So You Want to Read TMNT Comics? – Part 6: Mutant Miscellany (1984-present)

It’s a surprise

Age rating: I honestly could not tell you for any of these. They run the gamut from everyone to adults only.

Start here if: you’re really, really, really interested in the most random ephemera from the Turtles’ history and international publications.

It’s been nearly 40 years since the Turtles were first published. It’s been a little over 35 since they exploded in popularity to such a degree that this part became possible. Folks, we’re going through as many of the random bits and pieces of the Turtles’ history as I can. I’ll provide what notes I have, what tidbits there are, and where they’ve been collected, if at all. It’s likely a lot of this information will be sparse considering most of this we here in the US will never, ever read.

As such, there is no true reading order. There are only…

The Crusts

‘Teen Techno Turtle Trio Plus One’ – Mirage trade only – “Shell Shock” BUT available free online!
‘Tales of Alternate Turtles on the Moon’ – Single issue only – Available free online!

‘Techno Turtle’ and ‘Turtles on the Moon’ are parody comics by Don Simpson, the first done in B&W for the short-story anthology/collection “Shell Shock” and the second for the short-lived anthology “Turtle Soup” (Vol. 2) #2. I left them off the Volume 1 list because it was already unwieldy enough without including even more uncollected official parody material. The good news is that Don’s made the strips available on his website for free! Sadly the latter doesn’t have the colors they were published with but what’re you gonna do?

If you really, REALLY want to read these with Volume 1, I’d read them between “Tales” (Vol. 1) #3 & 4 or wherever the respective issues would fall in the order.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Coming Out of Their Shells Tour” Promo – Single issue only

Could I have put this back in part 4 with the other tie-ins? Certainly. Why did I move it here? It’s such a weird little artifact that’s neither a full-blown series nor a single issue adaptation; a prequel to the wildly unsuccessful Coming Out of Their Shells Tour live-action musical band tour thing. I really wanted to concentrate that part on the TV and movie connections that most people would know

Mostly though, I didn’t want to add another section for a single comic that is more curiosity than concerted comic effort. Oh and one final tidbit: sponsored by Pizza Hut. No one, not even the Turtles, can apparently out pizza the hut.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Street Collector’s Edition” #1 – Single issue only

I gotta give Ian Melton a shout out at Bleeding Cool for making some of these weird, wild, and hard to find mini-issues available. This comic was a part of the TMNT Fan Club kit you could get by joining, of course, the TMNT Fan Club. As Ian mentions, it really doesn’t fit either the Mirage series or the cartoon, hence its inclusion here.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Newspaper Strip” #1-uhhhhhhhh, 1560?

Six years. At least five days a week. That’s, at minimum, 1560 unique strips. BONKERS. The strip was syndicated from Dec 1990 to January 1997 and was primarily a gag series, at least from what I could read on the Wayback Machine. Sadly there’s never been a concerted effort to bring these comics to print. Maybe they’re not that good. Maybe they don’t have the same caché as the other strips IDW’s former Library of American Comics imprint worked with. Who knows?

That said, they were apparently reprinted in “Comics Revue” #58-82, a newspaper strip reprint magazine that was (or possibly still is) the longest running indie magazine, beating out both “Cerberus” & “Spawn” as of writing. It tried to find confirmation about this but the site hasn’t been updated since 2019 and looks like the Mirage Site i.e. early internet simplicity.

“Green-Gray Sponge-Suit Sushi Turtles,” – Single issue only
‘Toyoduh in The Naked City’ – Single issue only – “Turtle Soup” (Vol. 2) #1
‘Velveeduh in The One That Got Away’ – Single issue only – “Turtle Soup” (Vol. 2) #2
Continued below

Another one where I could have included it in the Part 1 list but opted not to, due to it being a parody. Actually, I should have included this in the tie-in article because it’s an official parody of the first MOVIE and then four short stories following each of the Sushi Turtles by Mark Martin, who did a number of guest issues at Mirage during Volume 1. If you read “TMNT” (Vol. 1) #23, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect with this. If not…I’ll just leave this image here.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine” #1-13

Not content to just have “TMNT” comics magazines, there are also “TMNT” magazine magazines with comics in them. Published seasonally throughout 1990-1993, it’s not quite a fan magazine but not quite an official newsmag ala “Nintendo Power.” Each issue, save for issue #12 apparently, featured at least one comic in the style of “TMNT Adventures,” though not as part of that continuity. Could I have interspersed them on that list? Maybe. But like the others in this part, it’s more of a curiosity.

It only ran for thirteen issues, likely because its publisher, Welsh Comics aka Welsh Publishing Group, sold itself to Marvel in early 1994. The publisher put out a bunch of magazines like this from different franchises, mostly aimed at children. I don’t have much more to go on about it other than it was originally “a magazine division at another company” not known for children’s magazines and was renamed Welsh Publishing Group in 1987 after its then-head Donald Welsh bought it out. Donald was previously the founding publisher of “Outside” magazine prior to joining the unnamed company.

I should also note that these magazines are not, as I initially believed, the Welsh version, published in Wales, of the “Adventures” comic. My bad.

“Warriors of the Forgotten Sewer” – Single issue only

Back in 1988, Playmate Toys released a line of action figures based on the 1987 TMNT cartoon. This was a comic pack-in for one of the sub-lines from 1994 called, well, “Warriors of the Forgotten Sewer.” It’s basically viking/barbarian turtles. This will not be the first weird toy tie in but it is the most 80s.

‘Ninjara: Seed of Destruction’ Parts 1-3 – Single issue only – “Furrlough” #47-48 & 52

OK. So. This story is in continuity with the 1987 Archie Comics series “TMNT Adventures,” taking place after Ninjara left the turtles at the end of the series. Unlike that series, and the reason these issues are here instead of at the end of that list, “Seed of Destruction” was aimed squarely at adults, running in the furry magazine “Furrlough.” If you’ve read “Adventures,” this move should come as no surprise. It’s never been collected and has never been completed either.

“The Birds, the Bees, and the Turtles! – “Unpublished” single issue only

This is a genuine porn spoof comic that was “published” by Mirage studios. I have quotes around published because it’s one of those “never meant to see public release” kinds of things. Limited production for just the Mirage staff as a farewell gift from Bill Fitts. Since it exists, and has some documentation, it’s here on this list. Of course you know why it’s not on any of the main ones.

“Coney Island Days” – Unpublished officially

This feels like a cheat because it was never published. Drawn by Milton Knight, it was apparently meant to run at some point in an issue of “TMNT Adventures Special,” it was posted on the artist’s website years ago. That site is no longer around and all links to it are either dead or direct to a webpage that my browser flags as “most harmful, dude.” Lost media specialists, do your thing!

‘Cyber Strike!’ – Single issue only – “CBS Action Zone” #1

This is one of the weirder stories in that it isn’t really a “TMNT Adventures” comic, sharing neither the look nor the feel of it, but it is an explicit tie-in to the TMNT (1987) cartoon. It felt like a very strange inclusion in the “Adventures” list proper, and there was no point in having it be its own entry in that part, so here we are.

For the curious, CBS Action Zone was the name of the cartoon block airing the last three seasons of the show’s tenure. This one-shot from 1994 was a promotional tool for the block and also featured Wild.C.A.T.S. and Skeleton Warriors stories.

“Casey Jones in Muscle & Faith” – Online serialization only

Much like “Coney Island Days,” “Muscle & Faith” by Jeff Bonivert was originally supposed to be published by Mirage comics and was commissioned by Kevin Eastman himself but ended up going unreleased. In this case it was because Mirage had stopped publishing for a bit in the late 90s. Since the story was completed, it just needed a new home and that home was on Bonivert’s website in 12 weekly installments over the course of the beginning of 2000. It’s still available too so give it a read. I promise Casey’s thighs aren’t as big as the logo…I think.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up” – Single issue only

A video game pack-in comic to the 2009 Wii game that’s written by Peter Laird and drawn by the other mainstay Mirage “TMNT” artists: Jim Lawson & Eric Talbot. I have little more to say about this one that this Bleeding Cool article with photos of about half the issue doesn’t. It’s just such a funky little pack-in!

“Lego Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” – Single issue only

I didn’t confirm whether or not this ended up in the “New Animated Adventures” trades or omnibus because, until writing this, I didn’t see that the story had serialized as a backup in “New Animated Adventures” #11-13. Originally from lego.com, this is a retelling of the origin, only with lego, and was released as a free one-shot in 2014 for SDCC. I mean, what else is there to say?

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mega Bloks Mutant Mayhem!” – Single issue only

Another free SDCC building toy related comic tie-in, this time from 2016 and from Mega Bloks. The difference though is it started as a print comic, has an original story, and was for a time available free on Mattel’s website but no longer. I dread what the next big toy tie-in is going to be.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Funko Universe” – Single issue only

IDW must be stopped.

Seriously though, it’s pretty much the same story as above, only this one was released for real money. Yay toy tie-in comics.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Family Ambassadors” – Single issue only?

NYC made the turtles their tourism family ambassadors back in 2016 and published a bunch of one-page promos. I can’t find much more about these nor are they available on the NYC tourism page anymore. However! The news article about the campaign was given photos of at least four of the comics so you can read them there. It’s in the style of the then-latest cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012).

”TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo Samurai Special” – Single issue only

I had no idea this thing existed and now I’m angry that it’s never been collected and was only printed in limited quantities. Dang!

The Crusts – International

Just to save some space, assume that everything below has never been collected, either in their home countries or here in the US unless stated.

Japan

“Mutant Turtles” Vol. 1-9 (ミュータント・タートルズ)
“Mutant Turtles III” (ミュータント・タートルズ３)
“Mutant Turtles” Vol. 10-15 (ミュータント・タートルズ)

This series was essentially an adaptation of the 1987 TV show into manga form. I’ll be saying this a lot but it just goes to show you just how freaking popular this series was. 15 volumes directly into the market, two episodes per volume. That’s not nothing. Probably also why there was a rotating team of Tsutomu Oyamada, Zuki Mora, Tadashi Makimura and Yoshimi Hamada.

You’ll also notice I split the volumes to add in the adaptation of Turtles in Time by Yasuhichi Konoha (or maybe it’s Yasuhiko Hachino? Or Hāto Mikaeru? My sources differ on credits and I do not read Japanese.) Because they were put out by the same publisher, and ostensibly share the same aesthetic & continuity as an adaptation of the US TV/film franchises, I decided to place it where the Wikia approximates its publication date.

“Super Turtles 1: Holy Mutastone’s Mystery” (スーパータートルズ 1: 聖なるミュータ石の謎の巻)
“Super Turtles 2: Adventures of Micro-Turtles” (パータートルズ 2: マイクロタートルの冒険)
“Super Turtles 3: Birth of the Silver Warrior Turtle Saint!” (スーパータートルズ 3: 誕生! 白銀の戦士タートルセイントの巻)

Here we have the 3-volume, 1995 series of manga tying into the two episode OVA which itself was a promotional tool for the SuperMutant & Metal Mutant line of toys. Each volume was done by a different person – Hidemasa Idemitsu, Tetsurō Kawade, and Toshio Kudō, in that order – and is once again notable in this way for not being serialized first. That’s pretty rare for manga and speaks to both the expectations of Dengeki Comics and the hype of the turtles.

“Mutant Turtles Gaiden” (ミュータント・タートルズ外伝) Vol. 1

Finally, a series that seems to be within the wheelhouse of comics publishing I’m used to. By that I mean this is the first of the manga to actually have been serialized for four chapters before being collected into a single volume. While still being an adaptation of the 1987 series, it’s more like “Adventures” in its approach than “Mutant Turtles.” That and its lack of connection to any of the prior series is why I kept Hiroshi Kanno’s adaptation separate.

“Mutant Turtles ’95” (ミュータント・タートルズ９５)
“Mutant Turtles ’96” (ミュータント・タートルズ９６)

According to Wikipedia, this is a 1995 series by Ogata Nobu which ran in Comic BomBom and its sequel series that ran through 1996. I can find zero evidence of this comics’ existence. Maybe it’s out there but I cannot verify it. Perhaps this is meant to be the “Story Pages” TMNT Entity talks about? I dunno. I’m leaving here in case I’m wrong but who knows.

“Mutant Turtles: Ore Tacha Kame na 4 Shinobu-gumi”

I came across this while looking for proof of “Mutant Turtles 95.” It’s a gag story about Leonardo going to school published by CoroCoro Ichiban and drawn by Dynamic Taro, maybe? I have no idea if it’s meant to be its own thing or related to the OG “Mutant Turtles” adaptations. My guess is the former.

“Donatello’s New Invention”
“Battle-Action April”
“Battle-Action Casey”

Finally, we have the three pack-in comics from the various toys being made around the 2003 show by Naoto Tsushima. Not much more to say about these comics that I haven’t said about all the other toy comics.

Europe

“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Newspaper Strip” #1-318

That’s right folks. There’s not one but TWO “TMNT” newspaper comics from 1990. While the UK version, published in the Daily Mirror, ran for far shorter, it actually has a recorded number of strips and seemed to be far more plot-driven. At the very least the Wikia has information about this one being in color, running Monday-Saturday, and divided into 5 sections: ‘Introduction’ (1-79,) ‘Mad Cow Denise’ (80-157,) ‘The No Joke Affair’ (158-235,) ‘Holiday in Florida!’ (236-313,) and five final strips (314-318) to plug the subsequent comic magazine series.

You’ll also notice that the series has been changed to “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.” Apparently the word “ninja” was too violent for children and had to be changed or the comics wouldn’t be allowed within 50 metres of a lad.

“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Adventures” Free Mini Comic
“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Adventures” #1-84

I promised myself no reading orders but the story behind the “TMHT” comics is too good not to pass up. For anyone familiar with the UK publishing scene, especially in the late 80s, early 90s, you already know what I’m going to say. I’m looking at you, “Transformers UK” fans. For those who aren’t, get ready for a fun tale.

Unlike its newspaper strip counterpart, “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Adventures” is a reprint magazine of the Archie comics series “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures,” with the appropriate changes made at least to the title. Put out by Fleetway from 1990-1994, what makes it special is that the series was published bi-weekly for much of its run; that is, an issue every two weeks.Seeing as how the US only put out an issue every month, you can see how this would quickly lead to a paucity of stories to reprint.

To alleviate this, “TMHT” began to run their own stories in-between the reprints, leading to a run that’s about one-quarter original. The actual breakdown is as such: of the 84 main issues, 52 are issues of the Archie comics: The original mini “Heroes in a Half-Shell” #1-3, “Adventures” #1-47, 51, and “Mighty Mutanimals” #6 were republished. As you can see, they never quite reached the end of the “Adventures” comics, nor did they do any of the spin-offs or specials aside from the only issue of “Mutanimals” to actually crossover with the main title.

Because of this strangeness, I thought it would be “fun” to break down where these unique issues fit within a reading of the “Adventures” comics. Thankfully, it’s very straightforward. There was a collection of the first three issues – “TMHT Adventures Collectors Edition!” – but it’s basically the same as the 100-page spectacular. If you want to go even further and include all the spin-offs, refer to the list in Part 4 and slot in where appropriate. And if you want to go even further than that, I will be putting notes in the next few sections as to where those issues should slot in.

OK. Here we go.

“TMHT” Free Mini Comic
“Adventures: Heroes in a Half-Shell” #1-3
“Adventures” #1-11
“TMHT” #15-18
“Adventures” #12-13
“TMHT” #21-22
“Adventures” #14-15
“TMHT” #25
“Adventures” #16
“TMHT” #27
“Adventures” #17
“TMHT” #29
“Adventures” #18
“TMHT” #31-32
“Adventures” #19-20
“TMHT” #35-36
“Adventures” #21
“TMHT” #38-39
“Adventures” #22-23
“TMHT” #42
“Adventures” #24
“TMHT” #44
“Adventures” #25
“TMHT” #46
“Adventures” #26
“TMHT” #48
“Adventures” #27
“TMHT” #50
“Adventures” #28
“TMHT” #52-53
“Adventures” #29
“TMHT” #55
“Adventures” #30
“TMHT” #57
“Adventures” #31
“TMHT” #59
“Adventures” #32
“TMHT” #61-63
“Adventures” #33
“TMHT” #65-67
“Adventures” #34
“TMHT” #69
“Adventures” #35-38
“Mighty Mutanimals” #6
“Adventures” #39-47
“Adventures” #51

“Comic Relief Comic”

So, what’s the deal here? “Comic Relief Comic” was a 1991 special released for a charity drive from the Comic Relief organization by Fleetway. The way I understand it is they raise money through comedy shows and the like and it’s still an ongoing thing today. Not the comic, but the organization. It’s an institution, apparently. I’m sure all our British readers (hi Chris) will come after me for being so blasé about it all.

Terrible title aside, “Comic Relief Comic” is basically one big stand-up special featuring a metric ton of random licensed pop-culture characters – Beano, Batman, TMNT, just to name a few. It was created by Richard Curtis, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison but there are no actual credits for artists, colorists, letters, or even script writers. Just these three names. And what a set of names it is. A legendary rom-com scriptwriter and two comics legends at the height of their Vertigo years.

If you’re reading this with the “TMHT” issues, slot this in between issues #29 and #31.

“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Poster Mag” #1-4

What even is a poster mag? I have a general idea – it’s a comic that can be unfolded into a poster? Or maybe it has a poster stapled inside it? Having never seen one in person, that’s the best I got.

These four issues, published by Fleetway, are essentially short one-shots and were apparently created because of the success of issue #18, which was advertised as a “poster mag” i.e. there’s a poster in the middle. That’s all there is to them. They came out May-August 1991.

Issue one can be slotted in #33-34, issue two #35-36, issue three #38-39 and issue 4 #40-41, though the bi-weekly nature of “TMHT Adventures” does make those boundaries more porous.

“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Holiday Special” #1-2
“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Annual” 1990-1992
“Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Special” 1991

I had originally split all three of these into separate entries but upon reflection, that’s silly. The only distinction in story is that the “Holiday Specials” were put out by Fleetway and the “Annuals” and the “Special,” which is an annual in all but name, were put out by Grandreams. They’re a mishmash of reprinted “TMHT” stories, new short-stories, and illustrated prose stories and serve as one more set of additional material that has little bearing on the main title.

The 1991 “Holiday Special” can be read sometime between #29 & 31, like “Comic Relief,” and the 1992 one between #59 and #61.

The rest only have the years for their publication dates so 1990’s Annual can be read anytime between the Free Mini Comic and #25, the 1991 Annual & Special can be read together between #25 and #50 and the 1992 Annual anytime between #50 and #75.

There were also two reprints of the Archie Comics Movie adaptations for “The Movie” and “Secret of the Ooze” but since they’re identical save for another cover and did not have the name changed, I figured it didn’t make sense to list them.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comic” #1-13

Once again, we have a comics magazine that’s actually a magazine with comics. This one was put out by Titan Books for the European Market and not just the UK. Each of the thirteen issues serialized a story set during the 6th season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) aka Flash Forward as well as the “TMNT Prequel” mini-series in 2(ish) part installments before changing over to issue #38 of “Tales of the TMNT” (Vol. 2.) This is also another entry where I could have placed it on the tie-in list but seeing as how it never had a US release, I feel justified leaving it here.

“Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” #1-61

While Panini is an Italian publishing company, they have headquarters in a number of countries and put out English language materials for all of Europe. This magazine is one of those. Like the Titan ones above, “Nickelodeon’s TMNT” is a grab-bag of random stuff alongside a comic or two in each issue. It differs in that this one is far more of an activity based magazine – games, puzzles, etc. – than an informative one with news, interviews, and the like. It’s also the first on this international list to be published after the Viacom buyout, which is the reason for the Nickelodeon in the title.

The stories within are adaptations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) cartoon and by adaptation, I mean they’re not quite “stills from the show” but not even close to “tie-in doing its own thing” like “New Animated Adventures.”

Mexico

“Las Tortuga Ninja” #1-56

Finally, we have one more international edition of the “TMNT Adventures” comics: “Las Tortugas Ninja.” There’s less information available about this one but from what I could find, the publisher, Division, had a closer relationship to Mirage than Fleetway did and that their take on the stories was more in line with what “Adventures” in the US would become than the gag-fest, mostly reprint “TMHT Adventures” in the UK.

In fact, “LTN” went so far as to redraw most, if not all, of the reprint issues, making the aesthetic more uniform. That’s a big deal! “LTN” essentially pulled an “Adventures” with respect to the TV show by abandoning the reprints after the 15th issue. Now, I’m getting this information from the Lost Media Wiki so it’s possible there were additional reprints and they haven’t been verified. I don’t really know.

The last thing to mention is that “Las Tortugas Ninja” had 6 collections of around 5 issues each. It’s not quite #1-30 and like with the issues themselves, little is available in English for me to dig into and, sadly, I do not have the time to do more digging myself. If anyone else is able to complete the information on these issues, please do!

And with “Las Tortugas Ninja,” we’ve done it. Circled the Turtles world and completed our trek through Turtles time. What a journey it’s been. From a small B&W parody comic to an international technicolor sensation, through multiple publishers and every audience under the sun, and from riding high to falling low to getting right back up again. It’s a wonder that since their publication, there have been only a scant few times when no turtles comic has come out. Just goes to show you the staying power of this strange, strange, wonderfully strange series.

Cowabunga! Goongala! And thanks.