COMIC CONNECTIONS: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Black, White and Green All Over

Episode 56 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Black, White and Green All Over

It is great to have Dan back this week!  He's refreshed, and ready to talk comics.  Better yet, Dan came back home this week and got to read some classics from his teenage years – the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books from Mirage Studios that kickstarted the crazy black & white indy comics scene of the mid ‘80s. Now Duane gets to read them for the very first time. 

This Week In Comics

Marvel Comics Presents: The Death of Moon Knight 

• https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/death-of-moon-knight-28-jed-mackay-allesandro-cappuccio?linkId=225511224  

New on Marvel Unlimited this Week

• https://www.marvel.com/comics/calendar/week/2023-07-30 

Recommendation: The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold You Your Childhood by Brian “Box” Brown

• https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-he-man-effect-how-american-toymakers-sold-you-your-childhood-brian-box-brown/18698943

This Week's Stack

• Ronin #1 
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1-7 
• Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters #1 

Creator Spotlight: Eastman & Laird

2 Minute Recap and Discussion Topics

Ronin #1

• Printed in a “prestige” format.  More pages, better paper, higher price. 
• Frank Miller unchained and unmanaged. 
• Heavy influence from Japanese films and comics 
• Very stylized and action heavy 
• Extremely pessimistic look at the future.  Also a truly crazy, convoluted story.
• We read just the first installment of a 6 issue mini-series. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1-7 

• Mirage Studios: "there wasn't an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards." 
• Truly collaborative Story and Art – even they can’t tell exactly who did what 
• Duoshade - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GftgBL-sHnI
• Went through multiple printings, with significant value differences 
• These are essentially shadow Marvel comics – Matt Murdock and Baxter Building cameos! 
• April O’Neil.  https://blackgirlnerds.com/tmnt-and-the-secret-history-of-april-oneils-inspiration/
• Baxter Stockman is a play on Baxter stock – a type of comic paper 
• The ending seems a bit sudden.  Like they just ran out of pages and called it a day 
• This is the last of the 2-color cover issues 
• Did you see aliens coming?  I did not. 
• Cantina scene 
• Fugitoid had his own one-shot comic earlier
• There are definite plot holes here.  Best not to examine these stories too closely 

Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters #1 

• TNMT immediately inspired imitators: https://dandreifort.com/2020/07/24/tmnt-comic-knockoffs/
• None of the words make any sense, and the art does not help to make it better.
• Bruce, Chuck, Jackie … and Clint.  Clint? 
• Last page is the writer and artist talking about how they didn't have enough story for the comic. Which must be a first.
• Yet found a market as it sold over 500,000 copies. 
• Resulting eventually in the “Black and White Boom” (and bust): https://www.vulture.com/2016/06/turtles-speculation-bubble.html

Final Thoughts

Correspondence

• Tweet from Mo about Moon Knight #25 $9.99 price tag

What's Next 

• Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Signoff 

Questions or comments

We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

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Music Intro and Outro created by Lesfm.