NOTE: I’m hoping to replace some of the images in this file with better quality stuff and also do a little better job giving artistic credits. While everyone working on the book / copyright information is shown several times, it certainly could be cleaner. The intention of this post is to get more people interested in these guys I keep rambling about… so ENJOY and let’s see about buying comics, eh?

IDW has a brilliant new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book on the stands– and with its second issue they had their first letter column. There were seven letters; four of which name-dropped the Archie continuity of the TMNT. It makes sense that Archie’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures” would remain popular– not including spin-off’s the title reached 72 issues, the longest continuous streak of any Turtles book. But, more importantly, the books were good when they really had no right to be.

They certainly didn’t start off as anything noteworthy. In 1988, with Turtlemania in full swing, there was a demand to get a more kid-friendly comic out to spinner racks as a cash grab. Adventures was that cash grab, the first few issues being a direct rip from the Saturday morning cartoon, complete with a tie-in audio tapes.

Eastman and Laird decided to alter the book by adding Mirage talent; Ryan Brown and Stephen Murphy. Brown’s inks as well as his desire to create new characters became a staple for the series, while Murphy (cautious about the assignment to the point that he used the pen name “Dean Clarrain”) tackled social and environmental issues in a manner that clearly placed the book in the more subversive category of “all ages” as opposed to “for kids”. Their efforts coupled with the art of Ken Mitchroney, Dave Garcia, Jim Lawson, Chris Allan, Mike Kazaleh, Garrett Ho, Jon D'Agostino, and more DEFINED my childhood. The ninth issue was the first comic book I ever owned and the series was how I learned to READ. As such, there is a litany of characters from this universe that I hold dear; but none more so than the Mighty Mutanimals.

When the reigns of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures” were handed over to Brown and Murphy with issue five they immediately set about separating themselves from all previous incarnations of the franchise. The first step in this was the introduction of new characters and a new tone.

So we take a nerdy aquarium scientist (by the name of Jack Finney) out hunting for proof of illegal dumping…

And do the ol’ “add some mutagen and make him a badass” number:

The new character, Man Ray, saves the Statue of Liberty without the help of the Turtles, almost an aside to their existence– he meets them in passing both before and after his mutation. The next issue continues to operate beyond the scope of the Fab Four with the introduction of Leatherhead, Ryan Brown’s only Mutanimals creation to see greater fame in both the Mirage universe and several animated continuities.

Unlike any other continuity, though, here Leatherhead start off as a sleazy Louisiana thief by the name of Jess Harley, a nod to the roles of Lance Henrickson. From page one, tell me how “kiddie” this seems:

There’s some stuff going on here, isn’t there? Anywho, Jess gets found out later in the issue for having stolen a magical device called the “Turnstone”…

And we finally have non-mutagen-based characters. It’s a whole new ballgame. While Man Ray was alright with his fate, Leatherhead wants so badly to be human that Shredder is able to make him believe the Turtles work for Mary Bones.

And thus the issue ends in tragedy. Well… compared to tragedies so far. Nothing compared to what’s next. In the seventh issue the Turtles are taken by a giant disembodied cow head to another dimension where they are asked by talking planets to wrestle for money, and we find out Leatherhead is okay. No, I’m not kidding.

You thought I was kidding, didn’t you?

The turtles finish up their interdimensional bout and head home, but not without a pair of dangerous hitchhikers– Wingnut and Screwloose. From issue eight:

The two characters (notice the silhouette of the giant mosquito above), take a moment off from attacking the turtles to relay their own tragic pasts:

Again, something new– codependent extraterrestrials as opposed to mutated animals. The pair are taken by the giant cowhead to engage in a new wrestling contract. We next see Wingnut, Screwloose, and Leatherhead in issue 13 where the growing menace of a race of all-devouring insect men is combated via televised intergalactic battle. The alien duo remains aloof while Leatherhead continues to embrace his new role.

Leatherhead goes so far as to choose to remain in his current form.

After temporarily saving existence from the insect threat (and a bizarre encounter with silent, near-omnipotent, otherworldly forces with a link to the Turnstone), the giant cow head returns to the Turtles to Earth. But instead of New York, he drops them off in Brazil during issue 14 because, as he says, “they could be useful here”. Okay. Within ten minutes they meet a talking animal.

Par for the course. Jagwar’s background remains a little vague for a few issues, but we’ll get there. Like all of the Mutanimals, Jagwar is going to need some tragedy, and what better tragedy is there than deforestation?

This is obviously a comic book for small children, right?

Next issue (15) we go wandering around the forest where we meet a secret civilization that hangs out with dinosaurs and the like. Jagwar comes in handy, knowing how to talk FOREST LANGUAGE.

The locals tell us about a wolf man they make offering to:

Dreadmon be the best, mon.

Once more evil forest-haters with guns are lurking, but luckily Dreadmon decides to reveal himself along with his best Sonic the Hedgehog impersonation.

Jagwar and Dreadmon immediately… like each other.

Right.

We don’t explain Dreadmon’s backstory for awhile.

In issue 16 the Turtles are briefly abducted from their new friends, finding themselves captive with their favorite fishy pal, Man Ray. Man Ray is kind of a cheeseball. Also, he makes excellent use of “you may know me by the name of my action figure”:

He’s also made besties with the local fish, who of course are being persecuted by pollution.

And because Man Ray’s previous introduction didn’t involve crying, we set about fixing that.

Worth noting the Clint Eastwood-type that fired the shot and got bitch-slapped– he’s working for a man trying to sell the world to the evil insects. He becomes important.

So, the Turtles leave Man Ray, Dreadmon, and Jagwar all hanging out in the jungles to get back to New York. Eventually in issue 18 the TMNT find some old sewers where they brawled previously to be inhabited by a rock band.

People with small animal pets are prime for mutagen obviously…

After a brawl, the lizard guy takes his new fate pretty well.

Can we all agree the 90’s are awesome?

SO, you might have noticed Don talking about a meteor shower– remember those insects I keep mentioning, and people trying to sell the world? Well, we now have a whole bunch of wacky new characters, and it’s time to make this happen. I present to you the most excellent excellence the world has ever known. Issue #1 of a special mini-series titled “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Present: Mighty Mutanimals”. Let’s do this.

Yeah, that’s a bad guy with horns.

We have an issue of Dreadmon, Jagwar, and Man Ray dealing with baby insects hellbent on deforestation; Wingnut, Screwloose, and Leatherhead being sent to Earth in hopes of increasing televised fighting ratings in the coming conflict, and Mondo Gecko going with Raphael to get on the insect mothership.

Issue 2 sees the wrestler’s transport (see: disembodied cow head) crashing on Earth.

EVERYBODY STOP FIGHTING AND THINK ABOUT THE RAINFOREST.

I love this comicbook.

So, Mondo Gecko and Raph fight with the insect queen (and get covered in delicious honey)…

We all come together for a final brawl…

And the Clint Eastwood type decides he doesn’t want his horned boss to sell the world to Queen bug, and he threatens her with a gun, so the bugs back off and we hangout around a campfire while being videotaped for intergalactic ratings.

Best mini-series or best mini-series?

Raph goes back to team Turtle, and the new squad goes off to form their own team of… hanging out and stuff. From Issue #1 of the Mighty Mutanimals ongoing, observe a little piece I like to call, “how not to sell comics to children”:

What in the hell is this comic book?

So, our characters have a drug-induced seance to decide what the plot of the story is going to be about.

We all just need to eat the same fruit, dudes.

And we learn the reason we didn’t immediately tell Jagwar’s backstory is because his mommy made it with an animal spirit.

Our little trip reveals Jagwar’s mom is in trouble, so let’s save her! YEAH!

So the boys go meet the snake that tempted Adam and Eve (yup), and Dreadmon mentions his backstory at some point:

…and we all go get some cool guns.

After five issues of crazy, tripping nonsense searching for Jagwar’s mom, it’s about time for the best crossover of all time: TMNT + Mighty Mutanimals vs The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a little special called “United We Stand, Divided We Fall”. Inks on the three page cover spread for TMNT 38 / Mighty Mutanimals 6 / TMNT 39.

So, we all meet up:

And… APOCALYPSE NOW.

Death splits us up to fight Famine, War, and Pestilence in smaller groups.

Then shit gets weird.

Pestilence uses infected monkeys and visual metaphors to hurt us.

1/3rd of the team starves to death in a demonstration of economic inequality.

The rest of us go to a missile silo which is described as a weird “male ritual” (phallic jokes), before being taken out by friendly fire.

I am seven years old.

So, we’re all captured, and we find out it’s horned bully at it again– this time bent on taking souls.

A great soul to take? Clint Eastwood-type dudes!

I am still seven years old.

Best comic ever.

SO, Jagwar’s mom gets pissed, we fight off the baddies, horned guy grows wings and vows revenge.

Mutanimals get THREE more issues, mostly spent hanging out with reject-Turtle Slash, before they find themselves CANCELED with issue #9. The writers tell us they are trying to make a TV show, so it’ll all be okay, right?

But in case the TV show never, ever happens (never), we’re getting back up stories starting in issue 48. So everything is okay, RIGHT?

EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY, THE 90’S ARE HERE.

So we spend the next half dozen back-up’s trying to figure out what to do about the assembled cast of X-Force.

Until this happens at the end of issue 54:

Did I mention there are time traveling Ninja Turtles as well? There are. Also, those were my heroes dying in a hail of gunfire back there. For real.

That’s right, even though this is a time-traveling storyline… “what’s over is over”. The Mutanimals are really, really dead. Seems the creators took a “burn out” instead of “fade away” concept to the max. Later on in issue #55 we do get one last glimpse at our heroes:

That’s a picture of my childhood heroes burning in hell.

SO! The remaining seventeen issues of the Archie book are mostly based in time travel, and the Turtles settling old scores… but the Mutanimals are very, super dead. We even get a cute pin up on the matter:

But it was all fairly damaging, subversive, amazing stuff. I can still hear my mother reading Leatherhead’s deep “UT!”, the sneery “planktonchip” of Screwloose, the accents of Jagwar and Dreadmon, mon. Looking back on these issues to assemble this little flashback was really amazing– I remembered the material being subversive with all the religion and violence, but it’s far more engaging than I would have imagined, and there’s just so much crying for a kid’s book– gotta love “all ages”. And I’ve only given you the tip of the iceberg by focusing exclusively on the Mutanimals.

I really, really love these characters. If you think all of this stuff is interesting… you could always WRITE IDW PUBLISHING ABOUT REPRINTING THIS AMAZING MATERIAL:

letters@idwpublishing.com

IDW Publishing Editorial Offices

5080 Santa Fe

San Diego, CA

92109 USA

Just an idea.

And now, in closing, some character bios, pin up’s, and other fun.

Here’s the guys who made it into toy form. Also, a shirt by Turtles artist “tOkka”, whose work keeping the franchise alive is why I’m able to link so many of these pictures. Give him some love if you can.