Do You Remember TMNT Comics?

With the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hitting the big screen for the first time in over a decade and two new Turtles comics, Raphael and Michelangelo, on the selves at Star Clipper, I feel like its 1989 all over again. I was about six years old when the Turtles became a pop culture phenomenon. It was also the first time I realized that I had the tendencies of a compulsive collector, asking my dad to get me as many of the comics and toys as possible. I actually had amassed quite the collection, especially the Archie comic series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures." However, the other day while I was rummaging through my old comics at my moms house, I found out I had a few issues from the original Turtles comic series published from Mirage Studios. What a find!

The original Turtles comics, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, were a lot more brooding and violent than most Turtles' fans remember. The whole concept of the Ninja Turtles was originally based as a parody of two popular 80's Marvel comics: The New Mutants and Frank Miller's Daredevil, which focus on rival clans of ninjas in New York City. The first issue, which I sadly cannot claim to have, was black & white and only 3000 issues were printed, making it an instant collectors item as soon as the series took off. The Turtles' ridiculous popularity tied up Eastman and Laird in so many licensing deals that the comic was continued by various guest artist, giving the series an anthology style rather than a continuous story-line. Here is an interesting article on Newsarama about the series.

One of the most frequently asked questions I have gotten is if we carry a collection of the Mirage Ninja Turtles series. Unfortunately, it has been out of print for a long time, but hopefully with the new movie bringing attention back to the "heroes in a half-shell", it debuted at number 1 in the box office with a whoppin 25 million, someone might come up with the bright idea to re-release a graphic novel. Wouldn't that be radical! But, if you're just going insane trying to find these comics there is an auction on ebay for the original artwork.

By the way, I want to dedicate this blog to my four year old cousin Blake, whom my mom and aunt just took to see TMNT the movie.

Cowabunga!

-Jon