Originally published in: TMNT New Animated Adventures #12
Publication date: June 25, 2014
Story: Landry Q. Walker
Art: Chad Thomas
Colors: Heather Breckel
Letters: Shawn Lee
Edits: Bobby Curnow
“Postmark Panic”
Summary:
Down in the lair, Mikey (under April’s suggestion) has
decided to express himself artistically.
After videotaping a ninja training session, he mailed the cassette to “One
Minute Masterpieces”, a funniest home videos TV program. Leo is, of course, incensed, as the video
could blow their secret existence to the world and the Turtles immediately head
to the post box.
After discovering that the mail has been taken to the post
office already, the Turtles change destinations. Meanwhile, Karai watches them and decides
that if the package is important to the Turtles, the Foot must have it. Meanwhile, the Kraang watches her and decide
that if the package is important to the Foot, the Kraang must have it. Meanwhile, Jack Kurtzman watches the aliens
and decides that if the package is important to the Kraang, he must have
it. Meanwhile, Pigeon Pete watches
Kurtzman eat a sandwich and decides that if the package is important to a guy
with a sandwich then it must have breadcrumbs in it.
At the post office, the Turtles find the package amongst a
maze of conveyer belts and sorting devices.
Karai intercepts the package from them, but the Kraang intercept the
package from Karai. However, Kurtzman
intercepts the package from the Kraang.
HOWEVER, Pigeon Pete intercepts the package from Kurtzman. After a brief scuffle, Leo finally decides to
end the madness by chucking the package into a shredding machine. The Turtles promptly vanish with a smoke
bomb.
Down in the lair, Mikey shows his brothers and April the
backup of his video. Much to their
surprise, it wasn’t actually one of THEIR training sessions; it was one of
April’s. More so, it was a training
session where April accidentally bumped into a table and catapulted a pie into
her own face. Furious, April splats a
pie into Mikey’s face and storms off, though this only serves to inspire Mikey
to film a sequel.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT New Animated Adventures #11. The story continues in
“Pizza Prize”.
*Pigeon Pete first appeared in the season 1 episode “The
Gauntlet”. He made a brief cameo in the
season 2 episode “Metalhead Rewired”, where the Turtles freed him (and other
mutants) from the clutches of the Kraang.
*Jack Kurtzman first appeared in the season 2 episode
“The Kraang Conspiracy” and later appeared in “The Manhattan Project, Part 2”
(or “Wormquake, Part 2”; I don't know if they ever settled on one title for that two-parter).
Review:
Apparently June was the month of Pigeon Pete. He made his IDW comic debut over in TMNT (IDW) #35 and now he’s made a comeback of sorts to the Nickelodeon universe via
this issue of TMNT New Animated Adventures.
There’s just so much potential in that weird little guy.
Walker’s script is a lot of silly fun and probably the
goofiest long form story that IDW’s cartoon-based comic has produced yet. The “inception” moment of spies spying on
other spies, the fact that everybody wants something without even knowing what
it is, and the whole game of “keep away” in the post office were pure cartoon
silliness.
By focusing more on humor than action or drama, I think
TMNT New Animated Adventures is beginning to find its comfort zone. It can’t do anything involving story arcs or character development as it can't contradict or interfere with the cartoon. As a result, anything “dramatic” is forbidden from
actually carrying any weight. Luckily, comedy remains a viable alternative and their recent format of shorter gag
pieces, 2 or 3 per issue, has been working really well. I don’t know how much life New Animated
Adventures has left in it (it sells really poorly on the direct market and did IDW cancel the Micro
Fun Packs?), but I hope it keeps this format for the remainder of its run. It definitely works.
Now, to address the elephant in the room, doesn’t this
story seem just a little… anachronistic?
I mean, Mikey mailing a video cassette to a TV home movies
program? Now, as a person who lived
through the Betamax and VHS era as well as the brutal hell that was America’s
Funniest Home Videos and America’s Funniest People, all this seems perfectly
normal on the surface. But it isn’t 1993
anymore. I mean, the kids whom this book
is aimed at were all BORN after video cassettes had been retired, to say
nothing of their e-mail generation being unfamiliar with snail mail (how many of
these kids have ever written a letter, put it in an envelope, stamped it and
then dropped it in a box on the street corner?).
I mean, I’m sure the tykes reading this (if there ARE
any, given the sales numbers) will be able to follow along with the silliness
since the script is pretty intuitive (the package contains proof of the TMNT’s
existence and everybody wants it; that’s enough for a kid to follow), but the plot still
relies on technology, TV programming and circumstances that pretty much don’t
exist anymore.
It’d be like if Mikey disguised himself as a milkman to
infiltrate a video game arcade because the Foot are going to send an explosive
Candygram there. But oh no! Mikey spent all his quarters and needs change for the pay phone! How will he get
out of this one? Maybe he can borrow
some from the newsboy on the corner that’s crying headlines from the evening
edition.
Oh whatever. This
issue had Pigeon Pete in it, so everything else can slide. (Also, there's some
great work from Chad Thomas, who seems to be getting more and more in the
groove with each issue, pushing the boundaries of how cartoony and exaggerated
he can make everyone’s facial expressions, which I like.)
Grade: B (as in, “But the Turtles sort of leave their
buddy Kurtzman in the hands of the Foot and the Kraang at the end of this story”.)
