5 crampons out of 5

HOLY BANANA POOPS HOW AM I NOT GOING TO RATE THIS FIVE CRAMPONS

…So…

We’re not talking about the source material here.  I can cover that when I review the original Mirage prints.  (Because, yes, I’m buying these issues again…)  We’re addressing a reprint, so we’re going to rate the quality of the reprint.  Which is fucking fasmatic awesome McAwesome.  IDW already has pretty high print quality – nice thick, glossy paper stock with clear productions of the art, bright colors, thick and beautiful letters.  May and I commit a sin and say that in the original printings, the boys Eastman and Laird’s thick Heavy Metal-influenced penciling style along with the duo-tone inking method (or whatever gave it the grey shades) definitely made the books veeerry sludgy at times, and action and detail heavy panels became very cluttered, hard to pick out foreground from middle and background, even in the color reprints from that era.  IDW has cleaned these up immensely, meanwhile choosing colors that perfectly match the era.  These are not bright, obviously computer-added colors, but someone has made the effort to match the tone to the aged feel of the book, dustier greens and reds and browns.  The best example, thus far, of how well these updates work has been with the Michelangelo one-shot, as that book mostly takes place during a snowstorm, of which E&L drew every flake with their thick hands, giving the majority of panels an over-stuffed look.  Finally in this printing we can get the beauty of their cartooning with the clarity of modern printing.  It brings effing tears to my eyes.

…And that one-shot is the other beautiful part of this re-print series: while it could just seem to be a cash-in attempt, which, sure, as a fan who owns multiple copies of a lot of these issues but is still buying the IDW versions, that works, but the fact that they are putting out everything in this updated version also feels like inexhaustible fan service.  It’s really rewarding having held on to the love all these years, and it’s great to think that recent converts will get the chance to read every era of the Turtles.  Will we ever see Image reprints?  Wacky question.

Old fans, new fans, this is beautiful, beautiful stuff.