''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'' (''TTT'') was a popular, humorous
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...
in the monthly magazine ''
ToyFare''.
Publication history
Originally titled ''Twisted Mego Theatre'', it predominantly featured scale
action figures
An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These fig ...
made by the
Mego Corporation (a line very popular in the 1970s, during the childhood years of much of the magazine's staff), and principally those based on
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
characters, such as
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...
("Mego Spidey")
and the
Incredible Hulk. The artwork was done in the
fumetti style by photographing toys on sets built by the magazine's staff, and using
Photoshop to add effects and
word balloons. The series was known for its bizarre humor and
pop-culture references.
''Twisted Mego Theatre'' debuted in ''
ToyFare''
's 1996 Winter Special. The strip ended when ''ToyFare'' published its final issue in January 2011.
[Melrose, Kevin (January 24, 2011)]
"Breaking: Wizard and ToyFare magazines fold"
. ''Comic Book Resources
''CBR'', formerly ''Comic Book Resources'', is a news website primarily covering comic book news, comic book reviews, and comic book–related topics involving movies, television, anime, and video games. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publicat ...
''.
Collectively, the strips take place in a fictional world called Megoville.
[Thomas, Jr., Dr. Ronald C. "Playing with Themselves: ''Robot Chicken'' and 'Twisted Toyfare Theatre,'" ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' (Oct. 2010), pp. 17-19.]
Many early ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'' strips featured several
DC Comics
DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
characters, though an early strip entitled "The Super-Friends" featured Spider-Man insulting the DC heroes for their ridiculousness. DC later filed a
cease and desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...
order, preventing ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'' from ever using DC characters.
The television show ''
Robot Chicken
''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animation, adult stop motion, stop-motion animated sketch comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The twelve-minute ...
'', which features animated action figures, directly sprung from ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'', as former writers
Tom Root
Thomas R. Root (born September 20, 1973) is an American screenwriting, writer, television producer, producer, television director, director and voice acting, voice actor for ''Robot Chicken''.
Early life
Root was born in Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa Ci ...
and
Douglas Goldstein are head writers for the show, along with fellow ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'' alumnus
Matthew Senreich.
See also
*
List of ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'' stories
References
External links
Neo-Monster Island - Inspired by and mentioned in ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre''Project:Custom - Provider of many of the custom Mego style figures featured in Twisted ToyFare Theatre{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629043222/http://www.projectcustom.com/ , date=2008-06-29
1996 comics debuts
2011 comics endings
Parody comics
Comics based on toys
Comics controversies
Action figures
American comic strips