rich_TMNT

@Turtle @Ryan. I have a feeling the TMNT #1 homage covers from Dynamite (by Ken Haeser) are going to sneak up on a lot of people and will be very hard to find at a decent price after release. I say this because it doesn't seem very well-known that there are currently a total of 16 unique TMNT #1 homage covers spanning eight Dynamite titles (and I suppose even more could be coming). For every FOC Bonus cover by Ken Haeser, there's also a 1:11 incentive B&W variant by Ken Haeser (and not many people know about the incentives). Here's a listing of the upcoming TMNT #1 homage covers from Dynamite as of today: November 10 Release Nyx #1 Cover O FOC Bonus Nyx #1 Cover S FOC 1:11 Incentive Vampirella #25 Cover ZC FOC Bonus Vampirella #25 Cover ZI FOC 1:11 Incentive November 17 Release Army of Darkness 1979 #3 Cover L FOC Bonus Army of Darkness 1979 #3 Cover N FOC 1:11 Incentive Purgatori #2 Cover J FOC Bonus Purgatori #2 Cover N FOC 1:11 Incentive November 24 Release Barbarella #5 Cover M FOC Bonus Barbarella #5 Cover P FOC 1:11 Incentive Invincible Red Sonja #6 Cover N FOC Bonus Invincible Red Sonja #6 Cover R FOC 1:11 Incentive December 01 Release Jennifer Blood #3 Cover L FOC Bonus Jennifer Blood #3 Cover O FOC 1:11 Incentive Evil Ernie #1 Cover J FOC Bonus Evil Ernie #1 Cover N FOC 1:11 Incentive

Super cool to see them all this way. I still need just a few of these to complete the full set but it's nice to know that some of them don't have "Dark Horse" package variations.

I can't recall ever seeing the copies numbered out of 150 - I've only ever seen the ones numbered out of 500. A couple things I find really interesting (because these counterfeits are really puzzling): 1) most copies I find of the "XXX of 500" yellow counterfeits are in the 200's. For instance, @SpideyFein has 211 of 500. I have two sets of yellow counterfeits - one with matching numbers for #1 and #2 (220 of 500) and one with unmatched numbers (#1 - 213 of 500 / #2 - 206 of 500). It makes me wonder if there really aren't that many yellow counterfeits out there as it might seem and that the counterfeiter just made something like 25 sets and then chose to number the sets they made in the 200's. I'm still waiting for the day when I see another set of yellow counterfeits out there with the same numbering as is on my sets that I own. That will for sure add to the mystery - but it would point to there being at least duplicated sets or multiple counterfeiters. 2) I think the reason for some copies to be numbered out of 150 and others numbered out of 500 would be the information that was available about them at the time of being made in the 80's. There wasn't a ton of information back then and I seem to recall that we all originally thought there were 500 sets and then that was later refined down to 150 sets (by either Kevin or Peter). If that's the case, the copies numbered out of 150 would be the newer counterfeits. 3) There is a slight color variation in the yellow tone on my two sets of yellow counterfeits. Which is odd since their numbering isn't really that far apart. They should be the same color if made by the same person and the same time. Could be one set was exposed to UV light more than another set. Or, one set was made well after the other with different paper stock. I believe I've heard others talk about their yellow counterfeit set being mismatched - where #1 is really rich yellow and the #2 is muted yellow but both numbers are the same. I can't find the information on this at the moment but if I find more I'll update here. Many years ago, I found a set of the weird blue counterfeits that were mentioned somewhere back in the day in (I think) the Overstreet price guide. They are pretty beat up and the alignment of the covers and interior artwork is really wonky but it's the only set I've ever seen of them. They aren't signed or numbered and the quality of the page images isn't all that great (or, less great than the yellow ones). The pages are also much different than the yellow ones - more of a glossy feel to them than the yellow ones. Of course, the guy I bought them off of was adamant they were authentic because he said he got them from someone that claimed to know Kevin and Peter. I already knew when buying them they weren't legit and I paid way too much for them at the time because the buyer wouldn't budge from his belief of authenticity - even in light of me showing him my authentic B&W copies. But I've always wondered which came first - blue or yellow. Maybe the yellow counterfeits came after the blue ones - and somehow the blue ones were the first test run by the counterfeiter and they didn't like how they turned out or something and switched to yellow paper. The thing I find most interesting about all these counterfeits (yellow or blue) is that somewhere along the line they had to come from an original set, right? How else would they have been made? No internet existed to find images of the pages. Would love to know which set of authentic Gobbledygooks was used to make all these counterfeits. Super weird history to Gobbledygook #1 & #2.

Definitely keep us updated. I'd be curious to know what happens.

Now that CGC has graded the authentic copies and knows what they look like, I think CGC would probably grade any other edition as counterfeits regardless of who sends them in. I think for sure CGC would grade them as counterfeits if Kevin sent them in with signature (and maybe even get a CGC SS label ?? - not sure on that part).

Yes, this is accurate. CGC is now grading the authentic Gobbledygooks if they are first sent to Kevin Eastman for authentication and then Kevin sends them to CGC.

Yes, all six of the flats the negatives are arranged in are signed by Kevin Eastman, Steve Lavigne, and Jim Lawson. But, they didn't sign the actual negatives - they signed around them. Their signatures wouldn't ever impact reprinting. The biggest hurdle is actually finding a printer that can still make printing plates from negatives arranged in flats. That printing technology went bye bye long ago. There isn't any type of mailing list or anything for updates - just my website.

The cover negatives are long gone I'm afraid. There's solid documented proof that the covers and interiors were printed by completely different printers and then later joined together at The Journal Tribune. Since two printers were involved in the production of the book, both would have needed to save their production artifacts for TMNT #1 - but only one did. I wrote an entire article about the missing cover negatives because it's actually quite interesting. Honestly, the fact that the interior page negatives were retained is, in itself, quite remarkable (and only was done by an employee who thought they might somehow be valuable later). Printing negatives are typically tossed after a time - or, at minimum, removed from their flats and stored in a file cabinet. Having all 40 page negatives still arranged in the flats in the exact orientation used to burn the printing plates is pretty much a miracle.

If I'm able to get a reprint done from the negatives, the goal would be to reproduce it as closely as possible to TMNT #1 1st printing (but I'd need to commission the covers - front back and interiors - since I don't have the negatives of those). So, 3,275 copies (to replicate the 1st printing print run) would be part of it - along with probably the book containing the articles about the negatives. Definitely something I won't give up on.

Thanks, I appreciate that. I do hope to someday publish the articles in some type of book / comic book form. My ultimate goal is to do a reprint of TMNT #1 directly from these negatives - lots of hurdles to that obviously but it would be amazing!

The third printing of TMNT #1 is actually the most different when compared to the first and second printings. It's definitely similar at a glance but there is a slight size differential (although all three printings do vary slightly in width). However, the interior is where the major differences occur between the third and first/second printings. There's far too much to list here but if you're interested, take a bit of time to read my series about The TMNT #1 Production Negatives (specifically from Part 10 on). Those will provide you lots of info. about the first three printings of TMNT #1. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Yes, two Turtlemania Gold issues (#4 and #6 - the same one up on Heritage) sold for $450 each on eBay back in 2012. This still haunts me - hard to even think about. The stuff of my dreams. https://tmnt-ninjaturtles.com/breaking-news-two-turtlemania-gold-editions-sell-for-450-each/

@SpideyFein Congrats man! It's awesome that these are now getting graded by CGC when they come with authentication from Kevin. Those SS yellow labels really add some hefty value to these books.

This is a gorgeous copy! Not sure I've ever seen one that pristine.

@cbmitch The two issues of Independent Comic Book Sampler contained bios of independent artists along with one or two pages of their artwork. #1 contains Kevin Eastman and #2 contains both Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird. Each of these were limited to 4,000 copies. Here's an image of the inside back cover of #2 that provides details about these books (and a bit about Eastman & Laird). There are very rare Limited Edition green variant covers for each of these books (limited to 50 copies each). You can see the details about the green covers on the inside front covers of both #1 & #2 regular (black) editions. The publishers gave 10 sets away as prizes and then the other 40 sets were distributed to contributors. Independent Comic Book Samplers

@oakman29 There's no way to tell from the outside. The error / misprint is the appearance of a black grid-pattern on 8 pages (13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28) in either the gutter, page corner, or both.

Twinsies! I love this figure. It's one of the coolest from the original 1988-1992 line. https://tmnt-ninjaturtles.com/figures/playmates-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-1988-1992-ray-fillet/

So, I can definitely confirm there are 2nd printings that were made from the master prints of GG #1 & #2. Kevin brought a set of them for me to see a couple years back and he told me they were made just prior to him selling the master prints. However, Kevin had said that he colored the little dot in the issue number red for these master print / 2nd printing editions so that they would be set apart from the originals (which you can see in this picture I took of the ones he showed me). Obviously, the set you have didn't get this coloring applied. But, he did tell me that he gave you a set of them when you purchased the master prints.

No, he doesn't accept submissions due to the liability of handling other people's books/valuables. Many that would be submitted to them would be very high value.

This is true! Mine is signed on the inside cover by Kevin and Peter...blue label. And I didn't know that it wouldn't be green label either before I submitted it.

@LDarkseid1 What he's selling is TMNT #100 The Fellowship Turtlemania Gold variant. It's not a reprint of the original Turtlemania but is a variant cover for issue #100 of the TMNT Ongoing from IDW. The reason for the high pricing is that there were only supposed to be 10 copies of this variant made available for sale (just like Turtlemania Gold). Those 10 copies were all to be numbered & signed with sketch on back cover by Kevin Eastman and then graded CGC SS This issue caused HUGE backlash from some in the Turtles collecting community because the creator of this variant (Sad Lemon Comics) actually printed 250 copies of this variant and destroyed 238 copies to get down to the 10 for sale / 2 for 'proof' or 'file' copies. He documented this via videos on my FB TMNT page. Many TMNT completionists were very upset that this one issue would make their collection incomplete (or more incomplete). So, people were really ugly and mean to Sad Lemon unfortunately. What then happened after the release of TMNT #100 was that these Gold books started appearing for sale ungraded / raw from two different sources. Apparently, the artist Mike Vasquez received comp copies of this from IDW and IDW themselves had a stock of extra copies (they overprint every variant for their own use). Many of these copies started leaking out and so there are many more copies than 10 out there. However, the officially sanctioned 10 copies are signed, numbered, and graded with sketch on the back by Kevin. So, that's the rundown of what this book is. Hope that helps. Here's my copy of this variant (#2 of 10) - I asked to have Kevin reproduce the actual sketch he did on the back of the original Turtlemania Gold #2 of 10:

@LDarkseid1 I can provide all the details and background about this if you want to post this again over in the Official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles thread. Just so we stay on topic here in this thread with TMNT #1.

Nice books! Great to have Peter's signatures on anything anymore. I've always liked how he (almost always) puts the year along with his signature.

@SpideyFein The way the pages are arranged, it's actually best to think of this issue as simply having the cover attached upside down on the body pages. Because when you open the front cover, the first page is Page 40 (the last page - presented upside down). It's essentially a manufacturing error where the cover was attached upside down to the correctly-oriented body pages. All 40 pages are present...just in the reverse order and every one of them upside down. Sadly, I'm not very optimistic that we'll ever see another public appearance of Peter. He's the last of the original four Mirage guys (Eastman, Laird, Lavigne, Lawson) that hasn't signed the TMNT #1 negatives. I've been trying to work a private signing with Peter for over a year now and it's just not happening. COVID hasn't helped but, even before that, I wasn't really getting any traction. He seems to want nothing to do with Turtles anymore. So, hold on to those books with Laird signatures. I'm the same as you...wish I'd have picked up more Laird stuff when I had the chance. Should have had way more stuff signed the few times I've met him personally. But, the things he did sign are now that much more significant.

Nah, it's totally obscure and could be one of a kind as far as I know (but I'm betting Peter has more of these if I had to speculate). It's the only one I've ever seen though. This one came out of nowhere many years ago - offered for sale through Peter Laird's blog. It was actually part of Peter Laird's personal collection where he was listing a bunch of stuff over the course of a few months. After I bought it he asked me if I wanted him to sign the book before mailing. At the time I thought about maybe not having him sign so I could get it in person sometime. But, in retrospect, I'm now glad I did have him sign. Peter's signature is pretty much impossible to get anymore. @SpideyFein I'm sure you'd take great care of it...but I'm gonna preserve it on my own here at home. Or, send it to CGC.