Saturday Morning Adventures – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6 

Writer – Erik Burnham 

Artist – Sarah Myer 

“Shiny and Chrome”

As we grow older, we get to share the things we loved as kids with a younger generation. My friend Adam’s kids are at the age where they are starting to read. As “Wacky Uncle Steve” I like to get them different comic books often and one of the series Adam introduced them to was Saturday Morning Adventures – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The last time I picked up my pull list books from Phantom of the Attic, I grabbed this issue for the kids. 

The NYC mayoral race is a dead heat between Nick Jefferson and Al Polk and Master Splinter and the Turtles are watching a debate between the two men when it is interrupted by the robot rascal Chrome Dome! He throws his hat in the race as a candidate for the Foot Party. The Turtles must find out who has rebuilt the evil automaton and shut their adversary down before he causes any trouble. The character that brought Chrome Dome back to life is not who you think it is and that is just one surprise in store for you, dear reader. Surely the citizens of New York wouldn’t vote for a robot for mayor, would they? 

Just looking at the comic cover on the shelf took me back to the good old days of when I used to watch the TMNT cartoon and save up money to buy the line of action figures. The art style by Sarah Myer comes as close to the animation style of the cartoon and it is uncanny. If you read this one, you’ll see some jokes and references that kids might not catch. For example, there is a panel of a newspaper announcing who wins the mayoral campaign. One of the other news articles states “this panel was a great shortcut,” says writer. Below a rendering of Erik Burnham, it says “Artist Agrees!”  There is a very subtle reference to The Empire Strikes Back during one of the fight sequences. Finally, I think that the men running for mayor are both named after Al Bundy and Jefferson D’Arcy from Married…With Children. It is these little nods and nuances that older adults can laugh out loud about then point out to their young reader. 

For the life of me, I don’t remember the character Chrome Dome so I’m going to have to check out who he was and if he appeared in the cartoon or the original TMNT comic series. I do like his design and he reminds me of Hordak from MOTU/She-Ra a little bit.

If you are looking to recapture the nostalgia of Saturday mornings, put down the Oat Bran for a change and pour yourself a giant bowl of sugary cereal and sit down and read this comic alongside the little one at home. Just try not to spill any milk on the pages! 

For those of you that made it this far, thanks for reading! My question for the audience – Who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? Who is your favorite secondary character from the cartoons, comics, or action figure line?