In 1984, Eastman and Laird debuted the world’s most popular reptiles… Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo. At first, this black and white comic out of Mirage Studios was as cutting edge as Alan Moore. Then as the comic gained popularity, an animated series was spawned and the “heroes in a halfshell” sparked a phenomina that even by conservative measurements did nothing short of totally saturate the 80’s. Then the 90’s saw the live action movies come forth; the first was pretty good, the second flopped (Ice Ice Baby) and the third was a solid recovery. In 2007 the CGI TMNT came to theaters which I think impressed more fans than it disappointed, because it was more story and less schtick. This was actually a positive move and inspired hope in life-long turtle fans. And now Nickelodeon has bought the rights to TMNT and I can’t help but think this we will moving away from the comic roots and back again into mindless mass-marketing. It won’t be long at all before the turtles are being marketed to pre-schoolers and perhaps have cross over into some of the other Nick shows… somehow I think ICarly would be game.
