Comicon Advent Calendar Day 22 — It’s A ‘TMNT’ Holiday After All
by Scott Redmond
Smell that? A cacophony of holiday related foods are on the horizon as the grand and cozy celebrations draw closer. Welcome to day 22 of the Comicon Advent Calendar.
Today brings quite the gift. Wrapped up nice and tightly in the packaging that is Michelangelo: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 from December 1985. It’s a grand story featuring the aforementioned Turtle and the Christmas season coming from the fathers of TMNT, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, with Steve Lavigne on the letters.
What is the gift though isn’t the jokester of the Turtles celebrating the holidays. No, the true gift, that keeps on giving, is the debut of Klunk the cat. I would fight the Foot Clan itself for the cat, who keeps returning in various TMNT incarnations. Because cats are love.
Basically, the story finds Mikey out in disguise for the night, taking in the beautiful snowy night before the holiday. Winter activities catch much of his attention, with sledding being the easiest to partake in. This journey brings him face to cute whiskery face with a stray cat, who adorably is given the name Klunk, and a plot to steal the latest shipment of this year’s toy craze item.
A night out turns into something pretty normal as our hero does what he does best, saving the day. There’s a high-speed chase and a fight within/around a stolen truck of toys. While Mikey gets distilled down to be the jokester of the Turtle clan, there is so much more to him. That gets to really shine here.
Everything about the story is the classic TMNT feeling distilled into this perfect story. It’s got joy, warmth, action, and heart. Laird and Eastman give it their all, and really deliver, as they always have done. The love for their characters and the world they were building is clear on every single page.
There is the original black & white version as well as a colorized one, where Tom Smith’s Scorpion Studios brings the color. Either way, the story works and is a great read.
Can’t beat a story where the Turtles get to play Santa and elves to a group of kids in a children’s home.
So grab some cocoa, put up your feet, and enjoy some grand kick-ass holiday vibes as the clock ticks ever closer to the festivities.
