Don Chin | Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters 40th Anniversary

Forty years ago, four martial-arts-trained rodents crashed the comics scene and helped kick off one of the strangest crazes of the 1980s. On this episode, creator Don Chin joins the Bandits to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, the 1986 series that began as a parody of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and quickly took on a life of its own. Don looks back at creating Bruce, Chuck, Clint, and Jackie during the height of the black-and-white comics boom, the unexpected success of the series, and working with artists including Parsonavich and a young Sam Kieth. The conversation also explores the anything-goes world of independent comics in the ’80s, the Hamsters’ enduring cult following, and what it’s like to see this gloriously offbeat creation being celebrated four decades later with new 40th-anniversary collections from Dynamite.

You can follow Don on Instagram @donchin63.

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