Bebop

When you really think about it, the fact that we are living in a time where you can get high-end statues of Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on the work of illustrator and artist James Jean is a pretty surprising development. I mean, that we can get any Bebop statue would be kind of remarkable --- what with him being a mutant warthog who was created during negotiations for a toy line and all --- but a James Jean Bebop statue? That's supposed meant to link up with four other villains statues in a big diorama of evil ninjutsu? It's remarkable. And it's happening. This week, Japan's Good Smile Company released their Jean-inspired Bebop statue for pre-order, and it's pretty fantastic.

If there's one thing that drives Bebop and Rocksteady more than anything else, it's that they are massive, unstoppable screwups. Those dudes can't even go into a building without bringing the whole thing down to its foundation and kicking off a gang war, so just imagine how much trouble they could get into if they had access to, say, the entire time stream. This June, that's exactly what's happening. Over at the AV Club, IDW has announced Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything, in which the eternal misfits of the TMNT franchise find themselves bouncing around through time itself courtesy of writers Dustin Weaver and Ben Bates, with a cast of artists that includes Nick Pitarra, Sophie Campbell, Giannis Milonogiannis, and Ryan Browne. And if that wasn't enough, they're bringing a few old friends along for the ride, too!

Back at the start of the Kickstarter campaign for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past --- a new board game designed by Kevin Wilson that follows the continuity of IDW's TMNT comics and features input from TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman --- I mentioned that I was pretty excited about it. I am, after all, a sucker for big campaign-based board games, while Wilson has designed some of the best I've ever played, like the Lovecraftian adventure of Arkham Horror, and the current run of TMNT comics is one of the best things going. Well, it turns out I'm not the only one. In the two weeks since its launch, Shadows of the Past has racked up a staggering half a million dollars, doubling its initial goal and unlocking plenty of stretch goals for the Kickstarter-exclusive "Works" edition, including everyone's favorite mutant warthog in shutter shades, Bebop. Here's your exclusive first look!

IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic is exactly my jam. I wrote about it a few months back when I finally dived into the series, and the incredible mix of sci-fi, the supernatural, romance and, of course, teenage mutant ninja action has made it one of those comics where I almost don't want to keep reading because I know I'm going to run out and have to wait around until there's more. This week, though, I finally got around to digging into City Fall, the big event that the series was building to since it started. I'd been saving that one for when I had some time to go through it, and I wasn't surprised at all to find out that it's great, full of well-crafted character-driven action that brought together everything that happened in the series up to that point. What did surprise me, though, is that I came away from it having actual feelings about Rocksteady and Bebop for the first time ever. Seriously.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

Movies: Director Bryan Singer took to Twitter to tease some set models from the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past movie(s). Toys: MTV has a first look at Playmates' upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics Rocksteady and Bebop figures...

Movies: If you haven't seen them yet, the latest issue of EW has new stills from Iron Man 3 and The Wolverine to feast your eyes on. Creators: Return of the Dapper Men writer Jim McCann competed on The Price is Right last week and was awesome to watch...