Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles # 1
 

https://markepicblogofrandomness.blo...a-turtles.html

I was looking for an issue I was missing and eh... it was at the shop. Kind of a weird way to start the series, coupled with the fact that it ended on a cliffhanger.

I'll most likely grab the second issue for the sake of not leaving the story unfinished, after that who knows.

Got this for the whippersnapper and read it last night. He wanted to play Metalhead vs. Rusty afterward, but it was too close to bedtime lol.

I don’t really like the character designs or art style of the Tales show, but Joyce did a good job of capturing it regardless. Also had some pretty slick layouts.

My nitpicks:

* The book is called Tales of the TMNT… it even starts with the framing device of a character telling others a story… yet no one says “Let me tell you a story”. Come on man.

* Are Irma and Ian from the cartoon? I didn’t see the point of having two mostly useless human companions. Also, Irma’s defining trait is that she’s a bespectacled nerd and really wants to meet the turtles. Here she looks like a normal popular kid and already knows the turtles lol.

Take it as a grain of salt, cause Wikipedia but-

In June 2025, it was announced that a six-issue comic book series based on the television show would be launched by IDW Publishing in October of that same year.[37][38] The first story arc in the run was written by Mikey Levitt, a creative from the television series, while the second was written by Andrew Joustra, the script and recording coordinator of Mutant Mayhem and writer of the short film, Chrome Alone 2 – Lost in New Jersey (2025). Louie Joyce provided artwork for the full run.[

A quick, but admittedly not so thorough search says that both this Irma and Ian are exclusively from this issue.
As for the book itself, it’s a kid’s book, but even despite that it didn’t feel very entertaining, which shouldn’t be the case since even kid comics can be fun, funny and exciting.
Every time Raphael interrupted to comment on how boring Donatello’s story was, I couldn’t help but agree, and I’m 100% certain I wasn’t supposed to!
Maybe things will get better once the writers find their footing. Maybe the book will be done in six issues. Guess we’ll find out.

Ah ya beat me to it. Since this ended on a cliffhanger, we can assume they'll be in the next issue too.

If it really is a 6 issue run with 2 stories, that means the Donnie campfire story will be a 3-parter. Geez. What an opener.

This might not happen but it would be good if in some of upcoming issues they setup Mutant Mayhem/Tales Turtles to be summoned by Mister Ogg to fight 1990 movie Turtles in TMNT Battle Nexus comic side story and from what we saw on one of preview pages Raph from this universe will be first one from this universe to be summoned with some other version of Raph from different universes and Michelangelo from Last Ronin universe

So Mark I saw that on this blog where you posted your thoughts about this issue you said Mutant Mayhem/Tales Turtles will also appear in TMNT Battle Nexus side story, so I know that they will and they will fight against 1990 Turtles so one question, here: so do you think 1990 Turtles will be surprised if they told them they literally go to school and do not hide in shadows that much?

I'd say so, though I doubt it would come up in the middle of the fight. The 90's movie turtles seem 'too old' for school, despite still being teenagers.

Yeah and I am also excited to read it, also Mutant Mayhem/Tales Raph is first from this universe to be summoned by Mister Ogg in Dimension Z it is shown in one of TMNT Battle Nexus issue 1 preview pages

Here's issue 2. I think that not many people are gonna be reading this one compared to the Saturday Morning one so we can keep em all here,
https://markepicblogofrandomness.blo...a-turtles.html

Preview for #3 https://comicsbodega.com/preview-tales-of-the-tmnt-3/

Haven’t cared for this arc, went on too long.

Also, the whole concept of these MM spinoffs continues to baffle me. Donnie finishes his story for everyone and it’s made explicit that the events never happened… but then Rusty and the bully kid from camp show up with pizza? Then Donnie embraces Metalhead and tells him he’s so glad to have him back? Jesus Christ…

Yeah, I don't really get the whole "unreliable narrator with strong continuity" thing either. This issue confirms that Metalhead and Pigeon Pete are indeed real but if the stories are made up, then where did they actually come from? If Metalhead was originally made by Bishop and Pigeon Pete is the result of Ron's dumb insistence on getting turned into a mutant in the stories, but Bishop and Ron (or at least their actions as told in the stories) aren't real, then what's the actual origin of these characters?

I don’t know if it’s just because I don’t care about the Mutant Mayhem turtles in any capacity, or if it’s just that the story was incredibly boring, or both; but I just couldn’t be bothered to care about anything in this story.
MM Donnie is probably the lamest of the four, so choosing him as the starring role for the comic’s first arc was an odd choice. The summer camp locale is boring. The supporting cast was boring. Just like Raphael said.
Hopefully the Fugitoid story will be better, but I seriously doubt it’s going to be.

Preview for #4, out today: https://aiptcomics.com/2026/03/14/id...nja-turtles-4/

So I've read it. These versions of the Fugitoid, Blanque and Lonae claim to be human rather than humanoid aliens...

... If there is one aspect of the unreliable narrator thing this series employs that I wish would apply, it's this. It's just kinda weird to say these characters aren't aliens.

I quite liked it. Same artist from the previous arc but he really kicked it up a notch. Some good stuff in here.

Very low bar, but this is easily in the top 3 of things to come out of the Mutant Mayhem-verse. Not surprising, since Christmas with Chromedome is one of the other things I liked, and Andrew Joustra wrote that too. I also would never think to make all these characters earthlings, but it worked well enough.

Every time we talk about “Tales (animated)” we end up complaining out the nonsense unreliable narrator stuff and sure enough… I was listening to Joustra on the Turtle Tracks podcast and he said his original pitch was to send the turtles to space and tell a more traditional Fugitoid story but the higher ups told him that was too much lol.

Like, what? This whole series is built around the turtles telling fantastical stories you can hand wave away in the sequel (that’s DOA, so why even make a big deal about continuity?), so why not go big? Weird.

Preview for #5, which came out yesterday: https://comicbookclublive.com/2026/0...nja-turtles-5/

Another fun issue of FAKE Tales! The Joustra run continues to be much better than the opening arc. Not much to say other than my kid loves this series. I’ll be kind of sad when it’s over, since it’s the book he looks forward to the most each month.

Speaking of which, will #6 be the last one? I just now noticed this book missed the June solicits. But they also missed February and I assumed that was the end, but they came back in March. Maybe they’re keeping a 3 months on, 1 month off schedule? I kinda miss having IDW people here to talk to lol

Kinda weird how they felt the need to be ambiguous about Zog's origin.

Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing, since we got that report that the book will continue even after the show's cancelation, and it'd be weird if they just meant the two already-announced arcs.

Probably so Krang's reveal in the second movie can still be surprising to everyone.

Well I believe they lead with the real answer and the other 3 were just jokes. Leo and Raph’s answers were particularly ridiculous.

July solicits are out. Looks like this book is toast. We’ll never know the whole behind the scenes story, but what a strange decision to even put this series out.

The main thing I resent is the needles confusion in calling it “Tales of the TMNT”, which is more a fault of the show it’s based on, but still. Oh well, one more issue and this run will be almost completely forgotten.