Dave Rapoza – Turtle Power! – By: Seannie Cameras

Culture August 23, 2011 80 Comments

Let me go back into the annals of my youth, with a little song: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half-shell, TURTLE POWER!” Sure, that’s the last few bars of the song but if you read the text above, are over the age of 25 then you know exactly the melody to sing it at. I know we are old, but does the idea of four, crime-fighting reptiles bearing the names of four, illustrious Renaissance painters, that are brought into modern day New York and bestowed with ninja-like qualities due to an application of mysterious ooze, really that far-fetched? What about their insatiable urge to eat pizza, and party dude?! Sorry, I forgot that you are entertained my a retarded, talking piece of sponge that lives on the bottom of the ocean and has a meth problem.

Anyway, today’s artist comes from the same ilk that myself, and a generation of other kids grew up after school and by letting afternoon cartoons babysit us until Silver Spoons and The Cosby Show came on around dinner time. Dave Rapoza has an incredible, “life-like” approach to transforming these classic images from their archaic animation and updating them to 21st Century beautification. Sadly, my favorite turtle being Raphael is not in the series but it is because he is still working on him. He has the TMNT series, The World of Warcraft, and other assorted fantastical/horrific characters from his inner-psyche. But, if you want me to sing another song, he also does a series on another seminal cartoon from my days of youth: THUNDERCATS! HO!!!