Teengage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage Comics Era

Well, I really just wanted to let everybody know that some awesome person posted several of the original comics of TMNT (back when it was all  B&W and the turtles were rough tough, and not afraid to shed some blood) on Yotube, and I am now a fan.

I've posted the debut comic above (I do appologize that it will be hard to read at some points; if I find an online version in a different format, I will post it). It's incredible.

Some fans of more recent incarnations of the turtles (or of the 1987 version, in particular) who read the original comics are a little put off by the intensity of the older material, and the fact that the turtles, while they have some obvious differences amongst them, can be hard to tell apart, excluding Raph, of course; he's not easy to mistake (if you see a turtle rushing at anything that presents itself as a threat, even if he's way out matched, that's him). Me? I love the old comics. You get a sense of the original intention of the comics' tone when you read them and thus understand the turtles and their origins much better. Plus it's just plain cool. And I can tell the turtles apart generally; they all have different ways about them and the comic, though it doesn't focus on their differences in personality all that much, they do indeed have personalities that diverge form one turtle to the next, and it is aparent, in some cases more than others.

Also, did I mention that the comic's creators, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, after sketching a silly drawing of an anthro turtle with nunchuks and making a story out of it, printed the first 3,000 copies with the money from a tax return and a $1000 loan from Eastman's uncle? (they called thier studio Mirage Studio becuase it didn't exist.) And that these first copies sold in the first couple of weeks they were out? If that's not chicken soup for the comicker's soul I don't know what is.

Anyway, the first is one of my favorites, though I've read multiple stories now, and it's, well, the first one. Another favorite comic which I had trouble finding on Youtbe but found on this lovely site called MirageLicensing.com is Raphael's "breakout comic" so to speak-- Raphael #1-- which introduces Casey Jones and elaborates on Raph's character.

http://miragelicensing.com/comics/mirage/raphael/pg01.htm

They also have plent of other original TMNT comics if you're interested.

...

Yeah, too late. I elaborated.

The Shredder...has been shredded.