02: Green Means Go

Art by Michael Shelfer

The third issue in TMNT: Black, White, and Green debuts in comic shops today. The series is an anthology of Turtles stories by a whole host of creators and I was lucky enough to be invited to the party with an eight pager titled “Green Means Go,” illustrated by the incredible Michael Shelfer.

Part of Black, White, and Green’s charm is the disparate storytelling styles of the creators involved. No two tales look alike, and that’s particularly true of this third issue. The visual hook tying them all together is that each story can only be drawn using (you guessed it…) black, white, and green.

Under that premise, I tried to come up with a pitch where green is integrated into the conceit. Hence, our set up: the Turtles chase Baxter Stockman who has rigged all the street lights in New York to green to create maximum chaos.

Car chases are notoriously difficult to pull off in comics but luckily Michael was on board as the artist. We’ve been hoping to work together for a while now so it was a blast to finally make that happen.

Here’s another sneak peek at some of the brilliance he put into each page:

Michael Shelfer drawing action sequences: A+. No Notes.

We hope you give it a shot! The other stories feature Dave Wielgosz, Riley Rossmo, comics legend Jock (!), and more.

You can find a comic shop near you here, or read the issue digitally. If you’re more the book type, you can also preorder the paperback edition of the entire series set to debut in November.

One of the big takeaways I had from writing TMNT x Stranger Things was how unabashedly fun it was writing the Turtles. It was joyous, and that was once again true even in an 8 page story like this.

That’s partly just the nature (and genius) of Eastman and Laird’s creation, but it’s also because I’ve loved these characters quite literally longer than I can remember. I could spend an entire newsletter waxing about why I adore Donatello (don’t tempt me, I really just might) but the truth is you’d have to ask Toddler Cam why I was drawn to the thoughtful, purple clad, stick-wielding brainiac in the first place.

Any chance to help keep these characters alive, even for 8 pages, is a dream come true. And however you find your copy, I know at least one person who will be happy you did:

Cam circa Halloween 1993. Once a Turtle, always a Turtle.

Thanks for reading,

Cam
7.31.24

PS. Shout out to Amanda Castillo for drawing my new icon image. Amanda’s fee was that I have to write them some Lord of the Rings fan fiction so I look forward to putting an inordinate amount of thought into that sometime soon.

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