#paul castiglia

[comfortfoodcontent]

That time the Archie Comics gang met The Mighty Crusaders, Animated Series Sabrina and Sonic and Knuckles

From Archie's Weird Mysteries: Case of the Haunted Comic Shop 1999 One Shot

Written by Paul Castiglia Penciled by Bill Golliher Inked by Rich Koslowski Colored by Barry Grossman

[ramblingsonic]

I am at a loss for words.

[paulagnewart]

Sonic the Oz-Hog Act 1/12: Never Forget Your Firsts!

Sonic Super Special issue 3 AU Publication Date: 14th January 1998 Price: $3.95

It's January 1998. The Rural Fires Act had come into effect just in time, for the nation's traditional summer of sports were only superseded by its traditional summer of bushfires. Both east and west coasts had taken a hammering through a combination of record breaking heatwaves and arsonists, leading to at least four preventable deaths. Residents praying for rain got more than they bargained for within days when fires gave way to weeks of floods and cyclones.

Any kids looking to escape the ravaging weather would be disappointed; 1998 was the first summer in nearly 20 years of waking up to a host-less morning show. After one complaint from moral guardians too many, beloved wisecracking puppet Agro was booted from his own program, with Channel Seven instead offering repeats of Gargoyles, The Jetsons and All Dogs Go to Heaven. The lack of Agro meant Channel Ten's rival program Cheez TV had little to worry about, and it showed with their own January lineup of Transformers Generation Two, Spider-Man and The Tick repeats.

Having vowed to never introduce a 10% tax on all goods and services under their watch, John Howard’s conservative Government prepared to backflip on their election promise. A move destined to make teen wallets even lighter when buying CD singles of that month's chart-topping song, Aqua's Doctor Jones. Personally the already high price of CDs was of little concern back then, instead more worried about accidentally sleeping in Saturday mornings and miss another installment of The Dinky-Di's quest to stop Earth's number-one eco enemy Mephisto. Sadly if ratings were any indication, I was the only one waking up early enough to watch anyway.

Names including “Beetleborgs”, “Extreme Dinosaurs”, “Venus DeMilo” and “Pokemon” were unheard of, though would certainly go on to pester parents by year's end. SEGA World Sydney, Australia's largest indoor theme park and last refuge for everyone's favourite rodent, was crawling towards its first anniversary. Two new final volumes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a series which hadn't aired on TV in years by that point, trundled onto VHS with all the invigoration of an afterthought. In short the high-speed hedgehog's classic heyday was coming to an end.

Yet things weren't all doom and gloom. For fans still yearning that new hedgey action, Archie Sonic continued to thrive among the mass of imported titles jostling for pole position on newsagent shelves. Quantities were plentiful and demand remained strong, even through a whole dollar price increase by year's end.

As the title boasts, life is built on firsts. Those unforgettable turning points destined to remain etched within our minds. Be them first kiss, first job, first concert or even first Star Wars action figure. When we grow old, the urge swells to reflect or even revisit those small, beautiful starting points. It's a feeling Archie certainly shared, with their appropriately first comic to reach Aussie shores that year: Sonic Firsts.

For a publisher who spent decades following the Mad Magazine bread-and-butter approach of constantly publishing past material, it’s surprising Archie took so long adding their best-selling title to the reprint rotisserie. Within its fancy 48 pages, Sonic Firsts offered a quartet of classic adventures invaluable to new readers while attempting to smooth out what eventually became continuity snares. Michael Gallagher and Scott Shaw! kicked things off with the eponymous Don't Cry For Me, Mobius, a fine starting point for the comic if ever there was one. Rabbot Deployment saw Shaw! superseded by Dave Manak and the introduction of Bunnie, who was granted something of a backstory when such things for anyone outside Sonic and Sally was rare. The pair returned for their flatulence flaunting The Lizard of Odd, an otherwise standard tale if not for Super Sonic's debut. Mike Kanterovich and Ken Penders brought it home with This Island Hedgehog, a straightforward misadventure which nobody could've guessed at the time just how important (or bloated, take your pick) a certain Rad Red's life story would become.

For some newsagents the switch to Sonic Super Special's permanently numbered quarterly format proved difficult to grasp. This issue was often solicited by retailers as Brave New World, raising more than a few eyebrows on parents who already forked out for that edition. It was unusual but ultimately humourous in hindsight when years later, the first eight issues of Sonic Universe were billed as Sonic X. But more on that another time.

The Special was a success for Archie. It showed there was a market for reprints among Sonic fans, even if it took several more years to truly milk its potential. Fans could fork out the standard price for their 48 page floppy, or if feeling a little more extravagant, shell out double the price for a comic book shop exclusive 'perfect-bound' edition. Touted by Archie as "Sonic's first ever Trade Paperback", the simultaneously released special boasted heavier cover stock and a minimally-formatted introduction by former editor/writer Paul Castiglia. If that wasn't enough, both versions were later reissued (either 1:1 perfect reprints or just unmoving warehouse stock, you be the judge.) to comic shops among a slew of 'back catalogue' miniseries and specials around late 2004. Marvellous.

In all, Sonic Firsts was a nifty if unintended celebration just in time and right on the mark for Archie Sonic’s 5th anniversary. The future was bright and the only way was up. Juuuuuust pay no heed to one of the Special's writers banging on about reprint royalties when this issue was announced. They certainly did. :P

Next Time: Take a flier to the comic's future as everyone's favourite embattled Echidna faces a deeply personal dilemma. A true clash for the ages which left both fans and editor reeling from its outcome. Will things ever be the same again? Will this description quit with the cheesy song references? Unlikely.

< Previous \ Index / Next >

[bluestownmusic]

New Release: Emanuel Casablanca - Blood On My Hands

  Emanuel Casablanca – Blood On My Hands   Emanuel Casablanca – Blood On My Hands Format: CD Label: Kings County Blues Release: 2022 Release date: August 19, 2022 Emanuel’s debut album, ‘Blood On My Hands,’ allows him to shine in the spotlight, share his skills and allow his talents as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist to advance to front and center. It’s an eloquent and expressive set…

[chordsykat]

Hey comic fans! Signal boost incoming!

My friend and former editor at Sonic, Paul Castiglia, is working in conjunction with Eisner Nominated creators, the people behind MST3K, and an original cast-member of the 35mm Robot Monster film to bring you this Kickstarter!

What is Robot Monster Comics in 3-D? The cult-classic 3D movie inspired by 1950s Golden Age comics finally becomes its own gorgeous 64-page, hardcover 3-D graphic novel. But we need your help to make it happen.

The campaign currently has 12 days to go and is at 70% funded! If you love old movies, kaijus, sci-fi, or just those oldschool 3-D glasses, you should get in on this Kickstarter -- Reblogs appreciated even if you can't back it :)

Visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dfilmarchive/robot-monster-comics-in-3-d-64-page-graphic-novel

[sonicpanels]

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Ongoing) #9: "What's the Point?"

Writer(/possible uncredited layouts): Angelo DeCesare Pencils: Dave Manak Inks: Henry Scarpelli Letters: Bill Yoshida Colors: Barry Grossman

Editors: Victor Gorelick & Paul Castiglia

[onedegreeofsoniccomics]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet the Conservation Corps: "Espirit De Corps"

Cover Credits

Art: Scott Shaw!

Story Credits

Writers: Paul Castiglia & Dan Nakrosis

Pencils: Dan Nakrosis with Chris Allan (TMNT characters)

Inks: Jon D'Agostino

Letters: Dan Nakrosis

Colors: Barry Grossman

Editorial Team

Editors: Paul Castiglia & "Dean Clarrain" (Stephen Murphy)

Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick

[danbusler]

The 2024 Winter Blues Festival at The Fallout Shelter

The whole place was rocking!

The place was totally packed with blues music and a boatload of great blues musicians at The Winter Blues Festival at The Extended Play Sessions – Fallout Shelter in Norwood, MA on February 17, 2024.The night featured Popa Chubby, Albert Castiglia, and “Monster” Mike Welch with The Wicked Lo-Down ( Nick David, Paul Size, Jeff Berg, Brad Hallen, and Nick Toscano).From the first notes of the night…

[game88an]

Conservation Corps comic book is from the Archie comic book. This has not received any cartoon series or movie and not even live action. They have also collaborated with the TMNT comic book. Paul Castiglia and Dan Nakrosis are writer of Conservation Corps.

Story: Benevolence the alien gave power to animals on Earth and some of them turn hero and some turn villian. Malevolence is the villain brother of Benevolence and he guiding animals to destroy humanity and planet and while Benevolence is looking for mutant animals who want to fight to save Earth and humanity.

Characters:

Firefly

This one could be gender swap and rename to Fireflya.

Green Horn

Water Buffalo

Stone Hedgehog

Sky Shark

Clint Frankiez

In the comics only named Frankie. Clint Frankiez is latino detective.

Diana Nakros

Her name is based on writer Dan Nakrosis. Diana Nakros is greek american journalist.

Martel Silber

His name is based on publiser Micheal Silberkleit. Martel Silber is african american man police captain in Kearny City. Clint Frankiez is detective and work for Martel.

Reynard Goldwater

His name is based on publiser Richard Goldwater. Reynard Goldwater is native american and he is the editor-in-chief of the Kearny City. Diana Nakros is journalist works for Reynard.

[comicsbughead]

This was taken from the now-defunct 'Ask the Archivist' column of the old @archiecomics website (in 2007)! Said archivist is believed to have been Mr. Paul Castiglia (TBC).

I quite like what Mr. Archivist had to say in the last paragraph about Betty being the best mate for Jughead and about Jughead and Betty being a great match!

Big thanks to @/Dollihaze on Instagram for this amazing find! And paging @bughead-in-the-comics 😉

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20071020232553/http://archiecomics.com/acpaco/askthearchivist/ask_jughead.html

[mobius-prime]

120. Sonic the Hedgehog #70

Saving Nate Morgan

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So about that grenade from last issue! Everyone's okay, Sonic tossed it up through the juice bar's skylight before it could explode on top of them. Sally has come back around from her bout of unconsciousness, and everyone is pissed that Nate has been kidnapped - especially Bunnie, whose pride has been severely bruised by losing in the fight. Together they rush to Castle Acorn, where the king and Geoffrey are still discussing the fact that the escaped prisoners are probably super dead.

Yeah, they're not dead. Geoffrey is irritated at Sonic for calling his information faulty, but Dr. Quack emerges at the perfect moment to inform everyone that one of the guards rescued from the island has reported a third missing shuttlecraft, one that didn't crash into the ocean. Elias suggests that they may simply be hiding out on the closest landmass to the Devil's Gulag, which just so happens to be Big Kahuna Island where we've seen them before, and Sonic readies himself to muster the fighting force of the Freedom Fighters when…

…*sigh*

This king, man. Every move he makes has me questioning his fitness to actually rule more and more. See, I get it. You don't necessarily want to breed a future of child soldiers solving every problem in the kingdom when they're supposed to be enjoying their, well, childhood. You want trained adults to handle the dangerous situations. But it's like he doesn't even want to recognize that these individuals all worked together not only to free the entire world of Robotnik's rule, but that they put in the effort specifically to rescue the king's sorry ass as well. Has he given them a single award? Any public recognition of their efforts in the war? He was certainly eager to put them on the task of helping rebuild the city before, but carelessly dismissed Sonic and Tails' success in hunting down a known enemy of the kingdom just a few issues before, and now that their friend has been captured - by people they have direct experience fighting from before, I might add - he's suddenly being a hard-ass. No, not only that - he's unceremoniously disbanding the very group that freed the kingdom and the entire world, without so much as a final thank-you ceremony or anything. Does he not care how crushing such an order would feel to the ones within that group? Just, ugh.

Hours later, the Secret Service approaches the island in a scrap submarine, ready to unleash their tactical strike and rescue the Overlander scientist… but of course, submarines are slow, and someone had a much better idea.

Seems everyone forgot that Sonic is A. stubborn as hell, and B. has a freakin' biplane. As he insists on coming along, the villains inside an abandoned courthouse (though why Robotnik would include a house of law in one of his cities given that he was a pure despot, I can't imagine) have stuck Nate into a very uncomfortable-looking stockade and are trying to force him to agree to provide his scientific services to them. Shockingly, he's not very interested in this generous offer. Outside, Geoffrey keeps trying to order Sonic around, with Sonic really not having it, and when Geoffrey tries to position his troops around the building to try to force the crooks to come out and surrender Sonic challenges him, saying that that will only encourage the group to use Nate as a hostage. Geoffrey shows his racist side by saying he doesn't care what happens to an Overlander, and Sonic, who's obviously here more to save his friend than re-apprehend the criminals, gets up in his face about it. As they get ready to start throwing punches, a nearby soldier yells at them to stop fighting.

How do you like your chain of command now, Geoffrey? Inside, Kodos, infuriated by Nate's continued refusal to cooperate, just straight up gets ready to behead him with his giant axe, because there's no kill like overkill, but at that moment Bomb rolls himself in, getting everyone's attention. He tries, and fails for some reason, to explode, but the distraction works, and at that moment the rest of the fighting force rushes in to rescue Nate.

And then we find ourselves in the middle of our fifth satellite sequence high above the planet. This one doesn't redirect any asteroids, but the mysterious hand that commands the satellite puts down a drink once it's finished with its work, a drink labeled "Robo Cola…" Geeeeeee, I wonder who this could be? I mean, okay, let's break it down. We know that Robotnik got straight up erased from existence in the Endgame finale, no doubts, no maybes, he's gone. But we also know that wasn't the first time he got zapped into another dimension and managed to make a comeback, either. The hand that's been directing all these mysterious orbital goings-on certainly looks like his hand, and with this unit being labeled R-SAT we're rapidly approaching all the letters we need to spell out Robotnik's name. But with how dramatic and intense his demise was in Endgame, I'd wager we're dealing with a situation that's a little more complex than a simple "he survived the explosion." I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

As the battle begins inside the abandoned courthouse, Sonic frees Nate and hands him off to Elias to carry him to safety while he rejoins the fight, but before much else can happen, the building suddenly crumbles around them as a giant mutate squid with a robotic body emerges from the ground beneath them. See, West Robotropolis was once used by Robotnik as a staging ground for all sorts of weird experiments and research, and we're looking at one of the leftovers of that! Snively is caught in one of the monster's tentacles and starts screaming for Sonic to rescue him, and while Sonic considers this, Bomb, who has also been caught by the monster, this time manages to get his fuse to go off properly, blowing the squid up.

Ouch indeed. Snively, interestingly, is nowhere to be seen after the explosion, either among the recaptured prisoners or the escapees in the biplane. I wonder if he's actually…? Naaaahhh, I'm sure he's fine!

Statue of Limitations

Writer: Paul Castiglia Pencils: Chris Allan and Jim Amash Colors: Vickie Williams

So it appears that ever since he and Tails escaped Sand-Blast City, Sonic's been plagued by a strange nightmare. He dreams that he's flying over the city when his plane disintegrates, and he falls toward the statue of himself that he destroyed to escape, which is laughing at him. Every night he wakes up before he can fall into the mouth of the statue, but he recognizes eventually that it's a mental block of his own creation, and so this time, he keeps the dream going, falling through the statue's mouth to find out what's on the other side. And what's on the other side is… incredibly bizarre.

Even the clouds start forming in the shape of his face. He demands to know what's going on, and his fan up there, still somewhat starstruck, leads him through a crowd of Sonic worshippers and through a golden door to the hall of the Sonic Adventure Archivists, a group of people who chronicle his every heroic venture and obsess over the meaning of them.

This is actually a pretty funny nod to the whole thing where Sally was indeed supposed to die and become a martyr in the Endgame arc, as well as the whole will-they-won't-they the comic likes to set up between her and Sonic. Sonic wakes up from this dream in a cold sweat, and calls Tails to his room to have a chat, because if there's anyone who can help you face your inner demons in the middle of the night, it's a ten year old. Sonic admits that he's been feeling guilty over how he rushed out of Sand-Blast City before, leaving it open to attack from the Robians without bothering to try and save the inhabitants. The weight of being a hero is starting to become a little too heavy for him to bear alone, as he's not perfect and can't save everyone. Tails tells him that he doesn't have to be perfect, he just has to do the best he can, and cites Sonic's positive effects on his own life. Sonic, cheered somewhat, says that maybe he "can get used to being gray," a rather unexpectedly deep look on the whole hero thing if you ask me, especially for a comic of this caliber. Certainly Sonic has always been a gray hero - Chaotic Good, if you will - who while devoted to saving people and helping the world, can oftentimes act in selfishness and be a bit of a jerk to those who rub him the wrong way. It's interesting to see how his conflicting personality traits balance themselves out in situations like the one in Sand-Blast City, where the only way for him to escape confinement was to put everyone else in danger. He definitely experiences a lot more shades of gray as well as the comic continues on.

Anyway, the previous story's ending promised an especially bizarre issue coming up next, and while the next issue of this comic is certainly a weird one, we still have an arc of KtE to get through first! This one is particularly intense, and introduces one of my favorite villains in the comic, though not named yet…

[thankskenpenders]

TKP Addendums: Sonic #1

As previously mentioned, I'm starting a new side feature on this blog! I'm revisiting some of the early Archie Sonic issues I originally covered all the way back in 2014, when I was still finding my critical voice and also speeding through four issues a day. I'll be giving some second thoughts, adding more historical context, and sharing a few bits here and there that I originally skimmed over

Naturally, the only place to start is at the beginning, with Sonic #1

So, right off the bat, an admission. On day one of this blog, I harped A LOT on how this silly issue is "how the Archie Sonic comics started" and how surreal that was given the later direction of the series. This is, of course, not true, even if this cover proudly labels it the "FIRST ISSUE!" The proper run of Archie Sonic was predated by a pilot miniseries that ran for four issues. In 2014, I decided to save that miniseries for later in an effort to get to The Weird Stuff quicker. But that meant that I was really starting on the fifth issue of the series

In reality, the original issue #0 makes for a MUCH better debut than this issue, with better art from Scott Shaw, a fun opening that jumps straight to Sonic and Robotnik facing off before heading to Knothole and introducing the Freedom Fighters, and a proper origin story for Sonic setting up his past with Uncle Chuck. (Side note: I'm not reevaluating the original miniseries because I covered those in more depth the first time, and as such I have very little to add.)

Meanwhile, this issue opens with Robotnik ranting and raving in his silly little Robotropolis office, hanging what's soon revealed to be a Sonic piñata and beating his poor Badniks

In my original coverage I mostly just juxtaposed this silly scene with the grim portrayal of Robotnik's reign in SatAM and the later comics for laughs. In hindsight, I'm not sure entirely how fair it is. For one, again, this isn't the real first issue. And it's also a decently funny little scene by the standards of these early comics. But I mean... issue #0 did establish that Robotnik had taken over the entire planet and enslaved everyone's families, and then they go and make it all silly. Robotnik himself being silly is fine, of course. Who doesn't love a villain who does really evil shit and then makes light of it? That's Robotnik to a T! But it might be a little odd how the Freedom Fighters don't really take him as a particularly serious threat early on. He's less a cruel despot who's been holding all of their loved ones hostage for the last decade and more of a blowhard bully for Sonic to constantly one-up

I dunno. A lot of the oddities of this early era are just a byproduct of the original pitch, which was to make a mashup of SatAM and Adventures that leaned more towards Adventures in tone. This was, in fact, a directive straight from Sega. (Take THAT, petulant nerds who say the Dreaded Sega Mandates are a new thing!) As editor Paul Castiglia once explained:

"In the beginning, SEGA instructed our editorial team to reflect the art and story styles of the syndicated series, but it soon became apparent from fan reaction that the Saturday morning series was the one striking a nerve. The comic soon followed suit with a mix of the two styles, but a heavier emphasis on the dramatic . . . As the comic series and the animated shows were simultaneously developed, the tight, advanced scheduling of the comic industry kept us from keeping up with last-minute changes made to the shows. This resulted in Sally being printed in various color schemes that didn't match her TV counterpart as well as Rotor being referred to as Boomer."

Anyway, moving on, the Freedom Fighters are introduced like this:

Instead of focusing on Sonic, this first scene is lead by Antoine, who's jealous of Sonic for getting all of Sally's attention. Yes, the full series introduces the Freedom Fighters with a love triangle right off the bat. A grim omen of things to come... But, again, this introduction is a lot less weird if you view this not as issue #1 but as issue #5. I guess Gallagher didn't want to retread old ground, so this issue barely even attempts to serve as a proper starting point, instead coming off as just another issue of a series already in progress

Antoine then heads to the surface, looking for flowers to give to Sally, and ends up getting attacked by Robotnik's invention of the month, the mechanical Krudzu vines

I originally skipped over... basically everything with the Krudzu? Because I was just focused on posting funny out of context stuff. It's a fine threat, and it's thematically fitting to have Robotnik invent an evil mechanical plant that tries to take over the Great Forest. But it is a little odd that the first big threat we get is an indirect one that doesn't require our heroes to face Robotnik. And, in fact, they don't have to lift a finger to stop the Krudzu. They quickly realize that it isn't waterproof, and a convenient storm takes it out while they sit comfortably at home. Pretty underwhelming

This bit is funny, though

Now that I'm reading actual scans instead of those digital versions with the horrible coloring, I also get to see the ads! Such as this incredibly edgy and ableist two-page Game Gear ad that says if you prefer the Game Boy you must be both colorblind and stupid, like a dog. It's so '90s it hurts

Listen buddy Sonic 1 for Game Gear is fine and all but it's no Tetris

The second story in this issue is ostensibly more closely tied to the games, with Sonic heading off to Casino Night Zone. Of course, in Gallagher and Manak's world, Casino Night Zone looks like this

Yes, they do in fact just let Sonic walk right in

The big setpiece I skipped over in this story for some inexplicable reason is a giant pinball machine that Robotnik traps Sonic in, although by the end he's able to cut through the glass ball, break the machine, and blow the whole casino to hell. Silly casino jokes aside, though, this threat is very true to the spirit of the games

This issue also contains a number of bonus features and activities, since this was in that era when it was treated as a comedy variety book. Perhaps the most interesting is this official Sonic-sanctioned chili dog recipe, which they tell you to clip out to ruin the resale value of your comic

And that's about it for this issue! I think if you view it as the first issue, like I originally did, it is a little weak. But if you view it as issue #5, it's fine. It's a perfectly average, inoffensive issue of Gallagher era Archie Sonic, with lots of silliness and a few gags that were okay

I'm unsure if future addendums will be this long, since I had to cover a lot of general information about the early days of the series in this one. But either way, join me next time for a reappraisal of Sonic #2, in which I'll be forced to remember that Verti-Cal and Horizont-Al exist

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[ramblingsonic]

I love this. He ain't perfect, and he's not above introspection, at least not when it chases him. This is a good characterization for him.

I'mma think more on this story.

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

Thoughts on Archie writers not named Penders or Flynn?

Karl Bollers aka “Benny Lee” - I liked most of his stuff, especially Return to Angel Island. Dan Slott - He introduced Zonic, who was cool. Most of his stuff was just the random crossovers like Sally Moon so that's just "eh, whatever". Danny Fingeroth - Only wrote two issues but those were the Heart of the Hedgehog story, which would eventually lead to Shard near the end of the preboot's run. Kinda wish he wrote more than just that one story for Sonic.

Michael Gallagher - His stuff was pretty hit or miss, that's all I got to say on him. Angelo DeCesare - He gave us the first Mecha Sally; otherwise his stuff was just there.

Tracy Yardley - Liked the Babylon Rogues SU arc, didn't really care for Pirate Plunder Panic. Mike Kanterovich - Never did strictly his own work, instead just worked with Penders during his time on Archie so I can't tell what was his and what was Penders.

Jay Oliveras - Wrote Ghost Busted in SSS #8 and Cry of the Wolf in #113, both of which were just adaptations of SatAM episodes.

Joey Esposito - Wrote a single story in #264 and that was it. Aleah Baker - She wrote the story that introduced Clove and Cassia. Other than that I don't really remember what else she wrote. Evan Stanley - Wrote the Silver Age SU arc; didn't really care for the comic version of Von Schlemmer but I liked what little we got of Gold the Tenrec. Frank Strom - Introduced Monkey Khan and his side cast; never cared for his stuff. Scott Fulop - He was...there, usually under the pen name Kent Taylor. Scott Shaw - Wrote Tails' Tallest Tale from the Sonic In Your Face special which was a pretty typical story at that point in the comic's history. Paul Castiglia - Wrote two stories, one in #30 which was just slapstick involving Coconuts and Bunnie, and one in #70 which had Sonic reflecting on the fate of Sandblast City after he and Tails fled. I liked both of them. Tom Rolston - wrote that random Discovery Zone story in #52 as a homage to Casablanca. Also wrote The Map from SSS #1 which had Antoine being awesome and wrote Stop... Sonic Time! in the first Sonic Kids special (SSS #5), which was about Sonic giving Tails his shoes as a present while Dr. Robotnik tried to freeze time itself. Overall, just weird.

Romy Chacon - Introduced Tommy Turtle, ‘nuff said.

[aion-rsa]

The Many Crossovers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

http://bit.ly/2Xzhucg

There have been so many different incarnations of the Heroes in a Half Shell and between them, they've seemingly met just about everyone!

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has covered a lot of ground in the past 35 years. There are so many different takes on "four reptiles in eye masks who fight crime with ninjitsu" that it's honestly hard to keep count of all the different continuities. From the gritty Frank Miller homages of the earliest comics to goofball cartoon characters to CGI hunchbacks in the latest two movies, there have been a wide range of interpretations.

Like all popular properties, the Ninja Turtles have done their share of crossovers. They've met all kinds of characters and rubbed elbows with so many different franchises. They've fought alongside everyone from Archie to Batman to Alf. You can basically plug and play them into any situation at this point.

Starting, fittingly enough, in the Mirage days, the Turtles' first crossover came in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8. Turtle creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird teamed together with Dave Sim and Gerhard to do a story where the foursome met up with Sim's magnum opus character Cerebus. Otherwise known as the star of "that once-beloved barbarian aardvark comic that went off the rails once Sim grew to hate women."

Watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Amazon

In the story, we're introduced to Renet, a time-travel witch with no pants who acts as an apprentice to a strict master, who she's deathly afraid of. After screwing up, she steals a magic scepter and hides out in 1986 New York City, immediately coming into contact with the Turtles. Escaping her master once again, she brings all of them to 1406, where they run afoul of Cerebus the Aardvark. The three parties reluctantly team up with the easily-disgruntled Cerebus annoyed by the mere presence of the Turtles while the Turtles are constantly annoyed by Renet's never-ending, airheaded attitude. A year after this issue, the Turtles and Cerebus – once again depicted by Eastman, Laird, and Sim – would briefly meet up in the pages of Miami Mice #4, where Cerebus again wanted to distance himself from the four.

Also in 1986, the memorable Donatello Micro-Series issue (the one where he teamed up with Jack Kirby) ended with a pin-up by Stan Sakai, depicting the Turtles surrounding his own anthromorphic swordsman creation Miyamoto Usagi from the comic Usagi Yojimbo. 1987 brought us a comic called Turtle Soup, where various comic creators would do short stories featuring the Ninja Turtles. Sakai got to write a storyline where due to some magical residue brought on from his adventure with Renet, Leonardo is sent spiraling through time and ends up in an adventure with Usagi. The two are attacked by the same pack of enemies and cut them down until they are the only ones left. They turn their attentions to each other and are about to go at it, but Leonardo returns to the present, causing Usagi to run through nothing and crash into a tree.

read more: The Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie is Still Amazing

That began a lengthy relationship between the two properties. Miyamoto Usagi became the Alien to the Ninja Turtles' Predator. In the Mirage comics, Leonardo made several more trips into Usagi's time and eventually brought his brothers with him. Usagi got his own action figure as part of Playmates' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, showed up in a couple video games, and two of the animated series. In the '80s cartoon he was named Usagi Yojimbo, I suppose for simplicity's sake, where he was stranded on Earth after being pulled in from an alternate reality. He starred in two episodes.

The 4Kids cartoon had him show up more often, also from an alternate reality, though they played up his relationship with Leonardo more than the '80s cartoon. When they did the Flash Forward part of the series where the Turtles were in the future, they intended to introduce his comic book descendant Space Usagi, but that never came to be.

One of the more entertaining crossovers came in the form of Flaming Carrot Comics #25 to #27 by Bob Burden, where Raphael gets stricken with amnesia and ends up becoming the sidekick to mentally-lacking superhero the Flaming Carrot. Raphael ends up wearing a sack on his head and a cape that says "BREAD" on it, calling himself the Night Avenger. Instead, the authorities call him Bread Boy. The two of them, later joined by the rest of the Turtles and Mysterymen member Screwball, work together to prevent a group of evil umpires from using the disembodied head of Frankenstein's Monster to steal the Empire State Building. It was very, very weird.

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The two parties would meet up again a few years later in a four-issue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Flaming Carrot crossover with Jim Lawson on art, where a military team has gone missing after investigating a mysterious island. The government brings in the Turtles to investigate, while at the same time, the Mysterymen start their own investigation. The two sides collide, befriend each other, and then fight fire ghosts, a werewolf, and other ridiculous things. Meanwhile, the Flaming Carrot tries selling lemonade. He isn't successful.

Across the '90s, the Ninja Turtles crossed paths a couple times with Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon. Drawn by Michael Dooney, 1993's Savage Dragon/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has Dragon visit New York City to investigate some animated gargoyles abducting the elderly. While friendly with the Turtles, he has a running gag of never being able to tell them apart, suggesting that they get initials on their belt buckles. Even then, in a later crossover, he refers to Raphael as "Rembrandt."

Image Comics took in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in the mid-90s, so they became integrated with the universe more. Turtles showing up in Savage Dragon's comics – which happened quite a bit – was no longer all that special anymore. Raphael even made a quick appearance fighting a Martian in an alley in Mars Attacks Image.

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The most amusing appearance during this time was Gen 13 #13B, where Grunge goes on a journey that causes him to run into all sorts of indie comic characters like Bone, Madman, Savage Dragon, etc. His brief meeting with the Ninja Turtles has a bit of a meta thing going on where Grunge asking, "What happened to you guys?" is less about how they got in a life-and-death predicament and more about how they lost their overwhelming popularity.

Otherwise, the Mirage-era Ninja Turtles made a couple other less-notable crossover appearances. In 1991, they appeared in The Last of the Viking Heroes Meet the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Michael Thibodeaux, which again brought time travel into the fray. In 1996, we got Creed/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Trent Kaniuga, where they got tangled up in a plot with a young boy named Creed and a mystical, green crystal. While the Ninja Turtles had nothing to do with it, one of their supporting characters starred in the two-part Gizmo and the Fugitoid comic by Laird and Michael Dooney.

During the early '90s, the Ninja Turtles also appeared in a more family-friendly comic run under the Archie Comics banner. Naturally, this gave us Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet Archie by Ryan Brown and Dean Clarrain. Around that time in the Archie Turtles series, the four are brought to various realities by Cudley the Cowlick, a giant, cosmic, talking cow head. Because comics are weird. He drops them off in Riverdale for twelve hours. Archie and Betty see them and freak out over what they figured to be an alien invasion, yet nobody believes them. The four disguise themselves and even check out a Josie and the Pussycats concert incognito, but reveal their true identities when Veronica gets kidnapped by some criminals intending to get a hefty ransom. It isn't nearly as good as Archie Meets the Punisher, but it's fine for what it is.

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In terms of properties with far less staying power, there was also Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet the Conservation Corps by Paul Castiglia and Dan Nakrosis. This was actually used to springboard the short-lived comic where an alien crash-lands onto Earth and uses some special tech to turn random animals into mutants for the sake of protecting the Earth from pollution. It was just as hokey as you'd expect, though the villain design wasn't bad. Oily Bird is a giant, oil-covered duck, the only survivor of an oil tanker spill that killed his family. The mix of oil and toxic waste turned him into an insane monster out to overrun the entire planet with pollution. So, I mean, the comic has that going for it. Looking at covers for the Conservation Corps series, he later became a cyborg. So it has that going for it too.

Also under the Archie banner, the Turtles made a quick guest appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog #10, back when that series was young and intentionally silly. Sonic was busy running through an underground labyrinth and when in a sewer, the four Turtles ran by, admitting out loud that they were basically lost. Not only in the wrong sewer, but in the wrong comic as well.

Nearly twenty years later, Sonic's evil double (no, the other one) Scourge ended up in prison with Bebop and Rocksteady in Sonic Universe #29, though that's more of an Easter egg thing than an official crossover.

Speaking of criminal acts, the '80s animated series led to Michelangelo showing up in the all-so-memorable Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, the anti-drug cartoon about a teenager who gets into marijuana. After he's seen stealing money from his little sister, a bunch of cartoon characters come to life to spend a half hour lecturing him that drugs are bad and smoking weed will make you look like a zombie and kill you. Alongside Michelangelo are Alvin and the Chipmunks, Garfield, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Muppet Babies, Winnie the Pooh, Slimer, the Smurfs, Alf, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. That's a of properties that got transformed into lousy CGI movies over the last few years...

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Oh, God. We're due for a CGI Alf reboot, aren't we?

Regardless, as someone who was 8 when that cartoon came out, us kids only gave a damn about Michelangelo showing up. Dude didn't even get to appear on the VHS cover.

It wasn't Garfield's only meeting with Michelangelo. The winter 1992 edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine had a one-page comic written by Garfield creator Jim Davis with Gary Barker and Larry Fentz on art and Laird himself doing the inking. The gag here is that Garfield tries disguising himself as the fifth Ninja Turtle in order to get them to leave him alone with all their pizza. Instead, they choose to beat the holy hell out of him, which is rather messed up, all things considered.

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He's just a normal cat with the ability to inner-monologue, guys.

In 1997, the Ninja Turtles returned to TV with the abysmal Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. The live-action show introduced their female member Venus and lasted for a mere six months before cancellation. An episode of Power Rangers in Space called "Shell Shocked" brought the two parties together and while it should have been the best thing ever, it was outright terrible. The evil Astronema decided the best way to defeat the Power Rangers would be to summon the Ninja Turtles, brainwash them, and then make them betray the Rangers. Everyone was insufferable, nothing made any sense, and they only came to their senses by the weakest of all plot devices. It ended with the five Turtles surfing through space and me wanting to die.

The preview of the following episode mentioned Bulk being attacked by a claw and that had me more pumped than the previous 22 minutes.

One bit of strangeness is how the Turtles had a tendency to constantly crossover with Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of the Moo Mesa. Namely the fact that these multiple adventures happened well over a decade after the Moo Mesa cartoon's cancellation, and even then, it wasn't exactly the most memorable show to go back to. The mutant cows appeared sporadically through various issues of Mirage's Tales of the TMNT in a bunch of dimension-hopping storylines I'm not going to even begin to explain.

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Around that time, when the 4Kids animated series did the Flash Forward season, the Turtles were thrown into a Danger Room-type simulation by the villain Viral where they're stuck having to face the cast of Moo Mesa in a barfight. Viral leaves them to die and returns later, insulted to see the Turtles playing cards with the likes of Moo Montana.

That 4Kids Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series lasted a good seven seasons. Once Nickelodeon bought the rights to everything Ninja Turtles and it was apparent that the 4Kids series was going to be cancelled, they went out in style with Turtles Forever. The animated movie was about the 2000s cartoon crossing over with the '80s cartoon in a plot where the badass Utrom Shredder takes over the '80s Technodrome and tries to use it to wipe out all reality.

There are a couple minor problems in there. The '80s Turtles are treated a little too much as jokes to the point that all four of them are practically Michelangelo. Due to union issues, the original voice actors couldn't come back, meaning we were cheated out of James Avery playing Shredder one last time. Still, it was a wonderful love letter to the various takes on the characters, especially in the final act, where they visited the black-and-white world of Turtle Prime, where they met the grim and gritty Mirage Turtles.

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Coincidentally, an episode of the Nickelodeon CGI animated series called "Wormquake" has shown that show's animated Turtles looking through alternate realities and seeing their '80s cartoon counterparts, with Michelangelo wondering why they look like dorks. The hour-long episode has them fight a giant worm and in the end, they get rid of it by sending it to one of the alternate realities. That gives us a quick scene of the '80s incarnations choosing to fight it, all while giving us back the original voice actors. Seriously, hearing Donatello yell, "Turtle Power!" gave me the warm fuzzies.

The Nickelodeon cartoon team and the '80s cartoon team would finally meet up in the season 4 episode "Trans Dimensional Turtles." It's essentially a half-hour remake of Turtles Forever (right down to the use of the Mirage universe in the third act) only using the current show and focusing on a team-up between '80s Krang and Kraang Subprime. Again, the original voice actors return and it leads to a funny moment where Rob Paulsen's '80s Raphael makes fun of the way Rob Paulsen's '10s Donatello talks.

That brings us to the current IDW comic series. IDW has a lot of licensed series under its belt and back in 2011, they introduced a soft crossover event called Infestation. The idea was that a zombie virus was spreading around on an inter-dimensional level. That meant it tied together all these different properties without actually having them meet up. The first series included Zombies vs. Robots, Star Trek, Transformers, Ghostbusters, and GI Joe. A year later, they did Infestation 2, which included Transformers, Dungeons and Dragons, GI Joe, 30 Days of Night, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Instead of zombies, the second series focused more on Lovecraftian nightmares. Over the course of two issues, the Turtles investigate some disturbances in the sewer and defeat an otherworldly squid, saving reality.

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IDW used the same soft crossover concept more recently in X-Files: Conspiracy. The crossover involves X-Files characters the Lone Gunmen, whose quest to track down a maguffin leads them to various worlds. They deal with Ghostbusters, Transformers, the Crow, and – you guessed it – the Ninja Turtles. While the Turtle tie-in issue doesn't feature Mulder and Scully, it does have them fight vampires, so there's that.

In 2014, the IDW comic would do a four-issue crossover miniseries with Ghostbusters. Written by Erik Burnham and Tom Waltz with art by Dan Schoening, it revolves around Chi-You, the ever-powerful sibling of Kitsune and the Rat King (who is basically an immortal demigod in IDW continuity). The Turtles and April end up in the Ghostbusters' reality and work alongside Venkman and the rest.

It's a solid outing and one of the things that really works is how everyone matches up with their counterparts. You have the two brains, the two dorks, the two assholes, the redhead lady assistants, and...Leonardo and Winston. Yet the story makes them feel like kindred spirits in the way they act as the down-to-earth ones who have to put up with their partners' over-the-top personalities.

Also great is how even in a cross-dimensional team-up, there's still skepticism. Donatello refuses to believe in ghosts while Egon refuses to believe in aliens. Real glass houses.

This was followed up with a sequel where the ghost of TMNT villain Darius Dun has teamed up with Ghostbusters villains known as the Collectors. The plot has caused different Turtles/Buster pairings to dive through various realities and has led to some neat moments, like Peter using his psychology know-how to help Michelangelo work out his issues with his fall-out with Splinter or how Donatello and Egon discuss their recent experiences of dying and coming back to life. They also run into the ghost of the Turtles' mother and, naturally, Peter hits on her.

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One world they visit during this is a society run by mutant animals where Harold, Danny, Bill, and Ernie are the Ghostbusturtles. Cute.

Recently, they have been having endless crossovers with the Dark Knight. The first of which is a trip to the DC Universe for Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a six-issue miniseries by James Tynion IV and Freddie E Williams II. It's fantastic.

They end up stranded in Gotham with the knowledge that the science that allows them to exist doesn't exactly hold up in the DC dimension. Their mutagen will gradually become inert, eventually turning them back to normal turtles.

After a run-in with Batman, the four talk about what the hell just happened. Donatello does some internet research, Michelangelo figures out the pros and cons of this dark avenger, Raphael considers him to be some psychopath, and Leonardo reflects on the fight and figures him out in his own way.

"I've never fought someone like him...Shredder, maybe...but it was different. He was testing us. Avoiding lethal blows...he wanted to figure us out. He was fighting like a detective. I've never seen anything like it."

We ultimately get a team-up of the Foot Clan and the League of Assassins, which makes all the sense in the world, and it gets over-the-top once they use mutagen on the inmates of Arkham Asylum. Snake Joker, Hyena Harley, Baboon Two-Face, Vulture Scarecrow, Elephant Bane, Penguin Penguin, and so on. But all the mutated Batman villains in Gotham are no match for Splinter wielding Harley's oversized cartoon mallet.

The same creative team would make two sequels. The second series focuses on Bane taking over New York City in the Turtles' universe while made even stronger from mutagen. It ends up taking the combined might of Batman, Splinter, and Shredder to take him down.

As of this writing, they're in the midst of a crossover story amazingly called "Crisis on a Half Shell," where the villain is Krang wearing the Anti-Monitor.

The current story also features a team-up in there between the Mirage Turtles and a classic, smiling, blue-clad Batman. Everything about this is fantastic.

Yet there are even more TMNT/Batman crossovers out there. Matthew K. Manning and Jon Sommariva did a five-issue miniseries called Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. This time it's the Turtles from the recent Nickelodeon show meeting up with Batman: The Animated Series.

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In it, Mad Hatter creates portals into the Ninja Turtles' universe and sends a handful of Arkham villains there to cause trouble. This includes a stretch of time where Joker takes over the Foot Clan and goes around wearing Shredder's helmet. On the other hand, Shredder is able to overcome Joker gas via pure willpower and hatred towards Splinter.

The comic even uses the crossover as an in-universe explanation for why Scarecrow changed up his look and became ultra-creepy for Adventures of Batman and Robin.

Inspired by these comic crossovers, an animated movie called Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released. The story is very much based on the first comic crossover with the mutant Arkham inmates and the team-up of Ra's al Ghul and Shredder, but the main difference is that they don't do the alternate universe gimmick. It plays it up like Batman and the Turtles have always existed in the same world but have been completely unaware of each other up to this point.

It's very much worth watching, especially for a spectacular Batman vs. Shredder fight early on. Shredder even enters the fight with the same slow-motion jump from the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie! I love it.

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Despite all these Batman meet-ups, it still blew everyone away when NetherRealm Studios announced that all four Turtles would be playable in Injustice 2 as the final DLC release. Not only do they get to fight with the DC Universe (or a darker version of), but they also face the likes of Hellboy, Sub-Zero, and Raiden. Each Turtle has about a half hour's worth of dialogue with their opponents and there are tons of cute references in there. My favorite is a subtle Turtles in Time Easter egg where Michelangelo's skateboard has an apple-shaped sticker that says "BIG" and under it is a sticker saying "3AM."

Their ending has Harley Quinn reward them for their help by giving them a pizza laced with the same chemical used in the game's "super pills," which allows street-level characters to go toe-to-toe with Superman. After ingesting this, the Turtles go back to their home dimension and absolutely crush Krang and Shredder with little issue.

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So yeah, that's quite the rolodex of aquaintances.

Throughout the years, Leo and the rest have met up with everyone from the Mysterymen to Baby Kermit the Frog. With so many incarnations out there, it's like nothing is off-limits when it comes to teaming up with the Ninja Turtles. It's weirder to realize the properties they haven't crossed paths with yet, like Spider-Man or Predator.

I mean, Michelangelo, Gandalf, Milhouse, and Shaquille O'Neal were Lego Master Builders that one time. That feels totally normal and makes perfect sense to me. It's just the kind of world we live in.

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and still can't believe we haven't had an official Turtles/Daredevil crossover yet. Read more of his articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

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Gavin Jasper

Jun 24, 2019

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

from Books http://bit.ly/2WXYvE5

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