My Childhood Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Comic Book Collection

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. It's still hot and humid outside and I'm tired of it. Today though I'm gonna talk about a few comic books that I owned when I was a kid. Let's get into it!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published by Archie Comics for 72 issues from 1989 to 1995. The series was based on the original 1987 Ninja Turtles cartoon series, which was hugely popular when this comic book first started. It started out adapting episodes from the show's second season, but starting with issue 5, they began telling original stories that diverged completely from the lighter tone of the cartoon. The first issue of Adventures I ever got was issue 34, which was the final part of a two part story involving a being known as the Charlie Llama. My mom and I were at the gift shop at the hospital and there weren't any Star Trek comics there I didn't already have, and there weren't any Batman comics or issues of The Batman Adventures. I saw this Ninja Turtles comic and asked Mom if she could buy it for me. Having seen the show, I loved this comic. I got rid of my original copy years ago, but managed to find another copy.

The next issue I got was #44. This was the final part in the "Future Shark Trilogy", where versions of the Turtles from the future come back and help our Turtles fight a legion of villains which include Shredder and Rat King. Yeah, Rat King was in this issue. This was another hospital gift shop buy, but, Mom bought it for me with an issue of The Batman Adventures. I don't remember which issue of The Batman Adventures, or why we were at the hospital that day. Hospital visits for appointments during that time blur together for me because I had so many of them.

The final issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures I got was issue 48. However, when I was a kid, this was actually my brother's comic. In fact, this was the comic he got from the hospital gift shop the day I got Batman #495, which had Poison Ivy in the comic (my introduction to the character, as I hadn't seen her in Batman: The Animated Series yet). We were at the hospital for the opening of the Helipad that was located between CHEO and the Ottawa General Hospital (now known as the Ottawa Hospital, General Campus). An event that was boring for kids who were my age at the time, but an important one nonetheless. So we got comics to look at while Mom and Dad were busy chatting with people.

My connection to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures didn't end with that issue though. During another hospital visit, Mom bought me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Digest #1. Being that Archie Comics published this comic book series, naturally they had a digest paperback compilation series accompanying it. This first digest collected issues 5, 6, and 7 of the main series. I actually held onto it until 2019 when I found all three original issues individually.

The very last Archie Comics published Ninja Turtles comic I ever got was the first issue of April O'Neil: The May East Saga, which was a miniseries that told of April's fight against an ancient being who might just be an ancestor of hers. This was another hospital gift shop buy. 

The last issue of an Archie Comics published Ninja Turtles comic that my family had in our house, was this second issue of a Donatello and Leatherhead crossover trilogy that Archie put out. It was a gift for my brother. I don't remember when he got it or why he got it or anything. I just remember reading it a few times.

That's it for my childhood Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book collection. I wanted to do a quick blog post for you today. Nothing super special or fancy. I'll be back on Friday over at The Star Trek Journal for my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "A Space Adventure Hour". Until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care!