The first issue of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered in May, 1984, at a comic book convention held at a local Sheraton Hotel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was published by Mirage Studios in an oversized magazine-style format using black & white artwork on cheap newsprint, limited to a print run of only 3,000 copies. The small print runs made these early comics instant collector items, and within months they were trading for over fifty times their cover price. The name "Mirage Studios" was chosen because of Eastman and Laird's lack of a professional art studio at the start of their career, before their creation made them both multi-millionaires.
Mirage also published a bi-monthly companion book entitled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, featuring art by Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson, which was designed to fill in the gaps of continuity in the TMNT universe. The title ran from 1987-1989, released in alternating months with the regular Eastman & Laird book.
As the TMNT phenomenon proliferated to other media, Eastman and Laird would find themselves administrating an international merchandising juggernaut. Unfortunately, this prevented the two creators from participating in the day-to-day work of writing and illustrating a monthly comic book. For this reason, many guest artists were invited to showcase their unique talents in the TMNT universe. The breadth of diversity found in the various short stories gave the series a disjointed, anthology-like feel. Fans stuck with the series, and what was originally intended as a one-shot parody became a continuing series that lasted for 76 issues spanning two separate volumes.
In June, 1996, Image Comics revived the title as a more action-oriented TMNT series. Although notable for inflicting major physical changes on the main characters, the events of Volume 3 have been dropped from continuity. Mirage Studios resumed publication of a fourth volume in December, 2001, under the simple title TMNT. After the publication of issue #28, writer Peter Laird placed the series on an eight month hiatus to devote himself to production of the recent TMNT movie. However, after that eight months had passed Mirage's official website went on to list the series as in "indefinite hiatus". In January 2008 Mirage had finally confirmed that the series would return in May 2008.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published from August 1988 to October 1995 by Archie Comics. The initial storylines were close adaptations of the 1987 animated series, but with the fifth issue Eastman and Laird decided to hand the series over to Mirage Studios employees Ryan Brown and Stephen Murphy who immediately abandoned the animated series adaptations and took the title in a decidedly different direction with all-new original adventures.
In 1989, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created a special three-issue series of full-color mini comics for the Ralston-Purina Company. These comics were offered for kids to collect and were only available as premiums in boxes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cereal.
A monthly comic inspired by the 2003 animated series was published by Dreamwave Productions from June to December 2003. It was written by Peter David and illustrated by LeSean Thomas. In the first four issues, which were the only ones directly adapted from the TV series, the story was told from the perspectives of April, Baxter, Casey, and a pair of NYC cops, instead of the Turtles.
Titan comics are currently producing a monthly TMNT comic for the UK which features new TMNT: Fast Forward material as well as colored reprints of the Mirage movie prequel comics.
The Turtles have appeared in many manga series: Mutant Turtles (ミュータント・タートルズ, Myūtanto Tātoruzu?) was a 15-issue series by Tsutomu Oyamada, Zuki mora, and Yoshimi Hamada that simply adapted episodes of the original American animated series. Super Turtles (スーパータートルズ Sūpā Tātoruzu) was a 3-issue mini-series by Hidemasa Idemitsu, Tetsurō Kawade, and Toshio Kudō that featured the "TMNT Supermutants" Turtle toys that were on sale at the time. The first volume of Japan's anime mini-series followed this storyline. Next was Mutant Turtles Gaiden (ミュータント・タートルズ外伝, Myūtanto Tātoruzu Gaiden?) by Hiroshi Kanno, which was a re-interpretation of the Turtles story with no connection to the previous manga. Also of note was Mutant Turtles III, an adaptation of the third feature film by Yasuhiko Hachino.
A daily comic strip written and illustrated by Dan Berger featured an adventure story Monday through Friday and activity puzzles on weekends (with fan art appearing later). The comic strip was published in syndication until its cancellation in December, 1996. At its highest point in popularity, it was published in over 250 newspapers.
Leonardo (Blue) — Leonardo is known as the leader of the group. He is courageous, decisive, deadly, and a devoted student of martial arts. As a strict adherent to Bushido, he has a very strong sense of honor and justice. He wears a blue mask and wields a pair of ninjaken. He is named after Leonardo Da Vinci.
Raphael (Red) — The team's anti-social bad boy, Raphael has an aggressive nature and seldom hesitates to throw the first punch. He is an intense fighter. His personality can be alternately fierce and sarcastic. He is intensely loyal to his brothers and sensei. He is good friends with Casey Jones, after having met him one night on patrol and challenging him to a fight. The two have since frequently patrolled together. Raphael wears a red mask and wields a pair of sai. He is named after Raphael Santi.
Michelangelo (Orange) — The easy-going and free-spirited Mikey provides much of the comic relief. While he loves to relax, this Turtle also has an adventurous and creative side. He wears an orange mask and wields a pair of nunchaku. He is named after Michelangelo Buonarroti. His name was originally misspelled "Michaelangelo" by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman -- at the time they were using a typewriter and had no way to perform spell-check.
Donatello (Purple) — The brilliant scientist, inventor, engineer, and technological genius. He is perhaps the least violent Turtle, preferring to use his intellect to solve conflicts. He wears a purple mask and wields the bō. He is named after the sculptor Donatello.
Master Splinter — The Turtles' sensei and adoptive father, Splinter is a mutant rat who learned the ways of ninjutsu from his own master, Hamato Yoshi.
April O'Neil — A former lab assistant to the mad scientist Baxter Stockman, April is the plucky human companion of the Turtles. She embarks on many of the Turtles' adventures and aids them by doing the work that the Turtles themselves cannot do in public. During the early height of TMNT popularity, April was depicted as a television news reporter.
Shredder — A villainous ninjutsu master called Oroku Saki. In every incarnation of the TMNT franchise, he has been the archenemy of Splinter and the Turtles. He is also the leader of the Foot Clan.
Casey Jones — A vigilante who has become one of the Turtles' closest allies, Casey fights crime with an assortment of sporting goods (baseball bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks, cricket bat etc.) while wearing a hockey mask to protect his identity.
On December 14, 1987, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' first cartoon series began, starting as a 5-part miniseries and becoming a regular Saturday morning syndicated series on October 1, 1988 with 13 more episodes. The series was produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Film Productions Inc. Mirage Studios does not own the rights to this cartoon series. Here, the Ninja Turtles are portrayed as four wise-cracking, pizza-obsessed superheroes who fight the forces of evil from their sewer hideout, and make their first appearance in masks color-coded to each turtle, where previously they had all worn red. The cast included new and different characters like Bebop and Rocksteady and the Neutrinos. Original characters like Splinter, Shredder and the Foot Soldiers stayed true to the comics in appearance and alignment only. Instead of being Hamato Yoshi's mutated pet rat, Splinter was a mutated Yoshi himself. The Foot Soldiers changed from human ninja to an endless supply of robotic grunts, allowing large numbers of them to be destroyed without anyone dying (this was a very important decision in terms of the show's child audience; excessive violence would have pushed the show to a higher rating, outside of the target demographic). Krang, one of the series' most memorable villains, was inspired by the design of the Utrom, a benevolent alien race from the Mirage comics. The animated Krang, however, was instead an evil warlord from Dimension X. Baxter Stockman, whose race was changed from black to white due to fears that for Shredder to boss around a black Stockman would be perceived as racist, was rewritten as a shy and meek lackey to Shredder, later mutating into an anthropomorphic housefly.
Starting on September 25, 1989, the series was expanded to weekdays and had 47 more episodes for the new season. There were 15 new syndicated episodes for the 1990 season. There were also the 13 "Vacation Europe Episodes", which did not air until USA Network started showing reruns in late 1993, most likely because of animation or schedule problems.
On April 21, 1990 a drug prevention television special was broadcast on ABC, NBC and CBS named Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue that featured some of the most popular cartoons at the time; representing TMNT was Michelangelo.
Starting on September 8, 1990 (with a different opening sequence), the show began its run on CBS. The CBS weekend edition presented a full hour of Turtle Power, initially airing a couple of Saturday exclusive episodes back to back.
On September 17, 1994, (with a different theme song, opening sequence, and end credits background) the series continued with one episode per week, but big changes were made to the series. Starting with the 1994 season, the format of the series was changed to a more action-oriented show, removing numerous characters, as well as character development scenes, and the cartoon feel of the series. The opening sequence was completely changed to one where clips of the 1994 Season were used instead of animation specifically for the intro. The theme song was changed to a techno beat and scenes from the 1990 live action movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were intercut with new scenes from the 1994 Season. The sky was changed from a blue sky to a red sky with gray clouds to give the show a darker tone, similar to what was done with the original Spider-Man animated series in seasons 2 and 3. The series ran until November 2, 1996 when it aired its final episode. Its enormous popularity gave rise to its numerous imitators, including the Battletoads, Cheetahmen, Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa, Stone Protectors, Street Sharks, SWAT Kats, Extreme Dinosaurs, and Biker Mice from Mars.
Currently, 139 episodes are available on DVD.
Main article: Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
In 1997-1998, the Turtles starred in a live-action television series called Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation that follows the events of the movies. A fifth turtle was introduced, a female named "Venus de Milo" who was skilled in the mystical arts of the shinobi. The series seemed to be a loose continuation of the movie franchise, as Shredder had been defeated and the Ninja Turtles encountered new villains. Other connections to the feature films include the fact that Splinter's ear was cut, the Foot Soldiers were humans, and the Turtles lived in the abandoned subway station seen in the second and third movies. The Next Mutation Turtles even made a guest appearance on Power Rangers: In Space, a live-action show that was popular at the time.[2]
However, The Next Mutation never caught on with fans, and it was canceled after one season of twenty-six episodes. Since its cancellation, the program has been considered apocryphal by most of the TMNT fanbase, and Peter Laird has disavowed all knowledge of the character Venus de Milo, while Kevin Eastman is more open to talk about her.
Main article: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series)
On February 8, 2003, the Fox Network revived the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise with the help of 4Kids Entertainment as a Saturday morning cartoon in the "FoxBox" programming block, which has since been renamed "4Kids TV". The 2003 TMNT cartoon series is produced by Mirage Studios[1], and Mirage owns one-third of the rights to the series. Mirage's significant stake in creative control results in a cartoon that hews more closely to the original comics, creating a darker and edgier feel than the 1987 cartoon, but still remaining lighthearted enough to be considered appropriate for children. In the early 2007, 4kidstv now was the only show that aired te newest tmnt show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Fast Forward. When the turtles are sent to the future and are bodygaurds for April O'Neil's and Casey Jones's grandchild, Cody Jones. Which is assumed to be a genius and more intelligent than Donatello. He is the inheritance to O'Niel tech, the best tech company around. But it was ran by his Uncle Darius, but Uncle Darius was only interested of taking the inheritance by taking out Cody, but not when the Turtle's are there!
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