Comics Veteran on Return of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters, 3-D Projects, Collaboration with Original 'Star Wars' Toy Engineer
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POMPTON PLAINS, N.J. - illiNews -- Longtime comic book writer and editor Paul Castiglia is enjoying a resurgence of activity with a variety of new projects, plus vintage characters seeing the light of day once more.

Castiglia's storied career goes back to the early 1990s, when he worked on staff at Archie Comics and freelanced for other publishers including DC, Dark Horse, and Cracked Magazine.

While at Archie, he not only edited and wrote stories featuring Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and the fabled cast of Riverdale High characters; he also lent his editorial and story-writing skills to licensed character brands such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In the process, he contributed original characters to the Turtles lore. His first creation, Headrush the magical mole, appeared in two stories alongside the "heroes in a half shell."

A more expansive contribution came through his collaboration with the late Dan Nakrosis, The Conservation Corps. The environmental-themed heroes tackled odious villains, and after co-starring with the Turtles in a special edition, were spun off into their own comic book series.

Castiglia always maintained ownership of both Headrush and (with Nakrosis), The Conservation Corps. As a result, they were not part of the Ninja Turtles brand's sale to Viacom/Paramount.

Hearing of IDW Publishing's desire to include the Headrush and Conservation Corps stories in their latest collection, Castiglia granted a one-time reprint license for those stories to appear in the upcoming TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES COMPENDIUM, VOL. 3, scheduled for release on December 15, 2026.

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The reprinting of these tales holds special meaning for Castiglia, as they present an opportunity to honor his fallen friend and colleague, Nakrosis, who passed in 2020.

"Everything I do with Conservation Corps is done in collaboration with Dan's estate," says Castiglia. "He asked me to promise that if anything ever happened to him and something came of our characters, his dearly loved nieces and nephews would benefit."

After his Archie stint, Castiglia's mainstream comics career transitioned into writing and editing specialty comics projects. These included custom comic stories and animation scripts for toy companies like Mattel and Chap Mei; and getting involved in 3-D comics projects including one based on the cult classic ROBOT MONSTER film.

Castiglia edited and contributed stories to ROBOT MONSTER COMICS IN 3-D, a comics anthology which recently won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Graphic Novel of 2025. The book was published by Bob Furmanek's 3-Film Archive, who also restored the original film for its 70th anniversary.

It is being followed by the upcoming GREAT GOLDEN AGE OF 3-D COMICS, which reprints classic 3-D comics stories by the legendary likes of Jack Kirby and Joe Kubert. Castiglia is co-editing the latter, channeling his past as editor of the ARCHIE AMERICANA vintage reprint series. Both 3-D projects were launched and successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter.

Another upcoming, toy-related crowdfunding project for Castiglia is CONTROLLERS. Created by Jacob Miles III, the toy engineer behind the original line of Kenner STAR WARS action figures, Castiglia is co-writer and co-editor of the initial four-issue mini-series and helped develop Miles' toy and gaming concepts for adaptation to the comics page.

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The sprawling epic features characters who compete in tournament games where the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance… but are they even under their own control? With healthy doses of science peppering the fiction, relevant themes include brotherhood, the environment, and AI… all delivered with boundless action and imagination.

The CONTROLLERS campaign launches soon at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1558845849/controllors-universe-comic-issue-1

Thanks to Kickstarter's "late backer" feature, interested readers can still reserve copies of THE GREAT GOLDEN AGE OF 3-D COMICS at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1912346019/the-great-golden-age-of-3-d-comics

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ADVENTURES COMPENDIUM VOL. 3, featuring Headrush and The Conservation Corps, can be pre-ordered from various outlets, as listed at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/827500/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-adventures-compendium-vol-3-by-dean-clarrain/

"While there are no current plans for new Headrush or Conservation Corps stories, I am open to revisiting them," said Castiglia. "Certainly, if there's ever a desire to make them permanent members of the Ninja Turtles universe, I'd be happy to have that conversation," he added.