Book Review: Raise Some Shell
Written by Graeme McGaw
I love the 80s. Always have, always will. The music, the movies and of course the cartoons. Thundercats, Inspector Gadget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – I just can’t get enough.
Which is why I’m sitting here about to review the book Raise Some Shell, written by Richard Rosenbaum. This book was sent to me by ECW Press, the book publishing company, for review purposes.
Time to get my Raphael on!
About The Book:
Raise Some Shell aims to cover the beginnings of TMNT – the origins from a self-published comic book which was done in black and white, all the way through the growth and evolution to what TMNT has become today, covering the TV series, movies and of course the big relaunch we’ve been seeing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles over the last few years.
Raise Some Shell Book Review:
One thing I was surprised at was the size of the book, as it’s only about 150 pages. That’s a LOT of TMNT to cover in such a small amount of space. However this is part of the ECW Press new “Pop Classics” line, where they offer “incisive critical commetary in short, punchy volumes of pocket pop”. A very neat idea in theory as it means you get all the good details yet it doesn’t get bogged down in detail. Plus with the internet so easily accessible, if there’s anything you DO want more detail on it’ll most likely be there for you online.
Overall – I really enjoyed this book. I read through it very fast as expected – but then, I’m a fast reader. There was so much information contained within the book that I know I’ll be referring to it again in the future and read through again as it’s such an easy read.
The tone and style I really liked. It was a very laid back and relaxed book, clearly written by a fan. You could feel his enthusiasm shine through, and he got a good few chuckles out of me as well with some of his footnotes.
The only real complaint I would have about the book is that the author was very “wordy”. He has an extended vocabulary which is fine and all – but it did feel at times more everyday words could have been used, especially considering who I would expect the average audience to be. However that never really took anything away from the book and is more a nitpick than anything.
The amount of detail that goes into everything is great. As I said above – I was worried the book would just fly from subject to subject but it really takes its time covering everything with a lot of interesting information, facts and perspective.
Most importantly – I found myself really nodding along with the author as he wrote about everything. He had many points and opinions which he explained clearly and thoroughly, for example talking about how Volume 4 did nostalgia right. There were many areas of the book like that, where his passion really shone through as he backed up his opinion and I sat there agreeing with him.
Overall, an entertaining read. It’s short and a nice quick read – if you’re a TMNT fan, or looking to know more about TMNT then this is recommended for you. A great history lesson and a lot of interesting thoughts and opinions.
For more information or to buy Raise The Shell, head on over to our friends at Amazon.