and hence saddening.
The only way to avoid this sense of loss and hence sadness, is to stand OUTSIDE these worldly concepts of time, space, place, form, change etc. & view this process while residing in our true, never-changing state. But then, that’s much easier said than done.

Oh I know. I accept such change, naturally. I know it's part and parcel of living. It's sad all the same.

Low resolution makes it difficult to read on screen. I went through a dozen and half strips, then gave up. Thanks anyway for putting it. The artwork is absolutely astonishing.

for Kirby fan Daviedo, covers of some Kirby comics.

Anyone have the link to the Daily Ink Rip Kirby strip since they changed it on the 1st of September?

The first story, that was not up on DailyInk is posted with the first week here

If I get any responce I post more eventually!