So you may remember a little comic called TMNT Adventures published by Archie comics in the 90’s. TMNT Adventures was the comic loosely based on the Ninja Turtles cartoon show. The comic began as retellings of episodes from the show, but soon began to spin out into a storyline all on it’s own. Around issue #3, Ken Mitchroney began doing the pencil work for a majority of the issues, and would go on the do the art for the interior of about 20 books (and covers beyond that) before handing the reins over to Chris Allan. The series saw 72 issues and a huge number of Specials and spin-offs before it was done. If you haven’t read TMNT Adventures, please stop reading this post and go do so…then you may come back and continue reading.
Back? Good!
Ken and Chris are both fantastic guys, and I have the ultimate pleasure of being able to call them my friends. If you recall, the two of them recently did a jam piece for me of Manray and Armaggon (both characters from the Archie series). It looked….LIKE THIS!
You may have noticed that there is only one signature on the piece. That is because Ken and Chris had to mail the art back and fourth to each other to work on it, and Chris mailed it to me when he finished the coloring before Ken could sign it (Ken drew Manray, and Chris Drew Armaggon and colored it). Ken and I tried to hook up at SDCC09, but we ended up missing each other. So the piece went unsigned by half of its creative force. Sad Panda!
Time passes, as time tends to do. Then I get an e-mail from Ken last week saying he is going to be in my neck of the woods for a couple days over the weekend. He wanted to come over and sign the art! Awesome! He also said that he’d sign any of his Archies I happened to have on hand. As luck would have it…I have ALL his Archies on hand!
Ken and his buddy Woody (also a champion guy!) show up at about noon. After brief introductions to Heather and the dogs; and a tour of the collection, I break out the art for Ken.
Finally signed! But that was just the beginning! Next Ken sets out signing the stack of books I’ve pulled from the collection as well as a print that Murph had done for NYCC09. All of which he either penciled, or did the cover for.
What could have only taken a minute ended up taking quite some time as we reminisced over each issue he signed. We talked about all things Turtles, old memories, good times, our work in the entertainment industry, everything! It was a great time! Here is a few pictures of the signing:
We did our fair share of horsing around as well haha!
And I was able to con him into a sketch!
As a small thank you, heather and I took the two of them to Islands for a late lunch (which was fantastic by the way) and then they headed off for home. All-in-all it was a perfect way to spend a Sunday, and the four of us had a great time! Thank You so much Ken and Woody! Safe drive home!
Want to follow what Ken is doing? Check Out His Blog!
