Keep getting sidetracked reading Tales of the TMNT while trying to gather my thoughts for Vol 2, and realised the world needs to appreciate these Tales frontpieces so gonna try and post one every once in a while with credits when possible! First one ever by Kevin Eastman!

Anyone who knows the Ninja Turtles at all probably knows this already but just in case, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a sort of anthology style series Mirage created to supply Turtle demands and also have fun making more contained or of beat stories.

Every single issue opens with this Twilight Zone-esque front piece by one of the Mirage crew and their friends where the Turtles and chums wax philosophical at you and end on the unfortunately Vans and Candy line "Let me tell you a story..."

And Eastman again with Ryan Brown. Even though the early Mirage Turtles were never especially distinct from one another, the "Ya" makes it feel like this is Raph with Leo's swords. Wonder what happened.

Jim Lawson.

Ryan Brown and someone else who's signature I sadly can't make out, tributed to Jack Kirby. Of note: first appearance of long time TMNT enemy the Rat King!

(miiiiight be Jim Lawson?)

Ah, wait, maybe Eric Talbot!

No signature. Maybe Jim Lawson again? Oh well. I just like this is the logic behind why the Mirage universe is so full of superheroes they have their own secret hospital but the Turtles have to both hide from the world AND wear masks.

Ryan Brown and Eric Talbot. First appearance of Leatherhead! I assume today's Turtle is talking to the alligators.

Can't make out the signature sadly, but their work is gorgeous. It's always hard tog o wrong with TMNT and dinosaurs.

And now we're onto Tales volume 2, one of the most eclectic, occasionally haunting and often lovingly bonkers Turtles series. It is my veryiest favourite! First frontpiece by Jim Lawson. I love the zig zag way the characters draw your eyes, with Don looking right at us.

Peter Laird! It's a shame Mirage never made any of these into posters. God, look at that wood.

Eric Talbot. The story Raph's telling us is how a Foot clan mystic uses the worm clone Shredder from Return to New York to reincarnate Shredder as a giant shark man. Because this is Ninja Turtles.

Scott Cohn, continuing on from last issue. It's the most elegant in it's simplicity.

Michael Dooney, who also did some covers for the SNES video games! First part of Leonardo: Blind Sight, a mini series Jim Lawson does mostly in white silhouettes about Leo coping with blindness. It's gorgeous but has a weird ending. Might blog someday. Meanwhile aww, Shadow!

oh cool, the actual issue comes with an interview with Lawson by Mirage editor Steve Murphy.

Chris Henderson with inks by Dan Berger. This handsome fellow is Cha Ocho, Leo's rival introduced in vol 4. This is the story of how Leo gave him that scar, by Archie's Dean Clarrian and Chris Allan. It is a...very Archie TMNT story.

As in it tackles the tragedy of Cha loosing his wife and loosing everything as he joins the Foot and teams up with Leo in the hopes of finding his wife's killer, but he also constantly spouts lines like "I got the juice!"

And then this happens.

Michael Dooney. Shadow's a big Hello Kitty and Hellboy fan apparently. Also think that plush toy in the corner is Fluffy Brockelton, one of the stars from Dooney's own Mirage series Gizmo!

Michael Gaydos. Kinda sad Leatherhead can't use the Scottish version because oh my god can you imagine a giant alligator man just bellowing "GANG AFT A-GLEY!" in the sewers?

A.C Farley. This is the issue where Mikey has to cope with the death of his sadly under utilised cat, Klunk, and my brain is broken because I keep remembering Splinter's "noble warrior" as "Potion seller"

William Porter, editor of the UK TMNT magazine at the time! Also that "My name is Donatello and this is what I think about" tag is going to show up a lot whenever Steve Murphy is writing the story of the week. It's a cool line!

Steph Dumais.

D'Israeli. Think the colouring for the IDW reprint takes away a lot of the atmosphere and also makes the boys stick out like sore thumbs. Of course if they had a nighttime pallet they'd have to use it all the time, so...

Keiron Dwyer. For context, Leo owes a monkey god a favour and their choice of repayment is plucking four versions of Leo from diffrent points in time to make sure he's born. In the course of this adventure the Leo's save Moses from crocodiles.

Dario Brizula. It's a nice pin up, great composition and action, but it's ALSO a really good choice for opening/wrapping up the four Leos time travel arc! Fighting this poor alligator-man really ISN'T the weirdest thing to ever happen to Leo! Let him tell you a story...

Fernard Pinto. This is a cute story about Casey and Shadow opening up to each other about the absence of Gabriel, her late biological mother, and also Mikey and a gang of Rat J. Fink hot rodding ghosts are there.

Sadly, this story is in no way connected to the Mutant Highway story, where an interdimensional road race almost turns Casey into a mutant racing monster, probably due to the notorious question of what Mirage can and cannot copywrite.

But on the cool side, this issue's antagonists, Count Von Clutch and Darlin' come from Peter Laird and chums' Funatix company!

Sean Wang. It's a nice and moody piece made inadvertently funny by how seriously Don takes reading blogs on the internet in 2005.

"What did YOU do during the war, Daddy?"
"I painstakingly screen capped pages from Ninja Turtle comics and made mediocre jokes about them, sweet heart."

"...it was a dirty job but someone had--?"
"Oh no, quite needless! Millions of friends died so I had such freedom to squander! The butcher spits in our food for it, and he is right to do so!"

Dave White. At some point it was decided Raph should have a phobia of bugs. Far as I know it first showed up in an episode of the 2K3 show, but I dunno if that's where it came from or it was a Mirage invention, but it's persisted with the character across incarnations.

"Dat dere Raphael, with his anger management an' his entomophobia. Think he's a big shot."

Derek Fridolfs.

"My name is Donatello, and I condescend to hopelessly lost normal turtles in the sewers!"

Steve Rolston. This issues one of my favourites, despite the fact I don't really like attempts to make the origin story more serious, but the plot is a one in a million idea: Splinter and the Turtles visit Homato Yoshi's old home in Japan to pay their respects...and it's haunted!

"Why, IIIIIIIII oughtaaaaaaaaaaaa...!"

Stephen Sims.

Whoops, hit send too early.

That play on the "Let Me Tell You a Story" tag is because this is the 20th issue of volume 2! To celebrate Mirage changes it up and does three stories this time. Maybe I'll tweet about them at some point, but rn I'm trying to keep this going.

Eric Theriault, first in a trilogy of crossovers with the C.O.W. Boys or Moomasa! Sadly not reprinted in colour by IDW for probable rights reasons, which is shame, they are incredibly charming stories. Alas, we have to contend ourselves with Mikey's socialist milk thoughts.

Editor/trilogy writer Dan Murry recounting the origin of the C.O.W.-Boys is one of the cutest things I have ever read.

Eric Talbot, who's also on lettering this issue! It deals with the return of the Turtles friend Gosei Hattori, a samurai who channels and draws on the spirits of his ancestors to kick ass, and Raph has a throwing star in his head, what the hell?

Casey Jones, American home owner and adult.

From the interior art by Scott Chon.