MIKEYSTMNT.COM

Greetings, one and all…

I will be the first to admit that I am not as able to keep up to date with the current TMNT comics as I should be. I tend to check out the official TMNT website for summaries and glimpses of a few pages. But what I can say about this most recent issue from the Jones/Harmon powerhouse is definitely going to be a memorable one for TMNT fans.

I know the idea of putting a cartoon character into the Mirage universe caused some to hesitate. But Tristan’s own interpretation of Hun – Hunter Mason – is a solid character that you can really love to hate.

If you are not one for plot spoilers, I will warn you now. You can skip the next Three paragraphs, and go straight to the art itself.

The timeline for this story takes place a month after Tristan/Harmon’s previous conglomerate, Tales #36 “To Protect and Serve”. Nearly as year has passed since the City at War arc of Vol. 1, Donatello and Splinter are back home from Northampton, and busily helping April and Casey set up the apartment for their new family. Shadow is almost a year old at this point. The continuation of the City At War Plotline is very exciting for those familiar with that story. We see a couple returning characters from #36, and I’m getting a strong feeling that we’ll be seeing some further build-up to this storyline in the very near future…

Tristan’s story introduces us to a darker, more threatening version of Hun than we’ve seen in the animated series.  It opens with a young, beaten up Casey staring defiantly at a late-teens(?) Hun, who’s got a knife in his side. The mountain of a man removes the knife and literally beats the life out of Casey while his family is forced to look on in horror. It’s this attack that most likely spurs Casey into becoming a hockeystick-wielding vigilante. You can easily understand how these two lives become so inexplicably intertwined…

More than just the lumbering brute that utters ‘Oh Crud’ whenever something happens, he is a fierce enemy who’s bound to become a favorite among the official Rogues Gallery – and leave you hungry for more…
Okay, no more spoilers, I promise…

The Art itself is something to behold. If the horrified eyes peering out of a shattered hockey mask isn’t enough to catch your attention, the sneering face of Hun should be enough to make you wonder what the heck is going on.  Dooney’s frontispiece alone could be good enough as a pin-up poster like they used to have back then.

I’ve always been fond of B&W artwork, just because I tend to see color sometimes taking away from the tiniest details of shading and textures.

Harmon is a master of this gritty, Vol. 1 style of artwork. I would say it was done with charcoal – Heck, maybe even Gunshot Residue for all the action taking place. The lighting is smooth, almost milky, which in contrast makes the strong lines almost too dark, but overall it just screams the perfect amount of Atmosphere. Once you get an eye for Harmon’s artwork, it’s almost addictive in nature not to stop examining for the little details.

Even the way the turtles are drawn is something to notice. What I’ve noticed about Harmon’s turtles is that they seem very much inspired by the character designs of the very first Turtles movie. I noticed this a lot with Tales #36, and more so here.
Overall, this is a fantastic addition to the history of Tales of the TMNT, and I’m sure it will become a fast favorite for your collection.

Thanks for reading!
~MachiasB

Steph @ GGM RE: NECA    ::
Our quiet buddies at NECA peeped about their Toyfair 09 experience a few days ago via their website.

In their blog post, you’ll catch this:

Movie buffs lost their heads when they saw Boondock Saints righteous killers Connor MacManus and Murphy MacManus given the deluxe treatment in our very own Cult Classics line, and The Governator himself never looked better than he did on our shelf as part of our brand new Terminator 2: Judgment Day line! Cool Toy Review’s photo gallery has pics of the whole booth ready for viewing, including our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Villain Assortment (check out that Krang!) and Series 2 of our line based on the hit game/cultural marking point Street Fighter IV. Chun Li never had it so good.

So thing’s are looking good for the NECA wave two releases if you ask me. Keep the faith brothers and sisters!

P.S. Those Street Fighter IV figures are also made of awesome.

Edit: I also just noticed they refer to the Utrom character as Krang…Interesting.

Did you know that this year is also the 25th anniversary of Stan Saki’s Usagi Yojimbo? Well it is! You can catch stan’s blog in Our friends section.

While you’re there, you can check out the prototypes of these awesome new statues!

Here are Stan’s words about them:

Roel has taken out the license to produce Usagi statues, and they are the best I have seen. I had the first three prototypes proudly displayed on my table. I had lots of room, seeing as I had sold out of all my books by noon the previous day. These were bronze colored statues, but the productions models will be full color (though the bronze ones look pretty good too). The Jotaro figure will also include one of my signature lizards. Dark Horse and I had run out of the 25th anniversary posters, but there were still people inquiring about them.

After seeing his interviews featured on GGM the other day, Rutger asked us to post up some additional interviews of his (Click the Pictures).

Also, Rutger’s EXTENSIVE TMNT Autograph collection can now be found in the new Collections link section. We will be adding staff and fan collections to that section by request. So by all means, REQUEST!

Danny B. ::

- Mirage CEO Gary Richardson is featured in Ray Carsillo’s story about the New York Comic Con – get the scoop at 1050 AM ESPN Radio! The show was a huge success, with attendance up 18% over the previous year!

- 4Kids and the TMNT are helping out endangered turtles in the United Kingdom – read the story at kidscreen.com!

..>v<