Project Description

INKTOBER 2024 Day #21: RHINOCEROS.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Monkey! Hero in a…fur (?)…shell? Monkey power!
I enjoyed the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ back in the day. I think my first exposure was the cartoon, not the comic. The original line of toys was pretty epic. I seem to recall creators Eastman and Laird originally came up with the idea as a spoof on the X-Men, which was my favorite comic series, and other popular superhero comics. As a young kid, aging into my early teens with aspirations to make my own comics, I remember being really excited to learn Eastman and Laird were from the same state I was and were relatively close to where I grew up. It somehow, in some not-quite-logical way, gave me hope. Their geographical closeness to me made my similar dreams of making comics that turn into a pop culture phenomenon seem possible. Achievable. Someone else did it, so I could, too. There was also a bit of that local professional sports team feeling, as well, rooting for their success because we’re from the same place (more or less).
As much as I have always loved the X-Men and other (mostly mutant themed) mainstream Marvel comics, I knew from a pretty young age I wanted to tell my own stories with my own characters. Somehow that never translated into me really getting into the independent comics market titles, though I was aware of a bunch of them like TMNT. Once I graduated college and stopped collecting due to time and money, I slowly gravitated away from the familiar superhero stuff and finally delved into some of those alternatives as the graphic novel industry took off in bookstores.
Anyway, Rocksteady was one of the mutant nemeses of the turtles. He wasn’t too bright, but he was big and powerful and just one more example of the brilliantly wacky world Eastman and Laird developed. I kind of feel like PMD would be right at home in the TMNT universe.”

Do you enjoy my Plunger Monkey Inktoberings? Would you like to have a bunch of them in your very own hands while supporting the pursuit of my dreams? Go grab a copy of Inklings on Amazon.com today! https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716?re