The folks at TMNT Entity have put up an early review of Tales #59. Click the pic!
Author: Stephan
New GGM Commissioned Logo (And Possible T-Shirt Design) by Steve Lavigne
For those of you who talk to me on a regular basis, you’ll know that I have been kicking around the idea of doing T-Shirts for the blog (at the very least for my writing staff). Well, after much deliberation as to what I wanted for a design, and who was going to draw it, I decided to approach Steve Lavigne. Steve did NOT disappoint. Providing me with my exact vision in my head for the piece on paper.
This is obviously a parody of this image:
So what do you guys think? Did Steve knock this one out of the park or what? So…who would want a shirt?
Guest Blog – Ash Paulsen – Growing Up With a Turtle For a Dad
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to grow up with a dad who also happens to be a Ninja Turtle? If so, you’re reading the right article, because I’m in a position to tell you just that.
My name is Ash Paulsen, and my dad’s name is Rob. I’m guessing that all of you TMNT fans reading this have already put two and two together and figured out that my dad is Rob Paulsen, the voice of Raphael from the original TMNT cartoon. So what is it like when your dad is an integral part of a pop-culture phenomenon, day in and day out?
Well, it doesn’t affect your own fandom, for one. Growing up, I was as huge a TMNT fan as any other kid growing up back then, and I displayed my fandom through the purchase (or rather, my parents’ purchase) of countless TMNT action figures, VHS tapes, video games, and more. I clearly remember having TMNT-themed birthday parties. I think there even might have been some TMNT-themed lip balm — Raphael cherry flavor! — that I might still have for some reason. Being presented with a fantasy-destroying, real-life connection between one of the Turtles and real life didn’t affect my immersion in the TMNT universe one bit, and I’m glad to still call myself a TMNT fan to this day.
But I won’t lie and say my experience wasn’t any different from anyone else’s. Having a dad who’s also a Turtle was definitely a unique influence on my childhood, in both good and bad ways.
Here’s one that might surprise you: other kids are all too happy to be friends with you… for completely wrong, self-serving reasons. I’ve always been kind of a geek (at least in terms of my interests), and that was never truer than when I was a kid, so I wasn’t exactly the most popular kid growing up. Yet kids would line up to be my friend just long enough to ask for an autograph from Raphael, and then turn right around and act like they never knew me in the first place as soon as they got one. Sure, I eventually learned, but I definitely have a clear memory of just how many kids used me to get something from my popular dad.
But it was also a legitimately cool thing for me that my dad was who he is, and I always liked showing him off (especially at those take-your-parents-to-class days!) — and as bad as I made things sound above, I always had a small, but reliable circle of friends who thought my dad was awesome, but also kept things in perspective.
Honestly, those of you reading this are probably imagining a much more radically different childhood than what I actually had. I get that a lot; people hear that my dad was Raphael (or another one of their favorite characters) and think that my childhood must have been completely awesome or privileged because of it… and in truth, things weren’t really that different, at least from my perspective. I had the same advantages and difficulties of other kids with backgrounds similar to mine. My parents still expected me to be a good kid and do well in school. I still got in trouble sometimes. And no, contrary to popular belief, my dad did not talk in his various characters’ voices day in and day out — my mom would have killed him, were that the case. 🙂
And as I grew up, that is how things stayed — I had a mostly normal childhood experience, with a few standout exceptions. One of those exceptions was that my dad was invited to the annual Comic-Con at the San Diego Convention Center for panel appearances, and he started taking me with him at an early age. These trips became some of my most precious and influential experiences growing up, and I’m 24 now and still haven’t missed a Comic-Con since (though I usually go with my own friends and for my own reasons now). But these and other, similar trips did afford me small chances to be a mini-celebrity in my own right as people literally revered me just for being the kid of a guy who gives awesome characters their voices, and I thoroughly enjoyed that privileged bit of fame that was uniquely afforded to me (and other kids of other pop-culture figures).
Another way in which my dad’s influence significantly changed my childhood was that I found a unique group of much older friends in my dad’s fellow voice actors. Sometimes I almost feel as if I had a second family comprised entirely of popular voice actors who watched me and supported me as I grew up, and today, I’m proud that I can say I’m friends with no less than the likes of people like Jess Harnell (voice of Wakko from Animaniacs, etc.), Tress MacNeille (Babs Bunny from Tiny Toons, Dot from Animaniacs, etc.), Jeff Bennett (voice of Johnny Bravo), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker!), and more. These are all people that I was and still am on a first-name, casual basis with, and that has been a very cool experience for me.
But other than experiences like those, the day-to-day life of being Raphael’s kid was pretty much as unspectacular and normal as many other childhoods. That extends to my 24-year-old present self, as well; I appreciate who my dad was and who he is now, and he’s still a popular, successful voice actor who I love to show off sometimes. But that doesn’t change too many things for me; I’m not coasting on his fame, and though I do have connections into the entertainment industry through him, they’re not automatic guarantees of career success. Just like everyone else, I have to pay my dues and get in at the ground level wherever I can, and the fact that I’ve finished college only to go right into a crappy retail job during this recession is proof of that. And in some cases, my dad’s pedigree can make things a little harder for me (as it did in my childhood); successful parents cast the largest shadows, and I’ve had to work extra hard not to get lost in that shadow or let myself be discouraged by those who would discount my own successes simply because I don’t aspire to be the next Rob Paulsen (voice acting isn’t quite for me), and believe me, there have been many discouraging people.
But all in all, having a dad who’s also a Ninja Turtle (and an Animaniac, Tiny Toon, lab rat, badass cyborg ninja, and more) has been a wholly great experience, and one that I would never give up or trade for anything. As I’ve explained, it’s definitely come with its own unique set of privileges and challenges, but I don’t think my day-to-day experiences were really so different from those of many other children. If anyone out there has any questions that aren’t covered in this article, though, please feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to answer them!
You may contact Ash at maverickhunterash@gmail.com
Also, check out his blog @ http://www.examiner.com/x-6263-LA-Console-Game-Examiner
New Scott Mednick Interview From MTV
Good ol’ MTV. THey may not be a good source for music videos anymore. But if you want scripted reality shows, or interviews with Scott MEdnick, they are the people to go to these days 😛
Click the pic for a ton of new information about the new movie directly from the Mednick’s mouth.
Season 7 DVD Contest Result!
May I have the envelope please…
and the winner is…
…
wait for iiiiiiiit….
CONGRADULATIONS ROBBIE PHILLIPS!
Robbie wins all four DVD slices of the season 7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles original cartoon DVDs!
Although quality of essay had nothing to do with selection (I drew his name out of a cup) Robbie did right a great essay, so here it is!
I guess it was back in 1988, as hard as it is to imagine it being that long ago – my grandmother and I were in the middle of one of our standard shopping trips to the local Wal-Mart, when I spotted a strange, colorful package in the toy isle containing something called a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” inside the bubble. The artwork drew me right to the toy, along with the word NINJA. In kindergarden, my teacher had all of her students come one by one up to the desk and tell her what they wanted to be when they grew up, to be placed in the kindergarden graduation book she was making for everyone as a keepsake. Most of the kids were listing standard stuff like doctors, nurses, firemen, trashmen and, well, even scuba divers. I, on the other hand, felt the sincere compulsion to blurt out “NINJA!” almost immediately when asked what I wanted to be. It’s hard to imagine that I was so into ninjas before the turtles came along, because I was picture it being the other way around – however, I guess growing up in the 80’s (assuming that you watched at least ONE movie during that time, considering that 90% of them contained either a martial arts fight scene or an actual ninja of some kind in them) guaranteed that you would know exactly what a ninja was and what one should look like. I had never seen a ninja TURTLE before, but I was pretty certain that I needed it more than air itself. After some kicking and screaming, I left the Wal-Mart a happy boy, with my turtle in hand (it was Raphael, by the way – even though Donatello (and later Leonardo) became my favorite of the four) and returned home to show my mother the amazing thing I had found. She seemed disinterested, but I was in complete awe and didn’t put the figure down for the rest of the day.
Through the coming years, I became infatuated with the turtles. After figuring out that my toy was actually a cartoon, I would rush to the television every afternoon after school and watch it on the local broadcast of the reruns and would wake up extra early on Saturday mornings to be sure and catch the new episodes, with a box of Honey Smacks and a Dr. Pepper in hand, sitting on the living room floor mere centimeters away from the screen, watching and absorbing every second. The first two movies became religion to me. Christmas and birthdays were merely another chance to fill the holes in my collection, gathering everything from ooze and pencil pouches, there was no shortage of Turtles items to find and anything was fair game to me. I was just as thrilled to get a TMNT plastic marble as I was to get The Technodrome.
Somewhere down the line I stumbled across a copy of the Archie Turtles Adventures series and from then on made sure not to miss an issue. Unfortunately, having been deprived of the pleasure of knowing about the Mirage series back then, for a long time I led my life believing I had a priceless copy of the first ever Turtles issue, only to discover it was only the dime a dozen Archie debut.
My obession with the Turtles never left, but during my mid-to-late teen years somewhat was set aside for other interests of the time. Basically, I heard less and less from the Turtles so I figured it was all over. I packed away the figures, comics, Coming Out of their Shell ticket stub and countless items into the closet to be enjoyed down the road. I guess I thought I’d never see the turtles again…Was I ever wrong.
One random day in the local comic shop during 2002, an issue caught my eye. There on the rack stood my four heros. Mirage had released a new series, Vol. 4. I snatched the issue up as fast as I could and haven’t stopped following it (or the Tales series) ever since. The black and white art of Jim Lawson, the top-rate storytelling and folklore hinted at in the book of issues past, catapulted me into the Mirage world – the REAL turtles world – and reignited my interest and love for the characters. I tracked down all the back issues and got myself up to date with everything, intent not to be out of the loop again. By the time the end of the year rolled around and I once again found NEW Turtles figures on the shelf for the upcoming 2k3 series, it seemed as if I was reliving everything all over again – only this time I truely felt was better than the last, if it was at all possible. The action, great plot, look and feel of the 2k3 series and toyline held my interest like the Shredder’s iron grip, and I viciously scoured every local story regularly to be sure and aquire every single new figure that was released. The hunt was a great enjoyment and the time and money spent was all worth it to have the payoff and having these fictional characters that have seemingly been with me through my whole life, once again be a part of it in such a major way. I’ve learned from my lesson before, the Turtles aren’t going anywhere – not with the timeless lore that Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman have given us and not with the passonate fans that the Turtles have given them. Here’s to hoping the best days are ahead!
Congradulations once again Robbie, your DVDs will be on their way soon!