Revisiting the “Gang Wars” arc

[TristanHuwJones]

Originally Posted by Braeden99

Would be awesome to have you writing Turtles comics again! The Burning Man is still my favourite Mikey story of all time.

I gotta ask, is Mikey your favourite Turtle?

He's certainly the most naturally easy for me to find the voice for. I think Mirage Mikey is a really interestingly nuanced character. Perhaps even moreso than the others.

You caught his appearance in the 40th I hope (the burning man)?

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Do it!

I know there’s some continuity baggage and it’s not as easily digestible compared to, say, The Last Ronin, but I feel like there’s definitely a bigger audience for something like Gang Wars these says.

A TPB collecting everything from the Tales days followed by a miniseries would be a nice way to get everyone up to speed.

I'd heard at one point that they were looking at collecting Tales maybe next year? But I've been hearing things like that for years, so I won't speak out of turn. Seeing Pete's Vol 4 stuff being reprinted is certainly a heartening step in that direction though (and a chance for me to finally get those in trade form)!

Honestly, given I wrote those stories as a kid (no joke, 20 years is a gulf of experience), I'd probably position those stories slightly differently now. Not necessarily undo anything, but certainly reapproach them.

I'll say this much -- the story I did for the 40th can be read a few ways, and one of them is exactly the approach I'd take any return to that material.

I think there's a great space that's opened up thanks to Last Ronin's success, that could allow for a great return to the Mirage stuff without necessarily getting steeped in continuity, and that's what I'd be looking to do.

But again, that's not up to me, and I'm working on Event Horizon as an illustrator at the moment, with Trick R Treat right behind that, so it wouldn't be something I could really approach until those things are cleared safely. The whole reason I got to tell more stories at Mirage is because you guys wrote in, and it was the same when IDW put me on Infestation (RIP).

The new editorial team over there is great, so who knows! All I know is I appreciate the support whether folks write letters or not.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

I'm working on Event Horizon as an illustrator at the moment

How surprising and neat is it that Event Horizon is being revisited at all? And if that book is a prequel then you're drawing all of the content that would basically be full-on "Hell on a spaceship".

I might have to check that one out.... just don't gouge my eyes out, omfg.

[TristanHuwJones]

Literally drawing the ship appearing in the Hell dimension now...!

[CyberCubed]

Really do hope IDW collects Tales. It went on 70 issues + 16 mini-series, so it was the longest lasting Mirage series of all even surpassing Vol. 1. It's a crazy body of "modern" at the time work, from 2004-2010. It's hard to believe how old it is now, like 15-20 years, I still remember Tales as it was coming out ordering them from the now shut-down Mirage website!

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

I'd heard at one point that they were looking at collecting Tales maybe next year? But I've been hearing things like that for years, so I won't speak out of turn. Seeing Pete's Vol 4 stuff being reprinted is certainly a heartening step in that direction though (and a chance for me to finally get those in trade form)!

Honestly, given I wrote those stories as a kid (no joke, 20 years is a gulf of experience), I'd probably position those stories slightly differently now. Not necessarily undo anything, but certainly reapproach them.

I'll say this much -- the story I did for the 40th can be read a few ways, and one of them is exactly the approach I'd take any return to that material.

I think there's a great space that's opened up thanks to Last Ronin's success, that could allow for a great return to the Mirage stuff without necessarily getting steeped in continuity, and that's what I'd be looking to do.

But again, that's not up to me, and I'm working on Event Horizon as an illustrator at the moment, with Trick R Treat right behind that, so it wouldn't be something I could really approach until those things are cleared safely. The whole reason I got to tell more stories at Mirage is because you guys wrote in, and it was the same when IDW put me on Infestation (RIP).

The new editorial team over there is great, so who knows! All I know is I appreciate the support whether folks write letters or not.

They were collecting all of Tales like 10 years ago and stopped at #25. I guess they could pickup where they left off. I’d rather see them just do a Gang Wars showcase TPB with a talented colorist and roll into a miniseries from there.

In your short, did I interpret it correctly that Lauren’s story is picking up 15 years later? Would this be post-Vol. 4? Or you’re thinking more of a loose continuity?

[TristanHuwJones]

Close -- I haven't got the book or files on hand, but the 15 years is a rough idea of where she first becomes aware of the Foot Clan if I'm remembering right. It's pre-Hamato Yoshi/Oroku Saki. But she's in Tokyo well after where we last saw her. Like a good while. I didn't go too deep on the details because I didn't want to promise something I may not necessarily ever be able to deliver on, but everything you see in there comes from loose-ish notes I had for other stories as well as rethinking the whole thing as an adult.

[Braeden99]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

He's certainly the most naturally easy for me to find the voice for. I think Mirage Mikey is a really interestingly nuanced character. Perhaps even moreso than the others.

Agreed. I don't think any other version has done Mikey as well as Mirage. They usually just make him the simple goofball.

You caught his appearance in the 40th I hope (the burning man)?

Hell yeah! Paul Harmon's art looked stellar!

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

Close -- I haven't got the book or files on hand, but the 15 years is a rough idea of where she first becomes aware of the Foot Clan if I'm remembering right. It's pre-Hamato Yoshi/Oroku Saki. But she's in Tokyo well after where we last saw her. Like a good while. I didn't go too deep on the details because I didn't want to promise something I may not necessarily ever be able to deliver on, but everything you see in there comes from loose-ish notes I had for other stories as well as rethinking the whole thing as an adult.

I busted it out last night when I was mistaken. She actually says it all started “nearly 20 years ago”.

The way it’s laid out makes it seem like she’s saying 20 years post-RTNY, since that last panel is the “explosion at Hudson Block” clipping. But then it kind of jumps around from there with references to other stuff, like #1.

[TristanHuwJones]

Yeah we didn't quite get time to fill out the rest of the articles that were meant to be on the board. There'd be things that predate that, but they would've been teasing things I couldn't necessarily deliver on, which I had to be careful about. The idea of jumping around was pretty deliberate, because it's sort of her train of thought as she's talking about these things. The initial script was way more explicit about "where do I start?" and there'd be things like the Utroms first appearing before you see them in the comics, the formation of the Foot Clan, Tang Shen's murder, but time and space was limited.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

Yeah we didn't quite get time to fill out the rest of the articles that were meant to be on the board. There'd be things that predate that, but they would've been teasing things I couldn't necessarily deliver on, which I had to be careful about. The idea of jumping around was pretty deliberate, because it's sort of her train of thought as she's talking about these things. The initial script was way more explicit about "where do I start?" and there'd be things like the Utroms first appearing before you see them in the comics, the formation of the Foot Clan, Tang Shen's murder, but time and space was limited.

Very cool, sounds dope! I finally wrote IDW last week thanking them for the 40th celebration book as a whole, but also pointing out that Ciro’s story and especially yours were fun to see but incredibly painful if there’s never any follow up lol.

Do any of your newer ideas tie into the canceled “Image #0”? I was always bummed that never happened.

[TristanHuwJones]

Didn't even know that was a thing to be honest -- or if I did it's escaped me completely...!

But no, to answer your question, all those ideas are pretty safely stashed. The only way they're coming back out is if IDW wants to do them.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

Didn't even know that was a thing to be honest -- or if I did it's escaped me completely...!

But no, to answer your question, all those ideas are pretty safely stashed. The only way they're coming back out is if IDW wants to do them.

It was announced as an early Andrew/Arseniy project with Ryan Wilton on art, way back: https://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sh...&postcount=639

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by TristanHuwJones

Didn't even know that was a thing to be honest -- or if I did it's escaped me completely...!

But no, to answer your question, all those ideas are pretty safely stashed. The only way they're coming back out is if IDW wants to do them.

It is an interesting concept, having Hun be the big guy running things in the city and be in jail during the time that Shredder took over. Being locked up would also explain how he didn't take part in City at War.

[TristanHuwJones]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

It was announced as an early Andrew/Arseniy project with Ryan Wilton on art, way back: https://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sh...&postcount=639

Oh wow -- yeah I kinda remember this now that you mention it!

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

It is an interesting concept, having Hun be the big guy running things in the city and be in jail during the time that Shredder took over. Being locked up would also explain how he didn't take part in City at War.

Well, yeah, that was pretty much it. Though to my mind Shredder and Hun definitely crossed paths beforehand...