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Old 01-14-2016, 11:44 AM   #82
Bobby Curnow
Official TMNT Staff/Cast
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,518
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stugehen View Post
Many creative teams behind established properties rehash the same story for a new generation since it’s easy to make money for a while off of nostalgia. With such a huge wellspring of TMNT lore to pull from I’m consistently impressed at how original your ongoing story has been, now more than ever. At the same time I’m positively glowing with nostalgia each issue I read.

This is a big open question, but will you offer some insight into your creative process? Or more specifically, when formulating story arcs and direction how do you balance original content with just enough inspiration from past iterations to keep things fresh, but in sync with what TMNT means to so many fans?
At any given time we've got a couple long-term plans in mind that we are working on building to. Then, we take a look at where we've been recently, in terms of plot and character development, and ask what makes sense next. Then you mix in a dollop of spur-of-the-moment ideas that hopefully make a short or long term plan better.

Tom and I, and in the past year Kevin has been very involved in this process as well, have a sit and discuss the next storyline coming up. While we do that, we usually get ideas for upcoming story lines further down the road.

So basically we have a skeleton of the overall story leading to, say #50, or #100. From month to month, we fill in some internal organs on storylines that are anywhere from six-to-twelve months ahead, while putting the skin, hair, and clothing on the storylines that we are currently writing and producing. So one foot in the present, one foot in the near future, one foot in the long term. Yes, i've just described some hideous, three-footed semi-formed monstrosity, but that's storytelling!

In terms of original vs. old characters, if an old character serves a purpose in the story we're telling, then we will usually include them to get the pleasant bonus of a little nostalgia hype going (but it's important to note that we only do that when it serves the story. It'd be easy to trot out characters for no purpose other than that instant nostalgia hype, but we try to wait for the right moment, like we did with Bebop and Rocksteady, or Rat King, etc). If no old character comes to mind that serves the story, then we create a new character.

Sometimes, we have situations where old characters COULD maybe fit, like Armaggon for Bludgeon, but the old characters are so different in purpose and personality, that they are not a good fit for the story we are telling, even if they seem so on paper.

Long story short, we feel all of this stuff out as we go!
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