Peter Laird

[italianice388]

I remember getting really excited that he'd be working with Eastman again on the Last Ronin. Now that that's all done, I don't really see how he was involved aside from the story being based off of a concept he came up with decades ago.

Two questions:

Did he actually have any involvement? Was it the famed reunion it was hyped up to be, or was that a lie?

and

What is he up to these days? Retired? I prefer his work to Eastman's...I wish he was more involved with the IP.

[Andrew NDB]

No involvement at all. You'd think at least he'd ink a cover (and I'm sure such a thing was probably solicited of him) but nope, nothing. Just whatever % of that outline from 1987 that was his. My suspicion is that it was mostly a Kevin Eastman story. It seems to be -- well, obviously -- taking its influence from Frank Miller's Ronin, and that was mostly Kevin's bag, not Peter's.

Wholly retired from all things. He used to keep a couple of blogs going about his pottery and musings but they haven't been updated in years now.

[Coola Yagami]

I'm glad I was to get a few questions out of him while I still could.

https://markepicblogofrandomness.blo...o-creator.html

[Monty Mole]

Nope, they credited his name in just to build hype.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Monty Mole

Nope, they credited his name in just to build hype.

And it worked masterfully. A completely "Eh... it's okay, I guess" book became one of the biggest-selling comic books of the year.

Although I guess the generally awful state of the entire comic book industry had a lot to do with that, too; even a three-legged dog is going to win a race where all the others have only one or two legs, after all. But I know I saw more than a couple "Eastman & Laird's long awaited TMNT reunion!" headline articles in various "news" sources promoting the mini-series, and knowing for a fact that nobody reads past the headline of any article that absolutely was a factor in sales, no question.

One could be annoyed with them for blatantly lying, but lest we forget, All Marketing Is Spin.

[italianice388]

Originally Posted by Monty Mole

Nope, they credited his name in just to build hype.

That's borderline false advertisement. I could be wrong, but I think The Last Ronin was as popular as it was because it was marketed as a return to the classic Peter and Laird collaboration.

And then it wasn't that.

[Andrew NDB]

"The Last, Hidden Away TMNT story from Kevin and Peter." It'd be neat to hear Peter's thoughts about it. In 2022 would he still consider that the definitive last TMNT story, something in the shelf from 1987? How does he feel about where Kevin and Tom maybe diverged from it? And so on.

[Leo656]

I get the feeling that the thing that would make Peter Laird the happiest of all, would be for nobody to ever ask him about goddamn Ninja Turtles ever again for as long as he lives.

I promise he never even thinks about this stuff unless someone asks him. And if and when they do his answers have typically been in the vein of, "Eh, I'm not involved any more." And he doesn't want to be. He's repeatedly come thisclose to admitting he wishes he never created the whole brand in the first place. It derailed all of his aspirations to one day be "a real writer" and while you know he enjoys the money he made from it and the lifestyle it's allowed him to live, it doesn't take a genius to read between the lines and see that he also harbors a deep resentment for the franchise as a whole.

I don't think it would be all that interesting to pick his brain on the subject of this mini-series because he assuredly has no opinion deeper than "Good for those guys, I guess."

Regarding any remaining connections to the original rough version from ages ago, I'd bet the only thing that remained from then to The Last Ronin is "only one of the Turtles is still alive". I'd put money down on every single other thing being very different but that part was probably always true. It probably wasn't even always Mikey, I'd bet.