The Original Mirage Readers

[PizzaPower1985]

I've always wondered...

Do you know anyone who was part of the original fan group who was reading and collecting Mirage in the earliest days? Late 1984 to say mid 85?

What happened to a lot of the original fans? Did they simply grow out of it or have they remained fans? Or is there any way to even know? Were any of you part of that group?

I talked to someone recently name Phillip who started collecting in 85, but said by the time the toon debuted in '87 he started getting out of it.

Any ideas about the OG fans? Any storied you'd like to share?

[Leo656]

I didn't even know anyone who'd heard of Mirage until I got the internet in 2000. Like I was aware of it because I'd seen issue #1 in a comic shop in like 1990 for over $100 (which seemed extravagant at the time ) and I "won" one of the "City At War" issues at the Boardwalk playing the wheel game - I actually didn't win, but I'd played and lost so many turns that the vendor just felt sorry for me and gave it to me. And of course I read Wizard so I was aware of Mirage's existence but I'd never met anyone else who was familiar with it.

Nobody around here really carried the Mirage comics, whereas the Archie TMNTA books were everywhere. So while every kid I knew was aware that "TMNT was a comic book first", most of them mistakenly assumed that it was the Archie book. You know how kids are.

The very first time I'd ever had a conversation with a Mirage reader was on the internet sometime around 2001. Could've been Andrew, for all I know. He's like the only one I talked to back then that I still talk to now. And I regret that we weren't as close back then as we are now. Ah well, better late than never, I guess.

[garsh]

By the time I read any Mirage, I was already well into the toys, Archie, the cartoon and NES games. It was just by chance that a little comic booth had been set up in the midway of my local mall. Issues 22 and 23 were apparently current at the time, and I was very curious to get a look at where they had come from.

These turned out to be a two-part story about prepubescent super genius time traveler, Dale Evans McGuillicutty. I found them utterly baffling at the time. That was my only firsthand impression of the comics, and based on them I wasn't motivated to look for more.

Prior to that I had read the collector's edition mini-comic that was included with the fan club kit, but I was never sure what to make of it. It wasn't clear to me how "official" it was.

[Mayhem]

I started reading in about 88. Prior to the cartoon starting in the UK. Someone in my year had been on holiday to the US and bought a couple of the First Publishing graphic novels, so a few of us borrowed them to read after he said turtles were huge over there. I was mostly hooked but didn't follow it up until a few years later I was in the comic shop near to school and saw, I want to say issue #47, it was the two part Chote story done by Dooney. Remembered from the graphic novels, picked it up, loved it, and then slowly tried to get more back issues, but that didn't really happen until eBay started and I could purchase lots listed. Did the same with the back issues for Usagi as well in the late 90s. Cultiminating with getting a first print #1 in 2004 for the princely sum of $1000. I was saving up to move out so it ate a little in that but I didn't care hah hah.

[MrPliggins]

I haven't met anyone but I'm sure there is at least a member or two on this forum who were fans at the beginning. I discovered the Mirage comics at issue #16 at around age 10, and almost immediately started trying to find the back issues. I even tried at that time to order items from the ads in the original comics, but by that time it was too late and I received my money back.

[funatic]

My father owned a comic shop before I was born and put in orders for the first issue, but they were oversold at that point and they didn't ship him any. He read a few issues back then but never got too into it... was surprised when a few years later they took over the world and his little brat was bobbing along to the theme song every Saturday.

[CyberCubed]

I'm pretty sure a good chunk of them are dead by now. If you were already in your 20's in 1984....which is now 35 years ago, you would have to be 55-60 by now.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by garsh

By the time I read any Mirage, I was already well into the toys, Archie, the cartoon and NES games. It was just by chance that a little comic booth had been set up in the midway of my local mall. Issues 22 and 23 were apparently current at the time, and I was very curious to get a look at where they had come from.

These turned out to be a two-part story about prepubescent super genius time traveler, Dale Evans McGuillicutty. I found them utterly baffling at the time. That was my only firsthand impression of the comics, and based on them I wasn't motivated to look for more.

Prior to that I had read the collector's edition mini-comic that was included with the fan club kit, but I was never sure what to make of it. It wasn't clear to me how "official" it was.

Wow you got on board with Mirage early, man! I don't think I truly dabbled into a single Mirage book until City At War was on the LCS racks......

[frank_one]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I'm pretty sure a good chunk of them are dead by now. If you were already in your 20's in 1984....which is now 35 years ago, you would have to be 55-60 by now.

It is not so common to die at 55-60... I guess

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by frank_one

It is not so common to die at 55-60... I guess

If they were in their 20's in the 1980's, that means they were born in the 60's. People had naturally shorter lifespans back then and people aged much faster. Remember this is basically ancient times.

[PizzaPower1985]

My Mom was born in 67 and Dad in 68. They were teenagers when TMNT came out... 17 and 16... the perfect age to read Mirage in 84 or 85. Today they are 53 and 52. Both in relatively decent health though, because of stress, mom has taken up smoking (still pisses me off.)

people don't typically die in 50's unless they have heart conditions, cancer ETC.

[Andrew NDB]

I mean, to be honest... I look at the lettercols of Vol. 1 and look at the names and wonder what became of everybody. They aren't here. They're not on the FB pages.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I mean, to be honest... I look at the lettercols of Vol. 1 and look at the names and wonder what became of everybody. They aren't here. They're not on the FB pages.

I have to imagine that when TMNT so quickly became something completely different and foreign from Mirage, the original Mirage TMNT fans from Issue #1-ish all gave up and found other things to do. I mean the toys and cartoon came next, and they're SO different that I can totally see a ton of purists just abandoning the ship. If they weren't already put off by the meandering "Guest Writer/Artist" stuff by that point, that is.

People are like that. Consider World Championship Wrestling being purchased by the WWF in 2001. Not only were the companies' presentation of pro wrestling totally different, the fans were totally different; MOST fans of one wouldn't be caught dead watching the other. It was assumed that when the WWF bought WCW, all the WCW fans would start watching the WWF instead, but that never happened. What happened instead was that about 20 million people all just quit watching wrestling forever because they liked WCW's style and hated the WWF. WWF/WWE never got those fans back, instead losing more and more people every year.

I have to imagine that it's the same issue with the old-school Day One Mirage fans. They may have liked what TMNT originally was, but seeing what it was turning into was probably enough to make them abandon ship forever. I can't imagine most of them having any interest at all in the cartoon show or the toys. Most of them probably haven't even thought of or paid attention to TMNT ever since. I can totally believe that.

[PizzaPower1985]

I can just imagine going into a Manhattan, Californian or Canadian comic book store and finding an early issue... or mailing away for one or whatever... those cats must have just read the first few issues and been attracted to it for its weirdness, more mature storyline or adult humor.

You guys make some good points... They do seem to just have disappeared.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

If they were in their 20's in the 1980's, that means they were born in the 60's. People had naturally shorter lifespans back then and people aged much faster. Remember this is basically ancient times.

-facepalms- WTF, man?!?

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I mean, to be honest... I look at the lettercols of Vol. 1 and look at the names and wonder what became of everybody. They aren't here. They're not on the FB pages.

There's a generational divide there were I think the our generation are the largest "older" cohort to have a continuous and adaptive internet presence. A lot of that older cohort (not all of it) have probably abandoned the hobby or just haven't followed the evolution of the internet away from forums.

Basically I think with most pop culture properties that we are at a phase where only the die hards are generally hanging on to any given IP at this point.

[PizzaPower1985]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I have to imagine that when TMNT so quickly became something completely different and foreign from Mirage, the original Mirage TMNT fans from Issue #1-ish all gave up and found other things to do. I mean the toys and cartoon came next, and they're SO different that I can totally see a ton of purists just abandoning the ship. If they weren't already put off by the meandering "Guest Writer/Artist" stuff by that point, that is.

Yup. Probably... I met a man named Bill once, in a bar... and we were talking superheroes. Spider-man (the Ditko-Romita era) was his big thing... I mentioned TMNT and he was telling me how his sister bought issue 2 in 1985 and got him into it... They stayed with it until the cartoon came out. They read about it in Comics Scene or something and were excited because of the Kevin/Peter endorsement... but when it aired they were like "WTF is this?" and by the time the first film came out (which the liked) they were over TMNT.

[frank_one]

Original fans are probably still out there but they just don't hang out on message boards like us younger generations. Also, a lot of time has passed since 1984, they grew up, they got married, had kids and stopped reading comics. Modern generations tend to indulge in stuff like comics or videogames more than those older generations, even at 30 or 40.

[CyberCubed]

Yeah, that's basically a generation before most of us, our parents generation pretty much. How many of your parents still read comics, play videogames, watch cartoons and superhero movies? I imagine very few...since they didn't really grow up with this "lifestyle."

I feel like our generation is the first one to embrace still liking "kids stuff" as adults, because of the internet and the fact that everything is continuous. Our parents grew up in a different time where once you hit 18 they moved out and had to outgrow stuff from their youth. Then they just watched Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and 20/20 with Barbara Walters.

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, it was probably a mix of the "original" Mirage comic fans becoming disinterested when Kevin and Laird had little to nothing to do with the book anymore and the rise of the cartoon/toys popularity (at a certain point when everyone thinks TMNT is just a thing for babies and morons, and all you've got to read at Mirage is the "guest writer/artist era" while Kevin and Peter are just busy selling toys... I get it). By "City at War" most were probably already long gone.

[wpugh2424]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

If they were in their 20's in the 1980's, that means they were born in the 60's. People had naturally shorter lifespans back then and people aged much faster. Remember this is basically ancient times.

Life expectancy was average of around 73 then