Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History Hardcover – June 24, 2014

I'm a huge sucker for these historical retrospectives on comic book characters. I read "Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics" as a kid and have always loved lavishly illustrated coffee table volumes covering the history of comics ever since, from Les Daniels Complete History books on Superman and Batman to IDW's retrospectives on great artists like Wally Wood and John Buscema.I haven't had a chance to read this just yet, it arrived only an hour ago -- but man alive, just looking at it, it's a thing of beauty. There's tons and tons of rarely seen art and photos on every page of this beauty. This is a volume that deserves a place besides the TMNT Artobiography and IDW's gorgeous Ultimate Collections (or The Works for those that need color).It looks like every major era of the Turtles' history is covered here, from the creation of the Turtles to the upcoming live action film reboot. The chapters include:Chapter 1: Origin StoryCovers the formation of the Eastman/Laird partnershipChapter 2: Up From the SewersDetails the creation of the TMNT; very cool early sketches and concept art of the TurtlesChapter 3: Mirage Becomes RealityLooks back at the early success of the original comic series and some of the first merchandise available, such as the Palladium RPB and Dark Horse figurines, with loads of rarely seen promotional artChapter 4: The Green TeamDescribes how the efforts to license the Ninja Turtles led to the deal with PlaymatesChapter 5: Heroes in a Half ShellCovers the development of the 1987 animated series and action figure line; lots of nice shots of figure sculpts and animation cellsChapter 6: Turtles TracksA look at the production and launch of the 1987 animated seriesChapter 7: Turtles, Turtles, EverywhereReviewing at the mainstream success of the Turtles property and the Archie comics all-ages comicChapter 8: I Love Being a Turtle!A look back at the original live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie -- loads of wonderful set photos and behind-the-scenes shots of the puppet studios making the suitsChapter 9: GreenbacksCovers the cash cow that the TMNT became during the 90s, with lots of wonderful photos of merchandise us 80s/90s kids look back on fondly, such as the TMNT cereal, Nintendo game, Pizza Hut album, etc.Chapter 10: Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!Looking back on the second live-action TMNT movie; while it's Kevin Eastman's least favorite TMNT flick, it's still remembered fondly by us who were kids when it hit theaters. My friends and I absolutely loved it.Chapter 11: It's Not Easy Being GreenCovering the third live-action TMNT film and the decline of the Turtles franchise in the mid-90s.Chapter 12: Image is EverythingThis shows how in-depth this book is -- it even covers the Image Comics series by Erik Larsen, Gary Carlson and Frank Fosco! They attempted to bring the Turtles back to their gritty Frank Miller-inspired roots but may have went too far by turning Donatello in a cyborg.Chapter 13: Radical MutationsA look at the Next Mutation live-action TV show that introduced Venus de MiloChapter 14: Turtles Count It OffThe dissolving of the Eastman/Laird partnership and the launch of the 4Kids animated series that revitalized the franchise in the mainstreamChapter 15: Family MattersA look at the Imagi Studios CGI animated TMNT movieChapter 16: Turtles ForeverCovering the truly excellent Turtles Forever animated movie and the re-launch of the TMNT comicbookChapter 17: Change is ConstantDetailing the acquisition of the Ninja Turtles property by NickelodeonChapter 18: Can't Stop These Radical DudesA look at the development and launch of the Nickelodeon computer-animated TV seriesChapter 19: Big Screen NinjasA short look at the upcoming live-action film, with a brief script excerpt and concept artAnd there it is! As you can see, this book provides a pretty thorough and detailed look through the history of the TMNT -- but the real star is all the amazing photos and artwork you get. This thing is basically a TMNT time capsule for the past 30 years.If I were to have a minor criticism, it's that the book is chock full of these little inserts that are glued in, blocking the imagery underneath them -- this would be a concern if you're worried about pulling them out and losing them. But even then, the book's got a massive envelope on the back cover for you to safely deposit these bits, so it seems like they've thought of everything. And in that envelope is a gorgeous replica of the first Ninja Turtles comic book ever produced.This one is a no-brainer, folks -- this book is perfect for any nostalgia-seeking 80s kid (like me -- the first TMNT 'toon came out when I was 7 and I've loved them ever since) or as a gift for a child in your life that can't get enough Ninja Turtles. Highly recommended!

This book is simply amazing. So much info and quoted interviews directly from the creators of the series, so many 'extras' included like cut outs and removable pieces of artwork and memorabilia. The reprint of the original TMNT#1 is included in an attached envelope in the back of the book as well as the poster that is a larger print of the artwork on the front of the book.Some of the information included is taken directly from Eastman and Laird as well.The book is roughly 325 pages, with very beautiful art and prints of many things from the TMNT history, from movie scenes to video game screens, the cartoons, I mean, everything that is TMNT related up to this point in time.If you know a TMNT fan or are one yourself, this is a great gift idea and a great addition to any collection.

The order arrived and it was excellent.

I bought the original Visual History, and not only is this the same but with MORE content, but it likewise comes with a poster of the cover art (folded up, but still great to put on wall). There’s just a wealth of more history to read in this book, with lovely images, a small scale reproduction of issue #1, and pouch in the back to hold comic and poster.Note, throughout the volume there are inserts glued to pages. You can leave them as is, or remove them as it’s only held by a little glue. (You can then save those inserts in the pouch; that’s what I did with the first volume of this book). The inserts sometimes get in the way of text or images, so leaving or removing them is up to you.For the cost this book is, this is practically a steal! A must for any Turtle fan

Just like I wrote on the title, I mainly bought this book for the Rise of the TMNT story and see if the sales will finally clue the higher ups that WE WANT MORE RISE TURTLES!!! It was so unfair what they did with the show. We were promised a 3rd season and if they won’t give it to us on TV then maybe continue the story through comics!All and all, every story in this book has its charm, it’s a perfect mix between funny, dark, lighthearted, fast paced— it’s the perfect way to honor our heroes in a half shell for those 40 wonderful years they’ve given us, hoping we see more of them for another 40 years and more.

Look at how thick this book is! It’s chock-full of all sorts of stories, tidbits and extra goodies that I won’t spoil for anyone else. I bought this because it’s one of the only bits of content released for Rise of the TMNT since it’s “pause”, and it’s still my absolute favorite take on the franchise. That said, it’s an amazing read because it takes you through the journey of each iteration (comics, movies, tv shows, videogames!) from how the OG comic came to be to the rising popularity of Mutant Mayhem. All the bits of trivia and production details are testament to how beloved these characters are, and how the franchise has a little something for everyone.If you’re a Rise fan, a TMNT fan, or just an avid comic book collector, I highly recommend this.

I wished it had more information on like how the turtles were in each different series or movies. It mostly talked of behind the scenes of how each series got started, which is fine, but hear about it so much and it just gets boring. But I love the cover art, all the colorful pictures, and some of behind the scenes stuff. And there is a lot of stuff never before seen like ads and such about the turtles.And to top it off too is since the first comic also comes with the book too, I finally got to read the first comic book that when they were first starting out and the turtles became a huge success! I had seen all the movies and series before reading the comic, and it reminded me a lot of the first 2003 turtles episode. Course the 2003 shows were based a lot more off of the comic. But I've only read the first one, so I don't know much of anything else.