On May 1984, Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird released a one shot comic simply titled 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (substitute Ninja for Hero if you're from UK at least).
The duo were fans of Daredevil at the time and were inspired by it to make this comic. Little did they know that they would be ushering in a franchise that would reach out to people the world over and entertain millions with the adventures of this quartet of half shelled heroes.
I like many others here on the forum were first exposed to the series through the 80s cartoon, which by today's standards may not hold up well, but if you go into it just for some light comical fun, can still be enjoyed today. Plus it had this slick and awesome 80s cartoon era intro, and the show featured the late James Avery as the Shredder
The series rise in popularity lead to a great movie (which got sequels), as well as fun action games from Konami
By the early to mid 1990s, the Turtles' popularity slowly faded away, and while the gang still had their comic series, the franchise wasn't as vitalized as it was during its hayday.
During the early 2000s, the Turtles returned in a new animated series that aimed to be closer to the comics
There was also a CGI movie released in 2007, that most fans associate with the original movies from the 90s, which is good in its own way IMO
The movie featured an interesting voice cast including the late Mako Iwamatsu, Nolan North, Chris Evans, Laurnce Fishburne and Patrick Stewart.
The 2000s onwards generally saw the Turtles' franchise return stronger as they followed up with another well received animated series in 2012 (Booyakasha doesn't have the same impact as Cowabunga, but it's decent)
With the current animated series being Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which attempts to take an alternate approach to the Turtles
Each turtle is now based on a different species of turtle, hence their different body types:
Raphael is a snapping turtle.
Donatello is a softshell turtle.
Leonardo is a red-eared slider turtle.
Michelangelo is a box turtle.
While they keep their personalities for the most part, Mikey is the artistic of the brothers, Raph is gung ho and Leo has aspirations of grandeur. Donny is Donny (can't mess with perfection ;P)
Comics-wise, IDW picked up the TMNT license and a new TMNT comic debuted in 2011, which is still ongoing with various side series to expand on the characters on the setting of the comic
In general, both the original comic series, its continuations and the IDW comic series are available on Comixology for anyone interested
www.comixology.com
More recently, the Turtles appeared as playable characters in Injustice 2
Furthermore, there was a crossover comic series with Batman
Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Wikipedia
Which is also getting an animated movie soon!
35 years later and the Turtles are still strong and entertaining millions worldwide (I'm getting a Rise of TMNT toy set for my cousin's birthday later this summer), and here's to another 35 years of Shell Shocking action and fun.
In closing, I leave you with this
The duo were fans of Daredevil at the time and were inspired by it to make this comic. Little did they know that they would be ushering in a franchise that would reach out to people the world over and entertain millions with the adventures of this quartet of half shelled heroes.
I like many others here on the forum were first exposed to the series through the 80s cartoon, which by today's standards may not hold up well, but if you go into it just for some light comical fun, can still be enjoyed today. Plus it had this slick and awesome 80s cartoon era intro, and the show featured the late James Avery as the Shredder
The series rise in popularity lead to a great movie (which got sequels), as well as fun action games from Konami
By the early to mid 1990s, the Turtles' popularity slowly faded away, and while the gang still had their comic series, the franchise wasn't as vitalized as it was during its hayday.
During the early 2000s, the Turtles returned in a new animated series that aimed to be closer to the comics
There was also a CGI movie released in 2007, that most fans associate with the original movies from the 90s, which is good in its own way IMO
The movie featured an interesting voice cast including the late Mako Iwamatsu, Nolan North, Chris Evans, Laurnce Fishburne and Patrick Stewart.
The 2000s onwards generally saw the Turtles' franchise return stronger as they followed up with another well received animated series in 2012 (Booyakasha doesn't have the same impact as Cowabunga, but it's decent)
With the current animated series being Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which attempts to take an alternate approach to the Turtles
Each turtle is now based on a different species of turtle, hence their different body types:
Raphael is a snapping turtle.
Donatello is a softshell turtle.
Leonardo is a red-eared slider turtle.
Michelangelo is a box turtle.
While they keep their personalities for the most part, Mikey is the artistic of the brothers, Raph is gung ho and Leo has aspirations of grandeur. Donny is Donny (can't mess with perfection ;P)
Comics-wise, IDW picked up the TMNT license and a new TMNT comic debuted in 2011, which is still ongoing with various side series to expand on the characters on the setting of the comic
In general, both the original comic series, its continuations and the IDW comic series are available on Comixology for anyone interested
Read Comics, Graphic Novels, Manga and More
www.comixology.com
More recently, the Turtles appeared as playable characters in Injustice 2
Furthermore, there was a crossover comic series with Batman
Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Wikipedia
Which is also getting an animated movie soon!
35 years later and the Turtles are still strong and entertaining millions worldwide (I'm getting a Rise of TMNT toy set for my cousin's birthday later this summer), and here's to another 35 years of Shell Shocking action and fun.
In closing, I leave you with this
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