IDW TMNT Annual 2014 Review

Ready... Set... Spartan Race is back for 2018

and we're accepting no excuses. Barbed wire crawls,

tyre drags, spear throws and much more. Whatever

your ability, you'll discover the right challenge

for you. Take on our 5 -25km events designed

to push you to limits you never knew you could

overcome. Complete an obstacle course race and

let adventure back into your life. Are you ready

to unleash your inner Spartan warrior? Visit

spartanrace .uk Hi, this is Bobby Kernow, Chief

Turtle Editor at IDW Publishing, and you are

listening to The Pull Bag's TMNT Back Issue Classics

with Mike and Joe Turtle Power. Welcome to The

Pull Bag's Back Issue Classics. Join us as we

talk about comics from yesteryear, from DC, Marvel,

and more. So open your ears to hear our discussion.

the older continuities as the back issue classics

are also what's in the pool bag Hello and welcome

to the pool bag, this is yet again another back

issue classics and I'm of course one roast if

your mic joining me is Joe Reed. Hello, sir Hello

to you and hello to our listeners Where can the

people interact with you online now that I actually

remember to ask you at the beginning of the show?

Best place to find me is still on Facebook at

the geek stuff garage sale. You can send a message

to the page there I'm also available on PlayStation

Network at wildfire 405 the tricky part is that

the W is two V's so it's actually Viva I'll the

fire if you need a pneumonic device to remember

that And we're here today to talk about the much

anticipated, long -delayed Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles IDW 2014 Annual by Eastman. Oops, you

introduced it. I have to go to the other side

of the room and grab it because I didn't bring

it over here for some dumb reason. So this is

Eastman's Annual. It's Eastman and Walt's On

The Story. The script and art are also done by

Eastman. The colors are done by Rhonda Pattinson,

as always. Letters by Sean Lee. And it's by Bobby

Kernau. We also have, according to, well, it's

a dedication to Robert E. Howard and Roy Thomas

and Barry Windsor Smith. So that's nice that

they dedicated it to them. I gotta say, I was

really excited. I'm like, where's the annual?

Where's the annual? Where's the annual? Because

in the future of Pullback, we will be getting

to the Turtles in Time issue 4 issue miniseries.

But when I first read that first issue of Turtles

in Time, I was like, OK, what's going on here?

Because we have time travel now. When did that

happen? And everybody's like, oh, well, it happens

in the annual. Where's the annual? Uh, it's not

ready yet. It's like, how am I supposed to read

Turtles in Time, dealing with time travel, if

the annual where the time travel person is introduced,

how am I supposed, continuity, how am I supposed

to deal with it? And Bobby has since told me

that it didn't really matter either way. Um,

I gotta be honest folks, even digitally at $7

.99, Almost wish I wouldn't have gotten this

for a digital copy That's what it cost. Oh my

god. I would never buy a digital copy unless

it were cheaper than print Ouch I mean, I wish

I wouldn't have missed that record where we were

talking digital stuff. That's oh We can always

talk about it again in the future. I just I think

Because the digital landscape will change constantly

so Yeah, I mean I paid I mean basically digital

copies on Comixology are pretty much cover price.

There is no discount Yeah, I don't man. I mean

okay, so let's say you bought issue number one

of the Ninja Turtles IDW series digitally for

$4 .99 Okay, it's been two years now year and

a half My issue ones that I bought four of behind

me are like worth 35 45 bucks each. How much

are yours worth? Oh, wait, my hard drive crashed.

They're gone now. I just like, no, man, digital.

That is the one thing I wish IDW would team up

with Comixology for. I know Image Comics has

done it and team up to give you... I have a backup

of the five... Comics that I bought from image

comics to this point. I have a PDF or a CBZ file

that I can download I wish the other publishers

would go ahead and do this Oh my gosh, so you're

not even getting a file you have to view it online

Yeah, okay, or I view it I mean if I had an iPad

or any other device I'd view it on that I mean,

but yeah, when I sit here and read comics, I'm

sitting here at my computer, you know, going

through, pressing the right arrow key. If it

wasn't for the guided view technology, I wouldn't

do it. Absolutely would not do it. But because

of Comixology and their guided view technology

and it zooms in on stuff, I'm fine with sitting

here. But yeah, reading this annual, sitting

here, 47 pages took me a while. Me too. All right,

I'm going to hear to any comic book executives

listening to our podcast. Nobody. If this is

the future of digital media you go to your comic

store you buy the comic book on in the inside

There's this little code that if you want to

you can scratch it off and download the comic

if you don't scratch it off That's fine. And

hey, it's something they can grade for but I

mean or you go online You buy the digital code

all by yourself and you only pay half the price

Yeah I will say that I believe Currently any

issues on Comixology any of the IDW turtles issues

that are not the current issue are all 199 For

the regulars like issues 21 through issues one

through Issues one through at least At least

32 I assume 33 and 35. Anything that's not the

current issue, Comixology does go down, and I

do believe I did get TMNT number one from IDW

on Comixology for free at one point. So I will

say that about Comixology. Yeah, I'm looking

at it right now. Turtles number one from IDW,

they do list it as being a free copy. it's just

various i mean i didn't i agree with you i i

think everyone needs to jump on the marvel bandwagon

and have a little loaded inside inside a print

comic to get a digital copy uh... completely

agree with that uh... but at the time i've had

a lot i don't want to say this and make it sound

really really bad but it's gonna come out bad

I've kind of lost the interest in getting the

print copies. I mean, I just, I prefer reading

them the way that I read them on Comixology.

Now, if I had, like I said, an iPad or whatever,

Android tablet or whatever, I'm sure I'd, you

know, get even more enjoyment out of, you know,

reading them on a tablet. But I'm fine with reading

them on my PC, but I am sorry. 799 for an annual

is too much if it was going like because this

is on Comixology I don't I don't know I I assume

it's the same page count for the print. It's

47 pages If it had been like 96 pages like a

double issue because I mean technically You have

probably 40 pages of story here and seven pages

of like letters and what you know Whatever other

ads they throw in at the end That to me is like

a four or a 599 book You know this should have

been 499 599 not near I mean I paid the same

amount for this that I paid for the Super giant

size issue of There was a double issue of one

of the One of the Batman books that cost this

this same price, but it was 96 pages not 47 well

that The problem we have with IDW is that they

have much smaller print runs, and so they need

to charge more. I think that's where that comes

from, less from how much they thought it might

be worth to its viewers. All right, so the annual,

the 2014 annual introduction of Renet. The cover

has her the turtles and some alien planets along

with the scepter from Turtles 3 I'm glad to see

that that's a neat little knob. I don't think

she carried that in Mirage Yeah, I think it's

pretty pretty awesome I'm just gonna come right

out and say it as much as I respect Eastman.

He is the co -creator of the TMNT As much as

I love Tom waltz is writing everywhere else in

turtles I Really the one thing that makes me

not say anything good about this book is the

art I Am I don't want to say disappointed but

Kevin Eastman's art has gotten to the point where

it's he wants to get it done quickly And so he's

using, to draw this stuff, he's using various

sized markers, you know, all the way up to that

very large one that smells really bad, sharpie,

wide tip, chisel tip that he'll mark things out

with. And he has developed the need to take the

toothbrush to it, dip it in the white paint and

across the inks and then dip it in the black

ink and spray it across the paint too. Between

the very, very heavy handed line work, and that

spatter technique, it's very difficult to see

any kind of space, details, front middle background.

It's so hard to see. And I had a very hard time

following the story. I mean, I said in the previous,

what was the last one we did? 33 and 34, right?

I said in that one that I was gonna put you to

work and make you recount the entire story, just

synopsizing it. But yeah, I mean, even in the

guided view, looking at it now in the guided

view, it just, I'd rather have Ross Campbell's

heart than this, I'm sorry. And we know that

We don't like a part of what Ross Campbell does.

Not to say that he's a bad artist. He's not.

We just don't like his My Little Pony feet and

whatever else that he does for the terms. But

I just like the art took me so far out of the

story. I could not concentrate on the story itself.

And it hurts me to say that. And it really hurts

me to say that after. And I think I talked about

it in the last issue. Issue 50 reprint omnibus

with the pen and ink layouts that Eastman did

Eastman is an incredible artist the way he sees

the way he thinks about each panel and I know

he did the layouts for the first 12 issues he

was and and Sadly his layouts looked about as

worked up as this they I mean, there's a couple

panels where he spends time on all my pages aren't

issued. There's a point where they get sucked

through time and you get to see the weird city

flying city thing they land on and that's a nice

looking panel. It's a neat looking work of art.

It looks like it's from the 1980s and it should

be on a felt poster or a rock and roll album

cover but you know I don't oh it's the back cover

of my trade that particular panel. But I know

he can draw and he's kind of just not really

Yeah That's the other thing I love about comixology

If I need a page number I can just click on a

button that says show page numbers And I'll tell

you the other thing that took me out of this

story as cool as after they get sent through

time here with Raynett and they show the black

and white city thing here this is on um it's

on page 13 uh once this book went to black and

white again that's where i lost i lost like if

they were just going to switch it up and have

all the characters and all the backgrounds in

black and white at least do color bubbles Like,

I need, like, for me, for my eyesight, for how

I read, I need contrasting things in my reading.

Okay, sure, you can't get that in an actual novel,

you know, like an actual written out prose novel,

but in comics, I need contrast. I can't look

at all this black and white stuff. It probably,

and guys, listeners, I'm not trying to bash Eastman

at all. It's just, I just... that this wasn't

my cup of tea. If we do ever interview him, I'd

be interested in having him talk about how his

art style has changed. And again, here's a good

way to really think about this and to not have

Kevin Eastman want to beat me if I ever do meet

him. It's not that the art is bad. What it is

is it's it's transcended comic book illustration

and it's turning into a fine art style. And that

fine art style makes it Ever so slightly difficult

to read. The black and white bits. Now, I don't

know if this is a throwback to old school Ninja

Turtles because it was black and white for two

and a half volumes. I would assume it is. Even

that is easier to see than this. There's just

too much gray and between the gray and the weird

style of drawing where you can't quite exactly

get what's background and foreground and everything

kind of seems flat. uh... it's very difficult

to visually read very much so like i said if

they had like i love when they do the date he

doesn't do a lot of the stuff here but uh...

in a regular issue like uh... next time we get

to issue thirty five and thirty six there are

uh... monologue panels where like raffle say

something but it's black text on a red background

even like do something with the word balloons

please do something with this because black text

on a white word balloon amidst a great art piece

like i'm looking right now at uh... at page thirty

three where uh... where this one of these dudes

comes in and says boy akasha yeah that's the

the barbarian guy they found yeah uh... when

he comes in you know even looking at this in

the guided view i'm just looking at it as a single

page right now like i would actually be holding

the comic book even looking at it as a single

page there's too much gray There's too much light

and dark and not enough pop of color. I get it

if Eastman is trying to, for his art, he's trying

to homage the old days with the original series

and stuff, and that's all well and fine. Do that

for a page or two. Don't do it for the rest of

the entire book, which is what they did. And

the story itself, they go back to... They go

back in time with Reynet to her world, which

has got some sort of war going on with it. Is

that about right? Slightly different. Okay. Well,

I guess going from the beginning... Turtles are

hanging out Mike and Don are trying to set up

a joking trap for one for Leo or Raph And so

they're they're explaining it and getting set

up Casey and April are headed home from a movie

They're talking about some of the stuff that's

going in the comics about their relationship

and about going back to school When Leo and Raph

show up back at the lair April and Casey aren't

there yet Renette shows up and She's talking

to them like she's known them for a while and

it takes her a few minutes to realize that oh

She's met them later in the future But this is

the first time that she's meeting them now But

she doesn't seem to mind like she's kind of the

Renette's kind of modeled after kind of a ditzy

teenager Coming into her own as a time -traveling

sorcerer of some kind Um, she says hey, there's

this thing going on my boss wants us to to stop

this and you were the first people I thought

of who could do this because you guys fight really

good So let's go do to this thing and see if

we can stop it and he takes her they take i'm,

sorry renette takes the turtles to um What I

think is I don't know if I think they might even

name it in here. I think it's the battle nexus

which east bar layered and the 2000 One, 2003?

I don't remember what year it was. 2003. That

was an important part of that series. And it

was important. At the same time, it was coming

into the Mirage comic before it ended. And so

that's where I think they're at. The turtles

are being forced or coerced to fight in this

thing. You're right. You're right. For some strange

reason, I thought it was her home world because

she had some sort of... relationship with the

warrior dude close to the end of this but yeah

you're right it is pretty much what the equivalent

of the battle nexus would probably be and i think

they're gonna come back to it i think this is

a giant hint for what it was and that you know

someday idw go back and do it i mean if they

do as long as it's in color i'll be happy i mean

like seriously like you know the whole time you

were talking just now i went okay on chat on

page 13 is where it goes to black and white full

-time until until page forty two page forty two

is when it goes back to color that is twenty

nine pages of black and white that i could not

like my eyes could not focus i could it just

i would be i would not blame the black and white

there are black and white comics that are readable

I would blame black and white plus Eastman's

weird art that's that's what you know I'm not

blaming black and white yeah good good I'm saying

black and white in this like I said if they had

done something with the word balloons to put

colors behind the black text or something I think

that would have clashed if they had done that

Probably would have but I'm saying from my own

personal, you know being able to actually read

the story, you know It's kind of nice that Bobby

said the annual Doesn't really I mean it matters,

but it's not a strict straight introduces the

time travel obviously And it introduces right

net other than that the story itself right now

in the core of the overall IDW Turtle story,

it's not that big of a deal. No. Which is kind

of nice. There are times where I would want Everything

to tie to everything but because of my whole

issue with the art and the coloring and and everything

else I'm glad it kind of doesn't tie into what's

currently going on No, so in in the story the

turtles are fighting there's weird kind of Intrigue

going on these people are being forced to fight

forced to kill themselves. The reward is that

you get to survive, but everybody else is They

disappear and they don't know where they go and

so the turtles kind of organize a rebellion which

they end up overthrowing the politicians who

put on this fight and Saying okay, let's do this,

but let's not kill people about it We're happy

to fight for your entertainment all of the slaves

say but don't kill us and we'll be back next

year and So they do important happening Inside

here is the turtles first meeting with a triceraton

Yes On page number because I can't tell And so

yes, they they overcome they organize the rebellion

they make friends with this barbarian dude who

Renette seems to know and then They're spit back

out into the color pages of the future or it's

it's idle. It's not time travel. It's dimensional

travel to its both Yeah, it's You know, I would

have almost been more interested and I'm not

if I'm just I just I have a I guess overall indifference

to this franchise, but it's very popular nowadays

But it would have almost been a little bit better

if the scepter the time scepter the the time

travel scepter thingamajig Turned into a damn

police box Cuz it would have made more friggin

sense But yeah, I will say that at the beginning

of this book... and close to where it goes back

to color on page 42 and they return out of the

battle nexus. I do love how Splinter is like,

what the heck are they doing in there? I think

a good two hour run across the east village should

do the trick. Like I love like he has no idea

what's going on this entire time. Do you notice

that he's on the toilet? He's flushing. It's

a pulsing toilet. What the hell, Kevin Eastman,

what the hell? Oh my god, that's horrible. Oh,

and he almost says, uh... Oh my god, so... So

they get back boy do we have a story to tell

you hey look my helmet. Oh, oh, it's her helmet

So they try to This is where the trap from the

beginning comes in because Leo wants some water

and he goes to stand on this thing and the next

thing he's all tied up and and everything else

and uh... it's so funny it's just so funny they

get them all strung up which is interesting I

will say that I do like the art here and he is

super pissed at them super pissed And then of

course he just lashed it off. And they all go

swimming. Splinter says, I have a good idea.

What the? Now you're all wet. I get it. He shoved

them in. Yup. He shoved them all in. And we then

go back to... I wonder what Rinette's up to.

Yeah, we go back to Dinosaur World here, and

Renette and her new boyfriend, Mr. Buyakasha,

are on a date. In the Jurassic. Yeah. And she

says her final line is, the best hold on... the

best hold on and we'll get going but I have a

feeling we'll be seeing those cool nutty green

dudes again not if they see us first ha ha ha

ha and then they flash which I'm not sure why

they decided I'm not sure why Eastman decided

to stick with color on like after the turtle

scene here with Raynett scene Because the very

last panel of the book is a picture of that city

in black and white again. Yeah, that's my back

cover. Oh, okay. On the inside, the rennet and

Mr. Buyakasha, whose name I never caught because

I was not focused very well. It's on the left

side. The right side's the back cover and it's

an ad for Ninja Turtles Monopoly. Hey, that might

be fun. Yes, it would be. And then on the back

cover is the... the city again with the barcode.

Overall, why did we have to wait this long? Because

Kevin Eastman's busy at conventions sitting on

his big fat wallet charging $35 in autograph.

He probably doesn't do that. I think autographs

for creators are free. I was expecting something

epic like I was expecting something like I don't

know I was expecting something that wasn't what

we got yeah I've picked up a lot of annuals here

and there they're never something that I really

seek out but I read them and it's like they have

nothing to do with anything and I don't know

what they exist for I don't know yeah I don't

know either Alright, so I think we're going to

take a quick break. We're going to come back

with final thoughts and ratings after this. So

let's say you're looking for a podcast of your

favorite 80s comic books, G .I. Joe, Transformers,

Ninja Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where are you going

to go to find this? Welcome to star Joe's podcast.

I'm your host Ryan and I'm Chuck. That's right.

Everybody. We're the star Joe's We host a podcast

called star Joe's podcast where we talk about

your favorite comic books your favorite toys

of all the 80s properties Star Wars GI Joe Transformers

mask thundercats Voltron, you name it. We covered

if it's in the 80s We will cover it at some point

Yes, so what you want to do to find us, you can

go to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes .com,

and remember, the force will be with you, because

knowing us is half the battle. Join the four

of us every week on the internet's number one

and longest running G .I. Joe podcast, What's

On Joe Mind? It's Joe news, reviews, and interviews

like you've never heard them before, delivered

right to your MP3 player. Our guests include

Jason Marsden, Kevin Michael Richardson, and

Matt Yang King from G .I. Joe Renegades, Larry

Hama, Robert Adkins, and John Barber from IDW

Publishing, and many more from around the online

Joe community. Yeah, it's guys talking about

Joe. Think of it as Joe Talk meets Sports Talk,

and we make fun of Chuck. Right, and we, hey,

again? Come on, Chuck. We're just kidding, kinda.

Sometimes Chuck makes fun of himself. Right,

and we... Okay, seriously, this is just getting

ridiculous now. It's What's on Joe Mind every

week on the Geekcast Radio Network. Inside Pulse

.com, Stitcher Smart Radio, and iTunes. Download

and listen today. I suppose I still can't say

something about Transformers, can I? Good grief.

What about sports? Yeah, that's alright. Ninja

Pizza! Well, what do you know? Rock dudes! Do

you realize what this is? The crucial piece of

evidence we were looking for? The clue which

will lead us to the heart of the evil ninja empire?

Not even better! It's a place where we can get

some pizza! Right on! Okay, I'll head up there

and check it out. No, no, April. It's too dangerous.

You wouldn't last five minutes in a ninja pizza

parlor. I love saying lines like that. We better

go with you, April. That's right. Besides, we're

hungry! Alright, we are back. The best parts

about this annual for me were when it started,

with all the turtles and meeting Renette, and

when it ended, when they came back from the time

travel. The beginning and ending. The middle,

not so much. They had a few good lines in the

middle and stuff, but again, it's the art and...

and all of that that take me out of the story

entirely. Um, and as I said a moment ago, before

we took the break, I was expecting something

completely different than what we got. I don't,

I don't know what I was expecting, but I was

expecting, uh, something, um, some something

that Wasn't this something that you know, I was

expecting like a huge You know would have been

awesome for an annual I know they'll never do

this but a tour of the technodrome even though

it's not finished yet Like I don't know it just

I don't know what are your final thoughts and

then we'll do ratings I I love Kevin Eastman,

and I know he's capable of doing beautiful art.

Go see that issue 50 thing that IDW released,

and look at his pen and inks. They're beautiful.

But this was just too hard to read, and I don't

like saying that. But, I'm, eh, you know, I need

it because it's a Ninja Turtles book, and I have

every Ninja Turtles book. Understand that it's

just like Okay, I'll give you an example You

know you say you you've read a lot of annuals

and sometimes you pick up a lot of annuals I've

only picked up a few one of my favorites that

I picked up was surprised surprised to any of

the people listening Nightwing annual number

one from DC new 52. It's a basic. It's a basically.

It's it's a story that takes place In between

parts one and two or two and three of the Batgirl

wanted tie -in So it basically that that annual

is a story of Dick Grayson Barbara Gordon Will

they won't they why can't they kind of thing?

Why can't they be in a relationship? Etc. Etc.

Etc. That's something I'll go back and read every

now and then this is something I will probably

never read again And because of that, and I'm

actually gonna read the description on this so

people know why my reasoning is for my reasoning,

but I've never, since we've had the GCR and Universal

rating system, I've never gone below a three,

I think. As far as actually using this rating

system, I've rated other like cartoon episodes

like a one or a zero or whatever else, but as

far as like a written comic review or... Even

here in the pullback. I don't think I've ever

gone below a three -star rating And I'm actually

gonna give it two stars disliked it was just

what disliked It says is the positives serve

as a reminder to the latent potential that was

never fulfilled The product is often a victim

of poor execution or inability to focus on a

clear path It fails in large variety of different

areas, but the failures are not to the extreme

I Agree, it's too which hurts a lot. I know.

But you know what? You want to go read some bad

Ninja Turtles comics. Go look at issues 20 -something

through 40 -something of the Mirage run where

everybody was making issues. There are a couple

of gems in there. There are a couple of really,

really good gems, but there's a lot of garbage

in there. That's worse than this. That's kind

of sad. You know how hard that it hurts me to

say that? It's like I feel like I'm slapping

Bobby in the face and that I'm spitting on Kevin

Eastman and his whole family. I feel like a dirtbag,

but Hey, we got to be honest though if we don't

like something we don't like it I mean one issue

one annual out of we're up to well Including

neutron Empire and 37 regular issues because

there is a come out yet. So 3 7 37 and 7 is I

can do math properly 44 Yeah, we've had 44. I

mean Sure, you and I have had certain issues

with other TMNT issues that we've talked about

but we've never not given them Well, we've never

not given them less than a three and a half or

a four. I mean, there's usually one or two things,

sometimes nitpicking, sometimes real major issues

of dislike, but nothing that overall takes away

from our, you know, core rating for the overall

story and the overall art in the book. And this

is, this just takes the cake. Yeah, it really,

really does. So that's going to do it for this

episode. Coming up next, in the next episode

of the podcast, we're going to be talking about

issues 35 and 36, which is 35 is a story about

Raph and Mikey and Slash and Old Hob, and 36

is the return of the king, or the introduction

of the king in this universe. So make your greatest

game of the comics, and we will catch you next

time. You've just heard the latest episode of

The Pullback, the GCRN's comic review and discussion

podcast. There are several ways to get in touch

with us and leave feedback for the show. You

can visit the website, keycastradio .com, where

you can comment on the episode and all of our

different podcasts. You can rate our show on

iTunes. Be sure to leave us feedback. Call the

voicemail line, 502 -526 -5821. Please remember

to tell us the show you're leaving the message

for and your name Become a fan of us on Facebook

by searching Geekcast Radio Network Send us an

email feedback at geekcastradio .com Follow us

on Twitter at Geekcast Radio So until next time

make your great escape into comics and unleash

the geek in you