From The Sewers – TMNT Group Exhibit @ Ben Frost Gallery [Richmond, Victoria / AUS]

I still have a crisp, yet dreamlike, memory of the first time that I would ever see an image of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird‘s now-beloved amphibian assassins. I’d heard the name “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” mentioned previously, but only because my older brother had a friend that was the first obsessive toy collector that I’d ever heard of — he would keep all of his stuff sealed in the box, which would drive me insane as a young elementary aged kid in the Eighties. Some friends and I were walking through our neighborhood and one of them had some form of comic book or magazine with them. All that I can remember is seeing that ad. The idea of martial arts turtles seemed cool and wacky, but that dark, gritty representation of them wasn’t what I expected. What was this?

Well before ever making its way to television, Eastman and Laird‘s creation had already proved an underground phenomenon, selling out it’s initial 3,000 + run almost as soon as it hit the shelves. A rabid demand for a reprint with a much larger production run came through, much to the surprise of the men who had self-released it from their New Hampshire-based home. They referred to their lair as Mirage Studios, an inside joke to the fact that their “studios” didn’t really exist. The comics were dark, violent stories printed in black and white on newsprint. Initially intended as a one-off, the overwhelming reception motivated the duo to turn it into a series. For two guys who bonded and formed their friendship over a love for comic book god, Jack “King” Kirby, the idea of making a living with their own series was already a dream come true. It wasn’t until a licensing agent named Mark Freedman approached them to expand their brand through merchandising that TMNT took its first real steps toward taking over the world. Freedman didn’t really have much of a record in the industry — he, essentially, earned he future partners confidence by wearing a power suit and possessing his own business cards — but, after being rejected by just about every other company, doll manufacturer Playmates Toys, eventually agreed to produce a toyline. To sell the toys, they would also need a cartoon program. Eastman and Laird‘s turtles all wore the same red masks, but that wasn’t going to work. Since each member needed something to differentiate them from one another, they each were given their own color distinct personalities for the show, while being made more child friendly. Just like with the comics, the toys seemed like a long shot, with Toys R Us being the only retailer willing to take on a small trial order and give them a shot. Also mirroring the release of the comics, that initial run flew off shelves so quickly that a much larger order followed immediately after. Then, once the TV show hit the airwaves, shit went even more bananas.

It might be hard to imagine now, but each new step in the TMNT evolution was met with doubt and confusion for a concept that was consistently labeled as difficult to market. When Freedman took the sewer-dwelling brothers to the big screen as a live action motion picture, while bringing it back into a somewhat grittier direction, he took the heat for potentially capsizing an otherwise incredibly successful product line at the height of its popularity. In the end, the film broke records, just like the toyline, TV show, and comics all had before it. Nothing could sustain that level of hype forever, and the show eventually went off the air, but TMNT has endured in our culture, being resurrected multiple times over the last 3-and-a-half decades. For something met with so much resistance and labeled as unsellable, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been battle tested, embedding themselves into the lives of one generation after the other, time and time again.

Today, Australia‘s Stupid Krap opens a massive new group exhibition paying tribute to these iconic heroes in a half-shell. The online store known for specializing in “original and limited edition artworks by the world’s best street, graffiti and contemporary artists, alongside promising and fast rising talent” brings together over 120 artists to honor the TMNT legacy. Hosted by the Ben Frost Gallery in Richmond, Victoria, today’s opening is an all day event that will include beer, BBQ, and live painting. Pulling from various eras and incarnations of TMNT history, the artists offer work filtered through their own aesthetics presented on 14.8cm x 21cm (5.8-inch x 8.3-inch) paper made from vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon trading cards crafted by Dodgy Paper in Melbourne. All piece (except for one) seem to be available for $200 or under.