Author: Andrew Farago
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Insight Editions
Release Date: June 24, 2014
Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” are my jam. They just are amazing. I grew up with them from the very first episode on TV when I was a kid. I had all the action figures, t-shirts, Halloween costumes etc. What I love the most about them is that they have been around for 25 years now and are just as cool as they were when I was a kid. With the new live-action $100 million dollar movie coming out this August only proves that point. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History” is the latest companion book put out by Insight Editions. This book is literally a must own for any TMNT fan, no question. It has the same feel as other Insight releases like “The Dark Knight Manual” and literally a piece of art itself.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History” takes us through the entire history of these heroes in a half shell. We are in their first appearance with their black-and-white comics to the new hit animation show from Nickelodeon and even the latest Michael Bay–produced live-action movie. There are tons of great interviews with every key figure in the Turtles’ evolution including co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, animation legend Fred Wolf, creature effects maestro Brian Henson, and even Vanilla Ice, who made my made the song “Ninja Rap” from the film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Secret of the Ooze”. So there are plenty of great content to accompany this visual history.
I was found myself just starring at each page for minutes just soaking up all the details and beautiful content included in this book. This is one of those books that you need to go through a few times just to get every time out of it. Also like I mentioned, like “The Dark Knight Manual”, this book has numerous pull outs and bonus extras included through the book. I love that Insight comes out with these great books for their fans, it is a really a treat opening this book it is not only visual amazing with the high quality images but also with the additional content. If all that isn’t enough in the back of the book, there is a reprint of the original #1 comic included, which is worth the price of the book alone and then there is also a fold out decent poster size of our green friends. If you love TMNT, I just cannot stress enough that you need to have this in your collection!