If there is ever an item destined for the TMNT Treasures section, this would be it. There are plenty of rare TMNT items out there – Gobbledygooks, Silver Turtlemania, and many others – but this book is truly the rarest of the rare. I know I was not alone in thinking that my collection could not be complete without having this book, and frankly, I was 99% certain that there was no way it even still existed.
With a print run of only 10 books, the chance of finding one over 20 years after publication was slim at best. But at last one of these little buggers has finally come to light. As far as I know, this is the ONLY existing copy. And now it resides in my collection!
So let’s take a look at the book, and its Silver and Regular Edition brothers.
As you can see there are some obvious differences. All of the differences in these books take place just in outer covers; the interiors are identical. The fronts of the books are identical as well, except for the color paper. It’s the back where things get interesting.
The regular edition is the plainest of the bunch and features only the pre-printed sketch on the back. On the Silver you see the same thing, except this guy is numbered, as well as signed by Kev & Pete. The gold takes it a step further and adds all of the Silver’s traits, plus an awesome sketch.
Let’s talk about the Gold book, shall we? The condition of this book is stunning, and really, is WAY better than my Silvers and Regular Editions. The sketch is fantastic. I knew that the Gold edition would have a sketch, but for some reason I really didn’t expect it to be so large and detailed. As a collector of early TMNT artwork as well, I can say that a sketch like that, from 1986, and from Pete, of which there are surprisingly a lot fewer early sketches than from Kev, is also a rarity. All in all, just a very cool, historic piece. And at last, we can see that at least one of these books has survived the times.
In this photo, you can see my painted inside cover piece by Kev (and how it looks in black and white published in the open Regular edition) along side the Silver & Gold. The plan is to frame all 3 books, along with the artwork, in one frame. Should make for a nice display.
It’s obvious that the art on the Gold is Laird, so I wonder if they took turns, maybe each drawing 5 sketches? Did they draw characters other than the Turtles? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if another copy comes to light…if one does.
-Terminator
