The reason why Rick Veitch's stories aren't being collected by IDW

[DrSpengler]

Originally Posted by Jester

Here's a silly question: Could this explain Wyrm, who is in essence a cheap knock off of Bloodsucker?

I half-heartedly joked about that the other day on TMNT Entity.

In all likelihood it's probably just happenstance. Veitch made a mutant leech character in August of 89, then Ryan Brown/Steve Lavigne/Steve Murphy come up with their own mutant leech character in May of 90 (the Playmates toy came out in 91). I guess there are only so many ways you can do a leech mutant. The only trait the two characters share that I found a little too coincidental was the power to be chopped up/blown apart and still be able to reform themselves.

The River trade paperback collection was published by Mirage in July 1991, a year after Wyrm had been created, and obviously before the retroactive work-for-hire contract was issued to Veitch. So looking at the dates, it wouldn't seem that Wyrm was created as a retaliatory "knock off" to cheat Veitch out of royalties for Bloodsucker.

Just two coincidentally similar leech mutants. Still, if anyone ever wanted to USE Bloodsucker in a contemporary piece of TMNT media, they could easily just use Wyrm and make him Bloodsucker in all but the name, as Wyrm's mostly a blank slate in terms of characterization.

[Bjarni]

Originally Posted by DrSpengler

The only trait the two characters share that I found a little too coincidental was the power to be chopped up/blown apart and still be able to reform themselves.

Also the color scheme. They have similar black dots on them and (I don't remember where I'm getting this information) were both yellow(?)
Maybe that's just a common leech in North America...

[Drose18]

Sorru, is the river when raph gets unmutated by bloodsucker?

[DrSpengler]

Originally Posted by Bjarni

Also the color scheme. They have similar black dots on them and (I don't remember where I'm getting this information) were both yellow(?)
Maybe that's just a common leech in North America...

Well, Wyrm was yellow in the Archie comic but his Playmates toy and Mighty Mutanimals animation model (and toy commercial animation model) were blue.

I don't think we know for sure what color Bloodsucker was. The River was never colorized and he doesn't appear on any of the covers to give an indication.

[Bjarni]

Originally Posted by DrSpengler

I don't think we know for sure what color Bloodsucker was.

I must have dreamt the story in color back in the day or saw a fan colored version... or something.

But I always felt it was the same character (or an Archie version of the character). Maybe it's all just a coincidence though.

[plastroncafe]

I kind of always assumed he was leech colored.

[CyberCubed]

He should be a brownish yellow.

[Sophie Campbell]

i hope Veitch sticks to his guns on this. more power to him. plastroncafe's got it right, anything less is bullsh*t. i'm sick of seeing fans (and even fellow creators) taking the sides of corporations over the people who actually do the work.

regarding Wyrm, i always thought he was a planarian flatworm, not a leech...