Nicktoons Dimensional Collision Madness! Ch. 38

Special thanks to MrAnimatedToon and chimafan1 for additional dialogue and to CoyoteRom and BoglinAbbey for the characters Semira, William, Noelle, Bram, Deka, Nazarie, Jessika and Catrina.

Chapter 38: Together as One Team!

Back in Volcano Island, Shelley could feel something.

“What’s wrong, Wise Old Crab?” April asked.

“He has got them...” The Wise Old Crab replied.

“That’s right. Alzarax has gotten your friends in deep peril.” The Wise Old Crab explained.

His comments made the heroes slightly upset.

“Oh, that humongous brute!” Cad hollered.

“My best fry cook cannot lose this way!” Mr. Krabs hollered.

“I’m sure he can.” Squidward said.

“That little square dude will keep on going!” Sandy hollered.

“June Bailey won’t lose!” Greta hollered.

“We’ll have faith in her!” Boomer, Steve, Gus and Cooper hollered in unison.

“And the others!” Semira, William, Noelle, Bram, Deka, Nazarie, Jessika and Catrina hollered in unison.

Sam stepped forward.

“I...I refuse to believe that. As long as we fight...and as long as Danny and the others make a comeback, we won’t lose!” Sam said.

“We still have that big Excarder to finish.” Tucker said.

“Then let’s bring it home! For our friends!” Jeera hollered.

“Let’s get the tank and blow this big thing up!” Grandpa Phil hollered.

“SKREEEEOOOOONKK!!!” [REPTAR KILL BIG BAD EXCARDER!!!] Reptar roared.

Therefore, the other heroes went bent on destroying the giant Excarder. In the underground, the Loud parents, the Casagrandes, the McBrides, the Changs, Lincoln’s schoolmates, the Fox quintuplets, Chunk and Sam Sharp’s bandmates put their finishing touches into the explosives required to at least neutralize the ginormous Excarder, allowing the other Nicktoons to put it out of its misery.

“This should do it.” George said.

“Come on, George! We did what we could do enough!” Ruth hollered.

“Everybody... SCRAM!!!” Rita hollered, as the entire Royal Woods/Great Lakes City gang stormed off to safety and detonated the explosives with their remote controls to cause the giant Excarder stumble and fall in the pit hard.

Meanwhile, back in Nano Space, the main heroes have fallen in a deep pit of despair.

“He’s...too...powerful...” Jimmy said.

“He’s surely strong...” Danny said.

“No matter how much we try, he’s one step ahead...” Timmy said.

“He’s unstoppable...” Tak said.

“The feeling of losing...I’ve never felt before...” SpongeBob said.

“Me neither...” Patrick said.

“Does this mean we’ve lost?” Korra asked.

“Has he won...?” Leonardo asked.

“It can’t be...” Donatello replied.

“All of our work...for nothing...” Raphael explained.

“And now, he’s still moving forward to destroy the multiverse.” Michelangelo explained.

“We’ve failed our friends...our family...our loved ones...” Arnold said, tear-eyed.

“At least, we’ll suffer together for eternity, football-head...” Helga commented, tear-eyed as well.

“There’s just one thing I fear: failure...” Lincoln said.

“It’s literally terrible... Our whole future has gotten its days numbered and our power is fading away... It’s too much pressure... We’re blowing everything we hold the dearest...” Lori said, tear-eyed.

“I’m melting... I’m melting... Oh, what a world... what a world...” Leni said, breaking down in tears.

“It’s over now the music of the night...” Luna said, as though she was going to cry.

“Everybody’s a critic...” Luan said.

“Who am I kidding...? I have no idea of what I’m doing... And now I’m probably the laughing stock of the multiverse because he’s always on the top... I deserve this after being a jerk to my poor brother just because I’ve lost one baseball match...” Lynn said, as though she was also going to cry.

“Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair... Down we plunge to the prison of my mind... Down that path into darkness deep as hell...” Lucy said.

“I want my mommy...” Lana whimpered.

“I want her more...” Lola cried.

“Am I out of order...? This whole war is out of order...” Lisa commented.

“There has to be a way...” Jenny said.

“One way to pull it off...” June Bailey said.

“It’s no use. It’s over for us.” El Tigre explained.

“Cat, I feel... tired. Need nap... now.” Dog said.

“Today... is a extremely fateful one...” Rocko commented.

“Oh... the pain... the suffering...” Ren said.

“I don’t like any of this...” Stimpy said.

“We’re so KaBlammed...” June said.

“Let’s just face reality...” Henry said.

“I’ve become bad luck again...” Hap said.

“Darwin... Donnie... Debbie... I’m so sorry...” Eliza said.

“I just wanted my family to stay with me forever...” Tommy Pickles said.

“There’s no point in moving forward.” Harvey explained.

“We’ve lost...” Harpy said.

“He won...” Penny said.

“It’ll take more than an oversized eraser to save me from this torment...” Snap commented.

“Cartoons are now a dying art...” Rudy said.

“I don’t feel so good... I don’t wanna go...” Mighty Mouse said.

“I wonder how is to die like a grilled hot dog...” Pinky said.

“Is this over?” Seventeen asked.

“Please, don’t say it.” Malachi replied.

“I’ll never eat zucchini casserole again...” Olly commented.

“We’re doomed...” Saraline said.

“We were so close to winning...” Ansi said.

“I’m sure the Gromble will give me a big F if he sees this...” Ickis said.

“I’m certain that nothing could change. And this is coming from an irken who’s still bent on destroying Earth.” Zim explained.

“Sorry... I only cry at weddings...” Norbert said.

“Mother of mercy, is this the end of Muscular Beaver?” Dagget asked.

“No! It’s not over! As long as there are worlds to be saved, we can’t lose to Alzarax!” Jimmy hollered, clutching his fists.

The heroes were inspired by Jimmy’s words.

“Timmy, do you remember when we first met?” Jimmy asked.

“Of course.” Timmy replied.

“It was just like yesterday.” Wanda said.

“Good times. Good times.” Cosmo said.

A flashback depicting Jimmy and Timmy meeting each other and visiting each other’s worlds was shown.

“Then, after that, we met Danny and SpongeBob. That’s where we formed a team.” Jimmy explained.

“Oh yeah!” SpongeBob hollered.

“I could never forget that.” Danny explained.

A flashback showing Jimmy, Timmy, Danny and SpongeBob working together was shown.

“Then, not too long ago, Patrick, Sandy, Sam, Tak and even Zim joined our ranks.” SpongeBob explained.

“Right! Best moments of my life!” Patrick hollered.

“It was incredible.” Tak said.

A flashback showing the team battle the Mawgu, the Toybots and the Morphoids was shown.

“Finally, we met a bunch of new friends in this new fight.” Jimmy explained.

“You’re right on that one.” Korra said.

“Someone still has to look at the bright side.” Arnold said.

“We can still come through.” Jenny said.

“A wallaby’s gotta do what a wallaby’s gotta do.” Rocko said.

“My luck hasn’t still left me after all.” Hap said.

“Remember the anthem of the Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen.” Stimpy said.

“I’ve got my brother, sister and pet chimp to save.” Eliza said.

“If you need me, I’ll be bringing Alzarax’s head home tonight!” Lynn hollered.

“Sounds like it’s going to be fun!” Lincoln hollered.

“Hey dudes, I’m ready to take on Alzarax!” Luna hollered.

“Hey Luna, is Lynn your partner?” Leni asked.

“Yeah! She helped me kick some Excarder anus back. Plus, the Heroic Extreme can perform all abilities as we press the quantum plate together.” Luna replied.

“Well, I hope you guys have fun!” Luan hollered.

“Hey, can I give you some feedback about this?” Lynn asked.

“Sure thing. I heard that hero teams have cool names. Do you have one?” Luna asked.

“Sure do. We are...” Lynn replied.

“Lynnsanity and Lunatic!!! Yeahhhh!!!” Lynn and Luna hollered in unison.

“We won’t let Alzarax have his way!” Jimmy hollered.

Then, a bright light surrounded the heroes who regained consciousness.

“We’re back...” Danny said.

Heroic Extreme’s neon red eyes became gold as he was successfully rebooted and also donned a white cape.

“Heroic Extreme has become some sort of a superhero. By our wishes.” Tak explained.

“Alzarax!” Jimmy hollered.

“You’re going for more?” Alzarax asked, turning around as he sees Heroic Extreme and the heroes still standing.

“We’ll do something NOT nice!” Rocko replied.

“Allow me to show you the true meaning of fear!” Ickis hollered.

“Wait till Snap gets a load of you!” Rudy hollered.

“I’m gonna make an offer you can’t refuse!” Lola hollered.

“Are you laughing? Are you laughing at me?” Luan asked.

“I’m not a force to be reckoned with!” Eliza hollered.

“I’m a-fix in’ to kick your asp!” Pinky hollered.

“The fight is not over yet!” Timmy hollered.

“Far from it!” The Nicktoons hollered in unison.

My first Geraldine comic

Hello. In my first blog post since I left Specialisterne, I'm posting my first comic starring my own character Geraldine the Maned Wolf. Hope you enjoy.

Turma do Barulho - os anti-heróis dos quadrinhos infantis e brazucas

Estudos de criação dos personagens

TV Colosso, Menino Maluquinho, Turma da Fofura, Os Trapalhões, Fofão, Senninha... todas estas séries são exemplos das muitas tentativas da Editora Abril de substituir as crias de Maurício de Sousa. Afinal, ao sair da casa em 1987, Maurício levou com seus ganha-pães seu enorme faturamento em bancas para a Editora Globo, deixando a casa do Pato Donald em crise financeira.

Os cartunistas ficaram satisfeitos com a situação, pois foram-lhes apresentados liberdade para mostras suas novas criações.

Foi aí que o ilustrador e cartunista Jotah e a produtora e colorista Sany (craques em desenhos infantis, tendo produzido desenhos animados para o programa Rá-Tim-Bum da TV Cultura, a série Aladdin da Disney, revistas da LBV e ilustrações para livros didáticos e jogos infantis) resolveram criar em 1993 um projeto de uma nova HQ para a Abril. Isso acabou congestionando a fila de candidatos à vaga de Maurício na casa.

A Turma do Barulho. Da esquerda para a direita: Bob, Tóbi, Carol, Kid Bestão, Milu e Babi

A Turma do Barulho foi criada como a Turma da Nani para outra editora, mas os personagens ainda não tinham sido desenvolvidos e foi por isso que a Abril só lançou o primeiro número da revista em 1996. A mais ousada, irreverente, anárquica e divertida HQ infantil/pré-adolescente já criada no Brasil. Uma ousadia que, comparando, fez com que outras HQs infantis parecessem histórias da carochinha, deixando os quadrinhos de anti-heróis dos anos 90 na sola do chinelo. Foi a última tentativa da Abril com HQs brazucas até Gemini 8, UFFO e Garoto Vivo na Vila Cemitério serem o ano em que o mundo quase acabou. Tinha 32 páginas coloridas e saiu com a tiragem de 30 mil exemplares.

As histórias eram centradas em uma turma na escola, só que mostradas de um outro ponto de vista, nunca antes mostrado em outras HQs infantis. A gíria, o palavrão, o grafite nos muros, a mania de cabular e colar na prova, o bullying sofrido e praticado, a turma do fundão, os adereços, os peidos, o "te pego lá fora", as brigas e rixas entre turmas, a paixão por video games, a loira do banheiro.... Enfim, tudo de bom ou ruim que fez e faz parte da infância de qualquer criança estava lá, com muito bom humor.

Espiar a menina tomando banho...

...e as conseqüências.

Jotah foi mais do que ousado de não só mostrar o universo lúdico da criança, mas também o seu lado mais humano, sarcástico, rebelde. Qual criança na vida nunca zombou de outra e nem soltou um palavrão?

Repare na tirinha à esquerda da ficha técnica da Turma do Barulho no. 2 da Editora Press para ver o quanto safados esses moleques têm sido.

Os personagens da revista tinham os hormônios à flor da pele e refletiam uma geração que entrava na adolescência na velocidade-luz. Diversas situações foram criadas nas histórias pra mostrar a atitude desta nova geração. Duas meninas Milu e Babi já estão querendo namorar e se apaixonam perdida e cegamente por qualquer representante do sexo masculino. Os meninos espiam as mulheres se trocando ou tomando banho, e até ousam dar uma espiadinha por debaixo da mesa, na cor da calcinha da professora. Brincadeiras infantis que já beiram à sexualidade.

O romance que não era restrito à mãozinha dada. Os personagens da Turma do Barulho não eram assexuados.

Para produzir a revista, Jotah montou um estúdio na Rua Direita, no centro de São Paulo, e reuniu um bando de artistas vindos principalmente de animação. Enrique Valdez, Rosana Valin (atual MSP), Jarbas Valin, Tomaz Edson, Jean Okada, Nelson Lima e Paulo Santos eram a equipe que cuidava da revista. Para criar um visual moderno e não-convencional, seus artistas empregavam uma diagramação que enfatizava as cenas soltas, algumas sem requadro e cores contrastantes.

Nessa aventura publicada na primeira edição, Babi veste sua prótese e já se acha uma mocinha.

O lançamento da número 1 foi tão tumultuado quanto à pré-estréia de um novo filme-evento. Uma troca repentina de papel inicialmente prensado para a impressão do gibi fez com que os tons de pele de todos os personagens parecessem muito escuros, quase negros. Realmente, a cor escolhida seria mais morena, porém, para um papel de qualidade superior, o que só pôde ser consertado na 3a edição, quando foi adotada uma tonalidade mais clara.

A partir da 3a edição, a tonalidade da pele dos personagens tornou-se mais clara, para se adequar à impressão no papel-jornal. Compare este número com o primeiro.

A capa teve de ser modificada constantemente antes de chegar à sua versão final. Houve uma certa censura por parte da editora, principalmente nos diálogos dos personagens, pois temiam chocar o público. Mesmo assim, era comum encontrar expressões como "bunda", "mijão", "boiola", nomes que até hoje só podem ser encontradas na revista MAD.

As histórias também focavam em temas polêmicos, como por exemplo, fumar na adolescência, sempre mostrando que era legal ou não.

Em uma ótima jogada de marketing, o estúdio produziu, com seu próprio orçamento, uma propaganda animada veiculada no sul do país. A Rede Globo cobriu o lançamento, inclusive com uma entrevista com seu criador, feita pela jornalista e atual âncora do Jornal Hoje, Sandra Annenberg. Os personagens roubaram a cena no Festival Internacional de Quadrinhos do HQ Mix realizado no SESC Pompéia. Ao lado da Turma da Mônica, Seninha e dos personagens do Cartoon Network, a Turma do Barulho apareceu no telão em um vídeoclipe com direito a uma trilha de um grupo de rock.

A Folhinha de São Paulo destinou a capa e sua reportagem aos astros em ascensão das bancas. O jornalista Thales de Menezes fez uma matéria excelente sobre o lançamento e os papparazzi levaram o gibi para a diversão dos alunos do Colégio Augusto Laranja em São Paulo. As crianças opinaram e elogiaram principalmente a linguagem do gibi, mais fie l à realidade, ao dia-a-dia na escola, com suas aprontações, paqueras e aventuras. O pequeno estúdio da Rua Direita passou a receber cartas da massa popular brasileira. A Turma do Barulho conseguiu não uma fatia do bolo e sim o bolo inteiro!

Cautelosamente, Jotah deixou para fazer o lançamento oficial do gibi apenas na quinta edição, quando já se pode saber se o título decolou ou não. Em uma estande da livraria Melhoramentos, mais de 300 pessoas, entre cartunistas e o público em geral, se acotovelavam pra folhear a revista e saber o que a turma estaria aprontando nesta nova edição. Um sucesso! Teve até apresentação do coral da LBV. Isto foi no domingo.

Como tudo que é bom dura pouco, a Abril extinguiu o selo Abril Jovem e levou com ele muitos títulos, incluindo Turma do Barulho. Apesar do triste fim, os personagens conseguiram mais uma chance, saindo pela Editora Press a partir de 1997, totalizando 6 números.

Jotah continuou sua carreira e hoje é um dos ilustradores mais renomados do Brasil, além de escrever vários de seus livros.

Esportes radicais eram a diversão desta turma.

E foi assim que a Turma do Barulho veio, provocou um terremoto no mercado de quadrinhos, foi um sucesso de crítica, matou Frank Miller e o pessoal da Image Comics de inveja, causou indignação, revolta e admiração em muita gente e, como um grande cometa, passou rapidamente e desapareceu. Dificilmente é mencionada em premiações ou mesmo em publicações que contem a história da HQ brasileira.

Curiosamente, na mesma época, a banda Mamonas Assassinas causava a mesma indignação ao fazer o público infantil e adolescente brasileiro cantar frases como "Oh Maria, essa suruba me excita". Sua carreira foi encurtada por um acidente aéreo que matou todos os seus integrantes. Coincidentemente, o gibi também foi um marco. Tanto a banda quanto o gibi tinham o único propósito: divertir.

O mundo já tinha mudado, mas a mídia só percebeu algum tempo depois.

Colar ou não o brinco? Eis a questão de uma nova geração.

Atualmente, os quadrinhos já dialogam com uma nova criança, antenada, conectada ao mundo... Um "pequeno adulto", como bem disse o Maurício de Sousa, em entrevista a Fernando Vives da revista Carta Capital. A Turma do Barulho sacou tudo isso lá em 1996. Com uma versão mais sarcástica e bem humorada, trouxe para as bancas a galera que está aí até hoje. Uma pena, porque... talvez fosse cedo demais.

Fonte: alexandrehq.blogspot.com.br/2013/08/turma-do-barulho-um-furacao-que.html

Heroes in the Half-Shell

Last sunday, I went to Comic-Con Experience in São Paulo, Brazil. While I was on the Nickelodeon stand, I saw natural-scaled statues of the Turtles on display and costumed TMNT characters on meet-and-greets. This is what inspired me to write about the TMNT franchise as the second post of my blog.

'80s: the rise of the Turtles.

As famous for the 1987 toyetic cartoon as they've always became, they weren't created in the animated cartoon format. They were instead born in an independent comic book created and published in 1984 (the same year my parents married) by cartoonists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Everything began out of nowhere in an afternoon when both were searching for good ideas. Eastman drew a turtle wearing a bandana and playing with nunchaku. They both found it really funny, because the slow stamina of a turtle and the badass ninjitsu skills obviously detracted from each other. It was so unusual that they decided to develop that idea, and, consequently, created a quartet of turtles, each one specialized in a certain Asian weapon.

Thanks to Kevin's uncle's financial support, the duo published 3000 copies of the first issue of the original series in the magazine format, black-and-white and newspaper. It wasn't a over-serious story, it was just a funny parody of the likes of Marvel's New Mutants and Daredevil which were on vogue at that time. The plot of the first issue was simple, yet magnificent: due to a car crash which caused an radioactive substance spill, the same substance seriously affected four normal turtle pets which were carried by a boy. Shocked by the accident, the boy drops the polluted turtles in a sewer. Meanwhile, a formidable ninja master Hamato Yoshi leaves Japan to live in USA after a love triangle killed his best friend Oruku Nagi. Yoshi has a pet rat called Splinter who also became a formidable ninja master by copying his human master's skills while training. Nagi's evil brother called Saki the Shredder, nevertheless, tracks down Yoshi in his despair for vengeance and kills him in the pursuit, An unscathed Splinter runs away to the sewers where he befriends the four turtle pets still bathing in the radioactive shit. All five animals are simultaneously affected, acquiring anthropomorphism and speech abilities.

Splinter decided to train the turtles as his pupils to revenge on the Shredder, the ruler of New York's crime-filled neighborhoods with the help of his Foot Clan subordinates. He named the Turtles after four Renaissance artists Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, and specializes them in their respective weapons katana, sai, bo and nunchaku, so they could perfect their skills as a team.

Eastman and Laird took their then-created story to a New Hamsphire comic-con where the print has quickly run, making the Turtles an instant success, leading the duo to establish their own comic studio and publisher Mirage Studios to write, draw and publish the regular series which would still be black-and-white. The new series introduced April O'Neil and mercenary Casey Jones, the Turtles' best human friends, mad scientist Baxter Stockman and an alien race Utrom. The turtles had already killed the Shredder, only for him to be revived by a mystical rite and remain the Turtles' pain in their assholes until issue #11 where he was beheaded by Leonardo. At that point, the Turtles were already a phenomenon, with lots of merchandise gallore, and to increase the workload their creators relied on "guest artists" to write and draw the stories, leading to a more episodic continuity. It wasn't until issue #50 that the continuity was once again defined when the original creators supervised the bulk of work and wrote and drew a new saga which lasted until the classic series' final issue #62 in 1993. Two months later, a new series, this time in color, was published as Volume 2 which only lasted 13 issues due to the crash of comic books. In 1996, Erik Larsen took over the series, launching what would be known as Volume 3 through Image Comics, again black-and-white. The jumping-the-shark additions to the characters (such as Leonardo losing one hand, Donatello turned into a robot and Raphael becoming the Shredder, for example) pissed the fans and killed the series in 1999 after 23 issues. Voulme 3 is not canon in the Turtles' chronology.

The show that was the face of the franchise in the late '80s and early '90s.

On the other hand, as the classic series was striking the hot iron, Eastman and Laird partnered with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson to turn the comics into cartoon format. Premiering on December 1987, the TMNT cartoon was so successful that many people thought the cartoon came first. However, the cartoon distanced from the comics, as it was more kid-friendly alongside the story differences. For example, Splinter and Hamato Yoshi became the same character: a human who, after being betrayed by his teammate Oruku Saki and expelled from the Foot Clan, moves out from Japan to USA where he lives in the NY sewers where he adopts four turtle pets who were abandoned by their former owners. One day, a strange liquid befalls all five, turning the turtle pets into talking anthropomorphized animals and Splinter into an anthropomorphic rat. Another difference is that Shredder is a standard supervillain instead of the organized crime lord, who happens to act as a subordinate to Kraang, an alien who wants to take over the world with his superadvanced technology and lives in his Technodrome. The Foot Soldiers are merely reduced to Shredder's robotic minions built by Kraang. But the most famous change is that the cartoon gave the turtles' bandanas more distinct colors (Leonardo's became blue, Raphael's is red, Donatello's got purple and Michelangelo's would become orange) while in the original source material all of them wore red masks. The cartoon also added Shredder's two bumbling lackeys Bebop and Rocksteady (an warthog and a rhino, respectively), and April's friends, news reporters Irma and Vernon.

The cartoon was able to last 10 seasons until 1996 with 193 episodes (a feat successfully matched by Spongebob Squarepants from Nickelodeon, whose parent Viacom would later acquire the TMNT property, which I'll talk about further). Despite this, the cartoon was not officially canon on Mirage's eyes as Eastman and Laird had yet to utilize the cartoon-only characters in their works. Despite this, most of the TMNT merchandise utilized the cartoon's aesthetic approach and, conversely, the animation fans only view the show as official, ignoring the comics. As a result of fan demand, Archie Comics published a comic series whose stories and visuals were based on those from the 1987 cartoon.

The turtles' first foray into Hollywood

The cartoon's popularity also led to production of a trilogy of live-action movies produced by HK-based major Golden Harvest and released by New Line Cinema. The first one came in 1990, featuring the revolutionary animatronic costumed puppets designed and built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop (the same guys who created the Muppets, the cast of Sesame Street, the Sinclair family from Dinosaurs and the title cartoon character Sid the Science Kid). The movie's story was more faithful to the comics, specifically the classic series. The first sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze from 1991 was closely faithful to the cartoon as it was more comedic and light-hearted due to the original film's criticisms launched by parents who found it more violent. In this sequel, only Donatello used his bo while his brothers used other on-set props. While based on the show, Eastman and Laird couldn't find a good room for Bebop and Rocksteady, so they decided to create Tokka and Rahzar (an evil mutant turtle and a big bad wolf, respectively) instead. The third and final movie premiered in 1993, focusing on the Turtles turning back to feudal Japan to rescue April who got stranded there by accident. Because they were busy The Flintstones, Babe and Dinosaurs, the Henson Creature Shop couldn't get a job in this movie. As a result, the Turtles and Splinter were created by All Creature Effects with less-than-stellar results.

A well-known stop-motion animation/animatronic/puppet firm Chiodo Brothers worked on Saban/Fox Kids' tokustatsu series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation which premiered in 1997. The new show was set after the events of the third movie and introduced the turtles' sister Venus de Milo. As the show struggled to find an audience, the show got plugged after only one season. Before the cancelation, the Turtles had a crossover with the Power Rangers in a story arc from Power Rangers in Space.

In 2001, Peter Laird decided to revive the Turtles on his own accord, first as a new comic series known as Volume 4, again through Mirage Studios. This new bi-monthly series is set 15 years after the events of Volume 2, dismissing Volume 3. Three years later, a new comic series Tales of the TMNT was launched as an interquel between Volumes 2 and 4, being essentially the true Volume 3. This series was named after a seven-issue miniseries published in 1987.

The millenium Turtles

The new comics' popularity led Mirage Studios to co-produce a new cartoon for Fox with 4Kids Entertainment in 2003. The new show would be more faithful to the comics, complete with a more mature tone, despite still kid-friendly. The 2003 cartoon was adapted into a seven-issue comic miniseries published by Dreamweave and lasted until 2009 when Viacom acquired the TMNT brand. Because of the changes on the Turtles' personalities, Shredder's origins (in this show, he was an utrom) and Bebop and Rocksteady only appearing in the 2003 cartoon's series finale, the TV movie crossover Turtles Forever, the original show's fans didn't respond to the new one as well as the comic book fans who viewed the old one as kid-friendly. All the TMNT merchandise at the time was based on the 2003 show. A 2007 CGI animated feature film was produced by Mirage Studios and also HK-based Imagi Animation and released by Warner Bros. Pictures and the Weinstein Company, featuring the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) as April, Mako (in his final role before his death) as Splinter, Chris Evans (Captain America) as Casey Jones, Patrick Stewart as Max Winters/Yaotl and Laurence Fishburne as the narrator. In the new movie, the Turtles, having grown apart after their final victory on Shredder, must reunite to save New York from ancient monsters.

Not just cartoons... we're Nicktoons!

In 2009, Viacom acquired the TMNT brand. As part of the merger, Kevin Eastman would resume writing and drawing new TMNT stories to be published by IDW. The new comics were launched in 2011 and feature characters from all TMNT incarnations from the past and the present, most notably Bebop and Rocksteady, and the Mighty Mutanimals, in addition to new characters such as Old Hob, a mutant stray cat, and Alopex, a mutant polar fox. Also, a new storyline introduced Splinter and the Turtles as reincarnations of the late Hamato Yoshi and his sons.

In 2012, Nickelodeon produced a new CGI cartoon blending characters, concepts and plot devices from every single TMNT continuity. Two years later, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies released the Michael Bay-produced the live-action remake starring Megan Fox as April, Will Arnett as Vernon and the Turtles as performance-captured animated characters by Industrial Light & Magic. A sequel premiered this year, introducing Baxter Stockman, Kraang, Bebop and Rocksteady in the new movies.

To close this post, here's a fun fact: the original 1987 cartoon was renamed Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe, as censorship didn't want certain violent words to be used in a children's product such as "ninja". However, as the European censorship was increasingly toned down, all future media released on European territories retain the original title.

Hilda sketches

Welcome to my blog! The first post will feature my doodles of my favorite heroine Hilda, from a great comic book series of the same name by Luke Pearson, a story artist who worked on Cartoon Network's Adventure Time. I can't wait to see her coming to life on Netflix very soon. Enjoy it!