TMNT Ultimate Visual History Revised and Expanded Edition

I know I am very fortunate that writing about games and gaming culture has become my hobby. I wrote on the school newspaper in high school, becoming the editor of it my senior year. Writing has been a part of my life for a long time, and this has given me a place to direct that energy into something. On occasion, I’ve had the chance to review a book or two. All of this has really helped to fill a void I didn’t know was in my life. For Gaming Nexus, the books have been mostly coffee table books about video games; the books now sit on my actual coffee table at home. They have become great talking pieces when my Dungeons and Dragons group comes over to play. Well, luck has struck again, in a way that is harder to put into words than I thought. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimate Visual History Revised and Expanded Edition is now on my coffee table, and it is glorious. 

When I say Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles you have something, a thought, that comes to mind. Perhaps it’s the recent animated movie - it’s top-notch, by the way. It could be the early 2000s live-action show, the one that introduces a female, Venus, to the group. Maybe you think of your favorite turtle, as a child I was a Michelangelo, but now I feel more like a Leonardo. Or maybe, sadly, you think of the live-action sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which, pardon my editorialization, is the worst TMNT product created. If that’s your thing, this book might not be for you, you tasteless buffoon.

For me, it has always been the 1987, Emmy-snubbed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. My mom bought me countless episodes on VHS, and even the special ones that you could buy at Burger King. Remember when fast-food restaurants had cool stuff like that? That era of the turtles was my prime. TMNT Turtles in Time was the arcade beat-em-up that I played religiously on my Super Nintendo. That was how I first met my boys. Coincidentally, that’s how the TMNT Ultimate Visual History begins too, asking you, how did you first come across these green-skinned heroes in a half shell?

There is so much to like about this book that this might feel like a stream-of-consciousness rant. It’s hard to know where to start talking. The visuals alone are stunning. Obviously, the color scheme here relies heavily on green, for you know, the turtles. But the entire book is colorful, with the exception of the black-and-white comic book origins of these guys. But the black-and-white early comics might have been my favorite part. 

Learning how TMNT came together, and the many different commendable ways the creators tried to honor other artists and writers. The history of these four boys and their rat father is interesting. Learning about how comic book writers and artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird drew inspiration from the same person, the legendary Jack Kirby, is interesting. I knew somewhat that the turtles began as satire. The same ooze that created them also created the Marvel Comic hero Daredevil. What I found to be the most interesting element was how the satire eventually took on a life of its own. The kid-friendly turtles of my childhood started off as anything but.

If something is left out of this book, then I have no idea what that something is. It is all here. It is so detailed that they have included a copy of the first Ninja Turtles comic in the back sleeve, along with a poster I will be framing later. But the good news is the entire book is like that. You have script pages from one of the live action films put into the book. You can take it out and hold it yourself. This book came wrapped, and for good reason, it is filled with goodies. I enjoyed seeing full layout of levels to games printed onto something that I can take out of the book and hold. I find myself stopping every time I go through this book and seeing what new pieces they have included.

I now own the only bible I feel I'll ever need. TMNT Ultimate Visual History Revised and Expanded Edition doesn’t have a little bit of everything, it has everything, period. Comics, cartoon, live action, videogames, if the Ninja Turtles have done it then it is here to read about. The writing is great, informative but never felt boring. It’s hard to be boring when you are surrounded by so many different art styles. Then you include add-ons like a physical comic copy of the first issue and a poster, not to mention all the other items that you discover as you read. You are going to want this, and if your are as big of a fan of the turtles as I am, you will need it.