WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: TMNT Collected Book Volume One

11 Comments | Posted: September 11th, 2009 | Filed under: What I've Been Reading | Tags:

tmnt-collection-1


This collection of the first three years of Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is clumsily plotted, packed with expository, derivative dialogue and art for which “adequate” is bends the truth a bit. It’s also visceral, engaging, and exciting. 25 years after the fact, it’s easy to see why the comics collected here were the first wave of a phenomenon — they’re a slapdash celebration of Japanese cinema, Frank Miller, and pulp fiction, fueled by starry-eyed youth and a complete lack of knowledge when it comes to what not to do. It’s more than recommended; I’d say this book is essential for anyone who wants to better understand the changes that comics have endured in the past quarter-century.

Share This Post:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • Ping.fm
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr

11 Comments on “WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: TMNT Collected Book Volume One”

  1. 1 Sean Witzke said at 11:06 am on September 11th, 2009:

    Man, I remember reading these in trades at the library when I was really young. Had to be the first long-form comics I’d ever read. I guess that’s what kids feel about Naruto these days, huh? “Theres a whole lot of this and holy crap now theres dinosaur aliens this is the best thing ever I need more”.

  2. 2 Tom Spurgeon said at 12:10 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    I like this image.

    Kevin, tell me something I’ve forgotten. How long does it hang together as a cohesive story — like how long is that first “arc”?

  3. 3 League of Melbotis said at 4:11 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    That initial run is exactly as Kevin describes it. Knowing how long ago I was buying these issues off the shelf makes me feel very, very old.

    Picking up this trade was like shaking hands with 12-year-old me. Present-Day-Me had a lot of explaining to do.

  4. 4 Kevin Church said at 4:42 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    How long does it hang together as a cohesive story — like how long is that first “arc”?

    It’s interesting: the first issue is sort of a one shot that crams in a LOT of material: it starts in media res with the Turtles fighting some dudes, flashes back to a long origin sequence, then features them finding and confronting Shredder for the death of their master’s teacher. Subsequent issues start hanging things up for later use and the mythos is built. There’s no real overarching story, but a series of events that are hamfistedly linked. It’s very much the work of people who learned to write comics by reading comics. Near the end of this volume, things get more streamlined, especially in issues 10 and 11.

  5. 5 Jonathan L. Miller said at 5:57 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    Does the collection have the Cerebus issue in it? I’ve been wondering about that ever since I saw the book in Previews. (Haven’t actually looked at a copy of the book yet, though…)

  6. 6 Kevin Church said at 6:12 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    It does!

    I linked to it in the image, but here’s the info.

  7. 7 Carlos Ortiz said at 9:19 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    Why in god’s unholy name can I not find this on Amazon? According to the official site, it was reprinted last year.

  8. 8 Doc Arkham said at 10:00 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    Pity they already seem to have run through the print run on those.

  9. 9 Kevin Church said at 10:06 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    I tried to find it on Amazon to get the fat loot by linking, but yeah. It’s not on there. No idea why. The ISBN is 978-0-9819497-0-3 if you want to ask a local bookstore or comics shop.

  10. 10 Carlos Ortiz said at 10:27 pm on September 11th, 2009:

    Found a comic shop that was selling it through the ISBN. Thanks for the help.

  11. 11 Tom Spurgeon said at 12:47 am on September 12th, 2009:

    thank you