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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 6
The celebrated hardcover series collecting all the most important "TMNT" work by Eastman and Laird is back to present the best of the one-shots and short stories. Whether handled as a team or on their own with another creator, these stories expand the universe of "TMNT" and established the characters and story lines that are today so loved and revered.
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2015
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214 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Eastman
1,105 books352 followersKevin B. Eastman is an American comic book artist, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 14, 2022
Containing 29 short stories done by both Eastman, Laird, and a variety of other artists, some from Mirage and some from prominent artists of the time, and this was a real surprise of a collection. Obviously, you have some stories that are duds, but this was overall a pretty consistent read that had quite a few gems sprinkled throughout. If you follow my reviews, you may be wondering why I skipped volumes 4 & 5 of the Ultimate Collections to read 6, and that’s because this is technically next in the reading order. Most of the stories here take place well before City at War, as they were mostly published from 1986-1989. And because I am an absolute madman, I will be individually reviewing each story. I won’t go too into detail on the specifics of the stories, as to not spoil everything, but I’ll give each one its own star rating and a slight spiel.
Don't Judge a Book by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird ☆ ☆ ☆
This was a fun little Halloween story, with the turtles having to defend April’s home from being robbed before a Halloween party. Nothing especially excellent or egregious here, it’s just an okay story with solid art.
You Had To be There by Kevin Eastman & Richard Corben ☆ ☆ ☆
This was more just a 4 page story of Kevin Eastman writing things he think would be fun for Richard Corben to draw rather than a traditional TMNT story. Still really fun and I loved seeing Corben’s art in a TMNT story all blown up.
D'ants Fever by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆
The turtles go out to an interdimensional bar and shenanigans ensure. Probably the goofiest story so far, but solid art keeps it from being rated any lower.
New York Ninja by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆
A fine enough anti-bullying story that shows a different side to Donatello than we are used to. I really enjoyed the layouts and inking in particular, but the story is still fine enough.
Night Life by Kevin Eastman, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A Frank Miller-esque story which sees the TMNT witness a sting operation gone awry. Fun to see Eastman & Brown attempt a Frank Miller impression, as the panels and layouts are very similar to the style he popularized back in the day. A cool, though slightly rushed story.
New Comic Day by Peter Laird, Jim Lawson, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
LOVED THIS. Peter Laird does a very fun story starring Michelangelo after getting his new books on New Comic Day. I never really connected with any of Peter Laird’s solo TMNT efforts when they were in full issues in the main book, but I’ve been jiving with his short stories so far.
Technofear by Peter Laird & Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another fun story where Laird gets to do his Sci-Fi/Fantastic thing. Not anything special though, and some of the computer graphics art are super dated by today’s standards.
Crazy Man by Kevin Eastman, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
This is basic story with the message of “Hurting innocents over beliefs is bad,” and it was fine. The real highlight here is Eastman’s character work for Michelangelo, who shows a very different side to his character in this one. Enjoyable enough read.
Terror By Transmat! by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Taking place sometime after the 7th issue of the main Mirage run, the turtles and Honeycutt are visiting the Utrom homeworld when the Triceratons begin to overrun an Utrom transport station on another world. The team must then go there and stop the Triceratons before they seize the teleporter at the station and are able to invade the Utrom world. Everything about this was awesome, from the turtles getting to have stun guns, to the incredible art from Laird, Eastman & Brown, to even the story, which fires on all cylinders. Just an all-around solid effort, with a whole lot of story and action being crammed into 10 pages.
The Survival Game by Jim Lawson, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ 1/2
Meh, this was fine enough. I enjoyed the twist at the end on what’s happening and why the turtles are shooting guns are each other, but some of the art makes it pretty hard to be able to tell what’s going on. Real shame too, especially since I love Lawson & Brown so much.
Word Warriors by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, Jim Lawson, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
This had one of the weirdest layouts in comics, but it really worked for the story. Each page is two panels, split apart by Excalibur, which extends down across the middle of each page, with the hilt on the first page and the end of the blade on the last. A neat action scene and solid layout work by Peter Laird made this story very memorable for me, even if the story is nothing too special.
Turtle Dreams by Steve Bissette ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Holy bajeezus this was grotesque as fuck. The turtles arrive back to the lair after an unseen, but brutal battle has left Michelangelo with a horrible wound that leaves his internal organs exposed. After he is patched by Splinter, the four turtles all fall asleep from exhaustion and have horribly disturbing nightmares. Splinter must then meditate and help the turtles battle their inner demons. This allows Steve Bissette to draw some of the most disgusting Ninja Turtle art ever, with one page in particular showing Mike split in half with his chest cavity ripped open. Fucking christ. An amazing, yet truly disturbing read.
The Road Trip by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A wordless TMNT story that works very well. Not a lot going on, and it can be read in about a minute, but it’s still a fun little story that made me smile. Nice to see the brothers do something other than fight baddies.
The Lesson by Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
A war story about Triceraton marines? Sign me the fuck up. This one is written, laid out, and penciled by Peter Laird, while Ryan Brown handles inks and Steve Lavigne, as always, letters. Laird uses the Triceratons to tell a solid enough war story, and even though it’s short, it has incredible moments and managed to check all the right boxes for me. The fight scene in this is also one of my favorites I’ve ever seen from Laird, or any TMNT book for that matter. It rivals some of the action scenes from Return to New York and The Last Ronin. Eastman is the guy known for his action layouts, so it’s nice to see Laird having a knack for them as well. No complaints with this story at all, it was very fucking cool and makes me wish there were more TMNT stories like this.
Ghouls Night Out by Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A nifty little horror-esque tale where Talbot gets to draw a bunch of classical monsters. The art is the real highlight here, but not much else to say about the story. This was a fun read, nothing more.
Fun With Guns by Kevin Eastman & Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ 1/2
A pretty goofy Kevin Eastman solo effort that contains a lot of tropes from his other work. This is one of his earlier TMNT shorts, and it’s definitely not his best work. The art is strong throughout though.
49th Street Stompers by Kevin Eastman & Steve Lavigne ☆ 1/2
Another goofy Kevin Eastman effort, this one clearly taking inspiration from the Warriors film released around the time he made this. Nothing is really all that special though, and the action scene at the end that this whole story leads up to isn’t even that great.
The Howl by Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Eric Talbot is really good at these short stories, he always manages to cram a lot into so few pages. Don’t wanna spoil anything, but this was fun.
It's A Gas by Eric Talbot & Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆
A pretty goofy tale by Eric Talbot that did manage to get a couple of laughs out of me. Mikey and Raph try to stop a robbery but are exposed to laughing gas in the process and hijinks ensue. Nothing special, but still fun.
Choices by Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
A nifty wordless tale that shows a glimpse into the original Mirage TMNT future. Really been loving Peter Laird’s efforts from this collection.
Complete Carnage An' Radical by Kevin Eastman, Jim Lawson, and Steve Lavigne ☆
This is where these terrible characters originated from? Well, at least Peter Laird seems to hate them as much as I do.
Not One Word by Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
This was fucking hilarious. Nothing else to say honestly, Eric Talbot is pretty great at these short TMNT stories.
Casey Jones, Private Eye by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Casey has a daydream while watching TV, and like most of the other stories in here, it’s just a fine time with some cool drawings. Seeing the TMNT as an old gang with Tommy guns is pretty funny, but this isn’t anything special.
*A Splinter In The Eye Of God? by Michael Zulli & Steve Murphy ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/4
I have technically already reviewed this in the Soul’s Winter collection, but this is a good place to expand a little more on some thoughts. This one is a classic Zulli & Murphy story about environmentalism using Splinter as a means to find out what “peace” really means. It’s an interesting enough story, and the artwork is beautiful in oversized B&W, but I think I prefer the color version.
*O-Deed by Michael Zulli, Steve Murphy, and Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another environmentalism tale that has all the tropes and trademarks of Zulli & Murphy, but it’s still told well enough, even if it is extremely heavy-handed. It’s also interesting that I didn’t notice the first time reading this, but it’s the only story by Murphy and Zulli that doesn’t use their version of the turtles. I also love how Talbot inked the non-dream pages, it gave the story such an interesting look that I loved. Loved this on a reread.
Junkman by Michael Dooney ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Always enjoy solo Donatello stories, and this one is no different. Pretty fun with a cute twist ending. Dooney’s short stories are pretty damn good!
Meanwhile......1,000,000 B,C, by Michael Dooney ☆ ☆ ☆
A 2 page story that is fun and sweet and nothing more. Kinda surprised it was collected here, but it is nice and the art by Dooney is pretty.
Bottoming Out by Kevin Eastman, Jim Lawson, George Hagenau, Eric Talbot, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆
A very heavy-handed story that was fine enough, mainly due to the incredible layouts and art. Nothing really else to say about this, it was done for charity and it shows.
Untitled Nobody Story by Jim Lawson and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another okay short story by Jim Lawson, but again, the art is the main star here.
And that’s all 29 stories. There are some duds and meh stories in here, but I was surprised by the quality of some of the stories in here. I’m giving this 5 stars mainly because it was such a good time and because of those aforementioned shorts. This wasn't perfect but it was way more consistent than most short stories compilations are. Really excited to finish out the classics volumes so I can move onto City at War.
* = Also available recolored in the Soul’s Winter collection.
Don't Judge a Book by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird ☆ ☆ ☆
This was a fun little Halloween story, with the turtles having to defend April’s home from being robbed before a Halloween party. Nothing especially excellent or egregious here, it’s just an okay story with solid art.
You Had To be There by Kevin Eastman & Richard Corben ☆ ☆ ☆
This was more just a 4 page story of Kevin Eastman writing things he think would be fun for Richard Corben to draw rather than a traditional TMNT story. Still really fun and I loved seeing Corben’s art in a TMNT story all blown up.
D'ants Fever by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆
The turtles go out to an interdimensional bar and shenanigans ensure. Probably the goofiest story so far, but solid art keeps it from being rated any lower.
New York Ninja by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆
A fine enough anti-bullying story that shows a different side to Donatello than we are used to. I really enjoyed the layouts and inking in particular, but the story is still fine enough.
Night Life by Kevin Eastman, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A Frank Miller-esque story which sees the TMNT witness a sting operation gone awry. Fun to see Eastman & Brown attempt a Frank Miller impression, as the panels and layouts are very similar to the style he popularized back in the day. A cool, though slightly rushed story.
New Comic Day by Peter Laird, Jim Lawson, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
LOVED THIS. Peter Laird does a very fun story starring Michelangelo after getting his new books on New Comic Day. I never really connected with any of Peter Laird’s solo TMNT efforts when they were in full issues in the main book, but I’ve been jiving with his short stories so far.
Technofear by Peter Laird & Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another fun story where Laird gets to do his Sci-Fi/Fantastic thing. Not anything special though, and some of the computer graphics art are super dated by today’s standards.
Crazy Man by Kevin Eastman, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
This is basic story with the message of “Hurting innocents over beliefs is bad,” and it was fine. The real highlight here is Eastman’s character work for Michelangelo, who shows a very different side to his character in this one. Enjoyable enough read.
Terror By Transmat! by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Taking place sometime after the 7th issue of the main Mirage run, the turtles and Honeycutt are visiting the Utrom homeworld when the Triceratons begin to overrun an Utrom transport station on another world. The team must then go there and stop the Triceratons before they seize the teleporter at the station and are able to invade the Utrom world. Everything about this was awesome, from the turtles getting to have stun guns, to the incredible art from Laird, Eastman & Brown, to even the story, which fires on all cylinders. Just an all-around solid effort, with a whole lot of story and action being crammed into 10 pages.
The Survival Game by Jim Lawson, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ 1/2
Meh, this was fine enough. I enjoyed the twist at the end on what’s happening and why the turtles are shooting guns are each other, but some of the art makes it pretty hard to be able to tell what’s going on. Real shame too, especially since I love Lawson & Brown so much.
Word Warriors by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, Jim Lawson, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
This had one of the weirdest layouts in comics, but it really worked for the story. Each page is two panels, split apart by Excalibur, which extends down across the middle of each page, with the hilt on the first page and the end of the blade on the last. A neat action scene and solid layout work by Peter Laird made this story very memorable for me, even if the story is nothing too special.
Turtle Dreams by Steve Bissette ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Holy bajeezus this was grotesque as fuck. The turtles arrive back to the lair after an unseen, but brutal battle has left Michelangelo with a horrible wound that leaves his internal organs exposed. After he is patched by Splinter, the four turtles all fall asleep from exhaustion and have horribly disturbing nightmares. Splinter must then meditate and help the turtles battle their inner demons. This allows Steve Bissette to draw some of the most disgusting Ninja Turtle art ever, with one page in particular showing Mike split in half with his chest cavity ripped open. Fucking christ. An amazing, yet truly disturbing read.
The Road Trip by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A wordless TMNT story that works very well. Not a lot going on, and it can be read in about a minute, but it’s still a fun little story that made me smile. Nice to see the brothers do something other than fight baddies.
The Lesson by Peter Laird, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
A war story about Triceraton marines? Sign me the fuck up. This one is written, laid out, and penciled by Peter Laird, while Ryan Brown handles inks and Steve Lavigne, as always, letters. Laird uses the Triceratons to tell a solid enough war story, and even though it’s short, it has incredible moments and managed to check all the right boxes for me. The fight scene in this is also one of my favorites I’ve ever seen from Laird, or any TMNT book for that matter. It rivals some of the action scenes from Return to New York and The Last Ronin. Eastman is the guy known for his action layouts, so it’s nice to see Laird having a knack for them as well. No complaints with this story at all, it was very fucking cool and makes me wish there were more TMNT stories like this.
Ghouls Night Out by Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A nifty little horror-esque tale where Talbot gets to draw a bunch of classical monsters. The art is the real highlight here, but not much else to say about the story. This was a fun read, nothing more.
Fun With Guns by Kevin Eastman & Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ 1/2
A pretty goofy Kevin Eastman solo effort that contains a lot of tropes from his other work. This is one of his earlier TMNT shorts, and it’s definitely not his best work. The art is strong throughout though.
49th Street Stompers by Kevin Eastman & Steve Lavigne ☆ 1/2
Another goofy Kevin Eastman effort, this one clearly taking inspiration from the Warriors film released around the time he made this. Nothing is really all that special though, and the action scene at the end that this whole story leads up to isn’t even that great.
The Howl by Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Eric Talbot is really good at these short stories, he always manages to cram a lot into so few pages. Don’t wanna spoil anything, but this was fun.
It's A Gas by Eric Talbot & Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆
A pretty goofy tale by Eric Talbot that did manage to get a couple of laughs out of me. Mikey and Raph try to stop a robbery but are exposed to laughing gas in the process and hijinks ensue. Nothing special, but still fun.
Choices by Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
A nifty wordless tale that shows a glimpse into the original Mirage TMNT future. Really been loving Peter Laird’s efforts from this collection.
Complete Carnage An' Radical by Kevin Eastman, Jim Lawson, and Steve Lavigne ☆
This is where these terrible characters originated from? Well, at least Peter Laird seems to hate them as much as I do.
Not One Word by Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
This was fucking hilarious. Nothing else to say honestly, Eric Talbot is pretty great at these short TMNT stories.
Casey Jones, Private Eye by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Casey has a daydream while watching TV, and like most of the other stories in here, it’s just a fine time with some cool drawings. Seeing the TMNT as an old gang with Tommy guns is pretty funny, but this isn’t anything special.
*A Splinter In The Eye Of God? by Michael Zulli & Steve Murphy ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/4
I have technically already reviewed this in the Soul’s Winter collection, but this is a good place to expand a little more on some thoughts. This one is a classic Zulli & Murphy story about environmentalism using Splinter as a means to find out what “peace” really means. It’s an interesting enough story, and the artwork is beautiful in oversized B&W, but I think I prefer the color version.
*O-Deed by Michael Zulli, Steve Murphy, and Eric Talbot ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another environmentalism tale that has all the tropes and trademarks of Zulli & Murphy, but it’s still told well enough, even if it is extremely heavy-handed. It’s also interesting that I didn’t notice the first time reading this, but it’s the only story by Murphy and Zulli that doesn’t use their version of the turtles. I also love how Talbot inked the non-dream pages, it gave the story such an interesting look that I loved. Loved this on a reread.
Junkman by Michael Dooney ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Always enjoy solo Donatello stories, and this one is no different. Pretty fun with a cute twist ending. Dooney’s short stories are pretty damn good!
Meanwhile......1,000,000 B,C, by Michael Dooney ☆ ☆ ☆
A 2 page story that is fun and sweet and nothing more. Kinda surprised it was collected here, but it is nice and the art by Dooney is pretty.
Bottoming Out by Kevin Eastman, Jim Lawson, George Hagenau, Eric Talbot, and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆
A very heavy-handed story that was fine enough, mainly due to the incredible layouts and art. Nothing really else to say about this, it was done for charity and it shows.
Untitled Nobody Story by Jim Lawson and Steve Lavigne ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another okay short story by Jim Lawson, but again, the art is the main star here.
And that’s all 29 stories. There are some duds and meh stories in here, but I was surprised by the quality of some of the stories in here. I’m giving this 5 stars mainly because it was such a good time and because of those aforementioned shorts. This wasn't perfect but it was way more consistent than most short stories compilations are. Really excited to finish out the classics volumes so I can move onto City at War.
* = Also available recolored in the Soul’s Winter collection.
January 16, 2016
This is a collection of short stories published concurrently with the main comic from 1985 to 1989. Most of them are a lot of fun and it's interesting to see the variation in art styles as other people at Mirage jumped in to help (or completely takeover) on these stories. I enjoyed it but would have liked to see more of the issues from the main series. I also noted that Kevin Eastman had a lot more to say than Peter Laird in the annotations. Overall I think I prefer Eastman's crime centric, combat-action style and stories to Laird's sci-fi, but they are awesome when combined together as in the early stuff.
January 26, 2021
V rámci nějakýho reading orderu jsem teda přeskočil do týhle knížky a je to celkem hit or miss. Jsou to různý krátký příběhy o pár stránkách jak od původních autorů, tak různejch jinejch. Často trpí tím, že se ostatní spisovatelé snažili bejt za každou cenu jiný a moc to nefunguje. Super je ale povídání Eastmana a Lairda za každym příběhem. Zatímco Eastman se rozepisuje, Lairda to očividně těžce nebavilo, takže většinou se jeho vyjádření smrskne na “Tenhle příběh si vůbec nepamatuju.” nebo “S tímhle jsem neměl nic společnýho.” :D Skvělý :D
May 12, 2024
Re-read, 05/2024: Still a great collection of early TMNT shorts.
As with all of the other Ultimate Collections, this is a gem, and I had never seen a good majority of these short pieces before. Worth the price of admission for The Puma Blues related material and all of the Eric Talbot and Murphy/Zunni pieces.
As with all of the other Ultimate Collections, this is a gem, and I had never seen a good majority of these short pieces before. Worth the price of admission for The Puma Blues related material and all of the Eric Talbot and Murphy/Zunni pieces.
March 10, 2022
I made the mistake of buying vol. 1 on paperback, not realizing that the series hadn’t fully been released on that format yet, so after waiting for the release, I’m a little late on this review.
It’s always so much fun to read all these old TMNT issues. This one is filled with 29 short stories. Some good, some less good. Obviously, the stories have aged, but I definitely found myself smiling through most of this book! I see a lot of things that have inspired some great incarnations of the Turtles, such as 2003, 2012, & IDW. I’m ver happy to have this whole series finally collected & sitting beautifully on my shelf together!
My only two negatives:
1. There were a LOT of grammar & spelling errors (which Peter pointed out multiple times). I understand the early books were independently published, but they didn’t have anyone to just check the spelling? Or why couldn’t they just go back & fix them now?
2. Peter Laird seemed almost passive-aggressive with his annotations. About 1/3 of the way through, he started putting just a sentence or two (if anything at all), sometimes kind of condescending. I’m a big fan of Laird & I’ve actually always found myself more drawn to him than Eastman, so I would’ve loved to have heard more from him.
It’s always so much fun to read all these old TMNT issues. This one is filled with 29 short stories. Some good, some less good. Obviously, the stories have aged, but I definitely found myself smiling through most of this book! I see a lot of things that have inspired some great incarnations of the Turtles, such as 2003, 2012, & IDW. I’m ver happy to have this whole series finally collected & sitting beautifully on my shelf together!
My only two negatives:
1. There were a LOT of grammar & spelling errors (which Peter pointed out multiple times). I understand the early books were independently published, but they didn’t have anyone to just check the spelling? Or why couldn’t they just go back & fix them now?
2. Peter Laird seemed almost passive-aggressive with his annotations. About 1/3 of the way through, he started putting just a sentence or two (if anything at all), sometimes kind of condescending. I’m a big fan of Laird & I’ve actually always found myself more drawn to him than Eastman, so I would’ve loved to have heard more from him.
November 9, 2023
unlike the previous volumes, this is a collection of short stories, almost 30 of them from throughout the 80s, with a few guest artists and writers doing interesting things with the turtles. despite the 3 stars, i actually did like this quite a bit. some good stories in there with great art, and not many bad stories either. they even all have annotations in between stories, by eastman and... well i guess laird, but while kevin will go more in depth, even in stories he had nothing to do with, peter always has the same thing to say. "i didn't make this but the art is good i guess", which got rather repetitive. but, all in all, the stories were rather fun, if a bit repetitive at times due to how often they loved to just end stories by having the characters wake up from a dream. other times, stories were too short for their own good, feeling like they should be an opening to a full issue or something. but it is what it is. besides, more casey jones is always a good thing, even if he was only in a couple stories.
August 14, 2019
Volume six collects twenty nine short stories dealing with the Turtles and their universe. All of them hail from the 80s when the creative talent was hot. The previous two volumes come from the 90s and, in comparison, the later issues seem to have lost their mojo. Whether they ran out of steam or talent, the energy, the momentum, is just not there. These amazing stories just punctuate it.
They are collected from the back pages of old comics, exclusives for the TMNT Role Playing Game (again this was the 80s- RPGs were at their height of popularity), benefit stories, and a few crossovers- kind of- with the Puma Blues, an indie comic near forgotten today.
They are collected from the back pages of old comics, exclusives for the TMNT Role Playing Game (again this was the 80s- RPGs were at their height of popularity), benefit stories, and a few crossovers- kind of- with the Puma Blues, an indie comic near forgotten today.
September 8, 2024
Had to review this one because I fear that anyone that knows me in real life will see this rating and panic that I have been replaced by a Skrull or something.
So, it turns out this volume of the Ultimate Collection is a collection of incredibly short (think anywhere between 4 and 18 pages) TMNT stories from all over the place. I have never been a fan of short story collections or anthologies, because I never feel I can get my teeth into stories so short. In fact, one shot comics (22ish pages) are usually even a little short for me, and as such this particular collection just didn't whet my whistle. The artwork is pretty great throughout though!
So, it turns out this volume of the Ultimate Collection is a collection of incredibly short (think anywhere between 4 and 18 pages) TMNT stories from all over the place. I have never been a fan of short story collections or anthologies, because I never feel I can get my teeth into stories so short. In fact, one shot comics (22ish pages) are usually even a little short for me, and as such this particular collection just didn't whet my whistle. The artwork is pretty great throughout though!
December 30, 2018
This is a collection of short comics, some being very short. While none of them were bad, I didn't think any were particularly good either. The commentary by Peter Laird sounds like he didn't care at all, barely putting in a sentence if he wasn't involved, while Eastman often gave some backstory or explanation even if he didn't work on it. I have no idea what the backstory between these guys, but it just seemed odd to even include it since he gave no effort.
February 10, 2025
Meh. This was okay. It was a mix of random stories throughout the run; some were good, some were not.
The real problem is that it felt kinda weak following City at War. I'd probably recommend reading it first, to be honest. It's not like it would throw off the continuity or spoil anything.
The real problem is that it felt kinda weak following City at War. I'd probably recommend reading it first, to be honest. It's not like it would throw off the continuity or spoil anything.
May 1, 2023
Sem duvida o mais chato da coleção, quase que não consigo terminar, contos que não agregam nada e não levam a lugar algum.
June 9, 2025
I got so used to the serialized stories that it felt a bit weird reading all these one-offs, but there’s some really great art here.
May 2, 2017
If the TMNT Ultimate Collection si dinner, Volume 6 is the leftovers. There are no full issues in here, just shorts that appeared in various entities. So it can feel like a little bit of a let down after the previous installments. Still, there are plenty of fun moments to be had, and I think if you want a more full view of the early days of TMNT this is an important collection. Still, I can't help but feel that in a more perfect world Volumes 1-5 would each be about 50 pages longer a piece and contain the stories in this one. Anyway, as long as you know what you are getting into with this.
Also once again Eastman and Laird supply commentary for each story. Eastman has always had more to say on these pages, but it goes to ridiculous extremes. If a short was made entirely by Laird, Eastman still has more to say about it. If Laird didn't contribute to the story at all? Literally all he will say is "I have nothing to say about this. I didn't contribute anything to this story." At best it seems like he points out flaws like spelling errors. I think they probably should have just had Eastman's commentary unless Laird really had something to contribute.
Also once again Eastman and Laird supply commentary for each story. Eastman has always had more to say on these pages, but it goes to ridiculous extremes. If a short was made entirely by Laird, Eastman still has more to say about it. If Laird didn't contribute to the story at all? Literally all he will say is "I have nothing to say about this. I didn't contribute anything to this story." At best it seems like he points out flaws like spelling errors. I think they probably should have just had Eastman's commentary unless Laird really had something to contribute.
November 12, 2018
As is typical with such a short-"story" collection, there are going to be some you enjoy more than others. And that's definitely true of this one. There were some beautiful, arty stories and some gritty fun ones. Overall, it was pretty entertaining and, as always, I enjoyed the behind the scenes glimpses in the annotation notes. Although Laird never seems quite as into giving context or memories as Eastman is.
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