Raphael, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle #1
Published in April 1985, this Mirage Studios one-shot — the first solo spotlight in the TMNT micro-series — introduced Casey Jones, the hockey-mask-wearing, sports-equipment-wielding vigilante who would become one of the franchise's most enduring supporting characters across every major adaptation. The issue's central dramatic conceit, pairing the hotheaded Raphael against an even more violently unhinged human vigilante, gave the character his defining trait: a temper matched only by a genuine moral code. That Raphael/Casey dynamic — two aggressive personalities forced to confront their own worst impulses — has proven so narratively durable that it was adapted directly into the 1990 live-action film, the 2003 animated series, and the 2012 cartoon, making this 32-page black-and-white one-shot one of the most story-generative single issues in TMNT history.
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Raphael #1 was written and drawn by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and published by their own Mirage Studios in April 1985, arriving in the wake of the surprise commercial success of the main TMNT series that had launched just one year earlier. According to Eastman, Casey Jones was deliberately conceived as a parody of the darker, morally ambiguous vigilante characters then proliferating in mainstream comics — figures inspired by gritty cop shows like T.J. Hooker and The A-Team rather than by personal tragedy, with Laird's own love of bad television serving as creative fodder. The issue is set in continuity between TMNT Vol. 1 #3 and #4, and Mirage issued a second printing in November 1987 that added a new backup story, 'Fun with Guns,' as well as a new installment of the Eastman/Laird editorial column 'Turtle Tracks.' The first printing also contained a bonus pin-up page reproducing what has been described as the first group drawing of the four Turtles together, dating to 1983.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Casey Jones (Arnold Bernid 'Casey' Jones), created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who would go on to become one of the most prominent recurring human characters in the TMNT franchise.
- Written and penciled by TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman (art) and Peter Laird (script), making it a canonical Eastman/Laird collaboration.
- The first TMNT solo one-shot/micro-series spin-off, preceding the Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, and Fugitoid one-shots that followed in 1985–86.
- Casey Jones was designed as a parody of popular '80s vigilante archetypes — his motivation for crime-fighting is watching too much bad television rather than a tragic backstory, distinguishing him from contemporaries like The Punisher and Batman.
- Story is titled 'Me, Myself, and I' and is set between TMNT Vol. 1 issues #3 and #4; the issue also contains a bonus pin-up page reported to feature the first group drawing of the Turtles from 1983.
- A second printing (November 1987) added a backup story ('Fun with Guns') and a new 'Turtle Tracks' editorial column, with Steve Lavigne's lettering replacing Eastman's from the original.
- The story has been adapted multiple times: directly in the 1990 live-action TMNT film; as Season 1, Episode 4 ('Meet Casey Jones') of the 2003 animated series; as a level in the 2003 TMNT video game; and as an episode of the 2012 animated series. It has also been reprinted in colorized form by IDW (Color Classics: Micro-Series #1, August 2012), in IDW's Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 (2011/2017), and in the IDW Compendium Vol. 1 (2022), among other collections.