Friday, May 22, 2009

Letters Page
















































We always received tons of mail for TMNT Adventures. We read every letter and tried to publish all that we could. Take a moment to click the letters pages above and relive those wacky, bygone days! Did any of you write us a letter?

34 comments:

P. Bing said...

Yup! It even found its way to publication.

Chuck Dillon said...

Ha ha- God knows I wrote you TOO many letters. I had to take a second job to pay for the postage.

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

Did you keep the issue it was in P.Bing? Did you take it to school and show all your friends?

And rest assured Chuck we would have read every one!

Chuck Dillon said...

Oh, I know. I had a few published and I think you even published a drawing I did.

That really encouraged me.

Rachel (a-big-apple) said...

I probably did write letters, but I'm not sure I ever sent any. :) I always read the letters page, though!

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

"That really encouraged me."

That's great to hear Chuck, that's what we were hoping for.

NoGhostSaturn said...

Wow, that letters page example is actually pretty heavy.

weepel said...

As someone who's Catholic I've always been super confused by other Christians slamming you guys for writing "ungodly" material. Recently I reread TMNT Adventures and I couldn't believe some of the letters. Meditation was called satanic and a few other times some mothers accused you of trying to brainwash their kids with new age ideals.

Did you receive a lot of mail like this or did you only print the ones you received? Also, why did the letter column go away?

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

In every batch of mail there were always a few letters condemning us, quoting from the Bible and accusing us of undermining Christian values.


We were also frequently attacked for being "un-american."

We couldn't print them all.

I can't recall why the letters page disappeared exactly.

SEAN said...

My little brother wrote to you guys telling on me, that i said that the mainstream turtles show & Archie comics were "fake" & Michaelangelo wrote him a post-card telling me to go "kick sand". As time has passed i've come to really love "the fake turtles", but Michaelangelo is going down.

SEAN said...

As far as the un-Christian & un-American stuff goes, there was some really heavy-handed eco-consciousness stuff in the later issues of both the black & white turtles & the archie turtles, & i think i was just reading an issue of Archie Turtles where it's like a whole primer on Eastern Mysticism with Tao & Zen being discussed. Nothing wrong with that, but it DID seem a little heavy-handed. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles don't seem like the most intellectual characters, i felt like the best primer on Asian stuff the turtles did was that Mirage comic by Mark Bode where they fight for the honor of the Chinese restaurant.

Adam said...

Ha! I remember all those "Christian" letters condemning the book for its far eastern values and book of Revelation-esque violations. Even as a 10-year old Christian kid, I thought those letters were ridiculous on so many levels. I really appreciated how you guys tried to acknowledge philosophical themes and religious issues from time to time. Sorry about my hyper-sensitive Christian brothers, guys! :-D

Alex Deligiannis said...

Ah man, some of the best entertainment came from those letters pages. Great stuff!

~ tOkKa said...

-->> .. i always wrote in, but they always came back.

What i get for sticking those green ' Grocery club ' stamps on the letters.

**

Particular ethical issues even regarding the toys came in.

Recall one specifically of a fan disturbed by the
'wasteful ' and cruel use of animals in the depiction of weapons as far as like the Storage Shell TMNTs went.

**


Chuck's a lucky guy.


Never got my art published in TMNTA..

however, i did make it into the TMNT friends' ' CONSERVATION CORPS' book.

Lord Nightwalker said...

I tried...never made it. Even sent in a fan art or two as I recall.

Adam said...

I remember that I once read a letter in which someone was asking for more female characters in the book (pre-Ninjara days) and he took it upon himself to paint his toy Raphael's bandana pink as an attempt to give his little sister a female figure. As a Raph fan, I was very displeased. :-D

~ tOkKa said...

-->> ha Adam, i remeber that one !!

Pre - Venus days and the "Turtle Liberation Movement"

X}

Daniel Schwarz said...

I like Deborah's letter. That's the kind of parent I'd like to be some day, sharing in my kids' interests. I hope that their generation has some great stuff to enjoy like my generation had TMNT. Hey, with some luck, the TMNT will still be around for them in a big way. I guess only time will tell.

~ tOkKa said...

-->> **MORE old School FAN - Letter ..err ART fun

P. Bing said...

"Did you keep the issue it was in P.Bing? Did you take it to school and show all your friends?"

Hah! Not so much, to be honest. At the time my girlfriends were all interested in New Kids on the Block, and really looked down on me for reading comic books. That's something only boys did, don'cha know.

I did however bring a copy of my issue to Turtle Con in 92, and got it signed by anyone I could find with a pen.

Even found myself getting a letter or two from Chuck, further up the comment chain.

Hey there, Chuck!

Vaughn Michael said...

On my way to California to start over at life again..
But first I wanted to share this with you.
http://vaughnmichael.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-aint-no-spider-man.html

The Barker said...

"Don't mention it" for killing Wyrm, hahaha

I wrote!! I think I had numbered questions but the only one I remember was that I asked what Raphael was going to tell Ninjara "they should...should..." (before being interrupted by the guys in a flying ship I think.)

The answer was something like "Fly a kite, ride a bike, who knows?" I think I suspected it was sex or marriage.

Has anyone ever told you the Archie comic was the best TMNT related thing ever? It is.

~ tOkKa said...

-->> .. no no noo..

he was gonna ask her if they could return that beer tap from the kegger the week before..

or they wouldn't get back their 60 dollar deposit.

Unknown said...

WOW!! Guys check this out!
This girl is the hottest April O'Neil I've ever seen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97_LL574crQ

Her name is Carol Zara. I follow her on Twitter and they're also doing a petition to cast her as April O'neil in TMNT 2011. #CarolisApril
This is the link to vote for her: http://act.ly/oj

~ tOkKa said...

-->> RYAN !! COME OUT OF HIDING !! !!

Jacob Covey said...

Ryan, come out of hiding: Seconded.

Mondo Gecko said...

thirded
time to claim that which is old dude:)
(wonders where this fellow muanimal is
and wheres the beer dude hehe

mikeandraph87 said...

Make that four. I've not seen a blog since joining in around last Halloween and I grew up with this ''87 series wonders you put out! Come back,the fans are patiently waiting!

galebenning said...

Steve & Ryan,

It's my wish to present this homage to you and the Mirage Group as you all were a source of inspiration for me during my youth and as i continue in my career as an adult.

Mirage Group Illustration

Hope you enjoy it, and thank you for the past 25 years and for many to come!

Cheers

Mr. Gale Benning
Executive Producer / Director/ Production Designer
Philosophia Studios

galebenning@gmail.com
philosophiastudios.webs.com
ageofmayhem.webs.com
facebook.com/gale.benning

Vaughn Michael said...

I miss your posts as well :(
Please come back!

Mondo Gecko said...

cmon ryan
when the mind is free the bull s**t matters not
THE GECKO COMMANDS IT. jus kiddin..
we miss you

zog said...

almost one year since last post...

Aaron Hazouri said...

Are you guys still around?? I miss this blog most of all!

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