Do you guys want to see the Gang Wars finished or not?
 

From a Facebook conversation with Tristan:

If we make enough noise about this and/or start a fan project based on Tristan's notes, it is possible that this will be picked back up by Mirage. Not definite, but more likely than if we say/do nothing at all.

I'd totally be interested. I love Tristan's work on TMNT.

Oh. And I started picking Tales up because of issue 36... :)

As an unresolved plot in the Mirage universe, I say definitely.

If he would write/publish it in a heartbeat, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Tristan can provide more details...we've been talking about the possibility of this on facebook.

I am going to need to put together a team...I think if we can produce the first issue as evidence that we are serious, Mirage might pick it up.

I don't see a reason why not. Not like Laird is gonna publish 18 issues a year by himself. :P </assuming I remembered the number correctly>

It's already pretty much written, it just needs to be scripted. There are notes up on my facebook page that people can check out. And I think I put some of the storylines up on my old blog before my google accounts were hacked into. From what I've been told, it's actually something Mirage can still do under that whole 18 issues a year thing, but I haven't heard from Peter since the sale, so I haven't really pursued it that hard. I kinda figured Pete was Turtled out and didn't want to bother him with it, but if I got the greenlight to finish it, I know Andres and Paul would both be keen to come back on board.

I'd like to see the story finished obviously, but at this point why was Tales canceled then if this story could have been part of it?

Now it would have to be released as a separate mini-series of sorts, not connected to Tales. And the first 3-4 (I forget how many), issues of this story were in Tales, yet the next parts of it would not be.

Well, it isn't like Mirage can' "un-cancel" Tales.

But why does that even matter? How is that any different from what will potentially happen in the next year or so concerning Image?

Because Image is publishing those books, these would be published by Mirage assumingly.

If Mirage wanted to continue the Gang Wars, it would have likely been part of Tales, so Tales would have continued past #70 for this.

What was going to happen was this: Tales sales were abysmal towards the end. They'd been on a steady decline and everyone knows there were losing money on them. If Tales was to continue, it would've been a situation where I'd write a four part or three part or two part story, then there'd be an issue by Dan/Jim/whoever, then there'd be another gang war arc, and this would continue until it was done I guess. The other option was that Tales would be canceled, and a new book would take its place. This would finish the Gang War arc, or have potentially been a "reboot" book -- a TMNT book that went right back to the start and reworked everything to make it a more modern style of comic book, along the lines of Ultimate Marvel and All-Star DC. Familiar stories, told or reimagined in new ways (Tales stories set earlier in the continuity would be incorporated as they happened, new villains, some 2k7 stuff being reworked like we did with Hun, etc).

There was also the idea of a Shredder "Year One" style story that Paul and I were mapping out. All that stuff in #56 about Hun and the Shredder was going to be in there, and it was basically everything that led Oroku Saki to become the Shredder and the rise of the Foot Clan in NYC. I think we had it ending with the stand-off between him and Hamato Yoshi. The two core arcs were Saki hunting Yoshi and Saki establishing himself in the criminal underworld.

So if Tales sales were abysmal, why would a new series do better?

I imagine a mini-series with only about 5 issues would be doable, but not a whole series at this point.

To remedy that, if it was going to be published in a new book, then I was going to open with something of a recap oneshot, a book that quickly retold everything you needed to know in the gang wars so far and then picked up during the meeting at the end of #64. There's also the possibility of reprinting those issues under the new title, if it came to be.

I have a lot of faith that this could be pulled off...we just need to make the kind of noise about it that will show Mirage and/or Viacom that these will sell out.

Because it's not the kind of book that people can invest in properly. This is why IDW's Ghostbusters are doing so poorly. People WANT ongoing storylines. It's amazing that Tales actually made it to 70 issues when it jumps all over the continuity like it does.

For a non-TMNT comic fan, Tales is an amazingly hard book to get into. One issue it's telling you this fun story set in outer space that doesn't really have any impact on the overall story, then next issue it's a continuity heavy story set between two issues that haven't seen print since 1988.

A new book, with new marketing, new title and an ongoing story that people could invest in, that came out on a monthly basis is what TMNT needed.

It came down to this -- Tales and Volume 4 were not market friendly books. Not in today's comic book market. That's not to say they weren't good books, they just didn't work in the current climate.

If it comes out I'll buy it end of story.

With all due respect--and I cannot stress that enough--I think all of us are aware (on some level) of the poor marketing choices that were made regarding both books. Vol. 4 was bi-monthly and felt like it took place in a different universe altogether, and so only the most hardcore fans (people along for the ride regardless of what kind of ride it was) were going to stay interested with two months between books. Not only that, but it got to the point where we never knew when it was coming out again or if it WAS ever coming out again (look where we are now--there's an issue supposedly finished, but it hasn't hit print). I do agree with you as far as Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2 was concerned--it would have made more sense to do longer story arcs and not have them spaced apart with irrelevant issues in between because it got hard to keep track of what happened when. Just look at how well the first mini series (Blind Sight) did. It's completely sold out and was eventually collected. So I think that four or five issues of Harmon and Jones in a row might do better than Tales did.

Do you guys want to see the Gang Wars finished or not?

yes.

No offense...but some of you could be a bit more enthusiastic. The stories we've seen so far from these guys were amazingly written and just as amazingly illustrated. These guys are like the Lennon and McCartney of comic books.

They're nice comics but I wouldn't go that far John lol:lol:

I just don't like the idea of an ongoing series based on one particular story.

A mini-series to wrap this up is fine, but a whole new series? What would you call it? And besides, how far would a new series go before it finds the same funding problems?