TMNT: Exclusive In A Half Shell

My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cover is here!

I lived in a super small town growing up. We didn’t have access to many comics, so I missed TMNT when it first came out. But, the cartoon hit me like a Mack truck. Or should I say the Turtle Party Wagon.

See what I did there? That’s called…something. I don’t know what you would call that. But it’s clever and dumb so just laugh and let’s move on.

I was in 5th or 6th grade when TMNT was on Saturday Mornings and I was all in. While I was in on the show, I felt like I was a bit too old for the toys. I was starting to like girls and stuff and what if they found out I still played with toys?!?! So I made my little brother ask for the toys for birthdays and Christmas. He got them, I could play with them but they weren’t “mine” so problem solved.

From the cartoon, to the toys, to the movie and soundtrack, to trading cards and even a cereal (the best marshmallow to cereal ratio on shelves) I was a full tilt TMNT junkie. Me and the neighborhood kids even had a TMNT club complete with a clubhouse. Well, it was backyard storage shed that we emptied and took over without asking. We had an old beauty salon chair, a black and white tv and other random kid stuff. We each had a turtle we identified with (I was Donatello) and we would sit in there, roasting in the summer and watch static-y movies on Fox.

You might be asking yourself, what’s the point? Well I think it’s pretty cool that I got to do an official TMNT cover. Okay, it’s officially my second cover in my career, but the first was tough. I was just a few years into the biz, my early 20’s and I was still trying to find myself. My cover was basically doing a Humberto Ramos version of a Joe Mad TMNT cover. And for whatever reason, the colors are soooooooo dark and muddy. It’s hard to even see what’s going on. I really hadn’t nailed down, well, you know… how to draw. Haha. So, that one is out there, but this one is special.

I listed all the things that I love about TMNT, but I held off adding the notorious NES game. Probably because the trauma of that game forced my mind to delete it from all memory.

And for those of you that remember it, you’ll know that it wasn’t the whole game that was a problem as much as THAT level. You know the one. The fucking UNDERWATER BOMB DISARMING LEVEL! Just typing it gives me nightmares. I’m not sure stress or anxiety existed in the world prior to that game and this level.

I was looking around for ideas for my cover and came across dozens of images of the 4 Heroes in Half Shells leaping into action and didn’t think I had anything to add to them. I wanted to come up with something different. So I started thinking of jokes, as I always do. I thought about cereal jokes, pizza jokes, merchandising jokes and then it hit me. A meta joke about the teenagers playing their own game and being stressed out by the impossibility of that level.

I was so excited to get to draw a TMNT cover and have some Mad Magazine like fun with them. We poke fun a the things we love most. And over my lifetime, TMNT is one of the things I love most.

(Sidenote. I didn’t know I would be writing this newsletter today. Megan texted me this morning to remind me and I said I’m on it. Not realizing what I wore to work today. Yep, still that same kid from 6th grade.)

So, here it is! My official TMNT Exclusive cover! Colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu with letters by Nate Piekos.

I’m going to hand it over to Megan so she can give you all the details on ordering!

Thanks Skottie! I love this story. Relatable. I too played with my younger brothers stash of toys. My mom once came home from a garage sale with a giant trash bag filled to the brim with He-man and TMNT and Star Wars toys and it still stands as one of the greatest days of my life.

Getting to the point, I’m here with all the details of our TMNT drop! You guys have known for awhile about Skottie’s instantly iconic cover above. What you didn’t know is that we have a SECOND COVER! Our Cowabunga Chrome variant will be foiled out! We opted to keep the TMNT logo because it’s just so cool.

Our TMNT Pre-Sale will be:

WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 AT 10AM CST

So take a break from Amazon Prime Day and head over to The Skottie Shop at the drop because these are expected to go FAST. If you are new to us, go ahead and create an account now so that you can move through checkout quickly. Please remember having something in your cart does not hold the item- you must go through checkout.

Cover A- print run 3,000

Cowabunga Chrome (foil)- print run 1,500

Limit of 4 books in any combination.

Option 1: UNSIGNED cover A $30

Option 2: SIGNED cover A with COA $40

Option 3: CGC Signature Series 9.8 Cover A w/ Skottie Young logo label $180

Option 4: UNSIGNED Cowabunga Chrome (foil) $50

Option 5: SIGNED Cowabunga Chrome (foil) with COA $60

Option 6: Cowabunga Chrome (foil) CGC Signature Series 9.8 w/ Skottie Young logo label $220

TMNT #1 comes out on July 24. Due to team logistics and travel to San Diego Comic Con, orders will begin shipping the week of August 5th! We may beat that time frame but we always strive to be transparent with shipping times before you order. We are so excited to bring this cover to you all. Skottie absolutely crushed the nostalgia and details from his signature placement to Raphael’s sai as the antennae… this one is special. Good luck to everyone!

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SKOTTIE?

He’s on both coasts this summer! So excited for our first time ever at Terrificon in Connecticut August 16-18th. Stay tuned for a Terrificon newsletter coming in August. Skottie will be here and there at SDCC as well. Don’t forget the Skottie Young private signing at CGC coming up! Get those submissions over to CGC by August 23rd. Check out where the Stupid. You can always find details and signing times in the APPEARANCES section of skottieyoung.com