Jeremy Lin, James Harden and Chandler Parsons Star In Japanese Comic Strip

Houston Rockets fans already see the team's stars James Harden, Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons as superheroes, but a Japanese comic strip has taken it one step further.

Harden, Lin and Parsons were featured in Dunk Shot, a Japan-based sports paper that features NBA superstars drawn in manga style.

The strip features the Rockets trio trying to pick up some girls, but Parsons, drawn in glamorized style, ends up being the ladies' man over his more popular teammates Lin and Harden.

That's an interesting take from the comic strip, considering that Harden's popularity among Rockets' faithful has grown so much that fans often come to Rockets games sporting fake beards as a tribute to Harden, whose sensational scoring of 26.4 points per game has helped the catchphrase "Fear the Beard" become a new staple in Houston Rockets lore.

Even Shaquille O'Neal tried to get in on the fun once:

Meanwhile, Lin's popularity has grown by leaps and bounds over the last year, Lin becoming the most searched athlete on Google in 2012, according to Google Zeitgeist, and his overseas fame in Asia drawing legions of new fans to the game since he came to the forefront of basketball attention under the "Linsanity" craze last season in New York.

Last month, Dunk Shot featured Minnesota Timberwolves stars Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic in a hilarious strip centered around Pekovic trying to get a new hairstyle to become more popular with the ladies.