The Ross Campbell appreciation thread (IDW, WE WANT HIM BACK!)

[azrael]

Originally Posted by Redeemer

but I have to say that the art work was disappointing to say the least. I felt that the action scenes were to crowded, obscured, or over-drawn. I just felt like the scenes had too much going on at times.

Always 1 in the crowd

Its suppose to be crowded 200 foot vs 1 turtle, you really think they heard of a fair fight.

[nickn]

Originally Posted by Ross Campbell

thank you so much!!! that's really great to hear, you made my day. hopefully it won't be my last interior work, keep your fingers crossed i'll be able to get some time out of my schedule with Image Comics and that there'll be an issue available. i'm hoping IDW will do even more micro issues beyond these initial 8, like do a new set of micros about the same characters down the road and revisit them, like have a second Leonardo micro a year or so from now. i think that would be pretty cool. or maybe when i convince IDW to let me introduce Venus... YOU READING THIS, BOBBY? ;D bwahaha

sounds good to me, it's gonna suck once it's down to one TMNT book a month, I hope the sales are there to have 2 ongoing, like Transformers. Can't wait to find out who all of the Micros are, I'm guessing its Splinter, Casey, April and Shredder. Maybe we can get them to let you do a Venus vs Female Shredder book, lol I'm sure that will please everyone. I have a question, I'm gonna send you a PM about it. Have a good day and keep up the good work!

[nickn]

Originally Posted by azrael

Always 1 in the crowd

Its suppose to be crowded 200 foot vs 1 turtle, you really think they heard of a fair fight.

200 vs Leo? sounds pretty fair to me, my moneys on the dude in green.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by 1984TMNT

Whoa, whoa, whooooooa. Love your work, Ross....and you seem like a very nice guy (especially for taking the time to respond to us fans - thanks!!!) - but, let's not get crazy here. Venus belongs in the past, as an idea that may have seemed cool at the time...but....well, we all know how that turned out. We definitely need you back for more work though. Would love to see you as the artist on a good long story arc, as soon as your schedule and IDW's permit.

Seriously though, I'm a big believer in a 4 turtles only universe. I feel that any additional turtles just takes away from the brothers and their uniqueness. Loved Slash as a kid in the OT, but honestly, don't want him around going forward as a result of my belief.

Venus,who is Venus? Did the Men In Black remove that memory from me? Hope so
The turtles should be ONLY male but that means Slash too. Slash and Tokka is a bit much but Slash needs IDW's attention does my signature not hypnotize that notion? Three episodes of a cartoon and three Archie storylines is not enough for the Bizarro of the multi-turtleverse. I love character stories and this character has that great potential!Pass that idea on ,Mr.Ross. :tgrin :

[Sophie Campbell]

Originally Posted by 1984TMNT

Seriously though, I'm a big believer in a 4 turtles only universe. I feel that any additional turtles just takes away from the brothers and their uniqueness. Loved Slash as a kid in the OT, but honestly, don't want him around going forward as a result of my belief.

i usually agree, i hear ya, but i think all an idea needs is the right execution and be in the right hands. sometimes i'm surprised by how something that sounds awful or outrageous can be good, like if you'd told me a year ago that IDW was having the Turtles with the reincarnation aspect of their origin i would've scoffed, but once i saw the execution i really dug it. i think i would frown on a 5th Turtle in the Mirage continuity (not that anything new is being added to it now anyway), that's perfect as-is, but with IDW i feel like it's forging new ground and anything could happen and be cool. i just can't make a concrete call on something until i see how it's done! never can tell, you know?? i think the dynamic of having a 5th Turtle could be really interesting if done right, for me there's a lot of potential there. and the throwing-caution-to-the-wind risk and challenge of introducing a character like that seems exciting to me. and it could also be a complete disaster, of course, haha.

Originally Posted by Redeemer

I have to say that the art work was disappointing to say the least. I felt that the action scenes were to crowded, obscured, or over-drawn. I just felt like the scenes had too much going on at times. I loved the "shredder" fight though it was really well drawn and revealed many things, also it set the tone for shredder for the rest of the series. Ross I think you are an amazing artist and wish I could learn how to draw comics from you, but I just don't like the way you drew the fight scenes, the last few panels seemed ten times better.

that's okay! i'm glad you liked it overall, thanks. i agree that i'm way better at one-on-one fight scenes, i can wrap my head around it more, and i'd never done anything like the horde of Foot before, all the multiple opponents was really hard for me to keep track of and make it work in an organic way from panel-to-panel. i don't know if you saw my Donatello sample page in the back of the Leo issue but that's usually how i choreograph fights when i'm doing it all myself, it's more one-on-one, more specific actions. the Foot horde was definitely a challenge, in any case, and i'm sorry i let you down with it!

Originally Posted by mikeandraph87

The turtles should be ONLY male but that means Slash too. Slash and Tokka is a bit much but Slash needs IDW's attention does my signature not hypnotize that notion? Three episodes of a cartoon and three Archie storylines is not enough for the Bizarro of the multi-turtleverse. I love character stories and this character has that great potential!

i like Slash a lot but he and Venus are both silly characters in their original incarnations, they're both pretty ridiculous, so why couldn't they both also be made cool?? all it takes is the right execution!

[nickn]

Originally Posted by mikeandraph87

Venus,who is Venus? Did the Men In Black remove that memory from me? Hope so
The turtles should be ONLY male but that means Slash too. Slash and Tokka is a bit much but Slash needs IDW's attention does my signature not hypnotize that notion? Three episodes of a cartoon and three Archie storylines is not enough for the Bizarro of the multi-turtleverse. I love character stories and this character has that great potential!Pass that idea on ,Mr.Ross. :tgrin :

Slash does need to be in the IDW series. Can't belive I forgot about him. So much I want to see, so little comic. I also would have no problem with a 5th Turtle if done right. Wasn't Kevin Eastman working on this long before IDW, or any of the new movie was around. My TMNT Artobiography has a ton of sketches of the "5th" Turtle.

[TurtleTitan97]

I could see Slash & Venus work. Like Ross said, all it takes is the right execution.

[MikeandRaph87]

Venus? Well,9 out of 10 can be your right. Slash is a great example if you look at Archie. He was a psycho with an anger problem who only wanted to belong and ultimately sacrified himself for his new friends fending off an invasion.

[Xav]

Originally Posted by Ross Campbell

even though their heights are listed as different in TMNT & Other Strangeness which was one of my first exposures to the Mirage Turtles as a kid (i don't know if that's considered "canon" anyway, but their height differences are pretty negligible in that), i never really thought much about their heights since they've always been drawn the same as each other.

If I'm not mistaken, Don was drawn taller than the other Turtles, in some of the later Mirage books.

Originally Posted by Ross Campbell

i think that would be pretty cool. or maybe when i convince IDW to let me introduce Venus... YOU READING THIS, BOBBY? ;D bwahaha

What are you trying to do? Give Peter Laird a heart attack?

[MikeandRaph87]

Nickn,I think your referring to Kirby in fourth movie drafts.

Not only give Peter a heart attack but give Mikeandraph87 a panic attack.Who know who else will have medical drama!

[Sophie Campbell]

Originally Posted by nickn

Slash does need to be in the IDW series. Can't belive I forgot about him. So much I want to see, so little comic. I also would have no problem with a 5th Turtle if done right. Wasn't Kevin Eastman working on this long before IDW, or any of the new movie was around. My TMNT Artobiography has a ton of sketches of the "5th" Turtle.

Slash could definitely be a cool inclusion! like mikeandraph87 said before, yeah, the 5th Turtle is Kirby, who looks like he's some turtle from another dimension or something? who knows! i loved the Slash toy as a kid, such a cool design, but in the Archie comic wasn't Slash an alien and not an actual mutant turtle? i think that's pretty silly, maybe i could buy the odds of an unrelated alien somehow looking exactly like the Turtles, but also with the same gear (arm/leg pads, the mask) as the Turtles, too? i don't know. Slash should just be another mutant in my opinion, except one with an obviously more unfortunate upbringing than the Turtles had.

i was thinking more about it and i think another reason i'd be keen to see Venus (or a female Turtle with a better name, like her own Renaissance artist like Artemisia or something, rather than being named after an object, which wasn't even created in the Renaissance era anyway! or a name that isn't art-related at all, it's not like the Turtles are a code-named superhero team or something), at least if i was involved in her reintroduction, is BECAUSE so many people hate the character. all the distaste for the character makes me gravitate toward her and focus on what the problems were and why the whole thing tanked, it really gets my gears turning. it's almost like a dare, i get to thinking "could the most reviled TMNT concept work? what if i was involved, how WOULD i make it work? what would it take?" it would be a ton of pressure but i'm interested in that kind of challenge.

[CyberCubed]

In Archie Slash came from an alien planet filled with palm trees. In the cartoon, Slash was Bebop's pet turtle that he mutated without Shredder or Krang knowing.

[DrSpengler]

Originally Posted by Ross Campbell

i was thinking more about it and i think another reason i'd be keen to see Venus (or a female Turtle with a better name, like her own Renaissance artist like Artemisia or something, rather than being named after an object, which wasn't even created in the Renaissance era anyway! or a name that isn't art-related at all, it's not like the Turtles are a code-named superhero team or something), at least if i was involved in her reintroduction, is BECAUSE so many people hate the character. all the distaste for the character makes me gravitate toward her and focus on what the problems were and why the whole thing tanked, it really gets my gears turning. it's almost like a dare, i get to thinking "could the most reviled TMNT concept work? what if i was involved, how WOULD i make it work? what would it take?" it would be a ton of pressure but i'm interested in that kind of challenge.

"There's no such thing as bad characters, just bad writers".

An old addage I firmly believe in, though there's also the reality that "not all characters are created equal" and making some terrible characters function is an uphill battle, to say the least. Venus is that sort of character.

I don't think the problem is the idea of another mutant Turtles beside the 4 guys; we've had Slash, Tokka, Kirby (well, almost) and the Dark Turtles. I think the problem is that Venus is a girl and some fans instinctually reject that.

From a storytelling standpoint, I think the only thing she threatens beside being a Yoko style "breaking up the band dynamic" is that she undermines the "destined for extinction" aspect of the Turtles as related in stories like "Sons of the Silent Age".

The solution, I suppose, is to make her their sister instead of a potential love interest, and barring incest, that'd sew up the "Sons of the Silent Age" thing. But even THAT invites convuluting the origin to include another baby turtle present at the ooze spill we never knew existed. But hell, Mondo Gecko beat her to THAT retcon by ten years or more.

Orrrrr you can do what Next Mutation did and make her their love interest THEN their sister. But I wouldn't recommend it.

She may just be more trouble than she's worth.

[Matches Malone]

If Krang really is from Dimension X or some other dimension, then parallel dimensions could be an explanation as to Slash being an evil, let's face it, Leo doppelganger. Definitely cliche, but at least it makes more sense than an alien planet full of creatures who happen to look the same as a bunch of accidental mutants. I would prefer it being as straight forward as Baxter replicating the accident with his super-soldier mutagen and terrapin exo-armor samples.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Matches Malone

If Krang really is from Dimension X or some other dimension, then parallel dimensions could be an explanation as to Slash being an evil, let's face it, Leo doppelganger. Definitely cliche, but at least it makes more sense than an alien planet full of creatures who happen to look the same as a bunch of accidental mutants. I would prefer it being as straight forward as Baxter replicating the accident with his super-soldier mutagen and terrapin exo-armor samples.

That might work or as you said the perferred which could be the result of Baxter's last effort of stopping the turtles before taking matters into his own hands. There are a few empty cages(how many?). Its fun to speculate! I love the fact a lot of character have the ability of being worked in and working well.Maybe I will get my wish yet andd see a Ross Campbell Slash in a comic. All a certain artist needs to do is use the jedi mind trick.

[Redeemer]

Originally Posted by Ross Campbell

that's okay! i'm glad you liked it overall, thanks. i agree that i'm way better at one-on-one fight scenes, i can wrap my head around it more, and i'd never done anything like the horde of Foot before, all the multiple opponents was really hard for me to keep track of and make it work in an organic way from panel-to-panel. i don't know if you saw my Donatello sample page in the back of the Leo issue but that's usually how i choreograph fights when i'm doing it all myself, it's more one-on-one, more specific actions. the Foot horde was definitely a challenge, in any case, and i'm sorry i let you down with it!

Yes, I did notice the Donatello fight scene in the back and was really impressed with those panels, they were great to say the least.
I think that's why I was dissapointed because I saw the shredder fight scene and the fight scene with Donatello.....I saw your talent and ability. I was just dumbfounded in the difference between the fight scenes

[Sophie Campbell]

Originally Posted by DrSpengler

"There's no such thing as bad characters, just bad writers". An old addage I firmly believe in, though there's also the reality that "not all characters are created equal" and making some terrible characters function is an uphill battle, to say the least. Venus is that sort of character.

yeah, i pretty much agree with you there. some characters are so difficult to make work in a new incarnation that once you change them enough you might as well create an entirely new character. especially with somebody like Venus, where she's got the obnoxious "there were FIVE turtles in the bowl!?" retcon origin story, the "shinobi" thing, her nebulously-defined magic powers, her stupid name, etc. you'd have to change a lot to really get her up to code so to speak. if i was ever in charge of her IDW introduction, i would totally do away with pretty much all of that stuff and have her simply be a new mutant turtle unrelated to the accident that creates the Turtles, and probably unrelated to their reincarnation aspect. i don't think she would have to be any less an important part of the new IDW Turtle family unit, either, i like the idea of them finding her and taking her in and bringing her up to speed and all that. their bond wouldn't have to be compromised at all, i'd love to see a dynamic like that.

I don't think the problem is the idea of another mutant Turtles beside the 4 guys; we've had Slash, Tokka, Kirby (well, almost) and the Dark Turtles. I think the problem is that Venus is a girl and some fans instinctually reject that.

From a storytelling standpoint, I think the only thing she threatens beside being a Yoko style "breaking up the band dynamic" is that she undermines the "destined for extinction" aspect of the Turtles as related in stories like "Sons of the Silent Age".

that one's easy! the procreation possibility is a definite obstacle, but there are two good fixes for this: 1) it's just never brought up; sex has rarely if ever been an aspect of TMNT in any incarnation to my knowledge (EDIT: i remembered Mike's run-in with Seri in volume 4 but i haven't read that in a while, was it ever actually confirmed that they made-out or had sex or anything?! i remember Seri laying eggs but it was likely somebody else was the father...), at least regarding the Turtles. i only have vague memories of the Fred Wolf show and i'm passingly familiar with the 2003 show and Archie series so maybe there's something in those, but as far as i know it's nothing beyond simple schoolkid type crushes. i don't think IDW TMNT (if that's what we're using as the new platform) would ever have to go there, it would never even have to broach the relationship/romance angle, they could all just be a big family/group of friends as usual. and 2) mutant animals are sterile due to their aberrant anatomy! done and done!

Originally Posted by mikeandraph87

That might work or as you said the perferred which could be the result of Baxter's last effort of stopping the turtles before taking matters into his own hands. There are a few empty cages(how many?). Its fun to speculate! I love the fact a lot of character have the ability of being worked in and working well.Maybe I will get my wish yet andd see a Ross Campbell Slash in a comic. All a certain artist needs to do is use the jedi mind trick.

i agree with you and Matches! for another mutant character (whether Slash or Venus or otherwise, turtle or not) i think a straightforward origin is by far the best: Baxter or the Foot simply creates a new mutant with the same mutagen or whatever. done. definitely the best way to go.

i would love to draw Slash for IDW if he shows up, though, let's keep our fingers crossed!! i used to draw Slash all the time when i was younger, i should try my hand at him again.

i love talking with you guys about this stuff and tossing around ideas and speculation! super fun.

[Dirty Blond]

Ross, don't know if this has been expressed yet, but I wanted to compliment you on a particular panel in the book; the one just before Leo is cast off the building. The fear in Leo's eyes was quite unlike anything I have seen in a comic. Very nicely done.

[MikeandRaph87]

Any chance you could post one of your past drawings of Slash? Its always great seeing creators old art but only time I have seen fan art of an eventual creator was Norm Breyfogle's Robin costume design challenge in 1980's Detective Comics.

[TurtleTitan97]

That's something I'd like to see. You should show us your own version of Slash, Ross. That would be pretty cool. Also, your idea of introducing Venus sounds sweet.