The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a staple of the comics scene anymore, spawning several dozen different comics, cartoons, and movies. The comics -- the original black and white ones by Eastman and Laird -- were indeed well done and something of a radical departure from mainstream comics at that time. (Although I believe both Eastman and Laird freely admitted to ripping off Frank Miller, Will Eisner, and a number of other great comic creators in their early days.)
The comic, at first, seemed like something of a fad, with the quirky drawings and an even quirkier name. So, not surprisingly, it also spawned a number of rip-offs, which took only the most superficial of elements with them. My father recently dropped off some more of his comics collection for me, and he actually bought many of them. I thought I'd share some of the concepts...
And, yes, these are all REAL comic books.
6 comments:
Actually, Samurai Penguin wasn't that bad...
Aiiig, I'd forgotten about Solson!
There was a lot that was cool about comics in the '80's, and then there was this stuff.
How dare you rag on the Sultry Teenage Super Foxes!!
I actually collected TMNT knock-offs back then - I've got most of those issues up there in an old longbox, along with the first few Rock 'n' Roll Comics, some early Usagi Yojimbos, and a ton of weird dollar-bin stuff. (My favorite was Danse Macabre 3-D, a semi-gruesome horror book that I really want to look at again.) I was a weird kid.
Power Pachyderms!
Oddly, the only one of those I remembered was Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters.
I wonder how many were full-on parodies, and how many were just trying to cash in.
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