IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Hits A Milestone…and I Get Nostalgic

Congratulations IDW!!!  You did it!!!  With the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue #73 last week, IDW’s TMNT series became the longest running Turtles comic of all time.  Yay!!!  Archie Comics’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures held the record at seventy-two issues running from August of 1988 to October of 1995 and, for comparison’s sake, the Turtles’ original Mirage series ran for sixty-two issues, ending in August of 1993.  In honor of this momentous occasion, I wanted to talk about why IDW’s Turtles series has captured my heart and mind as well as how growing up with the Turtles for nearly thirty years has allowed my appreciation of their story to evolve.

IDW Gives Us The Turtles At Their Best!

I’m exploring the comic books I find to be indispensible reading as I count down to my 100th post and today I’m shining the spotlight on Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  In the hands of their IDW stewards, the Turtles’ tales transcend any sort of generic genre labels and simply stand as great literature.  This comic is a master class on compelling character studies and stories that are consistently as emotionally affecting as they are exciting.  I’ve yet to read a single issue and not be moved!

Humanity’s GREATEST Literary Work

With slight modifications for genre, the sentiments legendary anchorman Ron Burgundy once applied to the band Survivor applies with as much truth to Tom Waltz and Erik Burnham’s 2014 IDW miniseries masterpiece Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters – “I’ve often said that the [comic book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters] is the best that ever was.  In my opinion, they put [classic literature] to bed.  Everyone else is an imitator.  That’s right, you heard me [Shakespeare], [Rumi], [J.K. Rowling], [John Grisham], you guys suck…dong.”  But to be as honest as possible, I must take my praise a step further, slightly modifying Ron Burgundy once again, “This [comic book] is quite simply the greatest composition in human history.  If you disagree, I will fight you.”

To micro-series or not to micro-series?

When I began reading IDW’s brilliant series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles several months ago, I was faced with a question.  As I amassed all the trade paperbacks going back to the beginning of the series’ 2011 run (because, responsible adult finances be damned, this was too fun to not read everything) I wondered whether or not I should invest in all the micro-series and miniseries that ran alongside the main title.  Obviously, it was a question born of financial concerns.  Did I need them to understand the story?  Did they add anything essential to my comprehension of the main title?  Should I spend all of that money?!?  I scoured the internet looking for suggestions.  I found a lot of sites offering very helpful chronological lists of where the various micro-series and miniseries issues fit within the larger stories in the main title but I didn’t find much on how essential they were.  So, for those of you struggling with this yourself or if you’re just interested the fun little tale of what I ended up doing, here’s my answer.

A Beautiful Rebirth

With fifty-eight issues and twelve micro/miniseries and counting, it should come as no surprise to anyone who follows the world of comics that IDW’s current reimaging of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is something special.  However, being out of the comic game for over fifteen years, I had no idea what I was getting into when I read the first trade paperback.  I couldn’t’ve been ready for this comic when I picked it up and now I can never imagine putting it down.  Living in an era of reboots and remakes, we’ve come to accept “At least they didn’t destroy it…” as often the best we can hope for.  But IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles defies all odds and transforms a fun childhood favorite into an artistic and emotional masterpiece.  With mutants on the mind this weekend (I’ll probably be seeing the new movie tomorrow), I am feeling the urge to talk Turtles.  So let’s go!