Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Turtle power helps fight stains, odor-causing residues
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Andrew Degraff
Even superheroes have to do their laundry, and no one understands the power of Febreze quite like the sewer-dwelling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Artist Andrew Degraff created the piece for “Shell-Shock – A TMNT Art Show and Tribute,” which opens today at Brave New Worlds in Philadelphia.
- June 3, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The Governator placed ‘on hold’; B&N gets $1B offer
The Governator
Publishing | As the fallout mounts from the revelation that former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child more than a decade ago with a member of his household staff, plans to revive the Terminator star’s acting career have been put on hold — a move that now extends to The Governator, the comics and animation project co-developed by Stan Lee. “In light of recent events,” representatives announced last night, “A Squared Entertainment, POW, Stan Lee Comics, and Archie Comics, have chosen to not go forward with The Governator project.” However, Entertainment Weekly notes the statement was revised two hours later, putting the project “on hold.”
Unveiled in late March, on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, no less, The Governator features a semi-fictional Schwarzenegger who, after leaving the governor’s office, decides to become a superhero — complete with a secret Arnold Cave under his Brentwood home that not even his family knows about. “We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life,” Lee said at the time of the announcement. “We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor.” But even before the couple’s separation became public, producers had backed off depicting Shriver and their children. [TMZ, Entertainment Weekly]
- May 20, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Saturday Shelf Porn
Welcome to another edition of Shelf Porn. Today’s shelves comes from 17-year-old Grady Dixson in upstate New York, who shares a room I wish I’d had when I was 17.
If you’d like to show off your collection, it’s easy — just send a write-up and some jpgs to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now here’s Grady …
- April 23, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Ross Campbell reveals unused plans for a TMNT series at Dark Horse
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the most enduring franchises in comics outside the Big Two. Since its debut as a self-published black & white comic in 1984, it’s gone on to be one of the most successful comic book creations out there. Although its forays into movies, television and toys have long over-shadowed it’s original comic stories, many people and many publishers have looked for ways to change that. At WonderCon this month, IDW announced that it had acquired the license to do new TMNT comics in the near future, but a fan-favorite indie artist just revealed what could have been.
Over on his Tumblr blog, Ross Campbell (Wet Moon, Shadoweyes) talks about plans for him to draw a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series at Dark Horse. Apparently, DH was among several comic companies that bid on the TMNT license. Although IDW eventually beat out DH, the idea of Ross Campbell doing a TMNT series is amazing — in addition to this failed project, Campbell was in talks at one point to do an issue of Mirage’s Tales of the TMNT, although he ended up only doing some covers.
As much as I love seeing Campbell doing his own creator-owned projects, I’d love to see him spend some time on company-owned character he’s inspired by, whether it be TMNT or even a young X-Men series, which he’s talked about for years and did some art for over at Project: Rooftop.
- April 15, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Arrant
Straight for the art | ComicsAlliance and Periscope’s 12 Days of Christmas
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtledoves
AOL’s ComicsAlliance blog has teamed up with the creators at Periscope Studios this holiday season to reimagine the classic Christmas carol “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
“Every day until the 25th, we’ll be posting a new illustration from a comics creator at Periscope Studio that reinterprets the days of the traditional carol as comic book parodies,” writes Laura Hudson. Today’s post features the above image by Andreas Schuster — which is kind of an “Oh my god, are they really doing what I think they’re doing?” moment — while yesterday’s featured Ben Bates replacing the fabled partridge with another type of bird. Be sure to check back between now and Christmas to see what the rest of the Periscope crew comes up with.
- December 16, 2009 @ 08:52 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tales of the TMNT #55
Publishing | Following the purchase last week of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property by Viacom/Nickelodeon, Mirage Studios announced it will publish Tales of the TMNT at least through May 2010.
On the official website, cartoonist Dan Berger writes that co-creator Peter Laird retained an option to publish up to 18 TMNT comics a year. Elsewhere, writer Tristan Jones notes that the agreement only covers single issues “based on the current Mirage Universe stuff (eg: a continuation/conclusion to Volume 4).”
However, judging by comments made yesterday afternoon by Laird, it seems unlikely he will invoke that option in the near future: “One thing that is becoming clear to me is that, right now, I need to really step back from Turtle stuff. I am feeling strongly that I need to distance myself from the TMNT to truly grasp what has happened, and become accustomed to it. With that in mind, I have to say that it is likely that any new TMNT comics coming from me/Mirage (under the ‘reserved rights’ clause negotiated in the sale) are probably not going to be seen anytime soon. Although I do have the right to publish up to eighteen issues of TMNT comics per year, it is highly unlikely that I will do that right away. In all honesty, the idea of doing ANY new Turtle stuff right now leaves me cold.” [NinjaTurtles.com]
Legal | A court has ordered South Korean cartoonist Choi to pay $17,000 to settle a dispute with Wonju City over a cartoon that included offensive words about President Lee Myung-bak. The city recalled about 20,000 copies of the promotional paper after readers discovered the hidden message. [The Korea Times]
- October 27, 2009 @ 08:07 AM by Kevin Melrose
Peter Laird: ‘I never expected to be working on the same thing for this long’
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
Although many were surprised by yesterday’s announcement that Viacom had purchased Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for $60 million, co-creator Peter Laird makes it clear the sale of the ’80s indie-comics hit turned multimedia franchise was a long time coming.
“Why did I sell the TMNT?” Laird wrote yesterday afternoon on his blog. “There are a number of reasons, but first and foremost is that I have been doing this TMNT thing for twenty-five years, sixteen of them in partnership with TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and the last nine as sole owner of the property. That is a long time. It is almost half my life (I’m 55). I never expected to be working on the same thing for this long. And it has worn me down. I am no longer that guy who carries his sketchbook around with him and draws in it every chance he gets. … I miss — I really, really miss — being that guy.”
Laird, who in March 2008 completed a buyout of Eastman’s interests in TMNT and Mirage Studios that had begun in 2000, noted that his interest in the property had faded in recent years: “As one result, the production of TMNT Volume 4 comics has slowed to a crawl. That’s not good. I have a conclusion planned out for that series, and at some point I want to get to it. Maybe this sale will help me get to that point. We’ll see.”
He also stressed that he still owns Mirage, the company he founded with Eastman in 1983.
Debuting in 1984 as a black-and-white self-published comic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a parody of Cerebus, Daredevil, New Mutants and Ronin. However, thanks largely to the efforts of licensing agent Mark Freedman, the property soon spawned animated TV series, movies, video games and endless merchandise.
Under Viacom’s ownership, TMNT is destined for a new feature film from Paramount and a CG-animated TV series from Nickelodeon, both in 2012.
- October 22, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Longbox
Digital comics | Technology columnist Andy Ihnatko spotlights LongBox Digital, the much-anticipated “iTunes for comics,” and claims he’s “pretty sure” the company is entering into a “formal alliance” with Apple: “Comic-industry cluelessness and their inability to unite towards a common, mutual good are the two main reasons why we haven’t seen anything like LongBox before. But they probably haven’t been as serious a roadblock as the simple lack of any portable device that’s perfectly-suited to reading digital comics. This is a form of storytelling that needs a tablet. A big, page-sized color screen with lots of resolution and a touch interface for turning pages and navigating from panel to panel. Apple is rumored to be making one of those things. And they’re also rumored to be speaking with a great many high-profile print publishers about bringing their content to this new device.” LongBox CEO Rantz Hoseley wouldn’t confirm Ihnatko’s Apple assertion. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- October 21, 2009 @ 08:16 AM by Kevin Melrose