• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Mid-80's TMNT Knockoffs
3 3

150 posts in this topic

So I've only been actively collecting GA comics since getting back into the hobby and I can barely remember what other knockoffs there were back then.  Was hoping people could help remind me.  All I remember is that a few years after turtlemania started taking off you got imitations like this one, and dealers trying to sell them for $20 right off the rack as if they were low print runs and going to be the next TMNT.  I never bought these back then because I figured it was BS, and sure enough the market crashed for these.  However now that I'm older and feeling nostalgic I thought it might be cool to put together a run of 9.8s.  Appreciate any help people can give here.

The most blatant rip offs I remember are Pre-Teen Dirty Jean Kung Fu Kangaroos and Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamsters .... then there were other animal martial arts books like Samurai Penguin, Samurai Squirrel, and other animal comics that kinda seemed to be riding the bandwagon like Fish Police....Boris the Bear...

Also does anyone know what the print runs on any of these really were?  I approached a boardie who does some pressing and deals more in moderns about whether or not he could find/make some 9.8s for me for a price...but to my surprise he seemed to think it wasn't going to be super easy to find 9.8 candidates for these, what with the cheap paper used, and them sitting in dollar bins for decades etc.  I have to think a lot of collectors who bought these back during the craze of speculation over them who have tons of high grade ones lying around though.

Edited by szavisca
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember how popular the Turtles comics were and these knock-offs had a quick run at ridiculousness and then fizzled.  The Adolescent Hamsters seemed to be the "biggest" of them in my LCS at least.  The whole zombie craze of the recent past is similar to me.  Not even the comics really, just all the movies and tv shows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Toz said:

Great thread folks but how bout some cover scans:popcorn:

Well... you won’t be seeing many scans of slabbed books I can tell you that.  There’s zero on census for most of these and frankly the art is terrible on most.

I was planning on eventually posting pics of 9.8s of the #1s as I get them, gonna make this a mission of mine, but it’s going to be a slow process.

Was mostly gonna go for first issues, but as I search through stores/online I may do some others if any actually have cool covers.

Still interested to know if anyone has any idea about print run numbers, or thoughts about general scarcity of 9.8 worthy raw copies.

Edited by szavisca
Spellin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It should be noted that, contrary to some rumors, Fish Police was not a take off of the Turtles.  In fact, when I had dinner with Steve Moncuse a few years ago, he mentioned that he had never even read a Turtles book.  And, Steve started all the concept sketches before the 1st issue of Turtles hit the shelves.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, comiconxion said:

It should be noted that, contrary to some rumors, Fish Police was not a take off of the Turtles.  In fact, when I had dinner with Steve Moncuse a few years ago, he mentioned that he had never even read a Turtles book.  And, Steve started all the concept sketches before the 1st issue of Turtles hit the shelves.  

Good to know, thanks.  Love learning the historical tidbits from this era in comic books that I grew up in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/13/2018 at 6:09 PM, szavisca said:

Thought you were making it up because I didn’t remember this one at all... but yep... there’s copies on eBay.

Yes, that was my favorite, I bought a couple of copies out of the Mile High Comics mail order catalog back in my (obviously wasted) youth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/14/2018 at 2:12 PM, comiconxion said:

It should be noted that, contrary to some rumors, Fish Police was not a take off of the Turtles.  In fact, when I had dinner with Steve Moncuse a few years ago, he mentioned that he had never even read a Turtles book.  And, Steve started all the concept sketches before the 1st issue of Turtles hit the shelves.  

Agreed. There was a general explosion of funny animal comics in the 80's. I'm not sure that it was all directly related to TMNT. Cerebus gets a share of the blame as well.

FWIW, I loved Fish Police.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, F For Fake said:

Agreed. There was a general explosion of funny animal comics in the 80's. I'm not sure that it was all directly related to TMNT. Cerebus gets a share of the blame as well.

FWIW, I loved Fish Police.

Agreed -  Albedo (which prided itself on being the premiere funny animal book) debuted in 1983, a year before the Turtles.  And the Erma Felna story appeared in 1979 in the Huzzah fanzine long before the Turtles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
3 3