Publication date: May 27, 2015
Contents:
*Introduction by Erik Burnham
*Complete reprint of TMNT/Ghostbusters #1
*6 pages of notes and behind the scenes commentary from
Erik Burnham, Tom Waltz and Dan Schoening
*Complete final draft of the issue’s script
Turtle Tips:
*Although Director's Cuts of the remaining issues are not planned, Erik Burnham has put issue commentary for #2-4 up on his Tumblr account.
Review:
I don’t normally double dip. In fact, if all these extras had been
released in a trade or a hard cover, I’d have never bought it. Yet release it as a floppy and call it a
Director’s Cut? Yeah, I’ll go for
it. I’m a sucker.
If you haven’t bought the TMNT/Ghostbusters miniseries,
then you could either wait for the trade or go for these Director’s Cut
editions. I don’t think they’ve
solicited any new ones yet, but hopefully they’ll do the remaining issues. It’s an added incentive for those who weren’t
quite lured into picking up the mini the first time around (and the added
cost is just a dollar).
The presentation is very nice; it’s soft cover but with a
spine so you can put it on your book shelf if you want. The complete issue #1 is reprinted without
any alterations; the commentary and annotations are printed on separate pages
littered throughout the book rather than overlaid onto the art.
As for the commentary and annotations, Burnham and Waltz
don’t provide too many juicy insights.
In fact, a lot of their commentary is just mentioning who wrote which
joke and describing what moments in the TMNT comic the characters are referring
to.
Schoening’s annotations are a bit more entertaining, as
he reveals every single Easter egg he snuck into each panel. And boy, there were a lot more than I ever
found. Many of them are in-jokes us
rabble wouldn’t get, like characters designed after the colorist’s extended
family, but others were nicely tucked away or obscure and slipped right past me.
The script is a curious inclusion, though being a final
draft it offers no deviations from the finished comic. An earlier draft might have been more
interesting; to see what got changed or dropped. Burnham’s scripting style is also very dry
and bare bones; he isn’t one of those comic writers who livens their script up
with elaborate prose or colorful asides the outside world would otherwise never see.
The script is a neat thing to have, but the appeal is pretty limited.
Anyhow, this was a cool bonus; I actually hope they do the rest of the
series. Maybe Waltz’s and Burnham’s commentary will get a little more
candid and I’m curious how many more
Easter Eggs I completely missed. (EDIT: According to Burnham, there are currently no plans for more Director's Cuts.)
