Cowabunga, dude! The heroes in a half-shell will be making an appearance harbour-side in Dartmouth this week, care of the folks at Giant Robot Comics (114 Woodlawn Road).
Owner Darryl Wall has been bringing everyone from the Transformers to Jem and the Holograms to important HRM landmarks for years, via exclusive comic covers sold at his shop.
Now he has the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gracing the cover of TMNT #75–out this week–posed atop the buoy sculpture at Alderney Landing.
Wall says he was inspired to do the cover while attending the Dartmouth Comics Art Festival this summer, where he saw kids climbing all over the buoy.
"Wouldn't it be cool to have the Power Rangers or the Ninja Turtles on there?" he says he pondered. "I'm going Ninja Turtles, and ba-da bing, ba-da boom."
These exclusive covers are possible through a program with comics publisher IDW—which runs the TMNT title–that gives comic shop owners incentives to order a bulk amount of copies.
"We only have 500 this time, which is only a third a third of what we usually get. This one is a special double-sized issue," says Wall. He adds that, since the rights to the TMNT are owned by media giant Viacom, he had a few more hoops to ninja parkour through than before.
"Viacom/Nickelodeon, who owns them, are much bigger and harder to deal with. Our first cover was actually rejected because we used the original '87 designs," says Wall.
Many of Wall's older customers, who grew up with the classic turtles, are excited to get their hands on a copy, he says. But so far, not many of his younger readers seem to be aware of the special cover. Though, since TMNT is enjoying something of a resurgence these days, he's certain they'll be excited when they see it on the shelves.
"They're going to come out of their shells," he says, knowingly.
The special Dartmouth-based TMNT cover is available now at Giant Robot Comics.
