[Fan Comic] Master Splinter in "Nothing to Fear"

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Ulisses31

Thanks for the cbz file, loved to read it, great plot good art, would love to see more.

Originally Posted by Hermano Dyvas

Good job on this my friend, the expanded ending is really cool!

I'm glad you folks enjoyed it, and I really appreciate your compliments! I'm glad that the plot still holds up in spite of the lack of dialogue.

[MikeandRaph87]

Any idea of a release date for the first segment of your follow up? I like how you don't stick with one version of the TMNT in it and have like an amlagam approach.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by mikeandraph87

Any idea of a release date for the first segment of your follow up?

Summer or Fall 2012... if you're lucky.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Summer or Fall 2012... if you're lucky.

I understand. Its like with the CGI cartoon. Its best to take its time. By doing so it is sure ot be a better product. I am in the process of reworking fan fiction that I did years ago,but I won't post anything before March probably.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by mikeandraph87

I understand. Its like with the CGI cartoon. Its best to take its time. By doing so it is sure ot be a better product. I am in the process of reworking fan fiction that I did years ago,but I won't post anything before March probably.

Thanks for understanding. Laying out a comic book is one of the most challenging artistic undertakings I have experienced.

You might be interested in my latest project though. I'm doing artwork for Benton Grey's TMNT Mod for a computer game. They'll be cutscenes that reinterpret the opening scenes of the episode "Turtle Tracks" and classic comic cover homages featuring the TMNT as you've never seen them before!

http://oldmanwinters.deviantart.com/

[MikeandRaph87]

I usually avoid Deviant Art because there are so many obscene pictuures of my favorite fictional characters so I appreciate the heads up. A homage to Dick "Robin" Grayson my favorite non-turtle! Though you could have put Mike in the green ranger suit dreaming about AJJ. Ironically the TMNT helped me stop watching PR yet the orignal six will always have a special place. Thanks for sharing!

[turtles_kolektor]

Nice piece of comic book I did enjoy reading it! Keep up with the good work man!

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by turtles_kolektor

Nice piece of comic book I did enjoy reading it! Keep up with the good work man!

Hey, thanks!

Just when I thought this thread was long dead it springs back to life.

Anyway, I guess I'll share some concept art and page layouts for those who might be interested. Most of the pages translated easily from my imagination onto the paper, but a few almost made me want to pull out my hair trying to get right!

Page 4:

This fourth page was one of 3 out of the 12 that were “full-page splashes.” As such, I knew I had to nail the layout just right in order to convey enough drama to warrant the extra space needed.

After my first draft, I realized that I would be best off avoiding circles as much as possible, since they are so hard to get right and so obvious when they aren’t perfectly round. Also, I noticed that I left way too much empty space on each side of the center sphere, so I considered trying some dramatic flair by putting April’s feline eyes on each side… until I realized how stupid it looked!

The second draft was my attempt to avoid circles all together, but I decided that pushing the “reaction” panels to one side of April just wouldn’t convey the necessary horror of the moment.

In the final draft, I decided to go with only one circle (the sewer hole) and try to just do my best with angles and quadrilaterals to box off the reaction panels. The sewer hole certainly didn't come out perfectly round and the mouser section isn’t perfectly symmetrical either, but I’m very pleased with the overall effect. Having April stepping through the hole one step at a time provided a nice sense of perspective and motion.

I ended up re-using April's pose on the 2nd draft in honor of Deviantart's 2012 April Fool's Day prank.

Page 6:

Like most of these latter pages, the layout strategy puzzled me for a bit. In this layout page, my initial plan was to have Splinter run to the Sewer Lair's Weapons Room only to be met by "Shredder," but I decided to change it to the bedroom hall area instead.

I briefly thought about having Splinter swinging off the light, kicking off April's face, and then jumping over her and out of the kitchen, but that just seemed out of character for him and would have been harder to draw anyway.

Page 7:

This page took a while to plan out. I really wanted to try and make Shredder's introduction as dramatic as possible for Splinter (and the reader!).

In the original first panel, Splinter seems to be having some kind of mini-heart attack or something. I decided to drop that idea for the finished page.

Page 8:

My general strategy for organizing the panels in this draft ended up transitioning directly into the final page. It's rare when that happens for me. The Splinter "surprise!" face in the top corner is a little asymmetrical, but I kinda like the overall feel of it. I couldn't quite reproduce the exact expression on the final page either.

Page 9:

This was the second of my "splash pages" in this story, and as such I knew I had to get it just right. More than any other page in this comic, it just had to pop and convey the sense of Splinter's desperate resignation before the multitude of threats assailing him. I was stumped as to how to lay it out for a long time, and as you can see I went through a number of (very) rough drafts before I settled on a direction.

After my first two drafts, I decided that I wanted to avoid drawing the characters' feet if at all possible. I liked the sense of resignation Splinter is showing in the second draft but thought it would work better to show his face.

The 3rd and 4th drafts avoid Splinter's feet, yet the framing just didn't look right (Splinter just seems like he's having a headache or something). I also wrestled with what side of the portrait I should situate the tiger and Cat-April. About the same time, I realized that putting the real Shredder's ugly mug in the top corner would help fill empty space and add to the overall dramatic effect.

The fifth draft came really close to what I wanted for the final layout, but the remaining problem was how to pose Splinter. I decided to attempt to place him on top of an ambiguous floating oval that would highlight his pose and potentially cover up some of the feet of the other characters as well. Round shapes are really hard to draw by hand, however, so I just decided to make it into a quadrilateral instead. That quadrilateral base eventually turned into Splinter's meditation rug seen in other pages of the comic. All things considered, I'm pretty satisfied with the final product.

[BubblyShell22]

Wow. This is an amazing comic, Winters. I love it and how you drew it. So, it was the Mystic all along? That makes sense as an alternate ending and an explanation as to how all of this came about. Good job.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

Wow. This is an amazing comic, Winters. I love it and how you drew it.

Thanks so much for reading; the feedback is appreciated.

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

So, it was the Mystic all along? That makes sense as an alternate ending and an explanation as to how all of this came about. Good job.

Even I haven't figured that out... yet. The alternate ending was simply to leave it to the reader's imagination just what the Mystic's plan was/is. I've got a loose idea of a follow-up story (mostly the villains involved), but I haven't figured out their motivation or the logistics of their actual plan.

[oldmanwinters]

Sorry I don't have any new TMNT comics ready for this October season; it was really fun rolling out "Nothing to Fear" last year.

Originally Posted by Jester

Lookin' good so far, Adam. Just one question: Why the color difference between the piping of Splinter's kimono on the "cover" and in the interior art?

After I picked up some old TMNT Halloween decorations at a thrift shop this weekend (which I owned as a kid), I realized where Powder might have gotten his inspiration for Splinter's color scheme:




I really like that purple robe with the white trim!

And I think that the decoration might have been where I got the idea to give Splinter a gray tail!

[Blossombrooks]

I really enjoyed this! Well done, the styling is great. Can't wait to see more!

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Blossombrooks

I really enjoyed this! Well done, the styling is great. Can't wait to see more!

Thank you so much for following my comic and for the nice feedback!

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Any idea of a release date for the first segment of your follow up? I like how you don't stick with one version of the TMNT in it and have like an amlagam approach.

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Summer or Fall 2012... if you're lucky.

Well... that promise clearly went unfulfilled, didn't it?

Soon after I finished the last page of "Nothing to Fear," I actually did layouts on the first three pages or so of the next comic, but I got really overwhelmed when I tried to draw a major action scene involving a wrecking ball smashing into a building. I haven't touched the project since!

My plans for the next comic in the "OMW Adventure Series" will be mostly set in the New York city streets and will primarily feature one of my favorite obscure characters from the FW cartoon, REX-1.

[MikeandRaph87]

Can you give us a summary of your plot much like an episode guide synopsis preview we have gotten of the last two TMNT cartoons a little preior to thier airing?

Your Rex-1 comment gave me an idea for a thread in general about not principal character favorites among fandom.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Can you give us a summary of your plot much like an episode guide synopsis preview we have gotten of the last two TMNT cartoons a little preior to thier airing?

Your Rex-1 comment gave me an idea for a thread in general about not principal character favorites among fandom.

Well... I guess I can do a little digging into my script files while still trying to avoid spoilers.

I can't even reveal the title at this point because it would ruin some of the surprise, but I'll at least tell you that I'm planning for Issue 2 & Issue 3 to be a two part-story, the first half of which focuses primarily on Rex-1 while the second half follows the exploits of the Turtles fighting off some more one-off baddies from their past! Which raises the question... just why are all these obscure adversaries suddenly coming back to trouble the TMNT & friends? Hmm...

Aw heck, I'll just post my unfinished layouts on the first three pages!







I've discovered that skyscrapers (from the ground up to the sky) and automobiles can be really hard to draw!

[MikeandRaph87]

I like what I see! Some characters are long forgotten and only use mega fans will ever make use out of them in fan-ficiton. Take until the new year if you have too. Life gets in the way and quality is best in products like these. Those are the two reasons I put off posting a couple of fan-fiction scripts.

Not long ago I had an idea for a episode called Robot War which features Metalhead and Rex-1 vs Chrome Dome(Shredder),Krang's Andriod Body(Krang),Super Rocksteady(Rockseady), and Mighty Bebop (Bebop). The Techndorme gang had thier robotic dopplegangers powered up to go after the turtles and destroy the city and who can stop them? Metalhead and Rex-1!

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Not long ago I had an idea for a episode called Robot War which features Metalhead and Rex-1 vs Chrome Dome(Shredder),Krang's Andriod Body(Krang),Super Rocksteady(Rockseady), and Mighty Bebop (Bebop). The Techndorme gang had thier robotic dopplegangers powered up to go after the turtles and destroy the city and who can stop them? Metalhead and Rex-1!

Heh, funny that you mentioned Metalhead. My original plan was to make this story 3-part story, with the 2nd part focusing on Metalhead going haywire in the sewer lair and giving the guys all sorts of problems before they finally escaped to the street level and were able to deal with the threat to the city. But... I realized that whole thing would just end up being one big fight scene and wouldn't be worth the effort if my goal was to advance the storyline. But... maybe if I finish all the comics I want to do I can go back to that idea as a side story!

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Heh, funny that you mentioned Metalhead. My original plan was to make this story 3-part story, with the 2nd part focusing on Metalhead going haywire in the sewer lair and giving the guys all sorts of problems before they finally escaped to the street level and were able to deal with the threat to the city. But... I realized that whole thing would just end up being one big fight scene and wouldn't be worth the effort if my goal was to advance the storyline. But... maybe if I finish all the comics I want to do I can go back to that idea as a side story!

If might fit in. Its hard to think up something for the turtles to be doing as the episode/story opens as David Wise and crew showed us. Instead of sitting around watching parodies of B-movies Donatello could be demonstrating his upgrade on Metalhead,but Don over did it. This is part will force the turtles to fight thier robotic doppleganger and perhaps the only way to tame Metalhead is to release the other robot that Don has shutdown in his lab,Rex-1. That will then lead into the main story that you want to present? You can decide the page legth of this but it could probably go for about four pages.How about that or is that too elaborate? I like weaving together fan fiction. I couldn't help it so if its a bad idea sorry.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I like what I see! Some characters are long forgotten and only use mega fans will ever make use out of them in fan-ficiton. Take until the new year if you have too. Life gets in the way and quality is best in products like these. Those are the two reasons I put off posting a couple of fan-fiction scripts.

My goal with these "OMW Adventure Series" comics is to basically do for the TMNT (Fred Wolf series) was Ian Brill did for the Darkwing Duck and Rescue Rangers franchises during the Boom! comics era. Build upon the established continuity of the episodes that exist, throw in some little easter eggs for the fandom, but ultimately craft a story that is emotionally mature while still playing by most of the "rules" that writers of the show had to deal with. Thus, nothing should be too out of tone with the idea of a Saturday morning kid's show. And when I'm done with my story, I need to leave the status quo more-or-less like I found it, so a future writer can follow up with "the next episode" without too much trouble.

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

his is part will force the turtles to fight thier robotic doppleganger and perhaps the only way to tame Metalhead is to release the other robot that Don has shutdown in his lab,Rex-1. That will then lead into the main story that you want to present? How about that or is that too elaborate? I like weaving together fan fiction. I couldn't help it so if its a bad idea sorry.

Oh no, I've already got most of the logistics figured out on that one. REX-1 is property of the city's police department. After the "Leonardo, Renaissance Turtle" episode REX was allowed to continue to serve the people of the city and didn't have to go back into storage in the police warehouse. Thus, we find our robotic hero keeping the peace as a traffic cop.

Metalhead, however, is still locked up in Donatello's lab closet.

I'll at least try to write my 2-part story so that a hypothetical "Gaiden" plot could fit within the middle of the issues.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

My goal with these "OMW Adventure Series" comics is to basically do for the TMNT (Fred Wolf series) was Ian Brill did for the Darkwing Duck and Rescue Rangers franchises during the Boom! comics era. Build upon the established continuity of the episodes that exist, throw in some little easter eggs for the fandom, but ultimately craft a story that is emotionally mature while still playing by most of the "rules" that writers of the show had to deal with. Thus, nothing should be too out of tone with the idea of a Saturday morning kid's show. And when I'm done with my story, I need to leave the status quo more-or-less like I found it, so a future writer can follow up with "the next episode" without too much trouble.

That is exactly what I did with it in the scripts I wrote years ago! Kind of a Geoff Johns/Alex Ross hybrid approach. Taking established continuity and characters in a specific time/version building characters through use of characterization and adding depth to lesser characters like I did with Tempestra and Burne Thompson. I can explain in PMs if you care for me to elaborate.Make the tone something like a hybrid of 7/8 and strengthen continuity. We would be a great writting team for the '87 cartoon or '12 version! I had crazy idea of Andrew and I working on a TMNT project. No two mega fans can be further apart in thier idea of the TMNT and I wonder what craziness would become of it aside from blowing up this mb. Winters,we share a close vision and that is proven in similar fan-fiction approaches. Love your work and ideas! Dream project would be for us to co-write a TMNT('87) fan-fiction and Dasha to draw it! It will never happen,but its a dream team!