4 out of 5

Man, I thought this was the coolest dang thing when I was a kid: a sourcebook for my little corner of comics.  It seemed to legitimize the TMNTA title even further – written proof on how expansive the world was.  And these were some pretty deep cuts, going far away from the Shredder / Splinter / April bios and dipping into the specials and later issues for one-off, sometimes unnamed appearances.  It’s all edited together pretty well by Clarrain (from work done by him, Sullivan, and Wiater), with the personal data – height, weight, etc. – seeming general enough to not be too dorky, and the bios written in a concise, but entertaining manner.  A further highlight, of course, is having all of the artwork done by A.C. Farley, whose loose, rough-shod figures are like recasting the Archie TMNT into the Image-verse, and having each issue side-by-side is a lesson in inking effectiveness and design: Brian Thomas & Jon D’Agostino’s inks are very clean; giving Farley’s work almost a Bolland-like precision, while Eric Talbot and Ryan Brown give everything a loose, jagged feel; what I assume to be Farley’s own inks are the best, nailing his lively sense of detail for some badass, all-time pinups.  The layouts / lettering of the pages shift a little from book to book, with the third ‘Update’ volume settling on the best balance of title fonts and frames for the characters.  There are a couple of questionable details here and there, as well as some inconsistencies with how bolding is used (sometimes for names, sometimes for places, sometimes to suggest there’s a sourcebook entry for what’s bolded) and some ‘cute’ text rearrangements in issue two that are more disruptive than anything, but this is still a fun, rewarding reread after you’ve sifted through your Archie collection.