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.