Ask a Question: IDW's TMNT Editor Thread

[Bobby Curnow]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Did Wyrm eat Calvin?

Open to your imagination.

[Bobby Curnow]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

Bobby, can we expect Leonardo and Raphael to be physically assaulted with giant hammers in the near future? Compared to Donatello, the Mikester got off pretty easy!

Ha, no plans at this time. OR ARE THERE??

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Bobby Curnow

Ha, no plans at this time. OR ARE THERE??

You, sir, are a monster. A monster, I say!

[spookycookies]

Hey Bobby I was wondering about what ever happened to this I guess rough or mock up cover we saw I believe at Comic Con last year? I really liked it but I guess it didn't end up as one of the Wyrm covers. Is there a story behind it or anything?

[neatoman]

So about Alopex's new blue markings, it made me wonder what was up with the old purple markings? They vanished when she splashed water on her face, so I assumed then that were painted on, but then she gets the blue markings from defeating Kitsune in the spirit realm, meaning it can't simply be paint.

So what are the markings if they can be washed off with water but also reappear through non-physical means?

[Bobby Curnow]

Originally Posted by spookycookies

Hey Bobby I was wondering about what ever happened to this I guess rough or mock up cover we saw I believe at Comic Con last year? I really liked it but I guess it didn't end up as one of the Wyrm covers. Is there a story behind it or anything?

Sorry for missing this! Not a cover, just a character design from Nick Pitarra of Wyrm.

[Bobby Curnow]

Originally Posted by neatoman

So about Alopex's new blue markings, it made me wonder what was up with the old purple markings? They vanished when she splashed water on her face, so I assumed then that were painted on, but then she gets the blue markings from defeating Kitsune in the spirit realm, meaning it can't simply be paint.

So what are the markings if they can be washed off with water but also reappear through non-physical means?

The purple markings were paint and the blue are an astral marking.

[MikeandRaph87]

OK to print!

Dear IDW Crew,

We had a year of more focus on a specific turtle. It began with Raphael then shifted to Leo then Don and finally Mike. My question is, is there a specific turtle that is being focused on or will it go back into rotation beginning with Raphael again? I see it possibly being a shared focus on them as brothers on their own,but I could be wrong.

Does the Zodiac have any connection to The Pantheon? Of each of the known members all have animal motifs that have a zodiac sign.Is it safe to say,if allowed yet, that there is an immortal being Pantheon member behind each sign if there is a connection?

Have there been old characters that you tried to come up with concepts for that did not make it into the comic or had a pitch of a character by another of the amazing stable of creators? An example would be incorporating The Punk Frogs into the as of now upcoming Toad Barron story or just pitching them in a story of their own.

Thank you for making someone who loved the animated series and films who could not get into the comics as much as he tried, to want to read the next issue immediately and prefer it to anything else in the comic market at present.
Trey
Virginia

[Bobby Curnow]

Thanks for the OK to print question! If I do end up printing it one day, you might get a retread answer in Ninja Notes, but for now...

Each of the Turtles will get little min-arcs in different stories, both in the ongoing and Universe at different times. But no set rotation moving forward. You've got a bit of Raph focus in the first Universe story arc, and today's #66. The next ongoing story arc, "Desperate Measures" will tilt towards Leo a little bit. But in the meantime we'll get a very Donatello-centric story arc in Metalhead 2.0 in Universe, and a bit more Mikey in Trial of Krang, maybe, though those scripts aren't written yet. So, we'll aim to have a fair balance of of individual focus, and as a group, but no real plans to have a set rotation or anything like that.

No, there are Pantheon members that don't appear in the Zodiac. Perhaps the creation of Zodiac was influenced by different members of the Pantheon once upon time, but that's just speculation.

The short answer to your next question is "yes" but can't really get into specifics, and not as often as you might think. As an aside, I've heard people talk about the Punk Frogs in relation to Toad Baron. They will not be appearing in those issues.

Thank you!

[ChosenOne]

Bobby, a couple of questions that don't necessarily pertain to this month's issues but have been percolating in my mind:

Did Leatherhead exist before the Turtles went back in time and set in motion the events that ended with the pirates dumping ooze/mutagen into the swamp on Burnow Island? Or did they unwittingly bring him into being? Or is it irrelevant either way?

Speaking of timelines, amid the huge mess (in a good way) that was Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything, can one surmise that the other Stockgen mutants still exist, safe and sound but undiscovered, in the main timeline's present day? Or are they gone for good? Those marine mutants and their overprotective creator seemed like they had some potential, not to mention Wingnut and Scumbug.

So the Pantheon is often referred to as a family... While we've seen Rat King, Kitsune, Chi-You and Aka talk about each other as siblings, there's more to a family than that. Could any future members of the Pantheon bear a different relation to these characters? Say, any parents or spouses or what have you?

(Can you tell I've been going back and reading past minis while I wait for new issues? Hahaha)

Thanks!

[Bobby Curnow]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

Bobby, a couple of questions that don't necessarily pertain to this month's issues but have been percolating in my mind:

Did Leatherhead exist before the Turtles went back in time and set in motion the events that ended with the pirates dumping ooze/mutagen into the swamp on Burnow Island? Or did they unwittingly bring him into being? Or is it irrelevant either way?

Speaking of timelines, amid the huge mess (in a good way) that was Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything, can one surmise that the other Stockgen mutants still exist, safe and sound but undiscovered, in the main timeline's present day? Or are they gone for good? Those marine mutants and their overprotective creator seemed like they had some potential, not to mention Wingnut and Scumbug.

So the Pantheon is often referred to as a family... While we've seen Rat King, Kitsune, Chi-You and Aka talk about each other as siblings, there's more to a family than that. Could any future members of the Pantheon bear a different relation to these characters? Say, any parents or spouses or what have you?

(Can you tell I've been going back and reading past minis while I wait for new issues? Hahaha)

Thanks!

The events of Turtles in Time brought Leatherhead into being. Mike kind of puts this together in TMNT #56, when Leatherhead is telling his (own version) of his origin story.

Impossible to know. Most had their timelines collapsed, but some might be in pocket dimensions or different time periods. During the last page we saw some characters in different places like that. It's safe to say there could be others. It's there for us to play with if we want, but no plans to revisit those mutants.

Re: Pantheon-- stay tuned!

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by Bobby Curnow

The events of Turtles in Time brought Leatherhead into being. Mike kind of puts this together in TMNT #56, when Leatherhead is telling his (own version) of his origin story.

Impossible to know. Most had their timelines collapsed, but some might be in pocket dimensions or different time periods. During the last page we saw some characters in different places like that. It's safe to say there could be others. It's there for us to play with if we want, but no plans to revisit those mutants.

Re: Pantheon-- stay tuned!

Thank you once again for taking the time to answer these.

I have a theory about Kitsune's motives and infatuation with Saki as her "Dragon Warrior" that kept gaining traction as I reread older issues, and which your non-committal comment (heh... bonus points for alliteration) kind of cemented even further. While I'm not prepared to share it for fear that I'm overthinking things and will sound foolish, I can't wait to see if I'm anywhere near the vicinity of right when this whole Pantheon thing unfolds even further.

There's a very similar family of supernatural beings featured in a comic called Harrow County, which is what originally got me thinking about who else might make up the Pantheon "family", other than brothers and sisters. Hopefully we'll seem them gather eventually too.

Also, I never remember to add "Okay to print" and most of my posts in this thread are not substantial enough to be used as such anyway, but if you ever wish to print them, feel free to do so!

[CyberCubed]

A lot of the more recent issues of IDW, like the Alopex and Christmas issues, as well as the Wyrm and Leatherhead/Hob issues from Universe, have been one-shot issues. Do you have a preference between shorter one-shot stories like these compared to the big 4-parters? I think a lot of one-shot stories really do help tie up some loose plot points as we've seen, or have a whole arc contained in a single issue.

Or is it that single issues don't tend to do as well in sales as the multi-part 4-issue arcs? I'm curious if we'll get more shorter one or two-part stories in the future.

[Bobby Curnow]

We like a mix of all different size stories. I think people think we've always done four part stories because that's how many issues used to be in the TPBs, but that hasn't really been the case when looking at the actual stories. Because i'm waiting for a appointment, let's run through them and see what the most common story type is!

1-4 (4)
5 (1)
6-8 (3)
9-12 (4)
13-14 (2)
15-16 (2)
17-20 (4)
21 (1)
22-28 (7)
29-32 (4)
33 (1)
34 (1)
35 (1)
36 (1)
37-39 (3)
40 (1)
41-44 (4)
45-50 (6)
51-52 (2)
53-54 (2)
55 (1)
56-58 (3)
59-60 (2)
61-64 (4)
65 (1)
66 (1)
67-70 (4)
71-72 (2)
73-75 (3)

Single story issues: 10
2 parters: 6
3 parters: 4
4 parters: 7
6 parters: 1
7 parters: 1

So, a good mix of different types. While four part issues make a plurality of issues, those stories don't make a majority of the entire run. In short, we just use as many issues as we think a particular story needs. Most of the mini-series have been four parters, granted, though Universe will reflect the varied story size of the ongoing as well.

[Mormegil]

Originally Posted by Bobby Curnow

We like a mix of all different size stories. I think people think we've always done four part stories because that's how many issues used to be in the TPBs, but that hasn't really been the case when looking at the actual stories. Because i'm waiting for a appointment, let's run through them and see what the most common story type is!

1-4 (4)
5 (1)
6-8 (3)
9-12 (4)
13-14 (2)
15-16 (2)
17-20 (4)
21 (1)
22-28 (7)
29-32 (4)
33 (1)
34 (1)
35 (1)
36 (1)
37-39 (3)
40 (1)
41-44 (4)
45-50 (6)
51-52 (2)
53-54 (2)
55 (1)
56-58 (3)
59-60 (2)
61-64 (4)
65 (1)
66 (1)
67-70 (4)
71-72 (2)
73-75 (3)

Single story issues: 10
2 parters: 6
3 parters: 4
4 parters: 7
6 parters: 1
7 parters: 1

So, a good mix of different types. While four part issues make a plurality of issues, those stories don't make a majority of the entire run. In short, we just use as many issues as we think a particular story needs. Most of the mini-series have been four parters, granted, though Universe will reflect the varied story size of the ongoing as well.

Very interesting. Thank you for that!

[Overzealous Odontochelys]

Hello Bobby, Thanks for taking time to answer our questions.

Just finished with Universe 6 and it was a fun read. Story, art and colors outstanding as always.
Wyrm was one of Archie’s great characters and I’m glad to see that he will be skillfully handled in the IDW TMNT continuum.
Really makes me nostalgic for other Archie TMNT characters.
Have you ever considered having Queen Maligna and her Malignoids invade IDW? Would be epic!

[Bobby Curnow]

They have been considered, yes.

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by Bobby Curnow

They have been considered, yes.

I would like to see the other Mutanimals from the TMNT Archie comics come to the IDW universe, Dreadmon and Jagwar.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by Bobby Curnow

They have been considered, yes.

Sweet! I know it doesn't mean anything per se, but considering them (as opposed to dismissing the notion outright) is one step closer to including them.

[Overzealous Odontochelys]

I hope you will be able to work them in Bobby, thanks.
Would also like to see Cherubae with her Turnstone.