Why do people act like TMNT hasn't had an almost continuous presence?
 

A lot of fans seem to act like TMNT "completely dies" for a few years and fades away before it comes back again. Yet...that's not really true. TMNT is almost always around in some fashion.

1984-1996 = Mirage comics, original cartoon, movie trilogy, Archie series

1997-1998 = Next Mutation, Image series

1999 = Image series ends

2000 = Only dead TMNT year

2001-2002 = Volume 4 begins

2003-2009 = Mirage Vol. 4 and Tales, 4kids TMNT cartoon, 4th TMNT movie, toys/videogames

2010 = Tales of the TMNT still runs for 5 more issues till May

2011 = IDW TMNT comic series starts

2012 = Nick toon starts


So as you can see, virtually every year except for 2000, the TMNT has had "something" new being released or going on.

So why do people act like TMNT ever completely died at some point, when this is not true?

You how people can be, man, if they don't like something they wipe it from their mind.
If it's not "the original" it doesn't matter, etc... I always jump down the throat of people who are like "Oh the turtles are finally back!".
Yo, they never left, herb. You just didn't care enough to follow them after the OT.

Well, for people who aren't big fans of tmnt, they did die. To them, the turtles started in 87' ended in 96' and came back in 03' (and some people don't even know about that).

maybe its because the turtles haven't really had a reboot as far as the comics go. v2, v3, and v4 were all continuations of the original series. this is the first new comic series (not based off a cartoon). but i do agree that the turtles have had a very persistent presence. although its easier than ever to notice retro revivals these days thanks to the internet and the increased popularity of blogging about lesser known (to the general masses) nerd culture.

It depends also on country that we are speaking about. For example here in Poland turtles are dead for years now. We had in the 90's OT (just 3 or 4 seasons, some vhs's ) then for couple of years nothing, then NM (not all episodes) then BIG NOOOTHING until the 2k3 serie and for the next 4 years again nothing, then TMNT Movie and since then nothing again so as You can see we are missing alot. And that sucks. There are no comic books, no toys in shops, no dvd with orginal movies, no soundtracks. Just video games for Wii or PC and that is all. It was a miracle for me to find a DVD with some episodes of next mutation last month in a mall.

Another element is that different avenues of the franchise are targeted toward different people. For instance, the teens/young adults, except for perhaps Season 1, hated when the OT came out due to it being too goofy and watered down compared to the comics, thus cutting themselves off from most items that the OT was based off of. Those people are now well into middle age, and can look back at TMNT and say, "Wow, look how far it has gone". Many of the core OT fans still feel that once Power Rangers came about, the original series shall remain just a childhood memory (though I do hope it comes back as they pass it to their children!) It's really only the true die-hards that see TMNT as a (mostly) continuous franchise. Presenting former/returning fans about how continuous TMNT has been can really enrich their memories and return as fans, often better than before. But we still need all the support we can get to keep it running; after checking around a dozen or so yard sales last weekend, I only found one TMNT-related item: the 2007 movie (of course I bought it for $1), this tells the general public that TMNT should have gone the way of Pogs and Snap Bracelets and is simply RetroJunk, which is far from the truth. The truth is, most people only associate TMNT with the version with that catchy theme song (OT) and maybe the first movie, leaving it as a fad for several years. I wish some of you could talk to some people of the public and ask them, "What were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" Expect responses such as "Oh, that cartoon way back in the late '80s/early '90s" or "That old kids show". This just shows how much potential there is for a full-scale revival.

Same reason you didn't know the WVU football team has a new head coach this year.

Generally speaking, if one does not give a **** about something, one will not know anything about it.

i think that it has to do with what part of TMNT people are into- if the loved the movies as a kid- in 07 the turtles "came back", if you really loved the vintage toys- the 2k3 line brought them back! and if you only liked the television show you might now be thinking "hey look they're coming back!!!"- and of course, life just happens someone of my age [28] who doesnt live & breath tmnt might have grown up with the comics, OT, movies but then interest started to fade around Next Mutation so jump ahead another 14 years and VOILA! Now the turtles are back from the dead...

Yeah, they were there all the time, bu they were nowhere near the level of popularity they had during the original cartoon and the first 2 movies, so most people had no idea they even existed. Power Rangers has never stopped playing and there's a new season every year since it started yet I find people who were fans back in the days who think it ended with In Space.

I Think its also depends on if you are talking about animation or comics only the there more dead years if you go by animated TV series only, but if you add the live-action TV series you can remove two years from this list. For the turtles not being on TV.

1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002

2009
2010
2011

The last few episodes of Back To The Sewers and Turtles Forever was 2009, so you can remove that year as well. To me, Turtles Forever is what began my gradual reinterest in the franchise (though this summer is when it really came back buying those comics and watching both series.)

The same thing happens with various bands/artists in music, who fade from the spotlight after a number of years, then often make a comeback, and occassionally the band says that "we never left", and that can pretty much be true with TMNT! If you check out many artists' discographies, you'll find many of these albums that are forgotten and often flopped, but realize that they just got outmoded in favor of usually younger talent.

A large bit of TMNT fans ignore comics all together and some even ignore everything but the OT. By their logic it was dead. Course this is the TMNT fanbase after all. The same that starts and believes in stupid rumors, writes bad fan fiction, draws turtle porn, and makes horrible fan art.

So... They're the same as any fandom for anything?

Yeah pretty much. Though with a fandom this small I'm taken back by the amount of whining and bitching that comes about when we get new things, even good new things. And that people have trash talked the creators on their blogs, in letters, and here which is known to be read by some of the Mirage guys. The only motivation they had to create a lot of the stuff outside the cartoon was us and I doubt they felt very appreciated.

The Pokemon fans (teens/adults) are way worse. Trust me.