Turtles Forever

Despite having missed this when it aired on the CW a couple weekends ago, thanks to the magic of YouTube, I was able to watch this full-length feature before it was released on DVD (a date which has been pushed back so many times, it’s no longer even officially announced as coming out).

So, this was advertised as a meeting of the original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, and the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles relaunch, as well as the final chapter of the 2003 animated series. Since I’ve been such a huge TMNT fan since 1987 (without knowing what I was getting myself into, I watched the five-episode pilot series that aired in prime time the week between Christmas and New Years in ‘87…and within the following year, had a good number of the toys and merchandise), and I’m one of the few twenty-somethings who gave the 2003 reboot a fair chance, I knew I had to check this out.

A few things you need to know going in:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was started by two guys (Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird) in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1984. They drew a single black-and-white issue, and used their tax return money to pay for printing. Within one day of its release, all 5,000 copies sold out. In 1984, in the independent comics world, this was pretty much unheard of. Based on the success of that first issue and its subsequent re-printings, Eastman and Laird continued on with the series. Within a couple of years, they wanted to make action figures of the Turtles and related characters. Playmates toys stepped up and agreed to make the toys, but only if a cartoon could be secured. In 1987, Fred Wolf Films met with the duo to discuss making an animated series, but a few changes had to be made; the Turtles had to wear differently-colored masks (they originally all wore red…not that you can tell, in B&W comics), and the tone of the series had to appeal to a younger audience.

The early episodes of the ‘87 cartoon were pretty decent. New characters were created specifically for the series, such as Krang the evil brain from Dimension X, Bebop the mutant warthog, and Rocksteady the mutant rhinocerous. For some reason, the turtles were obsessed with pizza (a fact that every pizza chain in the world fell in love with), and the show quickly degenerated into a bunch of terrible puns and slapstick humor. It lasted for nine seasons, ending in 1996, with a total of 193 episodes. Not too bad, really.

In 2003, the TMNT cartoon was resurrected by 4Kids! Entertainment (who had previously translated Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! for US broadcast TV to much success). The first episode was entitled “Things Change,” and immediately we knew that things would be different. There were no pizza jokes. The turtles would often exclaim, “What the shell?” in moments of distress, as a thinly-veiled censorship. Bebop and Rocksteady, the two bumbling buffoon henchmen of The Shredder were nowhere to be seen. Krang was nonexistant. And Shredder himself… was not only a total badass, he was also part of an alien race known as the Utroms (from the original comics) hell-bent on universal conquest. The plots of the episodes were often taken directly from the original Eastman & Laird comics. These weren’t the Turtles that I grew up with… These were the Turtles that grew up with me.

The first four seasons of the 2003 TMNT cartoon, in my opinion, were absolutely fantastic. Even if it weren’t the TMNT, I would rank this among the best US animated series of all time. Season 5, despite being completely finished, did not air, putting a halt to all ongoing stories. Instead, we were treated to a soft reboot of the series called “TMNT: Fast Forward,” where the turtles were sent 100 years into the future. Fast Forward lasted for 26 episodes over two years (though it was officially only one season).

After the end of Fast Forward, season 5 was finally aired in early 2008. After the summer hiatus, Season 7 was subtitled “Back to the Sewers,” where the turtles returned from 2105 to present-day. Admittedly, I didn’t catch too much of this season. It was better than Fast Forward, but the dark, serious tone of the first four seasons was still significantly lightened up.

Still breathing? Okay. So here’s a very very brief synopsis of the movie:

Turtles Forever opens after the events of Back to the Sewers. The 2003 turtles run into the 1987 turtles, and the eight (!) Ninja Turtles realize that the ‘87 turtles, along with Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, and their ultimate battle station, the Technodrome were transported to the 2003 Turtles’ world. The 1987 Shredder realizes that if they’re in a new dimension that has more turtles, there must be another Shredder. And he finds Ch’Rell, the Utrom Shredder from the 2003 series… who quickly takes command of the entire operation, and enhances every single bit of Dimension X technology with his extensive knowledge of Utrom tech, and then hops dimensions to… the original Eastman & Laird comics universe. The ‘87 and ‘03 turtles follow suit, and quickly run into the original, black & white Ninja Turtles… who mess everybody up. Hardcore.

This is definitely a movie that’s worth checking out if you’re a TMNT fan. If you’re not, it probably won’t win you over, as it requires at least a basic knowledge of the TMNT from all three universes (although, hopefully, my primer above is enough!). But I’ll definitely be checking this out on DVD.

Also, word on the ‘net is that 4Kids will have it up on their website sometime in December, with an additional 12 minutes of footage that wasn’t shown on the broadcast premiere. So if you’re itching to see it, keep an eye on www.4kids.tv

Hmf. In hindsight…

We should’ve called yesterday “Blackest Friday,” to tie-in with the Green Lantern: Blackest Night story going on. Oh well. Maybe next year we can tie in our sales with other current crossovers.

Watching the sunrise

We got up at O’Dark Thirty this morning. It was cold and dark. But today is special. Today is known as Black Friday.  According to Wikipedia, the term “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit).

We opened up on Dec. 6th last year, so this is our first Black Friday, which is why we had to get up so early. The world is different at this time of day. (Can you tell I am not usually an early riser?) We actually watched the sky lightening as we drove in.

We’ve been open for less than an hour and we’ve already seen several customers. In fact, we even had customers waiting for us to open! What a trip!  I like this Black Friday stuff even if I did have to get up so early.

Tony Parker confirmed!

Tony Parker (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) just confirmed for our one-year anniversary. Add him to the list of already-confirmed talent (STUMP Comix founder Tosh Delaney, Death Dealer scribe Jay Fotos, and Tin Star Tex creator Ben Glendenning), and our party is shaping up quite nicely!

December 5th, at Comic Zone. Be there!

Invincible Iron Man 15-19 Review

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“World’s Most Wanted”

When Iron Man hit theatres, last May, Marvel decided to re-launch Iron Man with a new #1 issue. They hoped that the film-generated interest in the character combined with a relaunch would make for a great new series.

And, with up-and-coming writer Matt Fraction on the series, it’s been quite good. Fraction wasn’t given too much inside detail on the movie, and had apparently written the entire first story arc before the film was even released. Fortunately, the story he wrote worked as an indirect sequel to the film and really got things rolling, right out of the gate.

And then Dark Reign happened. Norman Osborn took over everything that Tony Stark was in charge of (SHIELD/HAMMER, the 50-States Initiative, etc.), and Stark decided he needed to protect the identities of his fellow super heroes from a madman like Osborn. So, via a bunch of pseudo-science that only works in SyFy Channel movies and comic books, Tony Stark deleted his brain.

So, as the issues go by, Stark gets progressively more forgetful. By the time issue 15 picks up, he’s already forgotten a lot of the higher functions of his brain, such as anything that rocket scientists would know. He’s forgotten most peoples’ identities, and is slowly beginning to forget more things, like how to spell and use a screwdriver.

But, before his brain’s deletion, Tony left his secretary, Pepper Potts, an Iron Man (Iron Woman?) suit of her own, which Pepper named “Rescue.” Together, along with the Black Widow and former SHIELD director Maria Hill, the trio of ladies made a break for it to try and take Osborn down, once and for all.

In issue 19, Norman Osborn, in his Iron Patriot armor, has found Tony Stark, in a modified version of the Iron Man Mark IV armor (his classic outfit from the late 60s and 70s), and the two engage in a rather one-sided battle. But Tony’s lady-friends manage to get every major news outlet on the scene, and Osborn is forced to simply imprison Tony Stark, rather than outright murder him. But when Osborn wants to pull the plug on Stark’s life support, he’s reminded that Stark’s power of attorney goes to his physician, Dr. Donald Blake.

Salvador Larroca’s pencil work has rarely been better than his run on Iron Man. Every character is easily distinguishable from each other (even the two redheads, Pepper Potts and the Black Widow, who share a lot of panel-time together), and the story is told magnificently. Even without Matt Fraction’s great dialogue, you’d have a really good idea of what was happening, which is exactly how comic art should be done.

The coloring, in my opinion, is a little bit over-rendered. It works, because this is an Iron Man book, but it’s not a style of coloring that I’d like to see Marvel use on a line-wide basis. However, the palette used by colorist Frank D’Armata is certainly always befitting of the mood, and does enhance the atmosphere.

The second half of “World’s Most Wanted,” a year-long run in Invicible Iron Man, sets up for this week’s “Stark: Disassembled” storyline, which will then lead into the series’ SIEGE crossover, Marvel’s next big event, which will see the reuniting of Iron man, Thor, and Steve Rogers as Captain America as The Avengers.

Fraction and Larroca are doing with Iron Man exactly what Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting began doing with Captain America back in 2004; Stripping the character down to the essentials, only to re-build him bigger and better than before. If Stark: Disassembled and the SIEGE tie-in can live up to the excellence of World’s Most Wanted, and the creative team stays on the title afterwards, I predict that this will become one of those legendary runs in comics that people will talk about for years to come. And it may just be the most intriguing run on Iron Man since the mid-80s.

Day before Thanksgiving News

Lots going on in our store this week. Today is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! and we have had a busy day.

Amidst all of our customers, we managed to have a staff meeting today where Andy told us about our new site! Isn’t it lovely?

We also finalized plans for our first ever Black Friday sale on Friday morning, from 7 am till noon. Everything in the store will be 50% off for those 5 hours.  We’re hoping many of our regular customers take advantage of the sale and tell all their friends.

Friday will also be the day that we release our Loyalty Cards. For those who want them, we will be issuing a card to be stamped each time you buy a trade paperback or graphic novel. After you buy 20 of them, you can get one free. I’m excited about this. We have talked about it for awhile, and this seems the perfect time to launch them.

And then a week from Saturday is our Anniversary Party! I’ll post about that another time. Let me just say that’s it’s going to be FUN….

Dec. 5th: Comic Zone’s 1-year anniversary

Coming December 5th, 2009: Comic Zone’s 1-year anniversary party. Belly dancers! Cake!

Confirmed guests include:
- STUMP Comix founder Tosh Delaney (Myspace.com/stumpcomix)
- Jay Fotos (Frank Frazetta comics/Jayfotos.com)
- Ben Glendenning (Tin Star Tex/skulljammer.com)
- Of the Earth Belly dancers

Still waiting to hear back from a few folks.

There will be cake.

More info to come! Stay tuned!

ComicZoneAZ.com goes to WordPress!

Welcome to the All-New, All-Different ComicZoneAZ.com!

Our website is now powered by WordPress, one of the most robust, streamlined blogging tools in the world. Plenty of businesses and personal websites are run entirely on WordPress.

So why the change?

We wanted the simplicity and adaptability that WP allowed. It will be much easier for us to keep the website updated, to let you all know about our most recent upcoming events and announcements.

Linda and Andy are also in the process of adding their blogs to the new site. In addition, the forums will be supplied via WordPress now, as well, creating a more user-friendly experience for all of our visitors.

Of course, our webstore remains intact, providing our online friends with the same service and products that our in-store guests experience daily.

Take a look around. Feel free to get in touch with us about anything and everything!

Breaking in to Comics

As a store co-owner, it’s kind of amazing how many people come in and ask me about things that I should rightfully have no idea about. One of the questions I get asked the most that actually pertains to comics, though, is how to get started in the industry, usually as an artist.

First off; if I had THE answer, I would be penciling comic books myself. I’d know what I need to fix about my artwork, it would be fixed, and I’d be making funny books, instead of selling them.

Secondly, I get asked this question via the Internet. So, clearly, these people have online access, where there is an abundance of information about EVERYTHING. In fact, the Internet even knows what I had for breakfast this morning (It was waffles. See? The Internet knows). And I’m not even some pop-celebrity like Lindsay Lohan or Johnny Depp (intentional key word placement to raise search-engine rankings, there? Hmmm, could be!)

HOWEVER. Somebody, someday will have come here from some random search and been like, “Yo, Andy, why you wasting my time with this?” To those people, I say this:

http://www.makeshiftmiracle.com/Writing.html

http://zubkavich.livejournal.com/165953.html

Read every single thing that Jim Zubkavich has written. He’s an editor for UDON Entertainment (creators of the wonderfully super Street Fighter and Darkstalkers comics, on sale now!), and, as such, knows what editors are looking for (shock and awe!). My personal favorite is in “Portfolio Horror,” with the Sailor Moon crayon drawings.

In addition to reading Zub’s stuff, the best way to learn about what you need to do is READ COMICS. Don’t just get art styles that are what you’re into: Get EVERYTHING! If you like Jim Lee’s work (X-Men, WildC.A.T.S., Batman, etc.), buy comics by Skottie Young (New X-Men, Wonderful Wizard of Oz). If you like Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman, New X-Men, We3), pick up stuff by Takeshi Miyazawa (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Secret Invasion: Young Avengers/Runaways). If you like David Finch (New Avengers, Moon Knight), get things by Mike Allred (Madman, X-Statix). The only way to grow as an artist is to look at everything that’s out there, and be inspired by it. Heck, don’t just limit yourself to comic artists – Look at the works of the great Renaissance painters (You know, the ones the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were named after). Check out some Van Gogh. Know who Brunelleschi is.

Read Scott McCloud’s books – Understanding Comics, Making Comics, and Re-Inventing Comics. How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way should be on your bookshelf. DC has an entire line about becoming a professional comic artist. Wizard has countless Basic Training books. Get them all.

Then, draw. Draw again. And when you’re sick and tired of drawing, do it some more. Because if you can’t even be bothered to draw a portfolio, there’s no possible way you can draw 22 pages of comic a month. And once you’ve drawn your little hands off, go to conventions. Meet creators and editors. Go to portfolio review sessions. Befriend important people! Brian Michael Bendis got a job in comics because he wouldn’t stop going to conventions. Eventually, the editors at all the major companies got to know him, and now he’s the head writer at Marvel. But in 1995, nobody knew who the hell he was.

Make a webcomic! Update it daily. If you’re not comfortable writing, find somebody who is a writer. Go to websites like PencilJack and find people who have stories but are looking for an artist. A friend of mine just got her first published work in the mail by doing exactly that.

These are just some of the things you’re going to need to do to break in. And I don’t even know what I’m talking about.

Celebrating Heroes

There is an Annual Arts Auction happening in South Carolina and their theme is Super Heroes! You can read about it here.

Isn’t that fantastic that people can see the value in the heroes represented in comic books? The Hero is a well-known archetype. Heck, Joseph Campbell wrote his first book about it – The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The basic hero story is when a person sets out on a journey, encounters all sorts of challenges, and in overcoming them, is changed in the process. The hero returns home with a power that can help mankind. Every one of our comic book heroes can relate to a story like that.

In Anderson, S.C., they recognize the universal appeal of the hero, and how our comic books portray the popular mythos. I salute them for that awareness!