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The Ninja Turtles started life as comic book characters, in a parody of dark and gritty superhero comics of the time. (Particularly Daredevil—in certain canons, the ooze that mutated the turtles is the same that blinded Murdock. And there’s the master named Stick/Splinter and the fight against the Hand/Foot. But I digress.) But they rose to popularity as cartoon characters and were established to be a property aimed entirely at children. So Archie Comics got the license to chronicle their further comic-book adventures.
In 1989 I was eight years old, and squarely in the demographic for these guys. I was also already a big comic fan and making weekly trips to the comics shop on top of all the free DC books my dad brought home. So I have a fairly complete collection of these. And I'm going to review and summarize the entire series.
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Upon reflection, though the series was excellent at presenting recaps and flashbacks in case you missed a few issues, this was insanely continuity-heavy for a comic aimed at kids in the late 80s/early 90s; and clearly by 1992 the higher-ups at Archie weren’t paying any attention to what they were publishing. At the time, I thought that bringing back the eyes of Sarnath plotline four years later was brilliance; but I was a comic-collector child and re-read my old books constantly. I have to wonder how many kids had either picked up the series later or just had forgotten they’d ever read the older stories. Four years for the adult Spider-Man audience is nothing, but four years when it’s a third of your life so far?
There were a lot of clever ideas in the series, and they did a lot more with the “buy more toys” characters than I remember the TV show managing. The attempts to add cultural depth were clunky (I’m pretty sure the portrayals of Japan, Tibet, Israel, native American cultures, etc wouldn’t fly today), but it was a pre-internet era and they get credit for trying. The arc resolutions were very hit-or-miss; Clarrain was great at leaving every issue on a cliffhanger but had some real issues with pacing his climaxes and denouement. I remember this series fondly and the parts that stuck out to me as a kid seem to hold up.
In 1989 I was eight years old, and squarely in the demographic for these guys. I was also already a big comic fan and making weekly trips to the comics shop on top of all the free DC books my dad brought home. So I have a fairly complete collection of these. And I'm going to review and summarize the entire series.
( Read more... )
Upon reflection, though the series was excellent at presenting recaps and flashbacks in case you missed a few issues, this was insanely continuity-heavy for a comic aimed at kids in the late 80s/early 90s; and clearly by 1992 the higher-ups at Archie weren’t paying any attention to what they were publishing. At the time, I thought that bringing back the eyes of Sarnath plotline four years later was brilliance; but I was a comic-collector child and re-read my old books constantly. I have to wonder how many kids had either picked up the series later or just had forgotten they’d ever read the older stories. Four years for the adult Spider-Man audience is nothing, but four years when it’s a third of your life so far?
There were a lot of clever ideas in the series, and they did a lot more with the “buy more toys” characters than I remember the TV show managing. The attempts to add cultural depth were clunky (I’m pretty sure the portrayals of Japan, Tibet, Israel, native American cultures, etc wouldn’t fly today), but it was a pre-internet era and they get credit for trying. The arc resolutions were very hit-or-miss; Clarrain was great at leaving every issue on a cliffhanger but had some real issues with pacing his climaxes and denouement. I remember this series fondly and the parts that stuck out to me as a kid seem to hold up.
