What the heck are THESE???
 

And here I thought my collection was all shored up (Shell Shock, Challenges, Turtlemania, etc). Then I came across these:

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...trangeness.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_Universe.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...adventures.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...ional_TMNT.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...in_Turtles.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o..._Hollywood.jpg


First time I've ever heard of those titles, and I kicked some mighty obscure rocks over when I was building up my collection. Is anybody out there familiar with them? Are these short story collections or books of artwork/pinups? Any new material to be found, or are they reprints of existing stories?

GAAAAAH, I'm so confused! :teek:

RPG books. Not really a necessity if you are trying to complete your comics collection.

It is the Pen & Paper Role-Playing games made by Palladium

It should be noted that while these are role playing game source books for rules and whatnot, some also contain some original TMNT shorts written and drawn by Eastman & Laird. However, all of those comics were collected in the Shell Shock TPB, I believe.

Here ya go, peeps:
http://tmntentity.blogspot.com/2011/...erview-of.html

I disagree; everyone NEEDS a copy of "Road Hogs"! :tgrin: There are another couple of comics that were reprinted in Shell Shock.

These books are pretty neat as a sort of Mirage side material. I'm not sure that you can really consider much of anything in them canon, but there are little bits of character info that are probably non-clashing with established material if you are into that sort of thing. Some of the characters they introduce could potentially work in a comic (or perhaps a video game) too.

Believe it or not, a few RPG original characters ended up appearing as villains in the Manhattan Missions PC game!

Wow, some crazy covers in there - previously I had only ever seen the first one. Also, lol @ those URLs.

It's always been my secret desire that a more mainstream incarnation of the Turtles would mine these books for characters.

The Terror Bears must have their day.

Same here, man. There's a lot of untapped potential in those books, in my opinion.

At least Andrew/Lawson are putting one of the books to good use in Odyssey, a bit.

I'm working on a fan comic myself that will focus on the Fred Wolf series but draw from the various elements of the multiverse. Some of the information in the Transdimensional TMNT book actually helped me solve a plot hole with a convenient explanation for some pseudo-science.

Sweet overview, my friend! I need to get my hands on these someday -- my first exposure to TMNT was an RPG ad way back when. Good stuff!

Tom W.

I wish they'd update this series with new titles, but given that Tabletop RPG's aren't quite as popular as they once were, that's a bit of a stretch. I own two of these and have gotten outbid on some. I also consider it the de facto source of biographical information for the characters of the Mirage Universe.

The fact that Tom is interested in checking these out make me absolutely giddy!

My local comic shop sometimes has a stack of them laying around. I actually helped Mark "DrSpengler" Pellegrini acquire most of those books. I can probably try to do something similar for you if you don't have any better options. I suspect Kevin Eastman might have a few laying around though.

What is the TMNT & OS Game Shield? I've seen that a few times and wasn't sure exactly what it was (like most, I'm not a pen & paper RPG player) and if I wanted to buy it.

Thanks! The first few volumes are a treasure trove of interesting ideas and villains that never made it outside the gaming world. Doc Feral and the Terror Bears, especially, had a lot of potential as villains.

Those books are worth it just for the amazing art; some of Eastman and Laird's best stuff.

I *think* it's one of those foldout carboard blinds that "Dungeon Masters" use in gaming to shield their papers and charts or whatever from the players.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure myself, since I've never seen a physical copy in person. I've thought about picking on up off ebay a couple of times, but the price was never attractive enough.

After the Bomb and Road Hogs are about a future where the world is ruled by mutants following a disaster. I believe the US president is a mutant pantheress. Usub Gerstalk (the club-wielding gator mutant in Manhattan Missions often mistaken for Leatherhead) comes from there. There's also a story involving an elderly (and senile) Raphael leading a new NT team.

I can always count on Ninji to prove some info on the RPG-Manhattan Missions connection!

Doesn't one of the gangster rats also show up in the game?

All except for the comic "Road Hogs".

Yeah, he's called "Labb Ratt".