Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Book III (cataloged as #3 by First Publishing, December 1987) is the first colorized collection to include the celebrated TMNT/Cerebus crossover originally published as Mirage Vol. 1 #8, making it the earliest widely distributed color printing of the story that introduced Renet, Lord Simultaneous, and the villainous time-mage Savanti Romero to the TMNT mythos. The crossover itself stands as a touchstone of the 1980s black-and-white independent comics boom, uniting two of the movement's flagship titles — Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Turtles and Dave Sim's Cerebus — in a single story that validated creator-owned publishing as a genuine cultural force. Collected here alongside the Fugitoid space-arc issues (#7 and #9), the volume packages some of the most cosmically ambitious storytelling of the early Mirage run into an accessible, colorized format that reached readers who had missed the original print runs. The time-travel framework introduced in this story seeded ongoing TMNT continuity for decades, with Renet and Savanti Romero recurring across multiple volumes, animated adaptations, and the IDW continuity.
In "The Passing," Renet’s theft of Simultaneous’s magic staff sets off a chain of events that pulls the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into an unexpected dimension, where they meet the enigmatic Cerebus. With the staff now in the hands of Savanti Romero, the Turtles and their new ally must navigate a strange world while Cerebus weighs his own role in the unfolding conflict. Written by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Dave Sim, and illustrated by the team including Gerhard, this 1987 issue features dynamic art and bold storytelling, with cover art by Kevin Eastman.
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First Publishing released four colorized TMNT trade paperbacks between 1986 and 1988, translating the original Mirage black-and-white material into full color for a broader audience; Book III was the third of these volumes, published in December 1987. The crossover at the heart of this collection required genuine collaboration: while Eastman and Laird penciled and inked the Turtles and backgrounds for Mirage #8, Dave Sim personally wrote and lettered Cerebus's dialogue, and he and his studio partner Gerhard handled the inking and toning of the aardvark character throughout the issue. Decades later, uncertainty over whether Sim would grant reprint rights was serious enough that Mirage commissioned an entirely separate, Cerebus-free alternate version of the story — 'The Paradox of Chudnovsky' — before Sim ultimately gave permission for the original to be included in the 2009 Collected Book Volume 1. The short story 'Stompers' (also known as '49th Street Stompers') was, per contemporary TMNT reading-guide sources, printed in color exclusively in this First Publishing collection and has not been reprinted in color since.
Trivia · 8 facts
- This is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Book III, the third trade paperback published by First Publishing (December 1987), collecting colorized versions of Mirage Vol. 1 #7–9 plus the bonus short story 'Stompers.'
- The volume contains the first color printing of the TMNT/Cerebus crossover (originally Mirage Vol. 1 #8, July 1986), the first crossover in TMNT history and one of the defining events of the 1980s independent black-and-white comics movement.
- Mirage Vol. 1 #8 — reprinted here in color — marks the first appearances of Renet (a teenage apprentice Timestress), her master Lord Simultaneous, and the exiled dark mage Savanti Romero.
- Dave Sim wrote and lettered Cerebus's dialogue in the original issue, while he and Gerhard inked and toned the Cerebus sequences; Eastman and Laird handled all remaining art.
- Renet's character was named after Steve Lavigne's girlfriend at the time; she went on to become a recurring ally of the Turtles across multiple Mirage volumes and the IDW continuity.
- Savanti Romero's name is a composite tribute to horror filmmakers George A. Romero and Tom Savini; notably, 'Savanti' is misspelled 'Savini' on page 19 of the original Mirage issue.
- The Fugitoid (Professor Zayton Honeycutt), whose mind was transferred to a robot body after a lightning strike, appears in the Mirage #7 and #9 material included in this collection, deepening the science-fiction dimension of the early Mirage run.
- The 2003 TV series episode 'Time Travails' and the 2012 series episode 'Turtles in Time' are both loosely based on the Cerebus crossover story reprinted in this volume, though Cerebus does not appear in either animated adaptation.
Cast · 15 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Renet steals Simultaneous' magic staff and travels to New York where she befriends the Ninja Turtles, but when Simultaneous pursues her she brings herself and the Turtles into Cerebus' world. The staff is stolen by Savanti Romero, whom Cerebus had been preparing to raid. Cerebus agrees to help the Turtles and Renet recover the staff, but ultimately Simultaneous himself must step in and banish Romero, send the Turtles home and give Cerebus his reward.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).