Confused About Where to Start? IDW Reprint Guide

[HeroTurtlesFan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I'd hold off on the Archie reprints for now. I get the feeling they'll be re-released with better collections later on. They're clearly low on the totem pole for IDW.

I get this feeling as well. Wouldn't surprise me if we get "omnibus" bundles (like IDW's "Real Ghostbusters" reprints or some of the Star Trek ones) that collect 10-14 issues a piece.

I can (just about) live with 4-issue trades for the new stuff, but older material... no way. IDW made a major mistake on this.

[Electric]

Really appreciate this thread.

I have personally never read any comics, outside of a couple batman like "the killing joke" so I had no idea where to begin.

After reading though, I'm still a little confused. I've decided if I'm going to read any series, its going to be idws current one, with like city fall and north Hampton. So, sorry if you answered this in your description, but where exactly would I start this series, and what would be next?

[Cipher]

Originally Posted by ElectricN

After reading though, I'm still a little confused. I've decided if I'm going to read any series, its going to be idws current one, with like city fall and north Hampton. So, sorry if you answered this in your description, but where exactly would I start this series, and what would be next?

I didn't cover that in this thread because it's a lot more straightforward and already has its own chronology thread, found here. That gets updated with new issues, so you can use it t see what order to read the collected books in. The main series is numbered, so you just have to know when to read the mini-series. No order for the collected books is going to be spot-on, as the mini-series issues slot in between some issues within one book of the main series, but it's not too hard to navigate.

For convenience's sake, though, right now the collected order, as close as it can be, is:

Book 1
Book 2
Micro-Series Book 1
Book 3
TMNT Annual #1 (thanks for the reminder below; comes as its own paperback)
Micro-Series Book 2
Book 4
Book 5
"Secret History of the Foot Clan"
Book 6
Villains Micro-Series Books 1&2 (These are really just meant to be read concurrently with "City Fall")
Book 7
Book 8 (upcoming)
"Utrom Empire"

I believe, anyway. I'm actually a few issues behind and have switched to trade-waiting, so someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[CyberCubed]

Cipher, don't forget the 2012 annual which deals with the Foot Vs. Savate which essentially is in its own "book" already.

There's also the Infestation crossovers and an X-files crossover, and these weren't collected with the TMNT stories, only with the other crossovers.

[Casey]

Just wanna give props to you creating this thread. It really helps out sometimes when I get confused and forget. It gets tricky.

[sdp]

I never thought I'd need physical editions of the comics since I liked having the digital copies but now I feel I must own the physical TMNT Mirage issues, at least Volume 1. This guide is terribly outdated and out of print, I need some of you wise turtle archives to help me see if I understand things correctly.


The best way to own the comics is the Ultimate Collection hardcovers, but those are out of print, the ones they sell now are just like TPBs. Then you have the Compendium releases which actually has more issues than the Ultimate Collections, these are not hardcovers but since the current print run of the ultimate collection is also "soft cover" the advantage is gone. The only reason to even get the ultimate collection over the compendium is because of the notes of laird/eastman? But those notes are only like "this part was inspired by..." so stuff I might not care about. However Volume 6 of the Ultimate collection includes stories not found on the compendium at all, so the best way to get Volume 1 is COmpendium 1-3 and Ultimate 6 to get the most stories. It's still missing a few but that's because of rights issues. And yes I know compendium is missing #8 and that's int he ultimate collection.

From what I can tell Vol.2,3 and 4 are more straightforward. Kinda sad there's so many releases of Vol.1 and no definitive edition. What were they thinking. And there's 2 different colored versions of Vol.1 as well, but I'm guessing those don't include any original issues and are likely colored inconsistently/bad.

[ToTheNines]

Autism Powers: activated. I'll try my best to keep this is brief as possible.

Volume 1: Rule #1, stay away from anything in color. It's all atrocious.

For Vol. 1, honestly I have to recommend tracking down all the original Mirage single issues. Obviously, you don't want to get hung up on first/early printings. Like you said, there really is no definitive collection any way, so the singles are still the best option. Not only do you get the stories, but each issue is a wonderful time capsule. All the ads, interesting editorials from Eastman and Laird, unhinged letters from fans, people like Stan Sakai and Michael Dooney writing in before they worked on Turtles, fan art, pin ups, etc.

It's also just fun tracking them all down. Less so now that TMNT is a popular comic and even flea market vendors just do a Google image search real quick and know what they have. When I was tracking them all down, I got a lot of them for $5 or less because they'd been sitting in peoples long boxes for a decade. But if you start out by investing $100-200 into a lot on ebay and then fill the holes from there between comic shops, antique stores and maybe a couple conventions, you'll probably have them all in a year or two.

And if you're not a crazy completionist, you could just blow off all the Guest Era stuff, or maybe just the garbage like the 4 Hedden and McWeeny issues.

The Ultimate hardcovers are nicely made, but they're like an absolute barebones run through Vol. 1. I'd say there's maybe 8 crucial issues they missed (not counting The River, which will never be reprinted due to Vietch). The other downside is a couple of random CaW issues have pages that are just the pencils for some reason. No inks or tones or anything and it's pretty jarring.

The softcovers might be easier to track down, but they have rainbow masks on the covers for some reason and that's pretty annoying.

So if you're opposed to hunting for all of the floppies, your next best option is definitely the 3 big Compendiums. They're not hardcover, so they might not hold up very well. They include a couple of fun shorts, as well as all of Tales Vol. 1. They're interspersed in there by release date, which isn't the best reading order, but works well enough. You're looking at about a $300 investment or more for the 3 of them. I personally think that money would be better spent toward a nice lot on ebay to get you started, but I understand wanting them in a collection format.

Sorry that was so long, the rest of these will be brief.

Volume 2: Get The Mirage Years: 1993-1995 hardcover and you're done.

Volume 3: IDW did a decent job coloring these with the Urban Legends run. The singles might not be too bad to track down (I'm willing to sell mine if anyone is interested), but the TPBs are out of print and pretty damn expensive.

The whole run, plus the two shorts from the 30th and 40th Anniversary comics are being collected in black & white in an upcoming hardcover titled TMNT: Urban Legends Omnibus, out this December. This will be your best bet.

#24-26 are new issues by Carlson and Fosco that finish the story. The art is great, but I was never crazy about the story. I strongly prefer Andrew and Arseniy's version, now titled "Unfinished Business". They're collecting them in a hardcover you can still pre-order. I assume it will be out some time this year: https://turtlesclub.net/#rec840496581

Volume 4: Journeys is still coming out monthly. #11 just came out last week. The first TPB will be out July 15th. Everyone needs to be supporting this run one way or another! There's been speculation and even rumors that Peter will finish the story if they make it #32.

I assume they will do big hardcover collections for Journeys too, if sales of the monthly book are good enough.

Tales of the TMNT: IDW is collecting Tales Vol. 1 #1-7, Vol. 2 #1-11 and Tales of Leonardo: Blind Sight #1-4 this November in Tales of the TMNT: The Mirage Years Omnibus. There will be 3 more books that collect the rest of Vol. 2 and the other 3 minis, as well as a couple of random rarities.

These should be very nice, with the only thing I'm curious about being the frontpieces for Vol. 1.

When Mirage reprinted that in 2007 (in what is known as the Tales Treasury Edition), they did all new frontpieces that formed a little bit of a narrative that led to a short epilogue which is considered "the last Mirage story" in some ways. I won't spoil it, but it's pretty damn important.

I guess they could include both versions? I dunno, definitely interested to see what they do there. I know they are including the non-canon short "Spinal Tapped" from the Treasury Edition, so I'm betting the epilogue will be there too.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Volume 3: IDW did a decent job coloring these with the Urban Legends run. The singles might not be too bad to track down (I'm willing to sell mine if anyone is interested), but the TPBs are out of print and pretty damn expensive.

I don't understand it. These were super in demand and still are and yet... no second printings? No anything?

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I don't understand it. These were super in demand and still are and yet... no second printings? No anything?

Other than the upcoming black and white omnibus? Nope! Crazy right?

And while I'm running my mouth, one more thing sticking in my craw about Volume 3/Urban Legends.

Image did release one TPB back in the day, which included one extra page for #2. Urban Legends did not include it for their #2, nor in their TPB. I'm hoping it's there in this new ominbus, but I doubt it.

Here it is, in case anyone's never seen it before:

[ToTheNines]

I wouldn’t recommend these, but they’re worth mentioning: IDW is also collecting Mirage in TPB form and calling it “The Mirage Years 19XX Classic Collections”.

The hook is that they’re 6x9 inches. Too small for me… pause!

[ToTheNines]

Randomly made this connection today for some reason, but Barkworm is considering selling his full run of volume 1. He might cut you a deal for being a marginalized big girl.

[Great Hierophant]

If one really wants to get a full sense of Mirage from the Volume 1 era, you need to buy or have access to over 100 comics and reprints. Just getting everything essential from May 1984 to May 1990 cost me an absurd amount of money but I could not write a history and reference guide about these comics without either physical copies, scans or photographs of everything from TMNT #1 to TMNT: The Movie (and one Mirage non-TMNT book has eluded me).

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Great Hierophant

(and one Mirage non-TMNT book has eluded me).

Which book is that?

[Great Hierophant]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Which book is that?

It was Halloweiners #1, but it is finally mine.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

So if you're opposed to hunting for all of the floppies, your next best option is definitely the 3 big Compendiums. They're not hardcover, so they might not hold up very well. They include a couple of fun shorts, as well as all of Tales Vol. 1. They're interspersed in there by release date, which isn't the best reading order, but works well enough. You're looking at about a $300 investment or more for the 3 of them. I personally think that money would be better spent toward a nice lot on ebay to get you started, but I understand wanting them in a collection format.

I never corrected myself here, but the 3 big compendiums are in fact hardcover. I’ve seen them in person, they’re pretty nice.

It was just announced that they’re getting soft cover reprints. First volume out in May.