Laird buys out Eastman
 

According to the official site Kevin is done with the turtles completely. What will this mean? (dun dun dunnnnnn)

http://the-5th-turtle.blogspot.com/2...l-release.html
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ease-31208.jpg

I didn't believe it until I saw it. WOW! I have absolutely no idea what this means. None wahtsoever.

Let the panicking and speculation commense!!!

I think the only thing it means is that if there was even a remote possibility of Kevin jumping back into TMNT in the distant future that it is completely gone now. I do wonder how this will affect his reprint of Body Count, though. Not that I care that much, but I am curious. Still, it's a shame that he won't have much, if anything, to do with TMNT anymore. I wish the two of them could have kept working together on the turtles this whole time instead of splitting up.

Murphy said it wont affect it at all and kevin is allowed to print a few other things as well.

Wowzer, well this kinda blows the whole kevin taking over after peter steps down/dies idea outta the water. Damn.

What did Mr Eastman have to do with the turtles before this recent development?

Creating the turtles...

:roll:please

The article says in 2000 they started buying his rights. What did Mr Eastman contribute from 2000-now?

The quotes are, by Steve Murphy, from his blog, as follows:

Sounds pretty cool to me!

Also, Murphy said this:

So he's not TOTALLY out of the TMT loop... :D

I was kidding and it's a fact that Kevin drew the first turtle, it's been stated in a number of interviews.
He didn't have anything to do with the turtles, hence the lack of creativity in the land of turtles.

It doesn't mean anything. No matter how close you are to your friends, when you start a business venture with them you don't necessarily want to be financially tied into it for the rest of your life. The biggest effect this will have will be to simplify Kevin's tax filing a little. :p

Man does this blow or what. Even though Kevin hasn't been doing anything with the TMNT for years, he was the one who originally created the turtles, not Peter. It sucks to see something happen like this because I admire his work more than Peter's. It takes away from "Eastman & Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." What will we get now? Just, "Peter Laird's bought-out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"? I remember reading an article a while back on newsarama.com about Kevin Eastman and his input/creative control on the turtles. It's very interesting to hear what he really thinks about Peter Laird, and in a lot of cases, I believe him.

This is just snippet of the interview. Read the whole story here: http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=127540

Wow that interview makes Pete sound like a dullard.

Given that Kevin hasn't had direct input into the franchise for years now, I don't know this is gonna change a whole lot of anything.

I thought this already happened. Like, years ago. In fact I only came in here to see if someone necroposted.

Jeezum...

You know, I've lived in Dover my entire life. Whenever I mention the ninja turtles, ANYone who's lived here has always been proud to mention, "Hey, you know they were created here?" It's something people in our town are actually proud to talk about...

Seeing this final split up is really sad, but the way the split-up went, as long as each of them are content about this, that's what matters most.... :(

Remember when me and Leo656 made an article about when they broke up?

Good times.

Definitely good times...

*glomp*

I remember reading this article months ago. Any way of knowing exactly how old it is?? :-?

As old as it's dated: August 31, 2007.

Well, I as a fellow bearer of the name Kevin, I am saddened. I was always glad so many Kevins had to do with the franchise I loved, from Kevin Clash to Kevins Munro, Smith, and Michael Richardson. But the Kevin I was happiest about was Eastman. You will be missed fellow Kevin.

He's not dead. :dead:

Odd. Kevin Eastman wrote in an interview on Heavy Metal how pissed off he gets whenever fans ask him why he sold all the rights to Laird, that he still gets some percentage of the income and still holds some small percentage of the rights (though no creative rights).

Now he just sells the rest? He must have 0 confidence in where Laird is taking things now is all I can think of, otherwise he's just insane to jump off the cash cow... not that its short term future is particularly bright.

He's dead to me!!! :P
j/k

Shame the kids won't get to visit Kevin on the weekend anymore.:lol:

I see no reason to jump to any such conclusion about Kevin's motives. Plus Peter's direction has been apparent for quite a while, and I'd wager even more apparent to someone who knows him well. Kevin's career is going in a completely different direction now. Maybe he just want to move on, you know? In his shoes, I think I'd have done it before now.

When my friends and I got into setting up our company, we considered our buyout options from the start. That's one of the benefits of having a corporation (like Mirage) versus having another kind of company.

Things change. C'est la vie.

No, I don't know. As it was, Kevin could just sit on his ass and collect money from everything Peter is doing with the TMNT... why would he give that up?

I see it possibly being one of, or perhaps several of the below possibilities:

1) Kevin having no confidence in the short or longer term prognosis monetarily of where Laird is taking TMNT as a franchise.

2) Peter, wanting to finally consolidate the rights for himself, made Kevin an offer... possibly a very, very generous one that Kevin couldn't pass up (that Kevin may have expected would actually outweigh whatever he predicts the TMNT franchise's returns in the foreseeable future might be).

3) This may have been all part of the legal agreement in 2000 between the two of them -- could have been something like, "Eastman will continue to receive X amount of royalties for 8 years, at which time the remaining rights revert to Mr. Laird."

Or it could be none of the above.

Or some one could grow a set and go to the nyc comicon and ask Kevin themselves.

Kevin Eastman is going to be at the NYC Comic Con?

Dude, wild speculation is beyond useless. You're exactly right-- you don't know. Maybe Kevin wants some extra cash for a new set of diamond-studded gold teeth and plat'num rims on the Benz.

Sitting on one's ass to collect on an old investment isn't something everyone dreams about.

Volunteering? :goof:

Indeed I am if I can get there, but I'm sure I won't be the only one asking him.

True. I hope you can get there. :)

I've got a pair but I'm struggling to come up with cash to even travel 70 miles. So, if you'll spot me enough to travel about 790 miles I'll gladly ask Kevin why he closed the deal and doesn't receive child support from Peter--err--royalties from TMNT-related stuff.

lol I'm only about 5 hrs away from nyc so I'm really going to try and go.

Slightly OT:

Apparently they will be making a movie of the Heavy Metal magazine. And Kevin Eastman will be involved in the directing of it.

Yeah, I read the article. It's going to be an anthology film more like the first Heavy Metal flick (whereas the second had only a single ongoing story). Kevin will only be directing one segment. I'm actually greatly looking forward to it. Hopefully it will be traditional animation rather than CGI, but I'm not counting on it. : /

EDIT: "Apparently they will be making another movie of the Heavy Metal magazine" :)

I'm very saddened by this news. I always thought Laird running the franchise by himself was a bad move, especially in the comic world. Eastman was the one that brought out the best in the Turtles, so to see him go like this sort of just shot down my hopes of seeing him take another stab at the comics.

I know he doesn't have as much involvement with the Turtles nowadays as he did back then, but he could've hung on to them for the hell of it, I mean they did get to where they are because of him. He created them, he should be the one to enjoy the fruits of their success.

I am still in disbelief and puzzlement as to why one of the original creators would totally and completely disassociate himself from the Turtles. It is one thing to not be directly involved with them in the present. But they are still his creation. He still should be able to do things with them if he wants to- so why does he not want to do anything with them anymore?