Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #38

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Issue: #38
Date: July, 1991
Publisher: Mirage Studios

When I rediscovered comics in the late 1980s (I'd been a Marvel fan as a kid), it was still relatively early in the b/w comic boom that began with Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT had been going for a couple of years when I got my first comic shop subscription at the original Newbury Comics location on Newbury St. in Boston. At that point the first couple of issues had already jumped in price enough to turn me off of picking them up. I stuck to the books I could get at cover price (Robotech, Elflord, Adventurers, Mai: The Psychic Girl, Lone Wolf & Cub, Watchmen, and Kamui were on that first subscription).

I mention all of the above as my way of explaining that this issue is the first issue of TMNT that I've actually ever read. My only other experience with these characters has been through the very sanitized and family-friendly movies and cartoon show.

I wouldn't go so far as to describe the humor in this issue as "adult", but the raunchy factor is certainly up a few notches from the animated "Heroes on a Half Shell" (a nickname that makes no sense at all, come to think of it). The basic plot here has a couple of incompetent aliens abducting Raphael (and a cow; what is it with aliens and cows?) and dodging the equally incompetent government forces that are trying to blow their flying saucer out of the sky.

There are a couple of good jokes and a lot of really bad lowbrow humor. I did like the advice that one particular page would be best enjoyed while listening to the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins. Unfortunately, the laughs generally were neither frequent enough nor clever enough to keep my attention.

Rating: 5/10