Archie

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published from August 1988 to October 1995 by Archie Comics. It is mainly based on the stories of the mutant turtles Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and their rat sensei Splinter. It is set in a separate reality from other TMNT stories.

The initial storylines were close adaptations of the TMNT 1987 TV series, but by the fifth issue Eastman and Laird handed the series over to Ryan Brown andStephen Murphy. In their hands the comic immediately diverged from the cartoon series into unique new story arcs, often incorporating social, environmentalist, and animal rights themes. It also introduced several new characters of various races and backgrounds, including humans, mutants, aliens, and other anthropomorphiccreatures. Additionally, the series added new layers to established players such as April O’Neil, who began training with a katana, and the Shredder, who gradually revealed a sense of honor. The stories were often seen as “deeper” and more “serious” than the cartoon. As the new tales and characters were explored, original antagonists Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady were eventually phased out early, making later appearances during stories involving alien worlds. Shredder would remain a recurring adversary.

The series lasted for 72 issues; in addition, there were numerous annuals, specials and mini series. No trade paperbacks of the runs have been collected and published, other than the versions by Random House and Tundra Publishing, but published by Archie, that collected various issues and stories, and were sold with a tape dramatizing the action. Archie did reprint the comics in a digest format series titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Digest which they publishedquarterly from 1993-1994. These collected TMNTA issues #5-#25.

In celebration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 25th Anniversary, Archie Comics announced that they would release a 104-page, full color trade paperback collection of the first three issues of Archie Comics’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic, which was the adaptation of the original animated show’s mini-series “Heroes in a Half Shell” (though the trade paperback’s cover features new art based on the 2003 TV series). The paperback was released in May 2009. Mirage Studios also printed a trade for the 25th anniversary, titled Future Tense reprinting “Mighty Mutanimals” #7 and “TMNT Adventures” #42-44 and #62-66 in July 2009. The trade was still in black and white at 228 pages. Future Tense was released to coincide with a planned release of the storyline from Mirage entitled Forever Warbut this eventually was canceled.

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