This article about the comics with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is not, and (without putting in a huge amount of time that we can spend better on other things in turtledex) cannot be as comprehensive as other entries in the database, so it should be treated more as a general approximation of the history of TMNT comics and their publishers. For all those who want to learn more, I recommend the website TMNT Entity, an amazing resource in which the author has provided a huge amount of information, all in a very cool style. We focus on the major releases, that is, Mirage-Image-Archie-IDW, excluding things like comics in children’s magazines from Panini, various comic strips printed in different places etc, all of which are described of course on mentioned TMNT Entity.
In the text we will use the phrase “universe (name)” a few times, under this phrase there is a coherent (or at least it should be) world within which turtles live, there were many such, the TMNT brand does not have one common canon, but many separate, existing within a common multiverse (which sometimes intertwines, such as in the movie Turtles Forever, where turtles from the 1987 and 2003 series ended up in the black and white universe of Mirage comics).
The text about TMNT comics must start with describing the phenomenon that the first issue has become – which was supposed to be a one-time joke about typical comic book schemes of that time, a kind of parody of, among others, Daredevil. For people used to the more modern image of ninja turtles, especially those from animated series, the content of this issue may be a bit of a surprise – a potential spoiler, reading at your own risk, of course: (spoiler alert) The comic (though originally only in black and white) is quite dark, the fight scenes are full of blood, and the turtles themselves were raised as ninja warriors not to fight for justice and other such matters that can be associated with them today, but to take revenge on Shredder. The fact that it was supposed to be a one-off story may also be proved by the fact that Shredder was killed in this issue. ( end of spoiler alert ).
The popularity of the first issue surprised the authors themselves, who quickly followed the blow by issuing new issues. The popularity and the associated duties quickly overgrown them in terms of the amount of work that needs to be done, so quite quickly, various other artists who wrote their stories in the world of turtles were admitted to the series, with different approaches, both in terms of graphics and the general atmosphere. (Due to the authorship rights issues being neglected, some of these guest appearances have never been reprinted.)
Given that Peter Laird continued to create comic books under the Mirage universe even after selling the brand rights to Viacom, it’s safe to say that this is TMNT’s longest-running comic book series, debuting in 1984, while the last issue was released in 2014 (albeit nobody said it was over).
What characterizes comics and Mirage’s “universe” is a multitude of crossovers, turtles met characters such as Cerebus, Flaming Carrot, Savage Dragon or Usagi Yojimbo.
The main series published by Mirage are: Vol. 1 (62 issues), Vol. 2 (13 issues), Vol. 4 (32 issues), Tales of the TMNT Vol 1 (7 issues) and Vol. 2 (70 issues), on top of that, there are many single stories or mini-series. Such four-issue miniseries are, for example: Donatello: The Brain Thief, Michelangelo: The Third Kind, Raphael: Bad Moon Rising, Tales of Leonardo: Blind Sight. we will not mention all possible comics that Mirage has released, it would be pointless (again, I recommend TMNT Entify!), but we will mention here that Mirage has released comic book adaptations of three live-action films and one animated film (TMNT 2007).
Examples of comic book covers published by Mirage:
An interesting example of a TMNT comic book publisher is the Image company, which released “Vol 3”, which theoretically fits between Vol. 2 and Vol 4. published by Mirage. Theoretically, because these comics quite strongly changes the turtle universe, so much that when Vol. 4 was created, it ignored the changes introduced by Vol. 3, so it can be considered a separate universe. This series consisted of 23 official issues, later also two “less official” issues (i.e. without a license, but by the original authors) were issued, which summed up and somehow reversed the changes introduced by earlier comics, trying to create a smooth bridge between this universe and the one from Mirage. In addition to the series described a moment ago, Image also published several minor stories in which turtles appeared, they included them in several issues of their own Savage Dragon series (about the character mentioned above in the Mirage text, that TMNT already had a crossover with it).
Examples of comic book covers published by Image:
The main series that Archie published was “Adventures”, which consists of 72 issues in main series as well as 11 special issues and a 3-issue mini-series. Apart from that, they released a lot of other short series, such as TMNT Presents April O’Neil, TMNT Presents Donatello and Leatherhead or TMNT Presents the Mighty Mutanimals and many more. The list is not exhaustive of course, it only gives a general idea. More details on TMNT Entify.
Examples of comic book covers published by Archie:
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the series published by IDW since 2011 is the most comprehensive approach to the topic – 81 issues of the main series and 21 issues of the “Universe” series (containing supporting stories for the main series) have been created so far (April 2018), and a lot of short mini-series that also somehow develop the main plot and it is worth knowing them (what can be difficult for people who want to catch up on comics later, for the best reception it is worth to read everything in the right order, reading all issue of the main series and then the side issues is not the best option). Side miniseries include Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything !, Dimension X or The Secret History of the Foot Clan. Interestingly, this universe also includes two TMNT-Ghostbusters cross-overs!
A huuuge universe, and that’s not all that IDW publishes, because as part of the TMNT New Animated Adventures series (24 issues) and TMNT Amazing Adventures (14 issues), comics with the adventures of turtles in their incarnation from the animated series (2012) were released!
And that’s still not all, IDW has also released two crossover series with Batman! In the first (or actually the firsts, because it is two times 6 issues) there are turtles inspired by the IDW universe, but not directly from it (there are some important differences). The second one is the crossover of turtles in their incarnation from the aforementioned animated series (2012), Batman himself also comes from the classic animation, Batman: The Animated Series.
We must also mention, that in addition to all things described above, IDW has released many collective editions with reprints of classic comics from Mirage or Archie!
Examples of comic book covers published by IDW:
Author: XYuriTT
