Master Splinter in "Nothing to Fear"
 

http://pre07.deviantart.net/18e6/th/...rs-d4bhrza.jpg

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/gallery/33022088


At long last, my first Ninja Turtles fan comic is ready to launch! Over the course of October, I'll be posting all 12 full-color pages of the story inspired by my previous piece, "Splinter's Worst Nightmare." It's newly christened title is "Nothing to Fear." October was the perfect month to debut this for the public, since it certainly has some Halloween appropriate vibe!

Story Description:
Master Splinter's rigorous mental discipline in the way of Bushido is about to be put to the ultimate test! While meditating in the secret sewer lair of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some of his most feared adversaries from the past suddenly converge upon him at once! Who is responsible for this home invasion? And how will Splinter ever escape from this horrible surprise?

Seeing how this is my first attempt at doing something so ambitious as a comic, I do appreciate comments, compliments, and even critiques so that I can improve my artistic skills. Over the last couple of months, I've learned basic competence in how to color digitally in Gimp.

EDIT:
You can now download the whole comic (with bonus content) in CBZ format!
http://www.mediafire.com/?5astup2vkmafrd0

Looking forward to reading this, winters!

Believe it or not, you might not actually have to do much reading!

Since I am a novice at the comic book medium, I've decided to avoid the challenge of making room for word balloons and worrying about dialogue. This comic won't feature much text, but it will advance the story through careful layouts and artistic poses that suggest energy and motion. I've tried to play to my strengths and sidestep my weaknesses.

Crap...I have to pay $1.25? Ok, winters, where do I send the money. ;)

Looks promising. :D

PayPal is acceptable! :tpizza::tanime:

I thought about giving my cover a barcode to complete the illusion, but I realized it would be too hard to make one up and I didn't want to steal one from a real comic. Plus, I hate barcodes that cover up key aspects of the cover art.

EDIT:
I guess making a barcode isn't really so hard after all!

How's this?
http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator...&xres=1&font=3

Looking good so far

And it'll fit right under the "Has Splinter's Worst Nightmare..." text. :D

Page 1
 

Here's the first page:

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/#/d4bwc01
http://pre06.deviantart.net/7fc1/th/...rs-d4bwc01.jpg

I didn't really put much thought into the backgrounds of the first page, so that's why the last panel looks a little strange with the full grey backdrop.

Heh, I actually decided to edit the cover image and shift the text lower to make better use of the space.

Page 2
 

Alrighty then, here's the 2nd page. The action starts to get underway when the Mousers make their entrance! Can anybody guess what piece of official TMNT art inspired that first panel?

One of my goals with this comic was to end each page on a bit of a cliffhanger. The first four pages are dedicated to introducing the first three threats to Splinter's life:
http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-2-261998629
http://pre11.deviantart.net/c40d/th/...rs-d4bzjfp.jpg

Page 3
 

Things go from bad to worse for Master Splinter! Say, what's a rare breed of tiger doing in the New York city sewers anyway? Who or what could have led him here?

And doesn't that yellow jumpsuit in the last panel look familiar? Uh oh...

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-3-262143266
http://pre12.deviantart.net/6142/th/...rs-d4c2n1e.jpg

Mutated cat April makes a return? :p

I like it! I can see what you mean concerning conveying Splinter's emotions without using words - good job in doing so!

This is great, cannot wait for the rest... I am curious though what does the Winters & Powder on the cover mean? Did Powder help out in some way?

Keep on truckin!

-ms

Not my cup of tea but fun to see.

I appreciate all the feed back, folks! I get encouraged by positive feedback but I also invite constructive criticism as well. The next page will be up sometime this weekend.

Eh... could be! :tshifty:

I accepted that as an artistic challenge. I figured there's no reason to burden down a story with poorly written dialogue and unnecessary word balloon clutter if the art and layouts can do the job on their own merits!

Your compliments are most appreciated, MS!

Apparently you must have missed the piece that inspired this project:
http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...olor-199450042

Without Powder stepping up to the plate and volunteering to color it back in March, I likely wouldn't have gotten the excitement to see this project through to the end! I drew the original piece so that it had the format of a wrap-around comic book cover, and I just decided to use it as such for the actual comic.

Andrew, coming from you that statement means a lot. I hope that good art can always be appreciated. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment!
P.S. Nice rhyme with that comment too, intentional or not!

Page 4
 

Page 4 is up! Things just keep getting worse for poor Master Splinter!

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-4-262459115
http://pre04.deviantart.net/0a95/th/...rs-d4c9eqz.jpg

Seems to be all aspects from various episodes. The Mousers from episode 3, Cat-April from Season 2, and is that tiger the one Creepy Eddie summoned from the dreamworld to attack Splinter in that Season 6 ep?

Page 4 took some trial and error in order to get the layout right. You can check out my first two drafts here:
http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...outs-262459061

Good guess on the creepy Eddie tiger, but that one was actually of the saber-toothed variety. Also, I don't think Splinter ever encountered him.

The tiger in my comic is supposed to be the same tiger that was featured in "The Cat Woman from Channel Six," or at least one similar enough to him. However, catwoman April won't be the last threat to show up in my story! Page 5 should be up by Wednesday at the latest.

Creepy Eddie appeared in the lair and met Splinter which is where he summoned a tiger to go after him. Raph/Don return from the pizza store and throw two slices of pizza in the tiger's eyes.

Splinter thanks the turtles for their, "Pizza marksmanship."

Cute!!!! Just discovered it! I enjoy it!!! :tlove: Great work!!! :tthumbsu::tthumbsu::tthumbsu::tthumbsu::tthumbsu:

Page 5
 

Thanks for the high praise, luzmagica! I hope you enjoy the next page!

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-5-263023906
http://pre04.deviantart.net/44be/th/...rs-d4clijm.jpg

Lookin' good so far, Adam. Just one question: Why the color difference between the piping of Splinter's kimono on the "cover" and in the interior art?

Artistic preference! Powder decided to give him a royal purple robe with vivid white trim. I think it really helps the image "pop" off the cover. For the comic, I decided a more low-key black trim would suit the comic better, though I did keep the purple robe since it looks way cooler than the pinkish tint he wore in the cartoon show.

You'll notice that we also decided to color his tail differently (in the show I think it was just plain brown).

:tcool: I love the small little rat with the cheese piece next to fridge!!! Cute details!!! :D!!!! Also when Splinter look so surprise/fear Mousers going out the Oven...Nice expression!!!

Thanks again, and I'm glad somebody noticed the rat! That little rodent had a cameo on the original piece, and Powder's color job really brought him to life and endeared him to me. Thus, I knew I had to bring the little nipper back for the comic. You'll probably be happy to know that it'll be showing up one more time in this issue.

I had so much fun drawing Page 5! At the end of the day, it may be my personal favorite, with the exception of the kitchen table cloth (checkerboard patterns = evil to draw). It proved to be one of the most difficult to color due to all the little details and characters.

Page 6
 

This comic just hit the half-way point!

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-6-263185256
http://pre08.deviantart.net/4c9f/th/...rs-d4coz1k.jpg

Looks really good so far. That table cloth reminds me of the original red power ranger.

Now that you mention it...I prefer the gray tail. It's certainly more 'ratty"...:D

Page 7
 

The plot thickens!

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-7-263466420
http://pre04.deviantart.net/38a4/th/...rs-d4cuzzo.jpg

Believe it or not, I"m working on a TMNT-Power Rangers amalgamation piece and I realized I hate drawing & coloring those Ranger outfits just as much as I hated doing the tablecloth! The geometric patterns always have to be so exact to look right and the coloring is a chore too!

I wonder who is under the shredder armor...?

It's a Cylon Shredder!

He does sorta resemble a Battlestar reject, doesn't he?

Page 8
 

Be honest, who didn't see this "big reveal" coming?
http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-8-264214524
[img=http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/art/TMNT-comic-Nothing-to-Fear-p8-264214524]http://pre11.deviantart.net/224c/th/...rs-d4db18c.jpg[/url]

I'll admit, I was so struck by the visual look of these Brendan McCarthy pieces of fourth live-action movie concept art, that I just had to work it into my comic!

Hey Winters: Who's the turtle? Is that Don?:tconfuse: These images of a scrapped movie idea doesn't help.

Don went to the dark side...

In my original vision, I planned to make it a specific turtle. But after more thought, I realized it would be far more interesting to leave the identity ambiguous, thus leaving the viewer (and Splinter for that matter!) to draw their own conclusions. The grey mask and generic green skin tone were my attempts to avoid any obvious association with the established mutant turtles.

I will go on record as saying, "it ain't Kirby" (a new character created by Eastman/Laird and planned for the fourth movie).

Loving the story so far!

Wow this is really cool love it. :tlove::tlove::tlove:

Page 9
 

Happy to hear you are enjoying it so far. Here's one of my favorite pages:

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/...ge-9-264529221
http://pre01.deviantart.net/187e/th/...rs-d4dhs1x.jpg

I just had to find a way to work the classic Shredder into my story!

Look for the conclusion sometime next week.

Nice! Cant wait to see the next one!!! :tgrin: :tlove:

Poor Splinter....he looks like so defeated in that page!!!