Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 1
Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 1
Creators: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird
Page Count: 312
Cover Price: $49.99
Release Date: January 10, 2012
Collects: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 1 #1-7 and the Raphael one-shot.
Review: Being a child of the ’80’s, I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Ninja Turtles. I was first introduced to them via the 1987 animated mini-series. In 1989, the cartoon led me to the Archie comics, which led me the original Mirage comics (via the First Comics colorized editions). To say that I’m a huge fan of all incarnations of the TMNT would be an undestatement, but I fell in love with the original Mirage comics at first sight.
This book marks IDW’s initial attempt to repackage the original stories by the original creators, Eastman and Laird, and this oversized format will only be used to the handfull of issues that the two colaberated on. (Issues 1-11, 19-21, 48-62, and the 4 Micro-series One-shots to be precise.)
$50 for 8 issues doesn’t sound like a great value, especially for black and white reprints (the original issues were black and white as well), but keep in mind the none of the issues in this book were the standard 22 pages of art. The stories average 38-40 pages each, with the exception of the Raphael one-shot, which is only 26. So, long issues combined with full-color covers, and, best of all, issue commentaries by Eastman and Laird themselves, along with unused art, and original sketches, make this book a dream come true.
There are downsides though – not many, but a couple. For a book that calls itself the “Ultimate Collection”, there are two important things missing. First is the 4 page comic that was originally inserted in issue 7, which was by Richard Corben and Kevin Eastman. OK, I almost understand not including this, as this collection is supossed to be issues by Eastmand AND Laird only. Got it. But when Kevin Eastman mentions it in his comments for the issues as one of the highlights, I mean really? You couldn’t include a 4 page story as a bonus? And secondly, what about the covers to the various reprints? Those covers, which would later go on to be posters and video game covers, are some of the most iconic Ninja Turtle paintings. Why weren’t they included? Those two reasons alone prevent this book from being the end-all be-all of TMNT tomes.
As a minor aside, Peter Laird’s commentary on the issues are pretty weak. I understand that he’s burnt out of the Turtles, but Kevin fills pages (!) regarding his memories of each issue, and maybe Peter gives a paragraph, if at all.
The reprinting of the art is good, but not perfect. There seems to be some pixelation on the art due to it being blown up for this edition. 99% of the time, it’s not noticeable, but once in a while, it jumps out.
As for the story’s themselves, like I said, I hold them near-and-dear to my heart, so anything that I say will be a bit biased. (So be warned!) The first issue is a stand-alone issue, mainly because there was never supposed to be a second issue! Issues 2 and 3 feel like Kevin and Peter are getting to know their creations, and in issue 4 they send them to outer space for until issue 7. It almost seems as if they didn’t know what to do with the Turtles. Don’t get me wrong, the stories are good old fashioned fun, but why send sewer dwelling ninjas into out space? The answer is actually because that’s the kind of story that Kevin and Peter wanted to write. Does it completely jar with the first few issues? You betcha. But that’s OK, this isn’t War and Peace.
Summary: There’s a reason why this book sold out completely within 3 months of its release. Let’s just hope that IDW sees it fit to reprint this book ASAP!!
Overall: 4.5 out of 5. If only we had those additional covers…