Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
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Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3. Cover art by Ryan Brown.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Mirage Studios |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | action/adventure/science fiction |
| Publication date | 1987–2010 |
| Number of issues | 77 |
| Main character(s) | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
| Creative team | |
| Creator(s) | Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird |
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, also known as Tales of the TMNT, is a cool comic book series from Mirage Studios. It started way back in May 1987. This series tells extra stories about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their friends. It fills in details and adventures that happen between the main Turtles comic books. The series was published in two different parts, called "volumes."
Contents
Volume 1: The Early Adventures (1987-1989)
The first part of Tales of the TMNT ran from 1987 to 1989. New issues came out every other month, taking turns with the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic. Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson were the main writers and artists for this volume.
Even though only seven issues of Volume 1 were published, it was super important! It helped introduce many new characters to the TMNT world. Some of these characters include Nobody, Leatherhead, and Rat King. Many of these new characters later appeared in the main Turtles comic series.
Tales of the TMNT Volume 1 also had a special tradition. Each issue started with a cool drawing called a "splash page." A TMNT character would introduce the story and end with the mysterious line, "Let me tell you a story." This page also showed off artwork from different guest artists. The first volume stopped being published in 1989. This happened when the TMNT became a very popular licensed property. Jim Lawson then moved to work on Mirage's main TMNT series. Ryan Brown started working on art and designs for other TMNT products.
Volume 2: The Return of Tales (2004-2010)
Sixteen years later, in January 2004, the series made a comeback! This new version was guided by Stephen Murphy. The covers of this new series simply read Tales of the TMNT. This volume focused on events that happened throughout the Turtles' lives. It even explored some of the "lost" thirteen years between the second and fourth volumes of the main TMNT comic.
Issue #25 of Volume 2 brought back the original creative team, Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson. This revived series kept the cool tradition of the "Let me tell you a story" splash page. It was a way to honor the original comics from the 1980s. In May 2010, the second volume finished its run. It had a total of 70 issues, which is ten times more than the first volume!
Collected Comic Books
If you want to read these stories, many of them have been collected into special books called "trade paperbacks." These books gather several comic issues into one volume.
The original Volume 1 series has been collected twice. The first collection came out in 1989, and another in 2007. Each of these collected editions has new story content. The 1989 version included a new 10-page story by Jim Lawson. The 2007 edition featured a new 27-page story by Lawson called "Spinal Tapped." This story takes place after issue #7 of Volume 1. It also has a short 4-page ending by Stephen Murphy and Jim Lawson.
Mirage Studios also collected five volumes of the Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 series. These were released from 2006 to 2008. They collected issues based on certain themes or characters.
Later, a company called IDW Publishing also started collecting issues from both volumes of Tales of the TMNT. They reprinted them in color! This happened after the Ninja Turtles property was sold to Viacom after 2009. IDW Publishing then got the rights to publish the comic books.
Volume 1 Collected Editions
- The Collected Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 1 (December 1989)
- Tales of the TMNT: Original Vol. 1 Series Treasury Edition (November 2007)
Volume 2 Collected Editions (Mirage Studios)
- Tales of the TMNT: The Collected Books Vol. One – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #1, 10, 16, 18 & 26 (October 2006)
- Tales of the TMNT: The Collected Books Vol. Two – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #5 and all four issues of "Tales of Leonardo: Blind Sight" (January 2007)
- Tales of the TMNT: The Collected Books Vol. Three – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #6, 20, 24, 27 and 28 (June 2007)
- Tales of the TMNT: The Collected Books Vol. Four – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #3, 4, 13, 14 and 33 (September 2007)
- Tales of the TMNT: The Collected Books Vol. Five – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #2, 9, 15, 17 and 25 (February 2008)
IDW Publishing Collected Editions (Volumes 1 & 2)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume I #1–4 + Extras (December 2012)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 2 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume I #5–7 (April 2013)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 3 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #1–4 (October 2013)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 4 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #5–8 (May 2014)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 5 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #9–12 (August 2014)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 6 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #13–16 (November 2014)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 7 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #17–20 (August 2015)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 8 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #22–25 (April 2016)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 9 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume II #26–30 (January 2017)
- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Omnibus Vol. 1 – reprints Tales of the TMNT Volume I #1–7 & Tales of the TMNT Volume II #1–8 (May 2018)
