Have you always wondered where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come from? The publisher Hi comics allows you to have the answer by publishing the original comic book of the 80s. A breath of fresh air and independence….
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: An Independent Series
This second volume contains the two micro-series – Michelangelo and Leonardo – and episodes 8 to 11 of the regular series published between December 1985 and June 1987. This volume can be read without having read the first volume because a new story begins. Initially, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created this project on a whim for fun. They embark on self-publishing for an episode without believing in it but the defects of this amateurism become in fact the qualities of the series. You can feel the paper and photocopier of independent comics. The inking looks like a tag and the often square shapes adapt well to animals but less for human expressions. This original style makes these improbable characters touching. This independence is liberating because the writers do not deprive themselves of any pleasure without taking the lead – success allows them – and this pleasure is communicative. In all innocence, they ask their idol, independent author Dave Sim to participate in a crossover between his character, Cerebus, and the ninja turtles. And it works! Sim, a fierce independent writer, is in charge of the finishing and dialogues of his character. We find the cynicism and the very funny dialogues of this warthog immersed in the heroic fantasy: a magic formula makes the reader smile by its ridicule. The powerful Sceptre of the Sands of Time has a very original sculpture: a clawed hand holds a spray paint. Eastman is so passionate about directing the episode that he extends it to 45 pages. 
A classic but fun scenario
The scenario is most often classic but it is a pleasure to curl up in known settings. For example, the first episode is a Christmas tale. The mutant Michelangelo takes advantage of the snow and cold to hide and live like the others but the adventure catches up with him. The Donatello microseries is a tribute by Peter Laird to Jack Kirby, co-creator of most Marvel heroes. Here he is a neighbor of April living in the cellar. Symbolically, this artist at the source of the passion of the two authors is in the foundations of the base of the turtles. We feel the dream of the fan to penetrate the mind and into the world of his hero. The choice of very long episodes allows you to take the time as shown in an episode where the broken family comes together. Like a good action movie, the episodes limit the dialogue to the minimum and leave the fights silent. The reader finds the talent of the duo for the fight scenes by the explosive dynamism of the boxes and the liveliness of the layout. Artists focus on a specific moment. For example, there is a whole episode about an attempt to leave the building when one of their own is injured.
A success that surpasses the creators
With each episode, the authors expand their universe like the arrival of an astral world. The spirit of a dying samurai penetrates Splinter's mind as the patriarch living in Japan wants to help his grandson who resides in New York. There is a story of transmission. The previous generation perverted itself into crime and profit-seeking. It is up to the younger generation to recover the values of tradition. The situation has changed in this second volume with sales increasing with each episode. In addition, parallel series and licences are multiplying. The duo is overwhelmed. They also want to release episodes more regularly. The starting duo is now joined by new artists: Michael Dooney, Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson. The drawing comes out grown from this opening. We recognize their style but at the same time, the shapes are less massive and the objects less flat. Even if violence is less present, artists are still freer to experiment and more often than not it works. In one episode, they organize two parallel narratives: one totally silent occupying a large part of the pages and the other at the bottom of the page but with a lot of dialogue. Parallels between the two slip in before the two stories come together in a very strong cliffhanger. In addition, these pages are made by two different artists: one for the Christmas scenes of the family while the duo takes care of the action scenes of Leo against the ninjas. 
A deluxe edition
This reading also allows us to see the parallels with the current series: the escape of the New York Turtles from volume four of the current series while Leo is injured is already present. The huge asset of this edition of Hi comics is the comments of the creators at the end of each episode. We feel that they rediscover these episodes by writing these notes. By this text, we understand that the episode on Kirby goes much further than a simple tribute because the authors wanted to pay a portion of royalties to their hero Kirby, at the time in full trial to recover his original boards. By analyzing several boxes, the reader understands their reference: the chase scene of the first episode is inspired by Beverly Hills Cop 2. These texts are also very moving because we perceive that two friends are moving away because of money. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a fantastic dive into history. The reader discovers a series of fun and gripping action. This volume contains the famous crossover with Cerebus, the other major self-published series of the time. This series describes a now-defunct New York. These represented urban ghettos were cleaned in the 90s and became bourgeois areas. The period still leaves wrinkles as the always secondary place of women. If you liked this article, you can also discover a text on the last volume of the new series on this link and another article on the crossover with the Power rangers here.
