Peter Laird on IDW TMNT

[Metropoliskid41]

Originally Posted by Konchadunga

And as an American, he has a right to give anyone the finger. Just because someone has the right to do something doesn't mean they should. To go back to Marv Wolfman, he could have objected to the Teen Titans TV series, but in fact he was nice enough to write episodes for it.

This analogy/reasoning is flawed, as Laird was very active in the 2k3 series.

[Oculus Orbus]

Originally Posted by Fugitoid Jones

I just think it's kinda funny how Pete doesn't like the artwork for the IDW series, but this is the same guy that had Jim Lawson draw nearly all his stuff. While I admit that Dan Duncan's art wouldn't be my ideal choice for a TMNT comic, I think it's a hell of a lot better to look at than Lawson's squibbles (at least not early Lawson, early Lawson was alright).

Well, Jim is pretty awesome, if you ask me.

[Metropoliskid41]

I enjoy all takes on the Turtles, its neat to see so many different styles, and I especially really dig Lawson's style.

[FearlessLeader]

Just feeling the need to chime in as another supporting of Jim's work. I love not only his Turtles but really all his artwork!

[CyberCubed]

I think Laird wasn't enthused by Duncan's art simply because it was in color. He said he likes scenes with no backgrounds when the characters are just standing around talking to each other, like those white backgrounds you see in the old Mirage comics.

[Toby Barrett]

That's really an odd critizism to have, considering there are several instances where the characters are talking to each other in panel sequences without backgrounds.

Though, Dan's work is really awesome in black and white! Would have looked awesome in a Mirage book.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader

Just feeling the need to chime in as another supporting of Jim's work. I love not only his Turtles but really all his artwork!

Ditto. I love his work. Definitely in my top 3 favorite artists list. I'll always defend awesome Lawson.

Originally Posted by Toby Barrett

Though, Dan's work is really awesome in black and white! Would have looked awesome in a Mirage book.

I much prefer it in B/W myself, a few grey tones and his colorless turtles would make a better book.

[Fugitoid Jones]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

I've always loved Lawson's artwork. It's so nice not to be part of the pack mentality isnt it?

Pack mentality nothing. I didn't mind Lawson's artwork up till about a few issues into Vol. 4, then everything after that just drove me nuts. People can like it all they want, I'm just saying it wasn't my cup of tea.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Fugitoid Jones

Pack mentality nothing. I didn't mind Lawson's artwork up till about a few issues into Vol. 4, then everything after that just drove me nuts. People can like it all they want, I'm just saying it wasn't my cup of tea.

They quit duo-shading his art at some point in Vol. 4.

[Flitcraft]

Dan's work does took pretty darn good in b&w, though it looks like it might be set up to be colored. I bet he might add some more shading if it was just staying in b&w and it would look even cooler.

I'm with some of you folks on Lawson. I really enjoy his art.

After saying that I thought I'd also comment on "Peter Laird on IDW TMNT" since that's the title of this thread... Laird seems to have very specific tastes. A few little things can put him off. He doesn't seem all that excited about the turtles these days so he probably finds it easy to not really care for what's coming out now.

[Andrew NDB]

It's not hard math, really. He (co)created the Turtles, ergo, he would have some direct insight more than anyone else on the planet about how they would think, how they would behave in a given situation, things they would and wouldn't do, things they would and wouldn't say, and otherwise things that would be apocryphal to their core.

But I do believe he's being a bit unfair in his early assessment of IDW. Or at least premature.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

But I do believe he's being a bit unfair in his early assessment of IDW. Or at least premature.

He also changes his opinions often. When the Image series first came out he enjoyed it and gave it praise, but nowadays on his blog he posted how he doesn't care for the series, and how he hated the idea of Don being a cyborg.

I realize opinions can change from 1997-2012...but yeah.

Also interesting to note how he confessed to never reading the majority of the Archie series or the later issues of Tales V. 2.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

He also changes his opinions often. When the Image series first came out he enjoyed it and gave it praise, but nowadays on his blog he posted how he doesn't care for the series, and how he hated the idea of Don being a cyborg.

I've never once read him say that about Don as a cyborg. If he did say that, that'd be pretty ironic given what happens in Vol. 4.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I've never once read him say that about Don as a cyborg. If he did say that, that'd be pretty ironic given what happens in Vol. 4.

I'll see if I can dig it up, I know it was posted on his blog sometime back in 2011, probably in one of his earlier "Ask PL" blog posts.

[Leo656]

Off-topic, and this must just have to be where I live or something, but I've never met anyone in person who was that enthusiastic about Jim Lawson. I... I don't see it! I mean, some of the earliest stuff, okay. And maybe in a pin-up sense his style works better than in a sequential storytelling sense... and I'll admit he does some wicked dinosaurs... but on the whole, I can't see it. I've tried, and it's not a deal-breaker for me personally, but ALL of my friends are huge TMNT fans and I can NOT get them to read Mirage. I know when you grow up mostly reading DC and other stuff you see things in a different perspective, but a lot of my friends read way more black n white and indie comics than I do, and they still say they can't get past the art. I swear, I've tried. People at the comic place I used to go to, same thing. Every month, they'd only get in 3 or 5 copies of Vol. 4. Reason I was given? "Nobody buys that book, it looks like crap, we just order it for you and if any little kids come in".

Not trying to be a basher, simply relaying my own personal experiences with this phenomenon.

Maybe everyone in NJ is living in a vortex, I'unno. I know it pissed me off that Vol. 4 could'a sold at least another dozen issues a month if some of the artists from Tales worked on it instead. That book had a lot of great stuff, both stories and art. I miss it.

[marcelangelo]

well, there you have it some people like it some they don't...that's life....may I ask how many people you know that read turtles at all(in person I mean)?...I have never met anyone in my entire life that read the comics(people that I enthusiasted into reading it don't count here) of the turtles....

I enjoy jims style very mucho!...there were times when I was feeling like I am growing tired of it...but after a while of not seeing it anymore I REALLY got into it and appreciated it even more...I think you can't argue that his style is his own, there is no one other on this earth that draws the way he has found for himself and thats the beauty of it...thats the jelly, if someone finds his own individual way of expressing himself...

and with peters comments about the image series?..I think you are seeing all this out of perspective, you give too much emphasis on what someone said once...I have read the same etatements that some of you brought into your posts and I must say I haven't expirienced any of the greef many of you seem to feel...I mean just reaad throuh the ask pl thread that is still open, someone asked him something about the image books and he simply said he didn't like this or that but he didn't say he hated the whole run...deal with the point that he just wasn't trying to cover up the things that were still unresolved when the image run ended but wanted to start fresh with his vision...
about idw?he said he couldn't get into them 'for whatever reasons'...he also mentioned that his feelings may change once he can read through more issues in one sitting...so what is your problem with it?...

[Leo656]

Since high school I've had about dozen friends that were hardcore into TMNT, comics, or both, but only me, Mary, and about two others actually read TMNT comics. Few reasons for that being in the little town I/we grew up in, the closest places to get comics were 7-11 or the little corner newspaper store (remember those?), and all they got was the Archie book, and only sporadically. So I don't laugh when people say they honestly thought the only TMNT book was Adventures, because other than Wizard I never even saw a picture of a Mirage TMNT book until I was 17. Some of the actual comic book shops, 30-40 minutes away might get an issue of Mirage back in 1990 or so, but I had a bigger comics allowance than anyone my age and even I only went comic shopping a couple times a year, so I missed out. As we got older, some of my friends started getting more into comics, and I tried to turn them onto some TMNT books (I picked up most of Mirage in an epic run at my then-local shop about 10 years ago), but aside from the covers they really, *really* didn't like the art.

Remember too, a lot of these folks grew up only seeing TMNT in the cartoon and the movies. So honestly, going from that to Lawson after only seeing more or less one take for 12 years or so... can be jarring. I can see getting used to it, but I still can't get anyone to make the effort. Sorry, honest attempts were made. When you can't tell April from Casey in the same panel it's hard to argue around it. I can deal with it, they couldn't, and as I've said, there were a lot of "I'd get into the book IF..." comments, and while I'll admit, it belies some stubbornness on their part, it always has made me resent Lawson more than I otherwise might.

That said, I actually had much more of an issue with some of the Image art. In some issues the linework was totally wrong for a black n white comic, way too hard to see what was going on. Can't remember which issues those were but I remember they stood out as really bad to me, compared to the other issues. I think they were earlier?

[Samhain]

I, for one enjoy Lawson's style. It just has a certain ''charm'', I guess. When I think of Mirage, I think of Jim Lawson. I can certainly understand there are tons of people that are reading books with David Finch or Jim Lee doing interiors, then they pick up a book with Lawson's turtles in it and put it down in disgust. It is what it is. His style is not for everybody. But he is a damn good artist. A lot of people need really good artwork to pick up a book and give it a chance. Hell, I'm guilty of that.

But sometimes I wish Lawson would have kept the style he was drawing ''RTNY'' in.

[Jester]

Yeah, if you look at his comic adaptations of TMNT and SotO, you can see the style change drastically. TMNT is similar to RtNY, where SotO is closed to Volume 2.

[marcelangelo]

thanks leo for the insight!I apreciate it...yeah, now that you mentino it i sometimes had difficulties telling april and casey apart in jim's bookshaha...yeah, well it isn't perfect but nothing really is...apart from these problems every now and then I must say that I really admire his style...
that's funny I discovered the mirage original comics at the same age as you, buddyhahaha...before, during turtles prime(I call that the turtles craze of the late eighties/early nineties now), I had what was called teenage mutant hero turtles super comic magazine(these were no adaptations of the ot original stories, some very great) and I didn't realize that turtles had been a comic book to begin with...and when I found out I discovered ninjaturtles.com(at my friends home, I had no computer back then) and they offered to read the first issue online.bam-they had me from page one!
first issue I got was issue 3, still one of my altime favourites and funny enough I learned it was published in the month and the year I was born, so I got a special connection to that one