For the past four years, Art Baltazar and Franco's Tiny Titans has been one of DC's most consistently entertaining comics, delivering kid-oriented stories that managed to be genuinely funny and cute that took teenage heroes and recast them as students of Sidekick Elementary. This week, though, the series comes to an end with #50, on sale now in finer comics shops.

Join us as we bid farewell to the Tiny Titans, complete with five pages of the final issue after the cut!Getting to 50 issues with an all ages comic -- even one that stars well-known characters like Robin, Starfire and Cyborg -- is no small achievement in today's comics market. Over at the DC blog, Baltazar and Franco justifiably proud:

"TINY TITANS #50! Wow! It's here already! Seems like we just started!" series co-writer and artist Art Baltazar told THE SOURCE. "So glad to be part of this history making comics event of the 'AW YEAH AGE' of comics! Issue 50 is surely the grandest of milestones of my comic career thus far. Our fans are the best in the world. Thank you for all the love and awesomeness. It's so cool to see all the TINY TITANS fans at shows and conventions. YOU GUYS are the inspiration! TINY TITANS has truly changed our lives-thank you for the life-change! Looking forward to 50 more issues with SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES!!! Aw to the yeah."


"TINY TITANS #50! Wow, that's pretty cool!" continued series co-writer Franco. "This has been one of the best working experiences of my life. Where else can you get the past, present and even future characters of the entire DC universe to play with? I've lived with these characters my entire life so when we got the chance to work on this title it seemed like Robin, Kid Flash, Starfire, Raven and all the others took on a life of their own. They wrote their own adventures and Artie and I just happened to be there to record what was happening! The fact that we've been blessed with truly awesome, loyal fans and awards gives us the validation that we were doing something very special. Thanks to everyone!"

And they should be -- not just for creating a long-running title, but for creating one that's been so good for so long. One of the things I've always liked about Tiny Titans is how it managed to work as both a simple gag strip for kids, but also as a pretty sharp parody of everything else that was going on at DC at the time. It hit that balance perfectly, giving as many laughs to older readers as it did to the younger ones.

My personal favorite was when Darkseid -- usually cast as a hairnetted cafeteria worker at Sidekick Elementary School -- was promoted to principal, and immediately darkened the skies and forced the students to take exams, prompting... a Finals Crisis.


I'm particularly fond of his tweed jacket / Apokoliptian mini-skirt ensemble, but really, when your regular principal is Deathstroke the Terminator, that's the only way to make things worse. And the whole run is full of great jokes like that, and the final issue, which finds beast Boy being literally "relaunched" on a rocket, is no exception.

And true to the idea of a relaunch, this isn't really the end, at least for Baltazar and Franco. Tiny Titans is no more, but soon, we'll be getting their next project together, the similarly kid-friendly Superman Family Adventures:


It's going to be one of DC's Free Comic Book Day offerings this year, and I can't wait to check it out. After all, it represents a return to all-ages glory for one of the greatest characters in comic book history:

Aw yeah, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen!


So if you hit your local comic shop today, take a few minutes to flip through Tiny Titans -- if you haven't already. It's worth checking out, even at the end of the run.


Tiny Titans #50 Preview:








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