Stephen Murphy (comics) facts for kids

Stephen Murphy is an American comic book writer and editor. He is well-known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. He also helped create the popular 1980s comic The Puma Blues with Michael Zulli.

Education and Early Work

Stephen Murphy studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He earned a degree in Communication Studies.

After college, Murphy wrote The Puma Blues. This comic ran from 1986 to 1989. It was first published by Aardvark One International. Later, Mirage Studios published it.

Working with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Murphy started working at Mirage Studios. This studio was run by the TMNT creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Stephen Murphy eventually became the Managing Editor and Creative Director there.

TMNT Adventures

In 1989, Stephen Murphy teamed up with Ryan Brown. They worked together to update the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book for Archie Comics. They started with issue #5.

Murphy and Brown made the comic different from the TV cartoon. Their stories often included themes about nature and animal rights. They also added many new characters. These characters came from different backgrounds. They included humans, mutants, aliens, and other animal-like creatures. Many people thought these stories were deeper and more serious than the cartoon.

During this time, Murphy helped create characters like Jagwar, Nova Posse, Snake-Eyes, and Sarnath. He also brought several characters together to form a new team called the Mighty Mutanimals. Stephen Murphy often used the name "Dean Clarrain" when writing for TMNT Adventures.

Murphy also wrote for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic strip. This strip was published from 1990 to 1997. He used his pen name "Dean Clarrain" for this work too.

Tales of the TMNT

In 2004, Stephen Murphy helped bring back Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This new comic focused on different events in the Turtles' lives. It even covered some "lost" years between other TMNT comic series.

This revived comic kept a special tradition. Each issue started with a "Let me tell you a story" page. This was a nod to the original 1980s comic. The second volume of Tales of the TMNT finished in 2010. It had 70 issues, which was ten times more than the first series. Murphy sometimes used his "Dean Clarrain" name again for these comics. He often worked with artist Chris Allan on these issues.

TMNT TV Series

Stephen Murphy was also a writer for the 2003 TMNT animated TV series. He has also written many children's books based on the new series.

Other Comic Work

In 2006, Murphy wrote a detective comic series called Umbra. Mike Hawthorne drew the pictures for this series. Image Comics published it.