Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

If comics has taught us anything, it’s that anything can be illustrated, and if the internet has taught us anything, it’s that anything can be someone’s turn-on. Comics and furries go hand in hand, dating back farther than living memory, with modern furry fandom a direct multigenerational outgrowth of funny animal comics and cartoons. It’s Love and Sex Week here at ComicsAlliance, so we've decided to do our part to destigmatize furries, because we believe that everyone has at least one furry crush, whether it's the stars of Disney's Robin Hood, a Thundercat, or the stars of Disney's Zootopia. (We see you, Disney.) To that end, here are nine of our most animalistic passions from the world of comics.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have some of the weirdest villains in all of comics, and that's certainly saying something. Whether it's transformed mutanimals, brains in torsos, or old-fashioned ninja crime bosses, we want you to tell us who you think is the ultimate TMNT baddie.

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.

Everyone loves trivia about their favorite animated features and series, but with over 100 years of animation history behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite names in cartoons in this continuing video series. You think you know cartoons? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! This week we're taking a look at the heroes in a half-shell, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

One of the standards I use to judge a comic is how much it makes me care about something I never thought I'd wind up so emotionally invested in. The all-time champ in this regard is, of course, Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, where I was moved to tears by the romance between a flash drive and a talking car, but IDW's Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles is a close second for making me genuinely care about whether an Arctic fox named Alopex could truly find friendship in this cold, cruel world. A lot of that had to do with the incredible art of Sophie Campbell on key moments in Alopex's stories, which is why I'm incredibly excited about the solcitations for IDW's upcoming TMNT titles, in which Campbell returns to Alopex and teams her up with the invisible hero Nobody for a camping trip that's almost certain to go bad. Check out the solicits below!

It's been nearly five years since IDW's ground-up reinvention of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the publisher's line of Turtle-based comics have stayed strong as one of the most innovative and exciting licensed properties on the shelves right now. One of the coolest things has been seeing a generation of creators who grew up on Turtles get their hands on the property and the new issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe sees Michelangelo getting involved in a missing person's case that leads to the discovery and debut of the semi-obscure villain Wyrm

Q: Which is the better version of Master Splinter: Hamato Yoshi's pet, or a mutated/reincarnated Hamato Yoshi himself? — @RandallJSanders A: Okay, first things first: The history and minutiae of the Ninja Turtles are weird. By its very nature as a franchise that started out as a goofball parody drawn on a kitchen table over pizzas, and then became the breakout hit of the '80s black-and-white boom that then became Literally The Most Popular Thing In The World, and then became a tenured franchise that's spawned multiple iterations over the past 30 years, things get really complex, really quick when you start trying to figure out how it all works. And for Splinter, that's even more true than it is for the Turtles themselves. As their mentor figure, the one who's responsible for handing down all the ninja knowledge that makes up a full quarter of their identities, his complications spring from an entirely different set of problems --- and that's before you start figuring out how a bunch of turtles wound up with a rat as their dad.

When you think about characters that are well-suited for saving Christmas, it's hard to come up with one more perfect for the job than Michelangelo the Ninja Turtle. Not only has he been making some pretty significant appearances under the tree for a solid thirty years, but of the four brothers who make up the team, Mikey's the one who's full of childlike wonder and the sense of fun that allow one to be swept up by Christmas magic. That's probably why he's the character who ended up starring in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Christmas issue back in 1985, in which he befriends a kitty cat, brings joy to a bunch of orphans, and actually Saves Christmas. Which, you know, also involves hijacking a truck and crashing through at least two NYPD roadblocks. Saving Christmas can be complicated, folks.

There are several times in my life where I have tried to stop buying action figures, for all the reasons that you'd expect. They're expensive, they take up space, and while I'm not above making Storm Shadow drop a Stone Cold Stunner on Batman while I'm on the phone and need something to do with my hands, it's not like I actually spend enough time playing with them to keep them form just sitting on my desk gathering dust. But every time I try to get out, something brings me back in, and nothing has ever gotten me as hard as the new line of Ninja Superstars figures from Playmates, in which WWE Superstars are combined with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And they are amazing.

TMNT Universe was one of 2016's best new titles, but really, that shouldn't have been a surprise. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books have been consistently amazing since their relaunch five years ago, with the biggest problem being the huge amount of great characters and stories and not enough room to tell them -- until the launch of a series designed to put the spotlight onto a few other sections of their universe, anyway. Now, as TMNT Universe enters its second arc, Chris Mowry, Michael Dialynas, Tomi Varga and Shawn Lee are set to revive the alligator from the New York sewers, Leatherhead. I spoke to Mowry to find out a little more about his new take on the character and get a preview of the next issue.