Casey stars in ‘TMNT’s’ ‘North by Downeast’ (1994), ‘Bodycount’ (1996)

Because Casey Jones – the sweatpants-wearing vigilante with a heart of gold — is perhaps my favorite “TMNT” character (with Donatello a close second), I should theoretically be the target audience for “Casey Jones: North by Downeast” (a two-issue series in Mirage’s Volume 2, although set during Volume 1) and “Bodycount” (a four-issue series in Image’s Volume 3, but set during Volume 1 and co-starring Raphael).

However, while I’m a huge fan of the “TMNT” side of Kevin Eastman’s personality, I’m not as big into his darker half – Heavy Metal magazine-style storytelling.

In 1992, not coincidentally the same year that Eastman wrote the story for “North by Downeast,” which Rick Veitch scripted and drew for “Plastron Café” installments, Eastman purchased Heavy Metal magazine. Eastman’s bullets, bombs, blood, booze and boobs influences – perhaps tempered by Peter Laird during “TMNT’s” heady beginnings – are let loose in “North by Downeast” and particularly “Bodycount.”

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If licensing “TMNT” to cartoon, toy and movie producers was a case of the creators “selling out,” these comics are the other extreme: Eastman absolutely cuts loose and does what he wants to do. It’s as if he wanted to go out with a bang (or a bunch of them); after “Bodycount,” he wouldn’t return to “TMNT” until just recently, when he started co-plotting and drawing for IDW’s rebooted Turtles. (On the other hand, Laird would write and draw a lot more “TMNT” books in the 2000s.)

Neither of these comics are remotely for kids, which makes it both hilarious and cringeworthy when I come across the odd letter in the back of an Image “TMNT” issue complaining about the violence. Perhaps because Image had wider distribution than Mirage, their comics seemed to be noticed by more people who didn’t know that “TMNT” originated as a non-children’s comic.

“Casey Jones: North by Downeast”

Although it comes from Veitch, whose work I loved on “The River,” “North by Downeast” is more in the vein of his “Sky Highway” (Issue 30) and other silly guest-artist yarns that took up a good chunk of Volume 1. Although fans (me included) tend to malign the over-the-top yarns, Eastman and Laird generally loved them, as evidenced by Eastman himself being involved with these two Casey Jones books.

In “North by Downeast” – where the Turtles’ only role is to listen to their pal’s story — Casey gets caught up with lobster-mutant aliens from Neptune, is seduced by a bikini-clad hottie who talks like a New England sailor (who, in an obvious twist, turns out to be a shapeshifting lobster-mutant), and is mainly just trying to get his favorite hockey mask back. In Volume 3, he apparently is less attached to his masks, as the facially scarred Raph uses one of Casey’s discards.

Of the two titles I’m reviewing here, “North by Downeast” certainly will be more palatable to “TMNT” fans whose tastes don’t delve all the way in the Heavy Metal direction. I found it to be an overlong, unserious romp, but it at least provides some food for thought if you ask “Was Casey dreaming the whole thing?”

Another point of discussion: The chick is named Gabrielle, same as Casey’s future wife. Given “TMNT’s” penchant for dream stories, I’d say yes, Casey dreamed the whole thing, probably while in a drunken stupor.

“Bodycount”

I’m not one who advocates censorship or any kind of government regulation of content (I think parenting is much more effective), but oh my gosh is “Bodycount” not appropriate for kids (or sensitive adults).

Written by Eastman and drawn by Heavy Metal veteran Simon Bisley, “Bodycount” begins relatively innocently with Casey immersed in a bloody barroom brawl, apparently because this is what he does for fun. Mob-bosses-and-hitmen intrigue soon enter the story – along with femme fatale Midnight — and by page 8, bystanders’ heads are getting blown off.

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The only genuine pathos of the piece comes in Issue 4, when Raph thinks Casey has been shot to death. But “Bodycount,” in addition to not being to my taste, also has an incomprehensible plot and a lot of punctuation and spelling errors. Furthermore, although these stories take place in the early days of Mirage Volume 1 – TMNT Entity places “Bodycount” after Issue 7 and “North by Downeast” after Issue 21 – they don’t feel right.

In “Bodycount,” the action moves to Philadelphia and Raphael is seen by people other than Casey. It seems like the Turtles should be more secretive during this time period, and that if Raph did go to Philly and was seen by a lot of humans, well, he’d at least get a serious scolding from Splinter.

Coming on the heels of “City at War” (when he meets, marries and loses Gabrielle, and gains daughter Shadow), and Volume 2 (when he has nightmares about his violent tendencies), I hoped these Casey Jones books would deliver further introspection.

They don’t, nor do they try. This problem comes up fairly often in “TMNT”: The world and its occupants can go in so many directions, yet the creators’ interests are so diverse that sometimes what they’re into at a given moment doesn’t dovetail with what a reader wants.

It’s both the joy and the bane of “TMNT” comic fandom, and for me, there’s no better example than these two Casey Jones titles.