Art: Brian Thomas (1st story), Bill Wray (2nd story)
When turtles were king.
Transformers was long gone and G.I. Joe had devolved from the far superior Sunbow series to the crappy, crappy DIC treatment, paving the way for TMNT to lord over all of us on weekday afternoons.
Or Saturday mornings . . . depending on where we're at in the timeline.
Anyhow, like most kids my age I was enamored by Ninja Turtles. I had the ridiculous toys, played the often-frustrating video game, and cheered for the movie.
Unlike most kids my age, I was an avid comic nerd. Upon discovering there existed a Ninja Turtles comic book, my head nearly split in twain. I picked up the awkwardly-titled Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Special no. 1 at a Wal-Mart in Independence, Iowa whilst visiting my grandparents in 1992 and probably hadn't read it in 20 years . . . until today.
Keeping in mind that TMNT Adventures was for the most part a children's comic, it's a pretty well-done book. It consists of two stories, both involving the turtles encountering some sort of hazard to the environment and ecology. The first segment finds the April O'Neil, Master Splinter, and the four turtles camping in the Pacific Northwest and running afoul of lumberjack-robots clear-cutting the forest.
The robots belong to (wait for it) industrialist Shelton Slujj.
Shelton. Slujj.
He introduced himself as "Shelton Slujj, billionaire philanthropist" and it's wonderfully hokey. I really can't even throw any shade at the name. One of my favorite books is old-school Man-Thing and he had a recurring villain named "F.A. Schist", so there's that.
Anyhow, it seems Mr. Slujj is clear cutting forest to make way for a factory to compress toxic waste for easy storage.
Don't overthink it, just go with the flow . . .
Throw a monkeywrenching eco terrorist and his band of Sasquatch into the mix, along with some friendly misunderstandings, and
We all learn a valuable lesson at the end of the day.
About not destroying the natural habitat of Bigfoot.
The second story opens with the turtles enjoying some r&r after their toxic waste Bigfoot adventure on a yacht with their new pal, Mr. Slujj. 3-hour tour or no, the motley crew is soon shipwrecked and picked up by a Japanese research vessel (read: whaling ship).
Sidebar: The Japanese and a select few other nationalities are permitted to harvest a number of whales per annum for 'research purposes' which is pretty much a load of bologna, and unless you're an Inuit or of some other aboriginal culture you've no business hunting whales any-damn-way.
That's just my opinion from atop my position of white privilege and first world problems.
Anyway, soon after being scooped up by said research vessel we learn that the captain of said ship is all but an Asian Captain Ahab. His backstory reveals he lost his nephew to a sea serpent attack, and now he sails the Seven Seas seeking vengeance.
Fairly formula but, as this book is geared towards younger readers, it's perfectly acceptable.
At the end of the day, the turtles and Mr. Slujj (still, that name!) prevail against the mad sea captain with, of course, the help of the aforementioned sea serpent. We're left to wonder if the captain learns a valuable lesson about the error of his ways, but I'm inclined to think he was recalcitrant to reform and continued his crusade in unwritten tales.
TMNT Adventures isn't a book I'd pick up these days, but I've got fond memories of reading the comic in the days of yore. If you've a younger reader in the family or circle of friends, I would highly recommend this series. It's a cartoon put to paper, and may be just the thing for an elementary-schooler, who is a fan of the TMNT franchise but not quite ready for the more mature direction of the current books.
I don't believe the comics are particularly collectible and should be a fairly cheap addition to the collection of a fresh-faced comic fan.
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