Monday, September 8, 2008

TMNT as Marvel characters

This is a drawing from 1984, probably done around the time the first issue came out. Kevin and I used to goof around doing wacky stuff like this, just for fun. At the time, we were big fans of the Marvel Comics characters whose costumes these six (?!) Turtles have appropriated. I believe Kevin penciled this and I inked it, but I can't remember if just one of us toned it -- it's possible that we both toned it, like we used to do with the comics.



It makes me think that it would have been a lot of fun to do a story for that old Marvel "What If...?" comic using this idea: "What if... every person in the Marvel Universe was a mutant turtle?" -- PL

23 comments:

  1. Twenty-three years later, and this piece is still so cool! Out of curiosity, do you know which turtles are wich (Leo, Don, etc) or are they all just generic Marvel turtles without Mirage identities? ...Wolverine should probably be Raphael, no?

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  2. Wow!
    What an awesome and hilariously funny idea!!!

    Awesome pic!

    If anything, my vote is:

    Leo- Captain America
    Don- Iron Man
    Raph- Wolverine
    Mikey- Speedball

    ~Dinoff~

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  3. It's not such a crazy an idea, Peter...

    This month, Marvel started a series of comics where all their heroes are apes.

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  4. If everyone in the Marvel universe was a mutant turtle, Marvel would be way cooler! I think a Spiderturtle would be particularly fantastic.

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  5. My general question is considering your guys' work ethic in terms of passing it back and forth to each other, did you guys take turns drawing 'different turtles' and then teamed up to ink them accordingly? Like Kevin loved Thor more, so he did that and you did Captain America, etc...?

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  6. "This month, Marvel started a series of comics where all their heroes are apes."

    Which is in itself a goof on DC who had a long standing tradition of monkeys/apes in their comics. (I think the JLA has been turned into monkeys about 60 times by now)

    So my marvel is a little rusty. But I se Wolverine, Dare Devil, Capt America, Thor, and is that Spiderman in the back?

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  7. Watch out, here comes the spider turtle!
    :)

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  8. Indeed, now this sort of artwork is still cool in 2007 :)

    Something sometimes I miss with the current comics... guess I was used to the original look!

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  9. Here I go again with another toy comment but out of all the wacky costumes we've seen the turtles wear in the toy lines, it's a shame we never got anything this cool.
    -Vaughn M.

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  10. -->>'WHAT IF ? ' Marvel Legends..


    .. ' What if TMNT really did do a X-over with a major Mighty Marvel player ?? '


    .. >v<

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  11. -->> ..o you gonna post the ' JACK KIRBY ' TMNT at some point ??

    >v<

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  12. I don't see speedball in there dinoff. I see Conan (Raph) and Capt America (Leo) in front, and then Thor (Don), Daredevil (Mike), Iron Man (Don), and Wolverine (Raph) in the back. Those are just my guesses for which turtle it is too. Thinking about it, it would make sense that Don and Raph have been shown twice seeing as they're PL's and KE's favorite respective turtles.

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  13. "Daniel Schwarz said...
    Twenty-three years later, and this piece is still so cool! Out of curiosity, do you know which turtles are which (Leo, Don, etc) or are they all just generic Marvel turtles without Mirage identities? ...Wolverine should probably be Raphael, no?"

    As I recall, we didn't really associate any particular Turtle with an particular Marvel character... but you are correct, in general, in matching up Raphael with Wolverine. That character was defiitely an influence on the development of Raph's personality. -- PL

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  14. I love this classic drawing. Still makes me smile every time I see it. I imagine Leo to be Cap, Raph to be Wolverine, and Don to be Iron Man. Mikey, though, doesn't seem to fit well with any of the other Marvel characters present. I'd say Mikey would make a great Spider-Man.

    Peter, your "what if" idea would be fun to explore with Marvel. I'd find it a lot more entertaining than all the zombies and Skrulls running amok.

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  15. " ~ tOkKa said...

    -->> ..o you gonna post the ' JACK KIRBY ' TMNT at some point ??

    >v<"

    Yes -- that's definitely on the agenda, but it will be a while. I'm going to be doing all of the "Blast from the Past" reposts in order of their original appearance. I'm up to #8, and the Kirby Turtles are #50. -- PL

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  16. "Blogger Nick Nitro said...

    My general question is considering your guys' work ethic in terms of passing it back and forth to each other, did you guys take turns drawing 'different turtles' and then teamed up to ink them accordingly? Like Kevin loved Thor more, so he did that and you did Captain America, etc...?"

    No -- I'm pretty sure on this piece, Kevin penciled the whole thing and I did all the inking. -- PL

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  17. -->> ..o god.. well it's definite worth the wait.

    I appreciate this format cuz we are able to see the larger scans as opposed to the archive.

    >v<

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  18. "Vaughn Michael said...

    Here I go again with another toy comment but out of all the wacky costumes we've seen the turtles wear in the toy lines, it's a shame we never got anything this cool.
    -Vaughn M."

    I have to disagree with you on that one, Vaughn. Although "Turtles as Marvel characters" would unquestionably be very cool toys, two groups of toys that Playmates did immediately come to mind as -- in my opinion -- as cool or cooler. I'm talking about the "Star Trek" Turtles, and the "Universal Monsters" Turtles. In fact, given my great affection for the original "Star Trek" series, I would say that those "Star Trek" Turtle figures are in my top ten of Turtle toys of all time. -- PL

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  19. "PL said...

    It makes me think that it would have been a lot of fun to do a story for that old Marvel "What If...?" comic using this idea: "What if... every person in the Marvel Universe was a mutant turtle?" -- PL"



    Could Marvel be interested in such a thing, as a one shot 25th anniversary tie in?

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  20. -->> .. too damm bad Dooney's ' Kaiju TMNT ' didn't come to fruition ( like the Godzilla Leonardo ) ..

    or the his ideas for the ' 2nd Batch ' of Star Trek TMNTs..

    like the Worf - Klingon Turtle .. ;/

    >v<

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  21. I have to disagree with you on that one, Vaughn. Although "Turtles as Marvel characters" would unquestionably be very cool toys, two groups of toys that Playmates did immediately come to mind as -- in my opinion -- as cool or cooler. I'm talking about the "Star Trek" Turtles, and the "Universal Monsters" Turtles. In fact, given my great affection for the original "Star Trek" series, I would say that those "Star Trek" Turtle figures are in my top ten of Turtle toys of all time. -- PL

    Pete,
    And I'll have to disagree with your disagreement lol
    While Star Trek is a great show I seriously think they could have done a bit more to make that line-up a bit more interesting like say made a Klingon Bebop, Q or Khan Shredder, Orion April, Borg Krang, Mugatu Rocksteady, etc.
    See for me a lineup without a supporting cast is boring and Playmates seems to want to go this direction more and more again.
    It would seem to me that they have not learned what was a huge mistake in their past, but that could be the fact that the people that once worked there are long gone.
    I do agree with you though that the Second series of Universal Monsters figures are grand and are among some of my favorite TMNT figures of all time also.
    I think my favorite are the Super Mutant series (boy would I love to see Playmates make an entire line like that) and the Warriors of the Forgotten Sewer line that sadly didn't get every figure in the series release (a common thing with Playmates over the years even if Molds and prototypes had been made).
    -Vaughn M.

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  22. What kind of heavens and earths would need to move for there ever to be a marvel vs. tmnt crossover of some sort? I know there was the failed attempt of Cerebus(sp?) and the X-men back in the early/mid-80's...

    And have you, while I know you, as per what i remember you saying once, don't draw full-tmnt that much these days, looking at this piece, have you ever doodled any tmnt in the past few years as marvel/dc/image characters yourself? I am curious due to the choice Kevin made drawing these, in terms of his picks for the tmnt, and possibly what 'your' picks would be..?

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  23. Maybe a cool undergound comic guy could do a spoof thing like this and sell them at cons if no one could get the real thing off the ground. Maybe a give away rather than sell, considering copyrights and all.

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