Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Ultimate Collection Vol. 6

by Peter Liard & Kevin Eastman 

Publisher: IDW Publishing (January 5, 2016)

Hardcover, 256 pages

Volume six collects twenty nine short stories dealing with the Turtles and their universe. All of them hail from the 80s when the creative talent was hot. The previous two volumes come from the 90s and, in comparison, the later issues seem to have lost their mojo. Whether they ran out of steam or talent, the energy, the momentum, is just not there. These amazing stories just punctuate it.

They are collected from the back pages of old comics, exclusives for the TMNT Role Playing Game (again this was the 80s- RPGs were at their height of popularity), benefit stories, and a few crossovers- kind of- with the Puma Blues, an indie comic near forgotten today.

The annotations are interesting because Kevin Eastman writes a page to a page and a half on each story gushing over the layouts and the art. Peter Liard, on the other hand, often writes two sentences claiming to not remember anything about it, seems completely uninterested, or just points out some minor flaw. I'm not sure if this is true, but he comes across as a little bitter. Don't know about what, but he put almost no effort into his contribution here.

There is a volume 7, but it's a collection of covers and sketches and other crap I'm not interested in. Even at half price it's not worth the money to me. Maybe I'll try out one of the turtle's clones like: the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, the Pre-Teen Dirty Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos, the Naive Inter-Dimensional Commando Koalas, Mildly Microwaved Pre-Pubescent Kung Fu Gophers, Geriatric Gangrene Jujitsu Gerbils, Adult Thermonuclear Samurai Pachyderms, Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs, Cold Blooded Chameleon Commandos, and the Genetically Modified Punk Rock Pandas.  

These are all real. Check them out.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 5

by Kevin Eastman & Peter Liard 

Publisher: IDW Publisher (December 23, 2013)

Hardcover, 204 pages
 

Volume 5 collects the final collaboration between Eastman and Liard (so far) on their signature creation The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Issues 56-63, the second half of the “City at War” storyline, which deals with the legacy of The Foot Clan and The Shredder, and seems to be a sort of last hurrah for the group.

The Turtles agree to hunt down the last of the Shredder’s elite guard who are loudly destroying all of the other factions of the Foot in New York City. The Japanese representative of the Foot recruits the Turtles, telling them that the Foot would forgive all past grievances and not hunt them were they to succeed in killing these men. Thus allowing the Turtles to forge their own destiny. Simultaneously Casey Jones, April O’Neil, and Splinter are traveling through their own journeys. Casey now has to deal with being a single mother. April is looking for some kind of direction without much success. While Splinter is on a dangerous quest for spiritual fulfillment. None of them go where they expect to.

 

As before, the art is crisp and clean, making for easy and fast reading. The violence is off the charts here. One thing that the creators always stressed is that the ninja turtles are not superheroes. Their mission isn’t to “fight crime”, most of the time they’re just defending themselves. At that mentality is certainly shown here- probably why the comic is still so popular. No moralizing on killing, no bullshit. They have their goal, they get in a kill the enemy. Just like most people would do.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 4

by Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman 

Publisher: IDW Publishing (April 23, 2013).

Hardcover, 248 pages 

Volume 4 collects the “Shades of Grey” two-parter, and the first half of the thirteen issue “City at War” storyline. This consists of issues 48-55. If you’ve read my previous blog you’ll notice that this “ultimate” collection has skipped twenty seven issues and rushed ahead to the next big collaboration between Eastman and Liard. I understand that these are considered the “essential” issues, but they also bring in two characters from the missing issues, the villain the Rat King, and the masked vigilante, Nobody. Both have had encounters with the Turtles before, which do not appear in this collection, but the editors assumed that you would already know who they are.

Things have become fractured in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle household, Casey accidentally kills a kid, Splinter has lost his mojo, April is feeling constrained, and the Turtles are trying to deal with the rest of the Foot. With the death of the Shredder, an internal power struggle has erupted between various factions causing a mounting death toll. The Turtles insert themselves into it, only to realize they might be out of their depth and without a clear target, they’re simply adding to the chaos.

One thing I’ve noticed in these later issues, as opposed to the first ones, is how little dialogue there is now. In the first issues huge sections would be devoted to exposition and backstory. Not there is almost none. Most of the issues have little interactions beyond combat and the dialogue is minimalist. This fits with the art, which has now morphed into clean, black and white lines that are easy on the eye and incredibly fast to read. There is less to stop and look at now.

Also I think the publisher, IDW, got a little greedy here. They could’ve easily published the “City of War” story as one large volume, rather than split it in half. I mean I didn’t pay full price for the damn thing, but if I had, I’d be a little pissed off.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 3

by Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman 

Publisher: IDW Publishing (October 2, 2018).

Hardcover, 292 pages

The "golden age" of the turtles was over and with it the focus began to drift. The Shredder has returned and the Turtles have retreated to rural Massachusetts. Eastman and Laird took turns writing and plotting on the subsequent issues and the quality definitely suffered.

Volume three collects issues 12, 14, 15, 17, 19-21 and also includes annotations by Kevin Eastman and Peter Liard. Silly me, I thought the "ultimate" collections would include all of the issues, but apparently it means only the ones worked on by the creators. I don't know if this is to the comic's detriment or benefit.

Before each story blended into the next and it seemed like well plotted tales, now each of the issues are throwaway bullshit tales that don't build the mythos or the world of the turtles in any respect. These stories weren't much fun and some we're quite a chore to get through. In fact issue 15, which deals with the return of some old time superheroes, has some of the worst art I've ever seen in a professional comic. I have xeroxed comics done by teenagers with better looking art.

But it's what you have to wade through in order to reach the "good" story at the end of the book, “Return to New York”, and the Turtles confrontation with the resurrected Shredder. How the character comes back is a little silly, but no more so than how any other comic hero or villain returns, so it's easy to forgive. What interests me is the lack of regard the creators had for their signature villain. The one who is most closely defined with the Turtles, granted this is mostly becuase of the popularity of the cartoon, but I was surprised when I read Laird’s views on the Shredder,

“In truth, though many TMNT fans who became fans via the first animated series see Shredder as a REALLY important part of an ongoing, long-running battle with the Turtles, I don't think Kevin or I ever did. Yes, he was an important part of their history, and they probably would not have come into existence without his involvement in their world (or more accurately Splinter's world)... but that's about it. Other than bringing Shredder back for "Return to New York" (and the few issues preceding that set that arc up), I never missed him in any of the other TMNT books I worked on.”

The action, and it is almost all action, is some of the best in the comic's run. Brutal, fast, no quarter given to the enemy. All three issues, despite varying in layout, flow together like a waterfall of violence and revenge.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 2

by Kevin B. Eastman & Peter Liard 

Publisher: IDW Publishing (April 24, 2012)

Hardcover, 272 pages
 

Back gain, back again. The foundations for the 90s indie hit are laid out before us. This book marks the end of the golden age of TMNT. After issue 12 the two creators took turns creating working on issues due to creative differences. As a result, the stories after this don’t flow as well until we begin the “Return to New York” storyline.

This volume collects issues 8 - 11, plus the Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo one shots. After each issue are notes and annotations by the creators of the series. Here we begin to see them considering stepping back. Their brand was growing and with that came a whole flood of new work and opportunities beyond writing and drawing the series.

Issue 8 is the famous crossover between the turtles and Cerebus the Aardvark (all of the stories of which I have discussed in their own section)-  This is a return to Cerebus’s barbarian days, which the comic had actually progressed beyond, and involves the turtles being transported into another dimension and forced to storm the castle of a necromancer with Cerebus. The two art styles mesh together perfectly and none of the characters act differently than in other issues. The only drawback is that the dialogue is way too jokey and riddled with bad puns. It drags down the story.

 

For me issue 10 marks a turning point for the original series. The stories had gotten increasingly more fantastical and over-the-top. Magic, science fiction, aliens were all mixed up in the story. And the overall tone of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was threatened to be bogged down by silliness and bad humor. Then comes the Leonardo one-shot that leads into issue 10. The return of The Foot Clan. The return of the Shredder- albeit a new man inside the armor.

We see a much more serious story as the turtles return to the themes of their origin. That of familial duty and revenge based on the actions of people long dead. We see here the pendulum of this cycle of violence swing back to hit the turtles. The tone is darker, serious, with hints of the deadly conclusion that might occur. A hero story is only as good as their villain, and the turtles were beginning to lag without one.

The Leonardo one-shot is probably the most masterfully put together turtles story ever. The juxtaposition between the violence of the ninja action and the rest of the turtles joyfully trimming the Christmas tree - perfectly shows the two elements which drew people to the series in the first place: Playfulness and deadly action.  I think it’s their best work.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1

by Kevin Eastman and Peter Liard

Publisher: IDW Publishing (November 7, 2017)

Hardcover, 320 pages

Here we are at the indie roots of a multimedia empire that sprang up in the late 80s and dominated the 90s with comics, cartoons, toys, and films. This is the ultimate collection for the ultimate indie success story and it all started as a spoof of Daredevil. The series was merely meant to be a one shot issue, but the sales were so good that they kept printing more and more, then followed it all up with further issues.

This book collects the first seven issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles put out by Mirage Studios (so called because it was just a room in Laird’s house, so to say it was a studio was just a mirage) and the Raphael one shot comic. If you think that isn’t much, let me remind you that the early TMNT comics were all essentially double sized issues, averaging about forty pages- so the material is the equivalent of fifteen issues in this volume. Also included are comments and annotations by the authors on each issue.

As the issues are in black and white, you’ll notice that the turtles are only known by their weapons (rather than the different colored masks they wear later on), and when they are colored on the covers, they’re all colored red. The next thing you’ll notice is that the turtles are pretty violent. Not cartoon violent, when they fight, they aim to kill. Not capture, not maim, but to put their enemies in the ground. This was rather refreshing back in the day and it is further punctuated by them killing the Shredder in the first issue. From there it goes a whole lot crazier introducing April O’Neil, the Second Time Around junk shop, nutcase vigilante Casey Jones, the TCRI aliens (Utroms), the Fugitoid - little note, the actual origin issue of the Fugitoid is not in this volume. The authors felt that it wasn’t necessary as a synopsis is given in the TMNT #4.

While the material here is good, you can see that the artists are still developing their skills. The action is sharp, but there are still a few awkward angles and panels, the smoothness of later scenes and stories are not there altogether. What takes me out there the most is the mild attempt at swear words often employed by the turtles and their antagonists. Someone nearly falling off a moving truck and yelling “dung” instead of “shit” just is bizarre. If they didn’t want to use profanities they should’ve gone to the old standby of substituting “X@#%&” instead.

The key to a good spoof or parody is to make sure the story holds on its own. If you removed all of the referential material and inside jokes, is it a solid story that doesn’t require knowledge of the original to enjoy? This example is followed perfectly in the case of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Their origins are obviously a spoof on that of Daredevil. The radioactive canister that blinded a young Matt Murdock bounced off of him and hit a kid holding a tank of turtles, which fell into the sewer covering the turtles and a rat in mutative goo (we later find this is from the wreckage of an alien craft). The creatures grow to avenge their Master’s late owner. The rest of the parallels are obvious. The ninja clan the Turtles fight is the Foot as opposed to Daredevil’s The Hand. The Turtles are trained by the rat Splinter who hates the Foot, while Daredevil is trained by the blind man Stick who hates the Hand. The Shredder, his armor at least, seems to be partially based on the Daredevil character of Gladiator- thought don’t quote me on that.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.