Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Artisan Edition

Well I am back to add another post after a huge delay since I last put anything up.  This time I am having a look at “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Artisan Edition”

 

Starting out the book is of a very high quality.  It has a nice glossy cover and feels robust in a way “The Works” does not.  The cover looks great and I admit I have never seen it uncoloured before.  Obviously I know this would be the case when I ordered it online but seeing it in the flesh there are details or the way parts of it are drawn that I did not expect.  It looked really good tho there is a part of me that wishes they had used a red font rather than green.  It’s a small thing tho.

This is quite an interesting book as it can be quite costly to pick up (£36 on Amazon as I type) but I managed to grab mine for £17 which to be honest is still rather a lot for a reprint of TMNT Issue 1.  This story is available in many different ways and far cheaper than this.  So what does this book offer that the others don’t? 

First you get a nice forward by Keven Eastman with some info that you may not have read before.  This is 4 pages which is not a huge amount but considerably more than what was provided for the story in the “Ultimate Collection”.  I did enjoy the information in this but I think a couple of pages from Peter Laird would have really had me gushing over this.  But there is some interesting information included which I won’t spoil for you. 

Second you are not getting just one version of the comic.  You are getting the comic in 3 different stages of completion.  You get the rough drafts setting out the page layouts and how each panel will be displayed and what will be included.  I really enjoyed this version of the comic as it really did give some insight to the creative process.  You might find a little note on a panel of how they want the final piece to look or you may just notice that the final picture was quite different in the end to what was planned.  I did really enjoy this element of the book.  

Also included is the whole book in its drawn and inked state.  This version of the book I was less keen on.  While there is nothing wrong with it and it’s nice to have it included.  For me it is just a poor version of the finished product.  It does go some way towards showing how much extra lengths Eastman and Laird went to when they put this book out back in 1984.  Maybe budding artists will really dig this but for me I have not gone back for a second viewing of them.  

The third version of the book is the comic as it was released with the duo tones included.  This is the book we know and love and it’s a great today as it was back then. And yet there still might be a compelling reason to pick this up even if you probably have the book 2 or 3 times already in one form or another.  More on that shortly.

Third, at the back of the book are several pieces of early advertising pieces that appeared in various publications and these are great to see.  I did enjoy seeing these.

And finally.  And this is the reason you may want to pick this up even if you have the story several times already.  The size of it!  This thing is HUGE!  When I ordered it I was expecting it be your average sized hard backed TPB sized issue.  But no, this thing is massive!  It’s even bigger than the Ultimate Collection or The Works and absolutely dwarfs a TPB.  As it turns out this book has been put out so the art can be viewed in the same scale it was drawn in.  I think this is a brilliant idea as never before have I seen the art looking so great. Admittedly finding a place on your book shelf that can accommodate this may be tricky tho it fits in nicely on mine next to my collection of “The Works”.  This I admit is by luck rather than judgement. 

This thing is massive as you can see

So would I recommend this book to anyone?  Well yes and no!  If you just want to read the book or grab a copy to do a collection than I would say no.  There are far cheaper ways to get it and if you want a collection then just head for “The Work” or “Ultimate Collection” as both are large oversized copies of the book which are not this big but still look great and they offer far more bang for your buck.

If however you already have a collection and therefore this story then none of this will matter to you.  You will want this book for everything that is not the finished story in print.  You will want to read Kevin Eastman’s forward, you will want to see the draft and inked versions of the book.  And you will want this massive tombstone of a book on your shelf even if you do have to lay if down side ways.  Or maybe just want an excuse to read it a few more times J  All of those reasons are totally valid and make the book a worthwhile purchase.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Works – Volume 1

Well having competed my first post I wanted to dive straight back in and do another, similar one to try and make a better job of the formatting and making it more interesting to read.  The Works Volume 1 was the perfect thing to do being very similar to my previous Volume 2 review but also not having the same disappointment 8 left me with.  So enough of my rambling sand let’s talk about the book.

The Works Volume 1 is again a large oversized hard back book collecting issues 1 to 7 and the Raphael One Shot from the original Eastman and Laird Mirage run of comics but with the added colours that the Colour Classics implemented with much success.  That’s 8 issues in all totalling a MASSIVE 305 pages.  The oversized and coloured pages look fantastic here.  All in matt which really adds to the look in my opinion.  The Pizza Box styling is of course present as it was in Volume 2 and feels as misplaced here as it did there.

"The Fugitoid" Love him!

Let’s talk about the issues themselves.  Many people find the initial TMNT books a bit at odds with itself due to the creators never really expecting to make a second issue.  I have never found this myself and the initial 11 issues along with the 4 one shots are without doubt my favourite comics of all time.  The 8 issues collected here work really well together compared to Volume 2 as I feel more of the issues string together to create one continuous story.  Issue one of course covers the origins of the Turtles which we all know so well.  But issues two to seven all string together perfectly to create a fantastic story starting with Baxter Stockman and his now famous Mousers which leads them to the mysterious TCRI Aliens (The Utroms) before catapulting them into space with one of my favourite characters “The Fugitoid” fighting the might of the Triceratons who fling them into the arena for an epic Gladiatorial show down with the Tricaratons biggest and best before being transported back to Earth just in time to be reunited with Splinter and escape before being overrun by the Army.  I've really barely scratched the surface of this story ark here as I see no reason to spoil it for anyone who has never read these books or jog the memory too much for those who have not visited them for a long time.  I would encourage anyone to jump in and enjoy these stories for the first time or just to enjoy them again in the fantastic colours added for this collection.

No matter what era of TMNT you visit you won't find a Turtle with a gun often.  Naturally Raphael did it first.

One criticism I often see levelled at these early books is a lack of individual character to each of the Turtles.  None of the Turtles in the original Mirage run ever displayed the over the top personalities made famous by the 80’s cartoon.  The development does come for the awesome foursome from each of the Turtles one shot issues but seeing as 3 of these are collected in Volume 2 you won’t see so much of it here.  Not that this is ever really an issue as the hectic pace the Turtles are thrown from one crazy situation to the next.  There is one exception as the Raphael one shot is included as a nice break from the action and starts right away casting him as the hot headed, short tempered Turtle we all know and love.  Having said that even in this setting he quickly finds himself a like minded friend in the legendary Casey Jones as their friendship is born through combat as the two disagree on how far you can beat on some purse grabbing “Pukes”.  I love the way Casey is portrayed in this issue and the style in which he’s drawn reminds me of J.O’Barr’s “The Crow” which is no bad thing.

Raph looses his cool                                              Casey Jones "Goongalla"                                            The Utroms

You have to cut him open before
he becomes interesting to look at

I don’t really have anything bad to say about this collection with the exception of The Shredder being coloured in the black/blue tones.  While I personally would have preferred him to be in his district red it’s not really a strong negative as he only appears in issue 1.  More disturbingly is the bizarre colouring of his hands which jump from bare fisted to gloved from page to page in a baffling oversight.  But when gloved which unfortunately is how he is displayed in most of the images containing him  he really does lack any strong detail to catch your eye which is a shame for such a Villain.  I guess I can’t really argue that he is a Ninja whose probably not out to draw attention to himself, but it’s a shame for us, the reader who have to sit and look at him.

This is a fantastic collection tho which I cannot recommend highly enough.  This is the true origins of the TMNT which anyone who has any interest in comic books owes it to themselves to read.  You could pick up the issues individually digitally far cheaper on the Play store but you will lose those oversized pages and HUGE double page spreads and the tactile feel and smell that only a real book can provide.  However you chose to enjoy these stories tho you are in for a treat.

9 out of 10 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Works - Volume 2

So here is my first post on the blog and I hope you enjoy it.  I recently acquired “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Works Volume 2” as a gift and thought it would be fun to share my thoughts on the book. 

Where to start.  This book collects the Colour Classics issues 8 to 11 along with the Michelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo One Shots.  So 7 issues in total, each racking up 40 odd pages so there is a LOT of comic book here for a total of 256 pages.  The book itself is an oversized edition compared to a regular comic and is hard backed and styled to look like a Pizza Box.  It looks neat but kind of not in character to the original Eastman & Laird comics.  I don’t recall them eating Pizza in any of these stories!  This theme continues inside with the contents pages made to look like a Pizza menu which again looks neat but feels misplaced.  The whole book is in a nice matt finish.  This is certainly my preference and there is not a glare in sight where ever you look including the cover.  The cover does not feel quite as robust as it could as a result but again it’s done to make the most of the Pizza box idea.

The new colours look great!

On the whole the book is excellent.  But it certainly does not put every step in the right place.  There are a couple of (in my opinion) glaring errors in this book which I will cover later.  Let’s start with the positives.

I suppose one of the most obvious is the oversized nature of the book.  The pages look amazing!  The art just looks fantastic in this size, they really feel like they’re jumping out of the pages at you!  Action heavy issues like Leonardo and Issue 10 are just brilliant and a joy to behold.  I really dig the large size of this book even if to be honest it’s kind of heavy and unwieldy to read.

The next positive is the addition of colours to these originally black and white issues.  I love the B&W originals.  It’s what I read as a teen and to be honest most of my favourite comics are in black and white.  But the job on these colours is amazing!   They have been done (for the most part) so so well.  The Turtles themselves look amazing with fantastic tones and all the backgrounds look really good and well lived in.  I particularly like the Michelangelo issue which is the Christmas special and has a LOT of snow everywhere.  As much as I love the B&W original you can’t deny that details are far easier to pick out in colour as it’s less of an explosion to your eyes. 

I love both of these pics but the colour
one sure is easier on the eyes

Same again on Chets Toy Store.
Ahhh good old Klunk (the cat)

Issues 9, 11 and Donatello equally benefit from the overhaul of colours.  All look brilliant and while they don’t make the issues any better for me I imagine younger readers who are new to these stories will really like and prefer to have these in colour.

I did say above there were some negatives and a couple of these are really rather unforgivable even if it would not stop me recommending the Colour Classics to anyone.

OK so here we go.  I have been bursting to get this off my chest and I can’t wait any longer.  Issue 8!  I love issue 8, it’s one of my very favourite TMNT stories. It’s the TMNT / Cerebus cross over issue.  I admit I have ZERO knowledge of the Cerebus the Aardvark character and as great as he is here for me it’s all about Renet the Time Mistress and Savanti Romero (the bad guy).  Both are hilarious and make this such a fun story.  So what’s my beef?  WHY IS RENET RED?  WHY?  It looks terrible.  They have even gone so far as to change the cover from her original blue to red and it just looks awful.  To make it worse the ONLY reason I got hold of this book (I have all the colour classics in digital) is because issue 8 was not released individually.  I believe this is due to some kind of licencing issue due to Cerebus, tho I kind of don’t buy this as they have released it here and in the “Ultimate Collection”.  I got both just to get this issue.  At least I grabbed “Ultimate Collection” in digital and have the issue stored on my trusty tablet.  So my excitement of getting this in the largely fantastic colour classics line was dashed as soon as I got to the stinking red cover.  Finding the Time Lords floating head also in red barley registered after the disappointment but again I don’t like it!

I really HATE that red cover 

And to continue the theme, Shredder is now a blue/black and again the original cover for issue 10 has been adjusted from Shredders original red to blue/black.  I admit while I am not a fan it does not bother me too much.  Maybe they were throwing a nod at the old cartoons where Shredder is blue and I was Ok with it till I found Renet in red and just wished they had left them both alone.  But despite my moaning the colour classics do for the most part look great!  It only really negatively effects 2 issues and then only for one (tho important) character in each.  For someone who has not read these before or is not such a fan boy as I am, you probably won’t even notice.  But for me, considering the high price of this book £37 I would recommend grabbing the issues in digital for far cheaper.  You can even grab the Black and White “Ultimate Collection” to grab issue 8 and the Colour Classics in digital for less than the price of this book.

I don't hate the Blue/Black but I certainly like the Red better

It does not take much of an imagination to know how much
 better this would be in the correct colours

So despite my personal gripes at some of the decisions they have made, this is a fantastic book crammed full of great stories that for the most part look excellent and are hugely enjoyable to read.  The oversized nature of this book does genuinely add something that my 10” tablet cannot provide and I'm sure most will NOT have the same distaste towards certain aspects I have.  I do still think that it offers poor value for the money but the strength of the stories are great and many new readers will love all the new colours.

7 out of 10

Edit.  Well the formatting is kind of pants but I am glad to have something up and have learnt a bit.

Welcome to my blog "Geek Spot" here I will be be posting reviews and articles of things I find interesting which are usually fairly geeky in nature.  I wont have any kind of schedule to release stuff and it will be done on an, as and when basis when I feel I want to share something.    Keep posted and I hope something pops up that peaks your interest.