Customer Reviews

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A Quarter Century Celebration

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the softcover version of the limited edition hardcover (numbered to 500) available at the Heavy Metal Booth during the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. It is 1 of 2 must haves for TMNT fans celebrating 25 years of TMNT. This book is a compilation of Kevin Eastman's short list of favorite TMNT stories (given more time he would have found more favorites!). The book is published under Kevin's publishing company Heavy Metal (with permission from Mirage) and is in a format I believe is larger than the original material (a bonus!). In addition to a short introduction by Kevin, the artwork for some stories has been cleaned up and even colored. The contents are as follows:

Me Myself and I [In Color!!!!] Eastman/Laird with colors by Justin Norman
Complete Carnage and Radical [B&W] Eastman/Lawson
You Had To Be There [Color] Eastman/Corben
Fun With Guns [Color!!!!] Eastman with colors by Blond
Shell of the Dragon [B&W] Bode/Eastman/Talbot
49th Street Stompers [Color] Eastman
The Unmentionables [Duo Tone, yes!] Eastman/Talbot
Turtles Take Time [Color] Strand/Corben

The other book, TMNT Collected Volume 1, which is not available via Amazon.com as of this writing, is a collection of the first 11 issues of TMNT + the 4 individual turtle micro-series comics. It is being published under Mirage (affiliated with the other TMNT Co-Creator Peter Laird), in a standard comic book size soft cover, clocking in at over 600 pages in black and white.

This is 180 pages of Kevin Eastman's favorite Turtles stories--at least, the favorites he was able to fit within 180 pages. The book is oversized, even bigger than the First Publishing volumes; the paper is glossy and white; and some of the stories have been colored. The cover may look familiar--the artwork on the front is identical to that on First Publishing's Book IV, and I think the back is one of the covers used on the first film adaptation (complete with colored masks). The back cover also has a quote from TMNT Volume I #1, which is not included in this issue. I guess it was Eastman's favorite two-line quote. The book does not include the covers of the original issues.

Enough about the covers, what's between them? Eastman has selected a lot of Raph and Casey, and a lot of humor. Several of the stories included have been reprinted in earlier collections. (But note that Complete Carnage and Radical is *not* the Complete Carnage 'n' Radical collected in Tales.) There's a bit of fantasy, too. The only real misstep is the inclusion of The Shell of the Dragon. It seems to take up at least a quarter of the book, it's already reprinted in a fairly common trade paperback, and it is probably the worst TMNT story I have ever read.

I'm probably spoiled by the wealth of Archives, Omnibuses, and Absolute Editions coming out of DC, but I would have liked to see more "bonus material." We get a one page introduction by Eastman, and that's it. Where is the commentary? Where are the sketches? The cover art? Cheesy author photo? Maybe some of that made it into the Artobiography, maybe not. It just doesn't feel like a "Celebration" to me. Celebrations are communal activities, and there should be more dialogue between the writer/artist and the reader. On the other hand, Eastman did fill practically every page available with a Turtle stories, and that's probably the best choice he could've made.

Minor gripes aside, it's nice to see what Eastman liked of the Turtles, especially after several years of Peter Laird being the sole creative stakeholder in the property. There are no aliens, vendettas, or pinteresque, angsty silences here--just fun and a whole lotta fightin'. Three and a half stars, rounded up to four otherwise Casey would hurt me.

In conjunction w/ their 25th anniversary, Heavy Metal Magazine & co creator Kevin Eastman w/ permission from Mirage Studios comes this nifty compilation of classic TMNT tales. What really makes this collection great is the oversize format which enlarges the material from the original single comic issues. Some of the panel's & art have been cleaned up or colored which is another bonus for fans. Mirage Studios' TMNT comics arguably jump started the whole black & white indie comic boom of the 1980's & the stories were exciting & a fresh new alternative to some of the bigger more mainsteam comic titles at the time. Because the turtles were never really super heroes in the traditional sense, it was cleverly innovative & daring.

I read this book really quickly, since there's not much subplot or depth to these tales. It's also fun to see how goofy people wore their hair and dressed back in the 80s when these books were published. The book is an oversized format, and the glossy pages look better than the black and white newsprint these issues were originally printed on. Raphael and his friend Casey Jones feature prominently (for better or worse, since Jones is extremely one dimensional). Some of the issues are colored to varying degrees of success. A few colored issues appear muddy and a little hard to read. Also, it's amazing with the success these guys (Eastman and Laird, the TMNT creators) had, that they couldn't hire an editor back then. Many spelling and gramatical mistakes detract from the simple storytelling. I think the couple of stories drawn by Richard Corben are the best in the collection, and overall the simple violence is pretty fun entertainment. This is a time warp book for all those people who threw away their turtle comics when they "grew up." As long as you're not expecting great storytelling or groundbreaking art, it's a fun read.