Thoughts on Pete's Status/Hiatus
 

Just wondering what your thoughts are on Pete's statue. He has not posted to his blog since May, minimal posts on FB, and the Mirage website has not been updated since August. I got the feeling at his last Shellback appearance that it could be his last....at least for a while. He doesn't owe is fans anything, and I understand if he is tires of all the questions and stuff.....but I liked his blogs about nature/pottery and what not. I got quite excited to see his few collaborations with Kevin over the last year or so....was hoping that would continue every now and then...

Any thoughts?

I think if you're in the public eye and you start a story, you owe it to your audience to finish that story one way or another. If not by doing it yourself, by entrusting the conclusion of that story to a partner or a successor.

The only way we TMNT fans will ever get a satisfactory conclusion to Volume 4 is if Andrew rousts another team to get it done, just like he did with Volume 3 and Odyssey.

I call it fan fiction though and not official. I would collaborate with anyone to help complete TMNT Adventures, "Forever War" teased to us back in 2009. Still it would feel like fan fiction unless it was the creative team that intended it. I agree that Peter Laird owes us. He started volume four and should finish his product. He knows how it is going to go. Why not just put it to script and hand it over to Jim, if not let Jim fill in any plot pieces still needed? I doubt it would be too much time and trouble for him.

He said he got bored of blogging in a reply on his last "Ask PL" post a couple of months ago. He's obviously not doing anything TMNT related so he has nothing to say on that front.

Also isn't PL 60 years old now? When he started Volume 4 he was like 45...so he was much younger.

Sorry. No creator owes anybody, even fans, anything. If you force someone to do something they don't want to do, 9 times out of 10 you'll get something nothing near their best work.

It sucks, I know, but people get bored doing/writing/drawing the same thing, especially for many years. Have some consideration.

I do miss this though.

Different POVs, mate. As a creator myself, I absolutely think that if I leave anything unfinished, I owe it to my audience to give them as much as an ending as I can reasonably provide.

Whether that's posting my outlines for the rest of the series and saying "What might have been" or passing the torch to a trusted collaborator, it doesn't take much effort to finish a story even if you yourself burn out.

I've seen far too many series do this to sit back anymore and say "well, they don't owe us anything."

I talked to Jim at length this year at Boston Con and discussed the continuation of Vol 4. Jim is itching to keep the book going but he said it was not up to him (which makes sense) and if Peter gave the go-ahead he would be all over it. This was only a casual conversation but he sounded enthusiastic. We can only hope.

Well of course Jim would want to do it so he can get paid. Common sense.

Not everyone does things for money. He has compassion for what he worked on a good part of his life. Volume 4 is his baby too being the artist.

I told you CKDohmy, we have more in common than you think.

Other than our differences on favorite Robin/Batgirl, thoughts of Flash, and opinion of FW TMNT, I think we see pretty much eye-to-eye on everything else. :tlol:

Take for example George RR Martin. The ONLY reason that homeboy is off the hook is because HBO will go on without his slow ass. I'm hoping to pay my kids' college tuition with the money I'll win on my wager with a few friends that GRRM dies before ever writing the last book. :tlol:

I agree 100%
Either finish or let someone else!

Show some God damn respect.

Thank you for saying that, Powder.

I'm sure Jim Lawson rakes in a million for every issue he draws. :trolleye:

I think Cubed pulled his head out of the rabbit hole he keeps it in to understand. I guess when Peter made the promise it was not realized 'eventually' would be over six years. I guess even Peter did even consider that with the promise. The longer away fron something the easier it is to not get back into it. I hope he has a moment of clarity that a dew hours of editing and nktes and oassing itvto Jim is all it takes. If Jim could ask him peivately himself maybe....

At least there is a transcript for how it ends unlike Forever War. I would love to get my hands on it.

i doubt it'll happen buy it would be awesome if Peter Laird gave Jim Lawson his ok to continue and finish Vol. 4.

even though it was rushed at least vol. 2 had a proper conclusion!


seriously! there really is?

I honestly care more about one day finally getting Forever War than ever seeing the end of Vol. 4, to be blunt. :lol: No matter how the last few issues of Vol. 4 went... you still have the first three dozen. Ain't no fixin' that mess. :lol:

As for Laird himself, guy's burnt out. Probably enjoying some much-needed quiet time, the most he's had in decades. Bless him. I'm not a huge fan of his work but the guy's earned a break.

I prefer to see TMNTA completed and see how it was supposed to go. Shredder a totalitarian dictator and Armaggon among other guest like the Scumbug and Katmandu. Laird mentions he has a rought draft and notes on how issues 33-35 were to go to wrap it all up. It somewhere on his TMNT Blog. He said he may post it at some point.

I'm going to assume this was meant as sarcasm.

I'm not going to say I know how the profit structure works but let's say for ***** and giggles they continue producing/selling a supposed 1000 copies per issue. Even at $10 a pop that's a total of $10,000. Now being very generous and assuming Peter gives Jim 50%, that's $5000. After costs of materials, printing and payouts to others that helped work on the book, I'm sure it's well below $5000. Factor in how many hours Jim put into each book and I'm sure what he made per hour is minimal. I highly doubt he's in it for the money.

As much as I'd like to see Peter finish the story I think I'd rather see him hand it off to someone else. I have stipulations though...keep the same format (b&w and length of issue), keep the releases to 1 or 2 a year and change up the course of the story-line, it could use a fresh pair of eyes. And even though Jim isn't my favorite artist he should continue penciling. It just wouldn't feel right if someone else took over as artist.

Didn't Jim Lawson get paid a certain salary no matter what Volume 4 sold like? PL said Volume 4 never turned a profit (at least the pre-$10 an issue copies), so its not like that made a difference.

Jim wasn't working for free obviously. PL paid him a salary even when Volume 4 sold at a loss.

He doesn't owe us a damn thing.