How did you believe?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

How did you believe before you knew about the Mirage comics, if you didn't knew the Mirage comics before?

For many years, I didn't know about the Mirage comics. Until the rise of the Internet, I believed that the Archie comics came first, then the 1987 cartoon and then the movies. I heard they first appeared as a comic book in 1984, and it also seemed more correct that they first made a comic book, then a cartoon and then movies. Here I have seen many say they believed that the the 1987 cartoon was first.

[Roseangelo]

Well, the first movie came out six months after I discovered the original cartoon, then the summer after that I discovered one of the First color books at the local library and it happened to be #4, which collects Leo #1, 10-11, from which a lot of the movie was based. I absolutely loved it (it's still my all-time favorite TMNT story) and it was then that I realized that there was a whole lot more to the Turtles that I was missing out on and started researching all of the old stuff, although it would actually be a couple more years before I began collecting the comic books in earnest.

[Spawn Guy]

I stumbled on the comics by accident after years of old toon and first movie VHS watching. This was around when I was first getting into comics thanks to constant reruns of Spider-Man and Batman on BBC...2 I think. A friend of the family who worked in trading comics saw how much of fan I was and hunted one down for me. Either Return to New York part 3 or Archie issue 5, but he gave me a quick history on the Mirage set up and where the franchise went from there. Then I did a little bit of research on my own over the years when I started realising TV didn't influence comics entirely. So I've been aware that the TMNT had a comic book origon that branched out for most of my time as a fan. Even though thanks to the old toon I had no idea they were brothers or had short names for each other at first.

[Tinuvielsdreams]

I started asking mom and dad for the Archie comics when we would go to the store when I was 5-ish probably because I have some that date back to 89. This is of course after I had fallen in love with the cartoon. When I got a little older I found there were many more kinds of turtle comics out there. I was probably under the belief the cartoon came first actually...

[Courk]

As a kid, all I knew were the cartoon and the movie. I really wasn't old enough at the time to remember one coming before the other, but I knew the movie was the cartoon on-screen. (I know that's not an accurate description, but that's how I saw it.) My brother also got some sort of magazine subscription thing as a gift. I haven't a clue what that was. I seem to remember it having games like mazes in it -- could it have been one of the comics books?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

So, many of you didn't knew about the Archie comics? Didn't you see it in the local stores. It had the same logotype as the 1987 TMNT cartoon, so it must have been easy to recognize it if you already watched the cartoon.

[Roseangelo]

Oh yeah, I picked up on the Archie comics starting with, I think, issue 9, so I was reading those nearly from the start.

[Tinuvielsdreams]

So, many of you didn't knew about the Archie comics? Didn't you see it in the local stores. It had the same logotype as the 1987 TMNT cartoon, so it must have been easy to recognize it if you already watched the cartoon.

I did have them right from the beginning and I know it was because of the cartoon. It was the Mirage books I didn't find out about till later. I was just little...:P
I think a lot of of came across Archie I mean heck they even sold them at the grocery store as I remember.

[Roseangelo]

I think a lot of of came across Archie I mean heck they even sold them at the grocery store as I remember.

I got a bunch of Archie books from KB Toys.

[Time Mistress]

I knew about Archie the same month or two OT TMNT first premiered. I was lucky enough to catch it from the very first ep. I started collected Archie with issue #2 of the mini series before the monthly series started. I first found out about Mirage sometime around the first movie coming out, probably from one of the triva books or a TMNT collectors guide or something like that. After I saw the first movie, I started collecting Mirage with the 4 color trade TPBs of issue 1-11, my first regular Mirage issue was #28 Sons of the Silent Age.

[Scandia]

I believed that Splinter was originally Hamato Yoshi. Until I saw the first movie AND the newspaper informed me about Splinter's origins in the original comic.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Splinter is Hamato Yoshi in the 1987 TMNT cartoon and the Archie TMNT Adventures comics.

[Spawn Guy]

And nobody would know that without your inspiring efforts.

[Scandia]

I know. But I said that I was exposed first to the TMNT via the old toon. So the first version of the Splinter tale I saw was of his being originally Hamato Yoshi. I did not know this was the original one until watching the first movie.

[Leogeddon]

i read the comics, but i never did get to read the original series until about the 50th issue or something like that... the internet got me caught up in the marvelous world of the Laird Universe

[TheAnimatedSeries]

I knew it first as a cartoon when it premiered and got tons of the Archie books. By the time the first movie came out, I knew it was based on a comic originally. My brother had some, but I didnt want to read them cause I hated the way they were drawn. I dont anymore, but I hated the beak look back then. I did have the comic adaptation of the movie, which was done Mirage style and was oFF tHa PaNal.

[odupianist]

I knew about it because of the old toon like most. I'm not sure how/when/why I got Archie comics or even book 2 of the Mirage comics.