IDW Publishing Forums

[Abnormal Freak]

I've gone on and on about this at the Technodrome board, but I don't know if I've ever posted this here.

It's been said that the sales of the first two IDW volumes of TMNT (containing issues 1–11 plus the four microseries) will determine whether more collections are made. I don't know if this means more hardcover (possibly oversized as well) books, or just collections of the old material, period. I'd like to think that IDW would continue collecting the rest of the original comics at least as trade paperbacks—and, ideally, we'd see collections for all of the old comics in time: TMNT Vols. 1–4, Tales of the TMNT Vols. 1 and 2, and the Archie TMNT Adventures series (plus other fun odd and ends—lots of side comics, one-offs, short stories, and the like; and maybe even fun stuff like the various manga, comic strip, that sort of thing—hey, a boy can dream, can't he?).

But, if there's the chance of having more oversized hardcover books, or ANY collections at all beyond the first two TMNT: The Ultimate Collection volumes, I'd like to propose that there be at least two more: books that collect all of the "Return to New York" and "City at War" (including its two-issue prolog, "Shades of Gray") arcs, considering that these are the remainder of the major collaborative Eastman and Laird works. To leave them out or not give them the star treatment would be a major shame, I think—especially since the latter arc has never been collected before.

If IDW are really serious about collecting the major E&L material, I think that these two arcs should not be overlooked. Collect them, please; and if sales continue to be good, please collect the remainder of Vol. 1 plus, well, everything else. :p

And, just to throw it out there: if the above happens and there's the possibility for MORE oversized hardcover collections, I strongly suggest that Vol. 2 and the Image run (a.k.a. Vol. 3) make up the next number of collections (you could probably do one book for the first, two books for the second), since they pretty much continue what I consider to be the main story (even though Peter Laird has shamelessly disowned Vol. 3 and does not consider it canon). I would LOOOOVE so much to see these collected as prestigious editions. They'd be some of the classiest books on my shelves. :p And that's alongside deluxe editions of Spawn, Usagi Yojimbo, The Nocturnals, Tales from the Crypt, the entirety of Jack Kirby's Fourth World material, and other great comics. IDW have an ability, I think, to make something truly special here.

I hope my voice gets heard. :p And perhaps others have thoughts to share as well. Just focus on the good stuff that will likely have a better chance of selling, and leave the Vol. 1 "guest issues" and that for later. (And for the record, despite my hatred for the Hedden & McWeeney issues, I'd like for ALL of Vol. 1 to be collected, not just a pick-and-choose mishmash of [presumed] canonical stuff or whatever. Those are some GOLDEN comics, boys and girls.)
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"I can't forgive myself for having lied to you. I don't have a degree in biology. Never even finished high school. I haven't read more than two books in my whole life. One, never finished. And the other is the phone book."

[Cybercubed]

Am I the only one who doesn't mind if they stop the oversized hardcovers, so long as they still put out collections? I agree they'll probably just save hte hardcovers for the most important issues.

But it would still be nice for regular collections for everything else.

[SHIFTY]

I think it would be awesome if they did hardcovers for the at least vol 1, if they decide to move on to vol 2 and so on then hells yeah! That would be a sweet collection, I mean their only 30 bucks on amazon so owning all them isn't a stretch.

and they should included all the issues from vol 1 not just Eastman and Laird's stuff. Some of the invited artist and writers did some awful issues "cough 38-40 cough" but I enjoyed most of the other issues by the invited guys.

It's part of vol 1 so put it in there.

[Sprite]

I'm a bit OCD in that I would like a uniform look for the books on my shelf. That means pick a format and stick to it, and I do prefer hardcovers these days.
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[Bobby Curnow]

I'm not in charge of these collections, and as mentioned, there's lots of factors that go into what we'll get in Ultimate form.

For what it's worth, I will be advocating an approach similar to what you are saying, Freak. It makes a lot of sense for the Ultimate volumes to collect the Eastman/Laird issues, so Return to NY and City at War are the obvious choices. It's what I'd like to see collected most in that format, personally.

We'll cover a lot of ground in TPB form, I'm sure. Assuming sales support it, we'll collect everything, like our G.I. Joe classic collections.

So keep spreading the word, which Turtle fans have done a great job doing. Thanks for that!
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"I've lost all the hamburgers."

[John Pannozzi]

I agree with much of what Abnormal Freak is saying.

But I think the Return to New York story arc, at only three issues, wouldn't be long enough on its own to make up its own book as part of the TMNT Ultimate Collection line. Maybe some of the issues preceding it (like TMNT vol. 1 #12 and 15, which were done by Laird, #14, 17 and 18 which were done by Eastman, and #13 which was done by fan-favorite Michael Dooney), or the River story arc that followed it (from #24-26, provided IDW can get permission from Rick Veitch).

Also, Bobby, could you please name some of the folks from IDW who ARE responsible for the collections, so we can contact them instead of bugging you for questions about these matters that you aren't directly involved with?

[Abnormal Freak]

What I was thinking is release "Return to New York" and then include however many issues of "Shades of Gray"/"City at War" that would even out with the remaining issues of that arc, so you'd get two hardcover books at about the same length.

According to Mirage's website, that'll be 504 story pages. Divide that by two and they'll be about the size of the first two Ultimate Collections.

As for Vols. 2 and 3, it's 329 and 461 story pages respectively. I figure, one hardcover book for the former, two for the latter. And please, please, please, IDW, take note: If you release Vol. 3, do include the extra page or two that are present in the five-issue trade paperback.
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"I can't forgive myself for having lied to you. I don't have a degree in biology. Never even finished high school. I haven't read more than two books in my whole life. One, never finished. And the other is the phone book."

[ChrisLyne]

Personally I'd love 3 more Ultimate collections to finish off the Eastman and Laird issues;

Ultimate Collection Volume 3
Vol. 1 #12, 14-15, 17, 19-21
Ultimate Collection Volume 4 - City at War Volume 1
Vol. 1 #48-55
Ultimate Collection Volume 5 - City at War Volume 2
Vol. 1 #56-62

I guess 18 and 32 could be included somewhere in there as well as Kevin was involved with those issues, but they don't really fit well with the other stories in the collections and (as far as I'm aware) aren't considered part of the "official canon".

After that I'd love hardbacks of the remaining "official canon" issues of Volume 1 (which I think are 13, 27-28, 45-47 and maybe 29 and 43 but I'm never sure if the A C Farley issues are considered canon or not... and I'm sure others would probably expand on that list!) and Tales Volume 1. Then trade paperbacks of the remaining Volume 1 issues, either by creators or just in release order (maybe a mix of both would work best?)

After Volume 1's complete I'd be happy with just paperbacks of Volumes 2-4, Tales Volume 2 (maybe grouped by era and/or writer?) and a collection(s) of all the short stories.

I'd love to see the fan conclusion of Volume 3 included but if there are legal issues then IDW's own conclusion would be great, and the same goes for Volume 4 - I'd love Peter Laird to finish it, but if he doesn't want to then I'd be happy for IDW to provide a conclusion.

[SHIFTY]

[Cybercubed]

Keep in mind that issues #12-18 should be collected before Return to New York. They're all essential "exile to Northampton" issues that were meant to be read between the Turtles big fights of Shredder.

I feel those issues should definitely be collected as most were done by Mirage artists with the exception of #16 which was a Mark Martin story.

[ILoveBeingATurtle]

I hope the entire 1st volume is collected. I loved the first ultimate collection book that came out last week and can't wait to pick up #2. I would really like to see Turtle Soup collected, as well as the Savage Dragon-Turtles minis and all of the turtles appearances in Usagi Yojimbo (both the fantographics and mirage volumes). As long as they continue to be 250+ pages with the awesome annotations I'll continue tp buy them!

[Tothenines]

[Cybercubed]

[Tothenines]

[Spengs85]

Yeah, skipping all the Northampton stuff and going directly into Return to New York from TMNT #11 would be skipping a major narrative transition in the storyarc.

The Turtles were EXILED to Northampton for a YEAR. Skipping that collection of stories, even if they're mostly all just oneshots, would kill an important plot point at the beginning of Return to New York (namely, Raph's frustration that they've been piddling around Northampton for so long doing random crap when they should be taking the fight back to the Shredder).

As awesome as Return to New York is, and I can totally understand the hurry people are in to see it collected, part of that arc's strength is that it was built upon a year's worth of stories.

Skipping those stories would be undercutting the narrative power of Return to New York.

And while not ALL the Northampton era stories are great, many of them ARE and I wouldn't want to see them skipped, anyway.
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