Blast from the Past #567: April 16, 2008: Re: Hey Mr. Comicom!!

Subj: Re: Hey Mr. Comicom!!
Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:05:58 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

In a message dated 4/15/08 8:48:11 PM, Lloyd writes:

Hey Pete!
 
 Yesterday a box arrived on my desk from Mirage, and in it, much to my happy  surprise, I found the NEW ISSUE of TMNT!!!
 
 WOOOO – HOOO!  And also let me throw in a HALLELELUJAH (for good measure)!
 
 What a great way to start the week!  I just finished reading it and wanted to let you know I enjoyed it thoroughly.  I also realize that I have MISSED IT IMMENSELY!
 
 A question: was this written before you put the series on hold, after, or a little of both?  Just curious.>>

Lloyd,


Your enthusiastic words are MUCH appreciated... thank you! As for when I wrote it... I think I actually wrote the dialogue about a year and a half after Jim had drawn the book, so I guess that would mean about six or seven months ago. Now I'm curious -- why are YOU curious?
 
<< Some quick favorite bits:
 
 ·         I loved the Utroms sharing the “need-to-know” look between them  when Casey asks what they’ve been working on
 ·         Scary men’s room complete with alien urinals and tentacles visible under the toilet stall doors>>

I had originally planned to make that "alien bathroom" scene longer and goofier, with Casey -- in his inebriated state -- trying to figure out how to use some crazy looking alien toilet, and maybe even interacting in some embarrassing way with some alien in the bathroom... but it ended up working better as is, I think. I like the sense of melancholy Jim achieved in how he drew Casey taking a leak while thinking about April.

 <<·         Let’s hear it for Q.I.R. ladies and gentlemen!
 ·         Special cameo appearance by everyone favorite ninja femme fatale (especially yours) Karai
 ·         Gnotaga!
 ·         I have to admit I get a thrill outta seeing stuff from the show become part of the official comic canon (BattleNexus, Daimyo, Gyogi)>>

You know, I get a big kick out of that. I know I've said this before, but it probably bears repeating -- I'm really proud of being part of the team that did (is doing!) the new TMNT tv show. And it really is fun to have that kind of backwards integration (is that the right term?) of stuff from the new show into the comic. (Something that would NEVER have happened in the old Fred Wolf days!)

 ·       <<  The art is just great.  Jim kicks ass on this book, with a million great touches everywhere you look.  Great cover from Mike.>>

I agree! If you can, please find a moment to tell those guys that too -- they'd appreciate it!
  
<< Welcome back one and all!  : )>>

Thanks man!
 
<< Re: the Con, what’s the plan?  Gary tells me you’re there for the duration.  Any plans?  Any time better or worse to come by?  Lemme know.>>

I'll be happy to see you any time, Lloyd! (Although I am obligated to be at the NECA booth signing toy packages from 1 to 3 on Saturday, I believe.)
  
-- Pete

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Subj: Re: Hey Mr. Comicom!!
Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:44:19 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

In a message dated 4/16/08 9:27:33 PM, Lloyd writes:

Oh, and by the way, I also meant to mention two additional things about the comic:
 
 ·         I think the way you’ve set about “distributing “ the book is VERY cool>>

Lloyd,


Thanks! So far, it is going pretty well -- I think Katie told me today that since the ordering info went up on the website Monday or Tuesday, we've gotten about 250 orders. I am still hearing (or reading online, actually) comments from befuddled Turtle fans who don't quite get what I'm doing with it, but I'm hoping that will pass. And so far I've done head sketches in 225 copies... I might do more, but I think that is enough for now.
 
<<Thanks so much for the kind words about season 7 (or is it 8?)!  All the 4Kids crew got a real kick out of it!  ;)>>

You (and the crew) are welcome! I'm looking forward to seeing these episodes animated.
 
<< I’ll try and drop by and see you guys Friday, and I’ll definitely be around Saturday.>>

Sounds good!
 
<< Also, you and I need to discuss the idea me and the guys have been percolating for the TMNT 25th Anniversary project!>>

Also sounds good!
  
-- Pete

Further progress

I did get to print out a couple of proof copies of TMNT #31 today (thankfully, the printer seems to be able to do duplexing again, after being on the fritz for a few days... actually, it's not the printer's fault, but the new Macs we got to replace some old ones -- some kind of classic new operating system software/printer driver conflict... but that's neither here nor there). I gave one copy to Jim to check out (and got an email from him tonight saying he liked it... thanks, Jim!).

I took my copy home and read it through once, and found a few mistakes, and will likely read it through a few more times. I am pleased that this issue seems to be coming together without too many hitches, because this marks the first time I have composited an issue of TMNT directly in Adobe InDesign. Prior to this, I would always do it in a version of Quark Xpress, and for the last few years after I'd done that I would convert the Quark file into an InDesign file (Dan likes them better, and he's the dude interfacing with our printer). There were always some glitches during this conversion process, and I would end up spending several more hours correcting them.

So I finally decided that even though I was really comfortable with the lettering tools in Quark, I had to learn how to do it in InDesign. I'm still not loving InDesign's tool set, but I think I can get used to it eventually. -- PL

Progress

I have pretty much finished the tones for issue #31 of TMNT, and if all goes well in the lettering stage (which I hope to begin tonight or tomorrow), #31 might be sent to the printer within a few weeks. The photo above is of the cover page of a "proof print" I did so that I could see how the tones were going to look (sometimes things look different when they are printed than when you were looking at them on a computer monitor). I also wanted to get a look at one particular page on which I think I spent the most time doing tones of any page in all of Volume 4... and I'm not sure people will be able to tell. We'll see, I guess.

So this means, I think, that if anyone wants to write a letter of comment for possible inclusion in issue #31, they should probably do it in the next couple of weeks.

And in a related bit of news, Jim Lawson has started penciling issue #32 -- I think he's done four or five pages so far.-- PL

One hundred and forty-five down, fifty-five left to go! (Plus...)

I came in to the office today to grab a bicycle for my daily ride, and took some TMNT #30's with me, thinking I might find a nice spot somewhere along the way to do more head sketches. I ended up sitting in the shade on some steps at Smith College, and enjoyed the air while I finished another twenty of them.

When I got here this morning, I was pleased to find these five copies of TMNT #30 sitting in front of my office door.



Yesterday I had asked the dudes if they would each do smallish head sketches in these five copies of the book, so that five lucky people would get copies with a sketch from each of us. (These copies will be randomly inserted into the order stream.) Jim Lawson had to show everybody up by doing full figures. I like the sepia ones Eric did... and check out the wacky expression Dan gave one of his! (Must be Mikey...) -- PL

One hundred and twenty-five down, seventy-five left to go!

Just finished another twenty-five head sketches in copies of TMNT #30 and gave them to Katie.

Also, Eric gave me this photo of some of the head sketches that he recently finished doing in copies of TMNT #30. Cool, huh? -- PL

Berger, Lawson and Talbot Turtle head sketches now available in TMNT issue #29!

A few days ago, I was asked if Dan, Jim and/or Eric would be willing to do head sketches in issue #29 of TMNT as well as the new issue #30. Today I asked them, and they said yes! The same rules apply as for those sketches they are doing in TMNT #30. I think we have a few hundred #29's left. -- PL

TMNT Volume 4 #31

Just wanted to mention that I started the toning work on issue #31 today. It's probably a few months away from publication, but I'm pretty sure this one will be coming out more quickly after #30 than #30 appeared after #29. -- PL

Forty-five down, one hundred and fifty-five left to go...

I worked a little bit yesterday and some more today on doing the head sketches in issue #30 of Volume 4, and I managed to do another thirty-three of them.

For the ones I worked on today, I used a 90% cool grey Prismacolor marker. I decided to try this to give a little more variety to the look of the sketches. I like how they came out.

Here's a photo of some of the new head sketches, taken in the front office at Mirage Studios. -- PL

Twelve down, one hundred and eighty-eight left to go...

Today I started doing the promised head sketches on the inside back covers of our copies of TMNT Volume 4 #30. I got these twelve done this afternoon.



My plan is to definitely do this in two hundred copies, and possibly a few more (I'll decide that when I get to the 200th one). But the exciting news today is that, in addition to Eric Talbot, Jim Lawson and Dan Berger have also agreed to do some head sketches in these books! Woohoo! (Maybe we can even get Dooney to join in...!)

I'm pretty sure Dan posted the ordering information today over on ninjaturtles.com. Be aware that it's one head sketch per book, and you should make clear when ordering who you want to do it. -- PL

TMNT#30... in the house!

Just wanted to let you all know that we received our copies of TMNT #30 from the printer today. I plan to start doing some Turtle head sketches in them tonight. And Eric Talbot surprised me today (before we went with Jim Lawson on a short-but-sweet motorcycle ride) by offering to do head sketches in some of them. So that might mean anyone who'd prefer a Talbot sketch to a Laird sketch could probably get one by requesting it when ordering. Cool, huh? -- PL

TMNT comic news

Here's the cover to the recently completed (like, yesterday) TMNT #30:



I handed it over to Dan Berger yesterday and he has sent it off to the printer. We're now waiting to see the printer's proof. Hopefully, within a few weeks we will have printed copies and will be able to begin fulfilling mail orders. Shortly after that starts, we will put it up online for free. The pricing is the same as for issue #29 -- $10.00 per copy (I think there may also be shipping and handling -- check the ninjaturtles.com site to make sure). I will also be doing Turtle head sketches on the inside back covers of each of at least the first 150 copies that go out via mail order. -- PL

TMNT Volume 4 update

I have finished toning, and just started lettering, issue #30 of TMNT Volume 4. I expect that it it will take at least a couple of weeks to finish.

If anyone wants to write a letter to the Editor for possible inclusion in this issue, the deadline for such is probably about three weeks from today -- let's say March 15. -- PL

Blast from the Past #53 repost: Unused Pages From TMNT #1, Vol. 4

Back in 2001, Jim Lawson had penciled eight pages of the first issue of the new TMNT comic, and I had started inking them, when he decided that he wasn't happy with the way he had drawn them, and wanted to start all over again. So he did! Some of the pages I had almost finished inking, although I hadn't done anything on page one (unless you want to count inking the panel border).











In my opinion, there was nothing wrong with any of these pages. (If it had been me who'd drawn them, I would have been happy to keep them as is.) But Jim felt he could do better, and redrew them. Pretty amazing. -- PL

Blast from the Past #50 repost: TMNT as drawn by Jack Kirby!

For this special fiftieth "Blast From The Past", I thought I would choose one of my favorite and most unique pieces, and one that I have Kevin to thank for. I don't know the exact process by which it came to be, but my understanding is that some time in the late 1980's or early 1990's, Jack Kirby did this 10 inch by 15 inch pencil drawing -- his interpretation of the TMNT -- at Kevin's request, and some years later, Kevin (who knew I loved this piece) graciously gave it to me.



As far as I know, this is the only time "The King" ever drew the TMNT... and it's SO Kirby. I love it! -- PL

P.S. This next bit of text was run along with the above when I first posted this "Blast from the Past" entry on the planetracers.com website some years ago. It's obviously dated now, but it contains a few interesting things, so I thought I would include it here.

"UPDATE!
As Dan Berger has already indicated on the official TMNT website (ninjaturtles.com), the first issue of the new TMNT comic book is at the printer, and just two days ago we approved the proof, and they are going ahead and printing it. We have been told that it could be shipping on December 11th, so we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Mike Dooney's cover came out great (at least in the proof), and I can't wait to see the finished product.

I messed up big time with a technical aspect of this first new TMNT issue. A bit of background -- when Jim Lawson and I worked on PLANET RACERS, I did all of the lettering on my Mac in QuarkXpress. However, instead of sending the books to the printer as all-digital files, I printed out all of the interior pages as 11 by 17 prints and sent all of those to the printer for them to shoot from (the cover I sent on disk). I did this because I was paranoid about fonts changing, balloons disappearing, art pages changing places, etc. -- all nightmares I had heard from other people who have done their pre-press stuff digitally. But with this new TMNT book, I decided to follow the example of Dan Berger (GUTWALLOW) and Jim Lawson (PALEO) and send the entire thing as a digital file. Unfortunately, I should have checked with Dan on what exact size I should make the pages in Quark -- I didn't, and I ended up having to resize the entire book, page by page, balloon by balloon, text block by text block. It put the delivery of the file to the printer back by at least a day. And now I have to do the same thing with the second issue, which I had also started lettering at the wrong size! Oh well... live and learn.

A couple of days ago, I finally accepted the fact that at the speed I am inking, this book will never come out on a reasonable schedule. Fortunately, Eric Talbot recently moved back to our area and is going to help me out with the inking, starting with issue #3. Thanks, Eric!

Several weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Steve Barron (director of the first TMNT movie) again for several days of meetings here in Northampton, meetings having to do with a potential TMNT project about which I can't really say anything right now. During one of our breaks, I was chatting with Steve about that first TMNT movie, and he mentioned that he had a videotape of his first rough assembly of the film, and he offered to send me a copy. True to his word, Steve got a copy of the tape to me last week, and I had a ball watching it. It is VERY rough, there are a few scenes missing (not many, though), there's no music, no finished sound or voices (curiously, in many of the turtle speaking scenes you can hear two voices - the actor in the turtle suit and the puppeteer -- speaking the same lines simultaneously!). What there IS, though, is some neat stuff that never made it into the final released cut of the film, including several fairly long scenes -- one of which is the comic publisher's office scene intended as the ending of the movie, from which I had only seen one still (I was never sure if the whole scene had been shot). There is also a wonderful extended training scene when the turtles are recuperating at the old farm, as well as many other character bits and pieces which got trimmed.

I asked Steve if he would be willing to work on a director's cut version of the film for a DVD release, and he said "Sure!" Whether or not the film still exists to use for a project like this, I don't know. But it sure would be cool! Maybe it's time to start bugging New Line...

--Peter"