A Few Notes on Why This Blog Exists, plus Hamster Chronology

When I was in college, I started collecting lots of comics. Among them were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But I never really "got" the Turtles. Sure, the artwork was good and the stories were okay. But it never really worked for me much. It was supposed to be a parody, right? Only unlike other parodies, TMNT wasn't funny. It was grim. Serious... No offense to Turtle lovers. TMNT is still good - it just wasn't my thing.

My copy of TMNT #1, 3rd Edition. Not pictured: The pain and anguish I feel realizing that I shouldn't have sold the rest of my entire 62-issue run of TMNT comics on eBay.

But the effect on pop culture was undeniable. In the mid-80's, TMNT spawned a multitude of "Mutant Ninja Critter" comics, all of them in black and white and most of which were pretty terrible. It was a golden age of crappy comics.

Enter the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters. Or maybe they helped spawn it, I don't know. Either way, the ARBBH really struck a chord with me. Now this was a parody comic I could get behind. Not only is is clear what they are a parody of, but it is also FUNNY. Laugh out loud funny. I enjoyed every issue.

My copy of ARBHH #1, 1st Edition. Not Pictured: My inner geek glowing with pride.

In 2001, I looked up Don Chin on the internet and emailed him. He turned out to be a super-approachable guy and we had a great conversation! We emailed back and forth many times, and he sent me a short story he was working on for me to review. That was quite cool, to say the least! I bought a bunch of Parody Press comics from him, autographed. (But sadly, no Hamster comics.)

Now it is 2015. I was looking through some of my old comics and started thinking about the Hamsters again. After I read the new Dynamite series, I decided to look up Don Chin again and email him my thoughts. Not only was he still super approachable and nice, but it got me thinking that I wanted to start this site. He was encouraging of that. So here we go!

My goal is to review every single ARBBH comic ever made. Every issue, including every cameo. I started by taking an inventory of the comics I have. To my horror I discovered that I am missing the "America the Beautiful" hardcover graphic novel (soon to be remedied, courtesy of eBay!), plus 3 of the Parody Press issues! 3 through 5, to be exact. This is quite annoying. Those aren't easy to find.

Anyway... hopefully I will pick those up before my reviews catch up to those issues.

Sorting through my collection, I found that it was very difficult to put the comics in any kind of logical order. Roughly speaking, there is:

Eclipse Run
Parody Press Run
Dynamite Run

But within each of those, it gets kind of crazy. There are 9 regular Eclipse Issues, plus a 4-part miniseries, a Clint miniseries, and a bunch of one-shots. These can be roughly placed into the "Parsonavich" years vs. the "Sam Keith" years.

Then there are 5 Parody Press issues that don't fit into the chronology, along with more one-shots. Throw in a Dynamite series that reboots / retcons the whole thing, and you've got a lot of continuity confusion.

I'm planning to review them in rough chronological order. I'll do the regular series, then the miniseries, then the one shots. First Eclipse, then Parody Press, then Dynamite. Hopefully it will all make some sense by the time I'm done. But if not, I hope you'll still enjoy the ride. I know I will!

Ho Hamsters!