But, I would like to spend a moment back in memory land.
Recently I heard news about now the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sold off to Nickelodeon by Mirage Studios. It was a bit of a shock for me.
I know, I know, a lot of you are like "pfft, they're just green talking turtles. They were always dorky! Why should you care?"
Well, why do I care?
For one thing, I grew up fairly close to where Mirage Studios was located out of in the 90's, in Amherst MA. Mirage was based outta Haydenville/Easthampton/Northampton in the 90's, and today is based out of Northampton. Most of us kids into comic books in the Pioneer Valley were at least aware of this studio, but well, I thought it was the best thing in the world. A group of people, right near me, making COMIC BOOKS? And they DIDN'T work for some New York company like DC/Marvel/insert mainstream blah blah blah here?? Awesome! When I got to skim through their issues (Vol 1 TMNT), I was always impressed by the free-spirited nature of the issues, showing a wide variety of stories, styles, and ideas from many independent comic book artists.
(Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird of course, but also Michael Dooney, Jim Lawson, Eric Talbot, Rich Veitch, AC Farley, Dave Sim, Mark Bode, the list goes on....)
With this sale, marks an uncertain future for Mirage Studios. Their primary IP for the past oh, decade at least, was TMNT. They tried publishing other comics during the early 90's (Gizmo, Fugitoid,etc), but really, they were known for Turtles. I'm really curious what is going to happen to Mirage once their current Turtles line stops printing around May 2010. I really hope at least the core group of artists still at Mirage stick together for new ideas, or to at least perhaps, use that vast 20+ years of knowledge to influence and/or guide all those who wish to learn about the comics business.
(I for one, would LOVE to meet, or at least talk to any of these artists in the future...I think Kevin or Peter especially, but also I love Michael Dooney and Jim Lawson's work too...)
One more thing before I shut up again (lol). I should also note that a big influence on me related to these fellows/the Turtles was one December, 1997. I won a raffle at the Words and Pictures Museum (A comic book museum owned by Kevin Eastman in Northampton- no longer in existance, unfortunately.) when I had last visited....when the freakin' BATMOBILE from Batman Forever showed up in my small ass town, lol.
This was Vol 1, #2 of the Mirage TMNT, all the way from the 1980's. Kevin and Peter even signed it in the inside cover. I shall show you its awesome.
(I'm way too lazy to blur out the name/phone....none of it is valid for me anymore anyways, I don't live in MA anymore! :< )
(Kevin drew a little cute Turtle head with his signature! I always loved that! XD)
As for the comic itself....it introduced me to Vol 1 of Mirage. I have a few issues here and there, but unfortunately older Mirage comics are REALLY FREAKING HARD to find nowadays thanks to them being, you know, 15-25 yearsish old! I really hope Viacom contracts a company in the future to give Vol 1 the publication it deserves....but I guess considering its hard to get-ness, I will say that there are torrents of the comics floating about that are easier to get than any of the hard copies. Not like Mirage is getting any more money from the Turtles anyways....I'm a fan of fair use of comics so long as you know, they've been out of print for a considerable amount of time...
