Italian TMNT?

[Abnormal Freak]

Could somebody fill me in on this?

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=86395939971%204

MHC lists four issues, and this is the only one with cover art. Since there are Utroms on the cover, I figure this is an Italian print of Vol. 1 #4. Cooool cover art; the Utrom suits have a creepy Terminator vibe going on.

Did it only last four issues?

[Powder]

Holy hell, that is the coolest cover art ever.

[oldmanwinters]

Wow! Killer cover art! I wish I knew something about it, but I'm guessing it is just a translation of some of the U.S. comics with a killer new cover.

[Venom]

Dammit, another thing to collect! That artwork is way beyond awesome!! :D

[Abnormal Freak]

This is all I could find from further searching (so far):

http://cgi.ebay.it/TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-TURTLES-1-GRANATA-PRESS-/230541386371?pt=Fumetti_Occidentali&hash=item35ad566283

http://cgi.ebay.it/TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-TURTLES-VOL-01-GRANATA-1992-/280580379160?pt=Cartonati_e_Artbook_d_Autore&hash=item4153e4d218

eBay auctions for the first issue.

Wish I could read the signature on issue 4. Would make searching for the covers so much easier.

But it looks like only four issues were printed, as the Italian Wikipedia page (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarughe_Ninja) says "4 numeri" after Granata Press, the publisher of the comic.

[Archon_Turtle]

This is all I could find from further searching (so far):

http://cgi.ebay.it/TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-TURTLES-1-GRANATA-PRESS-/230541386371?pt=Fumetti_Occidentali&hash=item35ad566283

http://cgi.ebay.it/TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-TURTLES-VOL-01-GRANATA-1992-/280580379160?pt=Cartonati_e_Artbook_d_Autore&hash=item4153e4d218

eBay auctions for the first issue.

Wish I could read the signature on issue 4. Would make searching for the covers so much easier.

But it looks like only four issues were printed, as the Italian Wikipedia page (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartarughe_Ninja) says "4 numeri" after Granata Press, the publisher of the comic.

I don't have to read the signature to tell you that's Simon Bisley's work

[Powder]

I don't have to read the signature to tell you that's Simon Bisley's work

Yeah, no one does muscles like him.

So are these confirmed as italian reprints?

[PAAATE]

We have these four in Sweden too... Got the first three, the fourth is so ****ing rare you could believe they never even printed it...

Here (http://epix.se/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=87) are the first three covers, and you can buy issues #1-2.

Interesting to finally see the fourth cover :)

--EDIT--

Btw, I've always wondered why the third cover obviously belongs to Raphael#1, when the comic inside is TMNT#3... Weird.

[Abnormal Freak]

Cool stuff! I actually just saw that artwork for issue 3 a few hours ago, thinking it was a Bisley piece, but that site cites the name Glenn Fabry. Looking at a bunch of his art, and man, his style really does resemble Bisley's a lot.

Do you have a scanner, and if so, could you do really high res scans of the covers (and backs if there's anything interesting there) at like...600 DPI? :D Plus what the interiors are like if they're any different? (Neat sketches or pinups or anything.) And perhaps a sample page or two, just out of curiosity to see TMNT in a different language? ;)

[PAAATE]

Cool stuff! I actually just saw that artwork for issue 3 a few hours ago, thinking it was a Bisley piece, but that site cites the name Glenn Fabry. Looking at a bunch of his art, and man, his style really does resemble Bisley's a lot.

Do you have a scanner, and if so, could you do really high res scans of the covers (and backs if there's anything interesting there) at like...600 DPI? :D Plus what the interiors are like if they're any different? (Neat sketches or pinups or anything.) And perhaps a sample page or two, just out of curiosity to see TMNT in a different language? ;)

Yeah, the signature says "G. FABRY '92"

Issue #1 just has the comic with some half-assed translation.

Issue #2 has the comic + the story of how the Turtles were created with a lot of faulty and even contradictory information (2 pages)

Issue #3 has the comic + some credits along with the pic made by Eastman in 1987 with four empty chairs, the Turtles' weapons and studio lights above, making it look like a movie set + probably just because they didn't want an empty page they've cropped the Turtle yelling "Master Splinter!" on page 3 out of the picture and put him on the last page.

The back sides has this layout:

The pic of Raphael from the first page of #2 in color
Summary of who the Turtles are
Summary of this issue
Which other issues have been published and which one gets published next month.

Someone remind me to make scans some other day, cos right now I really have to get going on a "home exam" (dunno if you have those) that's due in less than two weeks.

[Archon_Turtle]

Cool stuff! I actually just saw that artwork for issue 3 a few hours ago, thinking it was a Bisley piece, but that site cites the name Glenn Fabry. Looking at a bunch of his art, and man, his style really does resemble Bisley's a lot.

Do you have a scanner, and if so, could you do really high res scans of the covers (and backs if there's anything interesting there) at like...600 DPI? :D Plus what the interiors are like if they're any different? (Neat sketches or pinups or anything.) And perhaps a sample page or two, just out of curiosity to see TMNT in a different language? ;)

Huh. I stand corrected. Man...that style really is a direct lift from Simon...maybe a pen name or something?

[PAAATE]

maybe a pen name or something?

Google says no. :P Glenn Fabry has his own web site (http://www.glennfabry.co.uk/) and everything. He's done quite a lot of work too, it seems.

[Abnormal Freak]

I chatted with Dan Berger about it, and he didn't know who painted the covers, but when I replied with the info that Fabry did them, he told me, "That makes sense - from what I've heard, he's the guy that taught Bisley how to paint. I shoulda known that from the get go."

[discordiatookie]

Wow, amazing looking covers! All I know of Glenn Fabry's work is that he done the Preacher covers, which are genius. Highly detailed and f*cking gruesome. Great looking stuff!

[wilddiverse]

Someone remind me to make scans some other day, cos right now I really have to get going on a "home exam" (dunno if you have those) that's due in less than two weeks.

Did you pass? Is now an okay time to remind you to scan these beauties? :D

[Abnormal Freak]

If you could, scan 'em in like...amazing quality, too. Like 600dpi. ;p Dimensions need not be bigger than 2048 pixels the long way. And yeah, even resizing to that much smaller size, 600dpi still makes the difference.

[Andrew NDB]

http://image2.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/86395939971.4.GIF

Does that say "Granito" (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/24/who-on-earth-is-rob-granito/) on the bottom?

I'm suspicious...


But seriously, it's clearly Glenn Fabry, not Bisley. He did some wicked Vengeance of Bane covers that I recall right away.

http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/4/4b/Batman_Vengeance_of_Bane_1.jpg

http://covers.cbrd.info/63b2bcd96a3981153de8111edeeca175_l.jpg

[PizzaPower]

yea he does amazing artwork.

[PAAATE]

Did you pass? Is now an okay time to remind you to scan these beauties? :D

Thanks for reminding me by PM! :P Like I said, I'll do it this weekend.

[Abnormal Freak]

Just because I'm a dee-ouche, can we see 600dpi scans please? ;) Y'can resize 'em to 2048 the long way. I ask because even resized to those dimensions, I can still notice a considerable difference in quality between that and 300dpi, but most Turtles scans I come across are like below 100.

[PAAATE]

Just because I'm a dee-ouche, can we see 600dpi scans please? ;) Y'can resize 'em to 2048 the long way. I ask because even resized to those dimensions, I can still notice a considerable difference in quality between that and 300dpi, but most Turtles scans I come across are like below 100.

Haven't used the scanner for a few years, but I'll try :P

Oh, and when I said "this weekend" I meant the upcoming one.. Just to clarify.. Since it's 2.30 am Monday here now :P Didn't even think of the time zone differences when I wrote that... And I'll probably be at the office the whole week, so, yeah... Next weekend.

[PAAATE]

Seems like our scanner is broken, and there's no plan to fix it....... I'm terribly sorry about this. Hate to disappoint :(

[wilddiverse]

well, **** the bed.

[Abnormal Freak]

o:

D':

;_;

[frank_one]

I have a complete set of this Italian version (plus some spares). These four issues were released by Granata Press, an important Italian publisher back then, even if not the biggest, based in the city of Bologna, in the north of Italy. It stopped its activities in 1996.
The first issue of this series was released in December 1992. The third issue contains Mirage vol.1 #3 even if the cover shows Casey Jones and Raphael fighting, a scene from Raphael #1. The first issue contains an interview (inedited?) to Eastman and Laird about the third movie which was still in pre-production at that time.
The four cover arts are by Glenn Fabry and they are just wonderful! I know he did them for European reprints of the Mirage comic but so far I've only seen them in this Italian version and in the Polish one. A Polish member of this forum posted some scans here (http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=38487): he has only the first three books, I don't know if they ever released the fourth book there.

I can provide scans (photos actually) of the covers and of internal pages if someone asks.

[Powder]

I'm asking! :D Please do scan the covers if you could!

[frank_one]

Ok, I will scan the covers. After all I don't need to open the books to do that.

[Filespit]

We have these four in Sweden too... Got the first three, the fourth is so ****ing rare you could believe they never even printed it...

Here (http://epix.se/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=87) are the first three covers, and you can buy issues #1-2.

Interesting to finally see the fourth cover :)

--EDIT--

Btw, I've always wondered why the third cover obviously belongs to Raphael#1, when the comic inside is TMNT#3... Weird.

I was just about to say this. I've actually got all four, which I'm very happy about! Bought a set of all four on a swedish auction sometime ago. I already had issue #1-3 before that so now I have duplicates of those three. The new ones I bought are all in plastic folders and I think they've hardly been opened at all! But as PAAATE says here, #4 is damn hard to find, I'm lucky enough to have found one. I could post pictures if anyone's interested!

[frank_one]

So, those covers by Glenn Fabry were released on European versions in Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden as far as we know for now, right? My scans of the Italian version are coming. How much big do you want them?

[Powder]

I'll take the highest quality you're willing to share man, but I guess 300dpi, the standard, is totally fine. If any files are too big to post without resizing or whatever just pop 'em onto sadpanda.us or imgur.com something. Thanks in advance!

[Oculus Orbus]

So, those covers by Glenn Fabry were released on European versions in Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden as far as we know for now, right?

None of the spanish collections of the Mirage issues had those covers. In 1990 we had the First books with this (http://www.tebeosfera.com/obras/publicaciones/galeria/tortugas_ninja_mutantes_planeta-deagostini_1990.html) covers, and then in 2006-2007 we got a five books compilation of most of in-continuity Mirage Volume 1 and Tales of the TMNT Volume 1 with covers recycled from old Eastman and Laird illustrations (http://www.normaeditorial.com/catalogo.asp?S/996/0/0/las_tortugas_ninja).

[frank_one]

None of the spanish collections of the Mirage issues had those covers. In 1990 we had the First books with this (http://www.tebeosfera.com/obras/publicaciones/galeria/tortugas_ninja_mutantes_planeta-deagostini_1990.html) covers, and then in 2006-2007 we got a five books compilation of most of in-continuity Mirage Volume 1 and Tales of the TMNT Volume 1 with covers recycled from old Eastman and Laird illustrations (http://www.normaeditorial.com/catalogo.asp?S/996/0/0/las_tortugas_ninja).
I guess I misunderstood one of your previous posts then. So it's Italy, Poland and Sweden for now. Cool you got the First books there.

[Oculus Orbus]

I guess I misunderstood one of your previous posts then. So it's Italy, Poland and Sweden for now. Cool you got the First books there.

Yeah, those books were how I first got introduced to Mirage TMNT (the first one really, wich is the only one I had as a kid). I was about seven or eight years old, and they completely blew my mind.

It's sad those Fabry covers never got published over here though, I would have friggin' loved them.

[frank_one]

And here you go! Following are a preview of the four beauties. I had them scanned at 300dpi and saved as PNG files to have the highest quality. They were so huge I was not able to upload them to a free image hosting service and had to upload them to my personal web space. If you wanna see and download them, just send me a PM and I'll give you the link to them (I don't want to make it public). Beware, they are 14MB files each!

Aren't these the best TMNT artworks you've ever seen? They are even better "in person". Glenn Fabry is the man!

http://sadpanda.us/images/1282454-YR6J423.jpg

http://sadpanda.us/images/1282458-6CJ07C3.jpg

http://sadpanda.us/images/1282459-9T6L7RQ.jpg

http://sadpanda.us/images/1282460-Q9VALZ9.jpg

I think I will take some photos of internal pages soon.

[Oculus Orbus]

Oh man, they're so cool, easily some of the best TMNT illustrations I've ever seen. I'd love to see them bare, without the logos.

Thank you very much for sharing this with us!

[frank_one]

Oh man, they're so cool, easily some of the best TMNT illustrations I've ever seen. I'd love to seem bare, without the logos.

Thank you very much for sharing this with us!
According to Fabry the original paintings are in Eastman's Turtle Museum. I don't know if that museum still exist.

[nelodiavolo]

Wow, the detail is amazing! Those would make great posters.

[Powder]

They're easily the most badass pieces of turtle art in the world. Thanks for posting these. I'll totally take the full resolution scans if you wanna toss me a link in PM, dude.

[Filespit]

The swedish releases are slightly different, thought I'd fill you in on those;

* Issue #2 has the entire cover completely mirrored the other way, Leo stands to the left instead etc
* The Turtles-logo is white on all issues instead of blue or red
* There's no Granata-logo at the bottom since it's not spanish releases
* The issue number in the top center isn't there
* The swedish releases have a text saying "Originalturtlarna av Eastman & Laird" (The Original Turtles by Eastman & Laird) at the bottom
* Each issue has a "chapter title"; #1 says "From the Sewers", #2 says "Blackmail", #3 says "The Fighter" and #4 says "The Robot Creatures"

[Plasticplayhouse]

I talked to Glenn Fabry over a year ago about a single character painted commission. He quoted $1k. I love his work, but that's too rich for my blood.

[Oculus Orbus]

According to Fabry the original paintings are in Eastman's Turtle Museum. I don't know if that museum still exist.

Unfortunately it doesn't, it closed in 1999.

[frank_one]

* There's no Granata-logo at the bottom since it's not spanish releases

These are Italian releases, but, yes, "granata" sounds Spanish too :tgrin:

I'm happy you're enjoying them. I would love to see the actual paintings too. If Eastman's museum has closed then I don't know who owns them now.
Fabry was commisioned for only four paintings, I wonder what they would've used for the fifth issues' cover if they hadn't stopped at #4 :ohwell:
My favourite one is probably the fourth, I love the background color, the utroms and the details on Leo.

[Powder]

I like the first one best, personally. The third is a close second. Too badass for words, really.

[Filespit]

These are Italian releases, but, yes, "granata" sounds Spanish too :tgrin:

Oops, my bad haha! Forgot you were from Italy! :)