CBR Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 

For this review we go back to the classics.
Back to the 80s.
Once in a lifetime there's only a few people that can achieve their dreams such as this...and then some!

You mess with green and it's gonna get mean!

Comic title: Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Collected Book Volume One
By Eastman and Laird

Published by Mirage Studios
From 1984, 2009
Lineup TMNT
Format: Omnibus-sized trade paperback collecting Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issues #1-11 as well as the Raphael, Fugitoid, Michaelangelo, Donatello & Leonardo Micro Series one-shot issues.

It's difficult to picture nowadays that the worldwide phenomenon known the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started their life in the 80s as a simple comic book, a black & white spoof of the then-popular gritty serials such as Frank Miller's Daredevil and Ronin.

And the turtles had such an unlikely on-going winning streak that helped them came along as surf the momentum of successes they went from their humble mid-80s birth to their mid-90s apogee.
As I said, a once in a life time phenomenon.

Call it luck, providence or solid concept in their inception.

The turtles began as just that, an idea.
A doodle from artist Kevin Eastman. And his buddy Peter Laird, illustrator and editor saw the potential in the masked terrapin right away.
Michaelangelo was the first one to come to be. (note the typo - back then there were no word correctors to fix stuff like that, and the error stuck¨~~)
Then came three other, each wielding a different weapon.
The duo gave them unique weapons from martial arts. Then came their foe, the ninja clan The Foot (as in The Hand in Daredevil, see, it's a spoof!).
A master to teach them ninjutsu.
Finally Eastman and Laird gave them European sounding names, because it was all sounding a bit too much Japanese and they feared to alienate the readers that wouldn't be so much into it as them.

The story takes place in New York City.
Because Marvel made it such a staple for comics.
A dangerous truck is about to run over a blind man, a young boy jumps in front of the man to save his life, a canister jumps off the back and hits in the eyes.... only to finally hit a kid carrying a bowl with four baby turtles further down the road!
The four reptiles go down the sewers... to disappear for a decade.

But the story doesn't start that way.
We start with our four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Our heroes were trained all their life by their master, a rat named Splinter.
For years, Splinter taught them everything he learnt from his original owner, Hamato Yoshi.
You see, back in Japan Splinter was a simple pet rat once. A very intelligent one. He used to mimic Yoshi's training in his cage.
But Oroku Nagi fought Yoshi for the love of the beautiful Shen.
Eventually Nagi was defeated but Yoshi was forced to go into exile. And now Nagi's brother Oroku Saki has taken on their clan and turned it into a perverse image of what it once was.
Splinter wants to avenge his master and take this mutation he went through when he once saved those four turtles from a mysterious ooze as a chance for redemption and justice.

The first issue, the origin and confrontation with The Shredder is very much a stand alone story.
A Daredevil spoof mixed with a fantastic concept.
The original turtles were quite over the top, more mature, more serious and definitively more adult.
Limbs are cut. Swords go deep into the flesh. The Ninja Turtles are on a quest for their master.
They face Shredder, they fight him to the death.
No questions asked.

Then, once the comic was launched in an on-going series, it became a bit more refined and focused.
Mostly one big "story arcs" containing several on-going plots and divided in issues episodically.
The story is very much on-going, stuff keep happening and things are never set in stone.
Eastman and Laird's series definitively got a serial feel to it.

They both drawn the issues, both wrote it. They shared the work.
Sometimes one does the layout, the other draws the panels. Sometimes they work each their own panels on a page. One does the characters the other does the background.
Both their styles were quite similar and they were able to completely mix their artwork. (though you can differentiate some details here and there)

The original first big over-arching arc ran from 1984 to '87.
It ended with the turtles out of the city (followed by the arc Return to New York once movies and cartoons launched around the high of their popularity), mostly what is presented in this omnibus here "Collected Book Volume One".

The introduction of the turtles and Shredder is directly followed by the Mousers issue.
A lab assistant April O'Neil gets rescued by the turtles.
They immediately share their origin and how Mickey, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael came to be.
The guys face their first own villain (Shredder was mostly Splinter's own problem from the past), the crazy genius Baxter Stockman.

Then there's the Micro-Series.
The duo said several times Jack Kirby was their major artistic influence.
Well, the same way Kirby used to launch discretely "new comics" to later connect to his main work on Fourth World, Eastman and Laird also released one-shots that seemed innocent enough.
A Raph one-shot where the hot blooded turtle comes against a strange vigilante named Casey Jone?... only to later have Casey come back out of nowhere much later in the main title!
How about a random Leonardo centered issue... but Leo gets beated up and arrives late on Christmas Eve in the main book!

There's also the seemingly unrelated Fugitoid Micro-Series.
What's that?
The story of a scientist named Professor Honeycutt working on a teleporting device for the army in what appears to be the future.
Humanity is at war with an alien race, The Triceratons. But then at the end of this issue - drawn in a slightly different art style by the way - the Turtles teleport right in the middle of this scene!
Which launched the Space story-arc (in which the turtles are stuck in a war at the far side of the galaxy).

As you can see, the Micro-Series were an integral part of the series. And mostly used to offer a starting point for new storylines. (people did like their #1st issues back then...)

The turtles fought the Triceratons.
They discovered the "accidental origin" from the hands of the peaceful Utroms.
They went on living at April's.
Finally the Foot came back.
And with it... The Shredder!!

The comic kept things interesting by being ever changing, in tone and in form.
Urban ninjas, scifi alien creatures, fantasy, comedic.
Story changed and only our four young heroes remain the same.
Their personalities all different even if they all share the same red (or black & white in this case) bandanas.
Leo's the default serious leader.
Don's the genius.
Raph has a short temper.
And Mike...well he wasn't actually as well defined as he often is in TMNT adaptations.
He started out as another Raph. Then slightly became generic and bland. (read: without any defining trait)  And it wasn't until his own Micro-Series that he was established as the funny laid back cool younger one.

The turtles went on to life so much more.
They had many more adventures be it in their native comic book format or any other imaginable medium.
I'm particularly fond of their occasional crossovers with other franchises. (such as the regular meeting with Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo in books and cartoons)
Can you believe they even were able to get their first crossover as early as '86, with Dave Sim's Cerebus! (another popular indie title) Dave Sim even drew his own character in these panels!

The original issue was self-published, at only 3000 copies... and went to be reprinted so many times, even translated for several other countries.
If now they are mostly remembered for the cartoons and all the action figures, this is where it all began!

Overall, a classic!
A cornerstone of the genre and the medium, forever leaving a mark in history!

And the turtles started in such a dark and gritty comics!
Such a mature tone that even predates The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen!

The turtles went on to become this huge iconic merchandising juggernaut, a pop culture phenomemon.
And it was all thanks to those two very lucky hard working guys!
That's what "Mirage" Studios stand for, there were no such studio, only those two guys meeting sometimes at Eastman's, other times at Laird's place.

This huge book, this "Collected Edtion" was actually one of the last publications from Mirage. Laird closed it shortly after that.
It contains several bonus such as concept arts of the original characters and a more detailed look back on the creation of the series and Mirage Publishing.

And otherwise, IDW's been reprinting the original series in the form of The Ultimate Collection filled with bonus content and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics featuring the non-Eastman and Laird issues.

I give it:

3 / 3 Ampersands!