I Wish I Had Created The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
by Joey Manley
I created some comics at about the same time! I did! They were mostly stupid, but also a little bit bad. I was young, what can you do? This was before webcomics, of course, so I had to xerox them and send them by mail to my comic-creating friends, all of whom I met through classified ads in the Comic Buyer’s Guide (all of whom also sent me their xeroxed comics by mail). My mom still has copies. Maybe I will get them and scan them someday. I’d have to find the co-creators, though … Dean Webb, Mat Kramer, Bill Anderson, Jerry Foley, Filthy McNasty, Dan Taylor (not the one who created that comic about superheroes at a bar) … are you guys still out there? Anyway, if, instead of making stupid and bad comics (stupidly and badly written … my co-creators, the artists, were great), I had been creating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I would be 60 million dollars richer today! Talk about a V8 moment! D’oh! Kind of puts the success of even the most successful current webcomics into perspective, dunnit? On the other hand, with capitalism’s speedier ways these days, I doubt it will take so many decades for some webcartoonist to have a similar payday.
But which one? I dunno.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
LOL! I made some pretty bad comics myself when I was young during the peak of the TMNT craze. In fact I’ve been recently going over all of my old comics and wondered how anyone could have thought that they were good back then, and I did share them with friends. That’s every creator’s dream though isn’t it? That they could have a huge mega-million $$$ hit like TMNT.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:30 am
If Fletcher Hanks can find new life for his dumb comics years after they were made, there’s a chance for all of us.
After we’re dead.
But in all honesty, my only dream is a roof over my head, food in my belly, and a job that does not annoy. Which makes me a lazy, unmotivated creator who will be anything more than a bum. Which is what I am. Let’s face it, Joey
October 24th, 2009 at 8:53 am
You’re one of the least lazy people I know. I’ve seen you expend a tremendous amount of energy — tilting at windmills!
October 26th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I only lack a Sancho Panza to follow me around…
October 29th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I still don’t believe they made that much money of that comic idea. I remember when they first came out and I liked it but I didn’t think it would become that big of a brand. I mean that’s almost like John Lucas with Star wars!
October 30th, 2009 at 6:19 am
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