The Deal With Charlie Llama

[Cowabung-Gal]

I’m sure many of you recall the Archie character Charlie Llama, Splinter’s mentor and the supposed 14th reincarnation of Buddha.

In issue #34 of TMNT Adventures, an evil Chinese wizard named Mang-Thrasha kidnaps and hands Llama over to the Chinese government, who plan to make him look like a fraud since millions of people in Tibet follow and believe in him, and shaking their faith would eliminate the threat of China losing their rule over Tibet. But those plans are foiled when Llama passes away.

Apparently IDW won’t reprint any stories referencing Charlie Llama because that one issue dared to criticize the CCP, and of course we can’t offend China or their communist leaders now can we?

When I found and purchased issue #34 in a flea market, I had no idea about the controversy surrounding that story arc, and now I’m really glad that I picked it up when I did.

[IMJ]

Apparently IDW won’t reprint any stories referencing Charlie Llama because that one issue dared to criticize the CCP, and of course we can’t offend China or their communist leaders now can we

OMG, are you serious? Where did you get this information?

[ChosenOne]

These days, I’m fairly sure the tongue sucking thing would take precedence over the CCP. Llama tongues are nasty!

[neatoman]

Yes, it is unfortunate that four issues had to be omitted due to controversy… Though I guess a bigger problem would be the fact that the entire run consists of poor scans they didn't even bother to touch up in Photoshop (aside from removing the blurbs)… One of which has the most embarrassing misprint I've ever seen…

In case you don't know, the first page of #51 was duplicated and replaced the first page of #54. I know if IDW had the misfortune to work with a misprinted copy of #54 or if the layout guy screwed up, either way it's baffling because it's not hard to find unofficial scans without this problem.

[Cowabung-Gal]

OMG, are you serious? Where did you get this information?

The TMNT wiki
https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Charlie_Llama

[liugeaux]

That's likely a piece of the puzzle. Issue #35 has a drawing of Muhammed, which is a big no-no in some Islamic circles. So much so that it likely led to the Charlie Hebdo shootings of 2015. I completely understand IDW, a publishing company (like Hebdo), not wanting to deal with that attention.

As for Charlie Llama himself, I don't know if we've ever gotten real proof that the CCP's opinion of Buddha is to blame, but generally speaking, that whole arc plays fast and loose with a lot of religious stuff, and I doubt IDW is in the business of stirring the religious fanatic pot. I don't know if having Buddha reincarnated as a llama is very flattering.

Since these reprints were done on a shoestring budget anyway it was likely much easier to just skip that arc (32-37) altogether.