Hello fellow TurtleFans! I'm AJ - let me tell you a little bit about me...
I am currently 25 years old and have been a fan of TMNT since 1988. I know - a late bloomer! Anyway, I was living at a campground with my folks at the time and discovered the cartoon on a little bitty tv that hooked up to the cigarette lighter of our big ol' Chevy step van (named Herald - the truck was haunted, but that is another story...). I was hooked! Now, since we liked to move a lot we often lived in campgrounds between houses or apartments, so it was only a short while before I had my own room in which to breed my insanity. I had every TMNT poster I could get my hands on and just about a ton of toys related to them. I was thrilled to find out that the TMNT were created in Northampton, not far from Springfield. It was only after finding out that little fact that I learned the cartoon had been based on a comic. I bought the four graphic novels (and was a little surprised at the differences between the genres) and began to collect Turtles comics like crazy. Then came the movie - I was stoked when I heard they were coming out with one and assumed that it would be animated - until I saw the poster with the guys in the manhole and the words "Hey, Dude - this is no cartoon" on it. I went into overdrive - man was I excited! I made my dad take me to see the movie the first day. I waited in line for about an hour and a half at Showcase Cinemas in West Springfield. That has to have been the longest I've ever waited to get into a movie - and the most fun I've ever had at one, too :-) I saw it again with my brother and his wife. I followed my love of the Turtles for a few more years until I joined the Navy. In the Navy I got sent to Japan (which I was dead-set against - but then I discovered that I loved it there!) I bought some TMNT-related items over there and then got married to another sailor. I got out and we lived first in California and then Jacksonville, FL, and now live in Virginia. I'm proud to say that we have a three-year-old TMNT fan in the house (She calls me April!) She knows all of the words to the cartoon theme song and I have passed on to her my prized Turtles posters - and when she is old enough she will get my comics collection, as well. I lost track of the turtles comics over the Navy years and never got the chance to see the final couple of seasons of the cartoon, but I still love to think up stories about them and commit the stories to paper - and I don't care who picks them up in the library :-)
I hope you enjoy your stay and come back from time to time to visit. I'm sorry if the layout seems clunky, but frames scare me to death! I mean, not on other people's sites, just having to do them on my own :-)
~AJ~
