Peter Laird issues a statement

[METALHEAD]

I Respect him. and his choice for TMNT. i just pray to god that the ninja turtles will be nick's powerhouse of awesome. so long icarly, and other teeny bobber crap shows. the tmnt is moving in baby.

[Ninjinister]

Nn, I doubt TMNT will supplant those pre-teen shows. They're the big "in" thing for children's programming networks.

And regardless of the content, your current signature is bigger than old Elvis' ass. Might wanna shrink it down 'fore a mod beats you with a shovel or somethin'.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

From his blog:
I miss -- I really, really miss -- being that guy.[/I]

I hope he find that guy gain

[Kendamu]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

Nn, I doubt TMNT will supplant those pre-teen shows. They're the big "in" thing for children's programming networks.

And regardless of the content, your current signature is bigger than old Elvis' ass. Might wanna shrink it down 'fore a mod beats you with a shovel or somethin'.

From some of the reports popping up about it, Nick is losing its boy demographic. They want an action cartoon that also mixes well with the style of comedy in their other cartoons in order to bring back that boy demographic. It's part of some new direction they're taking in the next few years.

[Candy Kappa]

after reading Lairds statement I made this drawing. I'm not very good at drawing real people but I hope I manages to make a resemblance.

And I really hope he'll feel better now that the turtles are out of his hands and he can focus on other stuff.

Laird and his sketch book

tried to make it somewhat bittersweet

[SSSS]

Originally Posted by Kiwamu The Kappa

Laird and his sketch book

That's a really cool pic! As for Laird, I don't think he'll ever become 'that guy' again. At most he'll be 'that guy with the sketchpad and 60 million'.

[Type 97 Chi-ha]

Originally Posted by Kiwamu The Kappa

after reading Lairds statement I made this drawing. I'm not very good at drawing real people but I hope I manages to make a resemblance.

And I really hope he'll feel better now that the turtles are out of his hands and he can focus on other stuff.

Laird and his sketch book

tried to make it somewhat bittersweet

Nice drawing, but is Peter Laird really such a runt?

[Bry]

Originally Posted by cartoonistaaron

Divesting himself of the Turtles is probably a great relief to him at this point. He can set it free while he's still young and can enjoy life without this giant monkey (or mutant turtle) on his back.

Not to mention no longer having to deal with weird, borderline lunatic fans that sometimes post on his blog.

Heh, no doubt this is a perk... Peter devoted a lot of time and energy to keep the franchise moving forward, relaunching the comics at the same time as the new cartoon, toyline, video games, etc, were being cooked up, while having an active role in the development of pretty much everything. He spent a lot of time doing this to build the TMNT as a franchise back up, and to something closer to what he and Kevin originally envisioned. Say what you will about certain decisions he's made or comments on his personality (neither of which most angry "fans" have any context or firsthand knowledge about), but I think he's done a lot for the fans of the TMNT, and he seemed to get a steady stream of negative feedback and outright hate spewed at him from certain segments of the "fanbase" for his efforts.

Obviously this isn't the reason he sold the rights, as he's explained. But still, I know that if I were in his shoes, I'd feel a great relief in cutting that source of negativity out of my life.