Monday, October 26, 2009

Tales #64 Sneaker!


For all you folks coming over from Newsarama, I do realise that my blog is somewhat lacking in any sort of interesting content for you to gander at immediately, so here's a preview of my final TMNT comic with Mirage.

It's a significant change of pace from my previous stories, but is still 100% in line with everything I've done before. You just might not be able to tell from what I'm about to show you.

The art is by long-time TMNT artist Jim Lawson, and I'm thrilled, really thrilled with the work he's done on this. It jumps around all over the place and Jim's done a fantastic job of jumping around with it!

What's next?

With my last TMNT comic due this November (through Mirage at least), I've been looking in all sorts of new directions to keep writing. I've been speaking with local publisher Gestalt about the possibilities of having my first creator owned book published through them, and things are looking good. I posted a bit of a teaser a while back if people can find it! ;)

I'm also working on a pitch with one of the Transformers crew over at IDW that I'm really excited about (and it has nothing to do with Transformers either), and am waiting to hear back on a little something that's sitting at Disney at the moment. I've touched base with a couple of editors here and there to see if there's any chance of work on some other licensed books, but we'll see how that goes. Right now, my priorities are "Tyrant Earth" and the first of the aforementioned pitches. And paying rent.

Oh, I'm also overhauling all my "Tobin's Spirit Guide" artwork! I'll have updates on all that soon!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Untold Tales of the TMNT: Touch and Go.

I know there are people curious out there, and given the news of the Viacom buyout, I think it's safe to say that these stories unfortunately won't see the light of day. Dan Berger had started lining them up as a possibility beyond May, provided no decision was reached regarding publishing roughly a month ago... Anyway, here's the first. I'll post the other 3 shortly...

This story is set shortly after Tales #64, just a bit after Volume 2. Hun is looking to retake the New York underworld and has joined a cabal of the most powerful criminals currently at large. They all have the same goal – eradicate the Turtles, eradicate the Foot, but not everyone trusts the other. This story shifts focus on to King Cobra, a villain introduced in Tales #59, who appears again in #64, with the intention of not only expanding his character, but also introducing a couple of cool new characters and will finish with a real sucker-punch development for Hun that I think will really leave readers hungry for more…

We open shortly after the ********************* concluded #64. King Cobra has gone back to his base of operations at “The Snake Pit” in Harlem (See #59). He and his bent, but also extremely good lawyer are going through some files. He doesn’t trust any of the other cabal members and is digging up as much dirt and personal information as he can on them in case things go bad, and it looks like his lawyer has struck gold: Hun has a 13 year old niece in witness protection.

King Cobra heads down to a private, seedier area of the club, where two girls are dancing on a podium for the lurid entertainment of lowlifes and criminals seeking refuge in the club. He calls the two girls aside, telling them he needs them for something very important. It is here that we find out that these girls are Amie Cortier and Anya Desír -- two of the world’s most dangerous assassins, and the team known more commonly as Touch and Go.

We jump cut to another part of NYC. The subway. It’s late night, and the trains are relatively empty outside of a few people here and there. Lauren Stanton (the main character from Tales #59) is sitting in a corner of the carriage with what appears to be two bums. The bums are actually Mike and Raph, on their way to Leo’s home in the sewers with Stanton, who they are bringing up to speed on things since her involvement with them in #59.
At one stop, three cops get on at one door, and a small group of men and women at one further down the carriage. But something is wrong… the two groups seem to be casting signalling glances at each other.

Both groups seem to swoop on a young girl seated by herself. The young girl struggles, and the Turtles (in disguise) move in to protect her. During this fight, the humans recognise the Turtles for what they really are, and Raph then realises that they are a part of the renegade Shredder Loyalists that were responsible for the events of Tales #36 and the release of Hun. Midway through the fight, the power goes out and the train comes to a screeching halt. The little girl runs for it, but just as she gets to the door to the next carriage, the power comes back on, and standing right in front of her is Go.
Not trusting of anyone, Hun’s niece runs back, and the Foot try to grab her. Touch comes through the door at the far end of the carriage, and both girls launch into an attack against the Foot. After a brief fight on the train, the Turtles stall Touch and Go long enough to allow Hun’s niece enough time to escape. The turtles aren’t quite sure what to make of Touch and Go, given that this is the first time they’ve encountered them, and that they just kicked the shit out of the Foot goons.

Touch and Go both disengage from the fight and seemingly retreat. Mikey is enamoured with the girls, but Raph seems agitated. The turtles grab Lauren and they jump off the train, continuing towards Leo’s lair on foot.

They arrive at Leo’s home, filling him in on what occurred earlier. They get in touch with Donatello (who is at April’s currently vacant apartment, guarding the place after the “Hun” incident), who uses the new computer set up there to gain access to the NYC Surveillance Project and find out which way the girl(s) went.

Miller tries to contact him (the cops have been called about what happened on the train). The group decides to meet up and discuss what’s going on. Raph, Mike and Lauren all explain to Miller and Leo exactly what happened. Leo is concerned mainly about the involvement of the Foot and Touch and Go, but Miller is concerned about the little girl most, as he knows who she is. All he tells them is that they need to find her, that she’s under witness protection because of Hun.

We cut back to the girl. She’s arriving at her home, her foster parents are pissed at her being late. We drop a few little hints about who this girl might be, but nothing explicit yet. Suddenly, Touch and Go strike! They kill the foster parents, but before they can get away with the young girl, Leo, Raph and Mike bust in, taking everyone by surprise. The apartment is trashed as the Turtles collide with Touch and Go, and Miller and Stanton catch Hun’s niece as she tries to escape the building.

During the fight, Touch and Go reveal their true potential, and the Turtles are barely able to keep up. Again Touch and Go disengage from the Turtles and resume their pursuit of the little girl. The Turtles follow.

New York traffic prevents Stanton and Miller from getting too far, and Touch and Go catch up. Things look grim as the two assassins get the better of Miller, but the Turtles do show up in time. Leo figures out how their power works and the Turtles start fighting smart. They divide the girls and overpower them, forcing them into a retreat.

The Turtles manage to save the day, but it is decided that Hun’s niece isn’t safe. They know the Foot are after her, and they believe Touch and Go could be working for anyone, so they decide to send her to stay with Casey and April for a while down at the farmhouse in Northampton. It is during this scene that Miller reveals who the little girl is (this will be the big reveal to the readers).

Thursday, October 22, 2009

(Not The) End of the World

I'm sure everyone's aware of what's going on, so I'm not going to prattle on about the TMNT sale. All I have to say on the matter is that I really do wish everyone at Mirage the very best for the future, and that I look forward to seeing where the Turtles go from here. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, because there were some things in place before the deal went ahead that I was genuinely excited about (the continuation of the Hun/King Cobra gang war saga on a monthly schedule), but that said, hopefully whoever picks up the ball will see fit to have me on board (you people out there need to support me on that one! Bug the shit out of whoever gets it!! ;) ).

Ultimately I think the sale's a great thing for the TMNT, and I can't see why, for the life of me, fans are getting so beat up about all this. This is what people have wanted for so long, and now all I'm seeing is negativity.

Anyway, life goes on. I'm still working on my own books, and I have two prospective gigs lined up at IDW that I'm hoping pan out, because they both revolve around the only thing that means more to me personally than the Turtles. I'm eagerly awaiting word back from Disney on another, and Andres and I are still working on Tyrant Earth. I also have my own project, which I finally decided to call "Caught in the Rain", slowly coming together too.

What else is happening? My mother is being forced to pay rent she can't afford on a house she bought (hence why she can't afford rent) two months ago because the vendor and real estate agents are shit rags, so my mother and brother are at risk of being homeless unless these dicks get their act. If I could fit them in at my place I would, but with two housemates in a unit that barely holds the three of us (four if you count one's girlfriend) it makes things a little hard.

Oh, my brother also landed a job at Walt Disney World starting July 17 next year! He'll be over there working in the park and hotel for 6 months. Kinda cool! Hopefully, I'll be able to visit him around NYCC next year!

One last thing, Armageddon Expo was held here in Melbourne last weekend. Met Greg Rucka and Bill Sienkiewics, along with Peter David, who were all fantastic, and I got to speak with Greg at length about the ins and outs of the comic industry at the moment. Really great guy! His Gotham Central run is one of my favourite books of all time! I also got another Venkman sketch for the slowly growing collection (at the moment it's just this one and one by Terry Dodson I got at SDCC), this one is by "Chamba" from Udon's Street Fighter comics -- another local dude!

Check it!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Various

I've just polished off a big, solid brekky and am about to head back to my mother's place. Got a pretty mass day ahead, but I'm looking forward to it.

Mum's getting ready to move out of the family home of 25 years and into a new place at the end of November, so she's hired a big, 4m bin to dump all the Unnecessaries into.

After that I'm heading back in to the Armageddon Expo, to attend a panel being hosted by Greg Rucka and Peter David on writing comics, which is something I'm looking forward to.
I'll also be hanging out with the dudes I consider my best mates (one of whom was caught in an extremely unfortunate car accident on his way to the show yesterday).

Later I've got dinner with my old man out here in Carlton. Between all that, Mirage Universe and Caught in the Rain!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

This Week

It's been a pretty draining week, physically and emotionally. My parents came out of mediation today but I'm not 100% sure what decisions were reached. My legs are caning from the change in running patterns. Still haven't been able to summon up any work outside of the comics (or inside for that matter), but I have a couple of pitches sitting in pretty nice places that I'm hoping work out for the best!

Been doing tonnes of research lately. Dinosaur evolution, deep sea biology, the Earth, and sifting through all the Mirage Turtles books, making notes for the upcoming Universe guidebook. I hope people dig it... Jake (Black) and Murphy have already done a heap of work on it. Kinda neat to have my first kinda real editing gig... kinda!

Picked up my comics for this week too. Here's what I had in:

Deadpool #900

Deadpool #900 johnson variant

Web of Spider-Man #1

Web of Spider-Man #1 Zombie variant

Batgirl #3

Batman #691

Blackest Night Batman #3

Detective Comics Annual #11

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

What I Got

MARVEL
Amazing Spider-Man #608
Amazing Spider-Man #608 djurdjevic variant
Dark Reign List Secret Warriors One Shot
Dark Reign Zodiac #3
Deadpool #14 2nd print Crystal Variant
Deadpool #16
Deadpool #16 Cyclops variant
Vengeance of Moon Knight #2
Vengeance of Moon Knight #2 zombie variant

DC
Batman and Robin #5
Batman Annual #27

INDEPENDENT
Ghostbusters Displaced Aggression #2 cover a
Ghostbusters Displaced Aggression #2 Runge
Ghostbusters Displaced Aggression #2 Runge incentive cover

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Titles

One of the weirdest things for me is coming up with titles. I hate them. Sometimes they come really, really naturally. I love poking fun and making pop-culture references in my comic titles (read: poaching), but the bigger things... they're bitches.

Right now, I'm working on four books of my own. Three of them came as naturally as breathing, but the fourth, and probably the most down to earth is killing me!

"Six to the Head" -- nice ring to it and links in with the story nicely.
"Tyrant Earth" -- totally suits the story and, again, has a nice and dramatic ring to it.
"Skinwalkers" -- rolls off the tongue, sounds ominous and creepy, and is pretty much what the story is about.

This fourth one though... I've got a few rolling around in my head, but they all feel really wishy-washy.

"One Night"
"Morning of the Sixth Day"
"The Sixth Day"
"Hiding"
"Saturation"

Problem is, I can't really talk about it without blowing the whole thing...