Ash Avenue Comics

Go Ninja Go: All About TMNT and Naruto!

Go Ninja Go: All About TMNT and Naruto! - Ash Avenue Comics
Go Ninja Go: All About TMNT and Naruto! - Ash Avenue Comics

November 2024 marks a turning point in American life as citizens turn out in droves to make an important choice: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Naruto #1—which variant should I get? Also that month: Elections. But if this is the first you’re hearing about this crossover, you’re probably so excited you can’t even remember who’s running! Or is that just wishful thinking?

A team-up between the TMNT and Naruto seems so natural it’s a wonder that no one thought of it earlier. They’re all teenagers. They’re all ninjas. Naruto is just a splash of mutagenic ooze and a pet store away from being the Fifth Turtle. His name even ends in O!

Right now, some of you out there may be saying to yourselves, “Gosh, I know nothing about one or both of these cultural powerhouses, but I’m uncomfortable admitting it to my friends and loved ones.” Kiss that anxiety good-bye! One of our mottos here at Ash Avenue Comics is: There Are No Stupid Questions. For you, the TMNT and/or Naruto newcomer, we present this helpful primer on the basics of each series.

WHAT IS NARUTO?

Naruto is a popular Japanese manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto, drawing inspiration from traditional Japanese culture, samurai films, and the ninja genre. It debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in 1999 and was later adapted into a hit anime series. The protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki, is a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader and strongest ninja of his village.

Naruto became one of the best-selling manga series in history, with over 250 million copies sold worldwide. The success of Naruto led to a massive franchise that includes movies, video games, merchandise, and spin-offs.

In Naruto‘s world, ninjas (known as shinobi) are organized into villages. Naruto, an orphan, lives in the Hidden Leaf Village. Other villagers view him with suspicion because he carries within him the Nine-Tails, a powerful and malevolent fox spirit that once attacked the village. Naruto’s father, the Fourth Hokage, sealed the Nine-Tails inside the newborn Naruto to protect the village.

CAST

  • Naruto Uzumaki: Our main man. Naruto is a loud, energetic, and determined young ninja. Despite being ostracized by the other Hidden Leafers, Naruto remains optimistic and works tirelessly to gain recognition and achieve his dream of becoming the Hokage.
  • Sasuke Uchiha: Naruto’s rival and a member of the Uchiha clan, one of the most powerful and tragic clans in the village. Sasuke is driven by a desire for revenge against his older brother, Itachi, who massacred their clan.
  • Sakura Haruno: A fellow member of Naruto and Sasuke’s team. She is intelligent, determined, and harbors a crush on Sasuke.
  • Kakashi Hatake: The leader of Team 7, which includes Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Kakashi is a highly skilled and mysterious ninja with a laid-back attitude but a deep sense of responsibility for his students.
Go Ninja Go: All About TMNT and Naruto! - Ash Avenue Comics

IMPORTANT STORIES

Naruto is divided into two main parts:

  • Naruto (Part I): The first part focuses on Naruto’s early days as a ninja and his training in the Hidden Leaf Village. It covers his missions with Team 7, his rivalry with Sasuke, and the ongoing conflicts between various ninja villages. A key part of this arc is the Chunin Exams, where young ninjas compete to advance in rank, leading to significant character development and key battles.
  • Naruto: Shippuden (Part II): Set two and a half years after Part I, this part follows Naruto as a teenager. The story becomes darker and more complex, focusing on the Akatsuki, a group of rogue ninjas seeking to capture all the tailed beasts, including the Nine-Tails within Naruto. This part explores deeper themes of war, loss, and destiny, as Naruto and his friends grow stronger and confront increasingly powerful enemies.

Following the conclusion of Naruto Shippuden, the story continues with Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which focuses on Naruto’s son, Boruto Uzumaki, and the new generation of ninjas.

WHAT IS TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES?

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) are four anthropomorphic turtles—Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael—who were mutated by a mysterious ooze. They were trained in ninjitsu by their rat sensei, Splinter, who also mutated from the same ooze. They were created in 1984 by artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who self-published a run of 3000 copies of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 using a tax refund and a loan from Eastman’s uncle. They called their publishing company Mirage Studios because they had no real studio—just their living room.

Eastman and Laird were two struggling comic book artists who shared a small studio apartment in Dover, New Hampshire. They were both passionate about comics and were inspired by popular titles of the time, including Daredevil and Ronin by Frank Miller, and Cerebus by Dave Sim.

One night, while brainstorming ideas and making each other laugh, Eastman sketched a turtle standing upright, wearing a mask, and wielding nunchaku. Laird liked it and sketched his own version of the turtle. Eastman then drew a group of four turtles, each with different weapons, and labeled them “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” The idea so tickled them both they decided to move forward with producing and publishing a book based on the characters.

In 2000, Laird bought Eastman’s share of the franchise, and in 2009, Laird sold the rights to TMNT to Nickelodeon, although both still participate in creative roles for TMNT titles in various ways.

CAST

Go Ninja Go: All About TMNT and Naruto! - Ash Avenue Comics
  • Leonardo: The leader. He wields two katanas. Leads.
  • Donatello: The smart one. He has a bo staff. Does machines.
  • Raphael: The angry one. He has a pair of sai. Cool, but rude.
  • Michelangelo: The fun one. He uses nunchuks. A party dude.
  • Splinter: The turtles’ sensei and father figure, a mutant rat who teaches them ninjutsu. He’s a radical rat.
  • The Shredder: Leader of the Foot Clan and Splinter’s archenemy. These Turtle boys don’t cut him no slack.
  • April O’Neil: A close friend of the turtles, a scientist or journalist (depending on the version) who aids them in their fight against crime.
  • Casey Jones: A goalie mask-wearing vigilante who fights crime using sports equipment.
  • The Foot Clan: A criminal organization of ninjas led by Shredder, frequently battling the turtles.

IMPORTANT STORIES

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 1) #1-12 by Eastman and Laird: These issues introduce most of the cast members, locations, alien races, and ideas that go on to inform every other version of the Turtles. I particularly love the Fugitoid/Triceratons arc from issues 4-6.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 1) #19-21 (“Return to New York”) by Eastman, Laird, and Jim Lawson: The Turtles, having been run out of New York by the Foot Clan, return to settle the score with the Shredder once and for all. Fantastic, moody storytelling by Jim Lawson, a sorely underappreciated artist. Chock-full of great Raphael/Leonardo rivalry material. The climactic Shredder vs. Leonardo battle is one of the best-choreographed fight scenes of the 80s.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 1) #50-62 (“City at War”) by Eastman, Laird, and Lawson: Following the Shredder’s death, the Turtles are drawn into a power struggle within the Foot Clan while they (along with April and Casey) confront the realities of growing up and making your own way in the world. This story introduces Karai. A guy named A.C. Farley did great covers for most of these issues.
  • The Last Ronin by Eastman, Laird, Tom Waltz, Esau and Isaac Escorza, and Ben Bishop: In a crumbling, post-apocalytic New York City, the last Ninja Turtle pursues a lonely mission of justice for his fallen brothers.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Naruto #1

TMNT x Naruto #1 goes on sale on November 13! Be sure to pre-order your copies here so you don’t miss out:

Ash Avenue Comics

Class Is in Session: Your Guide to Monster High Characters!

The Monster High Pride 2024 comic is our hottest seller this year, and remains our most-viewed product listing even now, months after publication. Fortunately, you Monster High-loving boos and ghouls have another chance to catch up with their favorite dead student body with this week’s debut of IDW’s Monster High: New Scaremester #1! Monster High has become an influential pop culture touchstone over the last fifteen years (Netflix’s Wednesday clearly draws some inspiration from it), but the typical comic book reader may not know all the ins and outs. My wife, Beegee, is an avid Monster High collector, so these creepy kids have been haunting me whenever I walk into our studio for years now. They’re like family. Now let me be your ghastly guide through the horrific halls of Monster High!


“Monster High” was created by Garrett Sander, with illustrations by Kellee Riley and illustrator Glen Hanson. The line was lauched by Mattel in 2010, featuring a range of fashion dolls, books, and other assorted tie-in products that follow the children of famous monsters attending high school. With unique characters and inclusive themes, the series quickly gained popularity.

The series features a diverse group of teenagers who are the children of famous monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Werewolf. Your typical Monster High story revolves around the characters navigating high school life and embracing their unique identities and differences. (Here’s a free play scenario for you kids out there: Re-cast your Rainbow High and LOL Surprise dolls as the children of famous monster-hunters who go to a rival school called Van Helsing High or Simon Belmont High and get them all dressed up for the most ill-advised mixer ever!)

Their world has become well-populated through the years, but this is the core cast of Monster High characters as I see it:

Class Is in Session: Your Guide to Monster High Characters! - Ash Avenue Comics
  • Frankie Stein: The daughter of Frankenstein’s monster and his bride, known for their kind and friendly nature. Taking after their parents, they have a stitched-up appearance. To the extent that Monster High has a main character, I gather that it’s Frankie, although it seems to me that in the current generation of Monster High, they’ve been replaced by…
  • Draculaura: The fabulous fanged daughter of Count Dracula, recognizable by her trademark pink-and-black color scheme. She’s a vegetarian vampire with a sweet and bubbly personality. Beegee’s favorite.
  • Clawdeen Wolf: The daughter of the Werewolf, Clawdeen is known for her fashion sense and confidence. She has a fierce personality and a protective nature towards her friends.
  • Lagoona Blue: The daughter of the Sea Monster, Lagoona is laid-back and loves sports. She has a kind and easy-going personality.
  • Ghoulia Yelps: The daughter of Zombies, Ghoulia is highly intelligent but communicates primarily through moans and groans. She is the brainy and resourceful character of the group. I always think her name is Julia Ghoulia because of The Wedding Singer. I don’t know if that interests you or not. Her doll is cool because it glows in the dark.

Some of the satellite characters include:

Class Is in Session: Your Guide to Monster High Characters! - Ash Avenue Comics
Venus McFlytrap
  • Venus McFlytrap: The daughter of a man-eating plant. Venus McFlytrap is awesome. My personal favorite.
  • Toralei: The rock ‘n roll daughter of werecats. She’s a female orange tabby, which means she’s good luck. Bit of a shedder. (That’s not canon.)
  • Abbey Bominable: Daughter of the Yeti, known for her straightforward personality and icy powers.
  • Spectra Vondergeist: Daughter of ghosts, she can phase through walls and loves to spread gossip.
  • Rochelle Goyle: Daughter of gargoyles, she’s strong and protective of the other students. She’s from Scaris, which I think is Paris in Monster High World.
  • Operetta: Daughter of the Phantom of the Opera, she has a passion for music and a rebellious streak.

Don’t miss out on Monster High: New Scaremester #1 this week! Issue 2 and issue 3 are now available for pre-order as well, and so is the Halloween Special. Get them all to find out all the gory details! For the latest updates on upcoming Monster High dolls (as well as other lines such as Barbie, LOL Surprise, and Rainbow High), YouLoveIt.com is a great site to bookmark.

Weekly Shout-Out: June 28, 2023

by Paul

My friends, amid this week’s torrential downpour of new comics, think of me as your umbrella.

SPOTLIGHT TITLES

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 (Dark Horse) by Isaac Goodhart, James Tynion IV, and Tate Brombal: The inside front cover of this book informs us that Tynion’s contribution here is that it’s “based on an idea by James Tynion IV.” One imagines him sitting at the great oaken desk in the library of his grand estate, flickering candles illuminating the darkness, as, with widening eyes, he exclaims, “Great Scott! What if… Scott Pilgrim lived in the world of Something Is Killing the Children?” while the eyes of intricately-carved busts of James Tynions I-III seem to gaze upon him approvingly.

And well they should. This comic is delightful, with an appealing, well-designed protagonist trying to manage his undiagnosed mental issues in a way that rang true for me. He also meets a werewolf. Isaac Goodhart’s storytelling and linework bring back warm memories of 90s Duncan Fegredo and Peter Milligan books like Enigma and Girl. Off to a strong start.

Creed: The Next Round #1 (Boom!) by Wilson Santos, LaToya Morgan, and Jai Jamison: Set in the year 2033 (as the book mentions once and then wisely never brings up again), Adonis Creed’s daughter Amara is now a headstrong teen pugilist who feels too reined in by her protective father. Considering the casual, wanton violence superheroes resort to at the drop of a hat, it’s strange that there isn’t a thriving genre of boxing comics, which seem like they would be pretty fun to draw. A really cool thing about this book is that, as Creed film fans know but I had forgotten (I only saw the first one), Amara is completely deaf and her mother, Bianca, is mostly deaf, so they communicate using Black American Sign Language, something I had never heard of and appreciated learning a little bit about. Wilson Santos and letterer Andworld Design do a great job depicting this visually, and Santos takes care in staging the characters so that they only speak out loud when they know that Amara or Bianca can see their faces to lip-read. He’s also good at making the boxing suitably kinetic, and mostly stays on the right side of making the characters resemble their real-life actors without being distracting. Deserves a look.

Brynmore #1 by Damien Worm and Steve Niles (IDW): Underneath the cover image of the ghoulish visage of a character I’ve come think of as Count Not Appearing in This Comic is a nicely atmospheric story of a man returning to his hometown to re-build his shattered life by rehabbing a disused church into a house for himself. You don’t need me to tell you that rehabbing a disused church into a house for yourself is always a terrible idea and that you’re probably going to find something in the basement you’ll wish you hadn’t, as this guy does. Great work by Damien Worm, marred only by colors that are maybe a little too dark for their own good. Either he forgot that not everyone was going to read this on a tablet, or he was coloring with a different paper stock in mind and IDW switched it late in the process. There’s also a semi-transparent marble texture laid over the artwork for some reason. It’s distracting at first, but you get used to it. Steve Niles’ script is tasteful, restrained, and doesn’t cover up the nice artwork with unnecessary balloons so thank you for that, Steve.

The Exiled #5 (Massive/Whatnot) by Gabriel “Eskivo” Santos, Wesley Snipes, Adam Lawson, and Keith Arem: There’s a scene early in this comic where the main character (I think he’s the main character) wistfully regards what I take to be an old flame and says, “You always looked nice in a bulletproof vest.” Later on, the main villain (I think he’s the main villain) says to his lackey, “Quit petting that goddamn dog before I CUT ITS HEAD OFF!” It’s hard to tell if these scenes are meant to be funny because Eskivo draws them with the same gravity and import with which John Byrne drew the death of Phoenix. All I know is, they made me laugh. If, like me, you haven’t read The Exiled #1-4, The Exiled #5 probably isn’t the place to start. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t help much anyway. If you have warm memories of Extreme Studios books full of heroes with muscles so rippling they show through even the least binding fabric, The Exiled #5 will feel like a warm bath. It’s dumb, but it has a strange kind of power. For the life of me, I cannot imagine which of these roles Wesley Snipes thinks he would play in a movie version of this.

AT A GLANCE

Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #1 (Dynamite) by Edu Menna and James L. Sutter: If you’re in the market for a hot take, you can have this one for free: In 15-20 years, the dominant genre of comics will be gaming tie-ins. Speaking of which, here’s one. Also, one or more major companies will be publishing a significant number of Americanized adaptations of manga and anime. Take that to the bank. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, ya bank-tanking pipe-smoker.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—The Lost Years #4 (IDW) by Ben Bishop, Kevin Eastman, and Tom Waltz: These Last Ronin books are good fun, but it does feel a bit like a sign of the times, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like they had to lay off three of the Turtles due to budget cuts? “Sorry, Raphael, but with recent advances in AI we’re now able to thwart the Foot Clan with 75% more efficiency. We wish you luck in your future endeavors.”

Nudism Comes to Connecticut (Fantagraphics) by Susan Schade and Jon Buller: That’s a good title. That’s a title that makes you want to find out what happens. I bet those stuffy prep-mongers at Vineyard Vines didn’t take it lying down, that’s for sure.

Weekly Shout-Out: May 30, 2023 - Ash Avenue Comics

Weekly Shout-Out: May 30, 2023

by Drew Sullivan

SPOTLIGHT TITLES

W0rldtr33 #2 (Image) from Jam3$ T¥n10n, F3rnand0 B1anc0, and Jordie Bellaire (I lost the enthusiasm for the numbers as letters gag halfway through Fernando Blanco). Holy smokes, what a nightmare factory James Tyrion IV’s imagination, churning out all types of terror and fright in Something is Killing the Children, The Closet, and Department of Truth; and now in his latest W0rldtr33, the underbelly of the underbelly of the internet, the undernet has loosed a force of violence as memetic spectacle on the earth. Great, like people using the internet for evil wasn’t bad enough? First rate horror from Tyrion, Blanco, and Bellaire returns this week, check it!

Clobberin’ Time #3 (Marvel) from Steve Skroce. Call me nuts, but I prefer my Marvel Comics a little unhinged, so I’m an easy mark when it comes to Marvel handing the keys to their Marvel Two-in-One team up title to comic visionary Steve Skroce.  You get The Thing, in this issue joined by Dr. Strange, and a lot of weird story turns, and insane art by Stroke. Perfection! I also highly recommend Skroce’s Doc Frankenstein, Post Americana, and Maestro; and, y’know, he and Geof Darrow were the designers of the first Matrix film, so dude has his chops on some mind bending sci-fi visuals.

Amazing Spider-Man #26 (Marvel) from Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr. I figure there’s been enough digital ink (and blood) spilled regarding this issue over the last few weeks, so I’ll keep it short and simple. We have copies.

The Rocketeer Special (IDW): An anthology issue of three short stories timed to release with the new documentary on Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens, Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection, including a story written by the film’s director. And of course, there’s the cover art by Adam Hughes. Great cover, and some fun Rocketeer stories? Sounds good.

AT A GLANCE

Weekly Shout-Out: May 30, 2023 - Ash Avenue Comics
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures Continued #1

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1 (IDW): Get your 80s nostalgia satiated with another mini-series relishing the carefree cartoons of yesteryear.

Punisher #12 (Marvel): Jason Aaron and Jesus Saiz’s run on the ol’ Punny comes to an end, will Frank Castle stick it to the Hand? Maria Castle is resurrected? Ares, the god of War was up in here too? It all comes to an end this issue, wrapped up and tied with a bloodstained bow by messrs Aaron and Saiz.

DC Pride 2023 and Power Girl Special (DC): DC’s big releases this week also serve a reminder that this month has a 5 Wednesday release so the publishers usually spread releases out and add some annuals or event books. So, DC fans, in light of the sparse slate from DC, look to these titles for some new stories, including a short story in DC Pride from Grant Morrison.