TALES OF THE TMNT #61 REVIEW

[Walt Kneeland]

Review by: Walt Kneeland (walt.kneeland@gmail.com )
Quick Rating: Very Good
Story Title: Sometimes They Come Back

While helping to investigate the destruction of several buildings in the city and rising violence of an ongoing gang war, the turtles find more of their past back to haunt them.

Script: Tristan Jones
Art: Andres Ponce
Letters: Eric Talbot
Cover: Andres Ponce & Steve Lavigne
Frontispiece: Michael Dooney
Editor in Chief: Peter Laird
Managing Editor: Dan Berger
Design: Eric Talbot
Publisher: Mirage Publishing

This issue picks up on a story thread that's been touched on at a few points in recent years. The introduction on the inside front cover provides a quick recap to give context, and then we launch into the story. One of the turtles makes contact with a police detective investigating a collapsed building. As we continue on, the turtles all find pieces of the "puzzle" that comes together in a fairly fast-paced piece of action before quickly winding down as the turtles find themselves facing the small--but terrifyingly plentiful--mousers they'd faced years ago.

It might just be the immediacy of having just read the issue, with its enjoyment fresh in my mind...but this is one of the most enjoyable TMNT reads I've had in awhile. Jones builds a story that is both fresh and yet drawn from existing continuity. The result is that the reader is provided not just a peek into a random moment in the turtles' lives, but a growing story, and (dare I say it) continuity within the "gap" presented when TMNT vol. 4 launched nearly 8 years ago.

The story moves at a pretty quick pace...in some ways, I'd certainly like to see more build, as we do largely just get snippets of stuff as the scenes move along from one turtle to another with the occasional moment from the police throughout. At the same time, the story in this one issue could probably be stretched to at least 2 and maybe 3 issues without feeling padded...but rather than have to buy 3 issues, we get the entirety of the given story right here. Reading through the issue, I get a distinct feel of the turtles being older and rather independent (no Splinter found nor referenced), and the way they're shown interacting throughout the issue shows where they've grown up from the earliest TMNT issues.

Ponce's art gives me the impression much of this book takes place at night--there's a certain feel to the imagery with shadows and overall tone giving that feeling. Unlike a lot of other black-and-white books, where the art looks like it's ready for color, here it almost appears to have been done in color and printed in greytones. The overall style puts me in mind of the animated series--this certainly does not duplicate that series' style, but is somewhat similar, and that works very well for me here, as I can easily see the action of this issue being animated.

Probably because this issue is the latest of a several-part ongoing "arc," newer readers may not get much from this. I think this issue is more for longer-time readers (whether just of this volume of Tales of the TMNT, or going back to the 1990s or even the mid-80s when the turtles first appeared). As one of those longtime readers, this issue was a blast, and very much worth its price.


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