On sale 10/22/08.

Tales of the TMNT focuses on various stories that “occurred” throughout the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' past. “Night of the Living Gingerbread” features a lost tale of the Turtles babysitting Shadow on Halloween. After repeated readings of the same storybook by his teammates, Michelangelo decides to tell Shadow a “real” adventure they had along with Timestress Renet. Writer/Artist Dan Berger uses this as an opportunity to cross the Turtles over with his brave little gingerbread man, Gutwallow. The Turtles spend their time running around Gutwallow’s world, full of dwarves, dragons and vampires, eventually reuniting with Renet and making their way home.

The story is fine enough, especially if you enjoy the classic TMNT mix of “action” and “comedy” – quotation marks intended. And you definitely get a few extra pages than your typical comic, but $3.25?! Really?! This book reads like a dollar book intended for younger readers, except for the random hyper violence and near swears randomly tossed in. There just isn’t enough here to justify the asking price. Berger’s writing is fine, though he doesn’t truly do enough to differentiate the three non-Raphael Turtles from each other without peeking at their weapons. And as far as the art goes, well it definitely looks like a classic TMNT book, but that basically means it looks very cartoonish and indie. The main problem is that this story doesn’t really matter. It is, at its heart, a story of the Turtles past about them telling a story to Shadow that may, or may not, have actually happened in their past.

A book like Tales of the TMNT is at its best when the story explains something, filling in a blank. What happened to Bloodsucker after it reverted to a normal leech? Why in the hell does Casey Jones shout “Goongala" in battle? Will anything Gary Carlson wrote back in the 90s eventually be considered valid?! As it is, this is a decent read, but not at the asking price.