Does IDW have the right to reprint Volume 4?

[frank_one]

Originally Posted by Xav

Even if Peter won't finish it couldn't IDW hire Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot to finish it up?

Lawson would never to it without Laird's blessing and I doubt Laird will ever accept of not being able to conclude the story himself.

[mrmaczaps]

Lawson & Lavigne already both offered to finish off v4 and also to start a vol 5 under Mirage a few years back and it angered Laird that they even offered & had a plot detailed out for him... One or the both of them mentioned this at a signing once.

As far as Nick not owning the details of issues 31 & 32, my understanding is they own turtles & Laird just has the right to write/produce 18 issues a year and they'd still own those too. Its another reason why he hasn't done it because it doesn't make sense for him to do more, charge $10 cover price just so IDW can reprint it later at $3.99 (or whatever) and immediately make money on something that cost Laird money. (As he explained once at a Lavigne signing....)

I would love to have seen what Lavigne & Lawson had come up with though. Laird has to be involved in whatever q8 issues get done but that doesn't mean he can't enlist any/all of the Mirage guys to do the work itself & just over see it. Even if they just wrote a double sized final narration with few smaller insert drawings to wrap it up...

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

Lawson & Lavigne already both offered to finish off v4 and also to start a vol 5 under Mirage a few years back and it angered Laird that they even offered & had a plot detailed out for him... One or the both of them mentioned this at a signing once.

Man...

I get that TMNT is their baby, and I support creators rights, but...

Wow, Eastman and Laird are just. Ugh.

Eastman will eat up anything, it seems, no matter how dumb and disrespectful it is to the TMNT mythos. Laird is the opposite, and he'll throw a huge hissyfit at anything that doesn't 100% fit his vision, apparently. I guess I'd take Laird over Eastman, though they are both at such extreme ends of the spectrum that it's frustrating.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by superstaff

Man...

I get that TMNT is their baby, and I support creators rights, but...

Wow, Eastman and Laird are just. Ugh.

Eastman will eat up anything, it seems, no matter how dumb and disrespectful it is to the TMNT mythos. Laird is the opposite, and he'll throw a huge hissyfit at anything that doesn't 100% fit his vision, apparently. I guess I'd take Laird over Eastman, though they are both at such extreme ends of the spectrum that it's frustrating.

Their best stuff is stuff they both worked on together.... it allows for a happy medium.

I would have loved to see what Lavigne & Lawson could have done together. That would have been great and not violated the "rules" with Nick as long as Laird over saw what was going on... as editor or whatever.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

Lawson & Lavigne already both offered to finish off v4 and also to start a vol 5 under Mirage a few years back and it angered Laird that they even offered & had a plot detailed out for him... One or the both of them mentioned this at a signing once.

As far as Nick not owning the details of issues 31 & 32, my understanding is they own turtles & Laird just has the right to write/produce 18 issues a year and they'd still own those too. Its another reason why he hasn't done it because it doesn't make sense for him to do more, charge $10 cover price just so IDW can reprint it later at $3.99 (or whatever) and immediately make money on something that cost Laird money. (As he explained once at a Lavigne signing....)

I would love to have seen what Lavigne & Lawson had come up with though. Laird has to be involved in whatever q8 issues get done but that doesn't mean he can't enlist any/all of the Mirage guys to do the work itself & just over see it. Even if they just wrote a double sized final narration with few smaller insert drawings to wrap it up...

No, Nick wouldn't own anything Laird does or creates in the 18 comics a year clause.

Also he answered me once that he couldn't just publish somebody else's stuff. He would have to -- legally -- be heavily involved in it, not just editorially.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

No, Nick wouldn't own anything Laird does or creates in the 18 comics a year clause.

Also he answered me once that he couldn't just publish somebody else's stuff. He would have to -- legally -- be heavily involved in it, not just editorially.

So if he drafted the script/outline and then let Lavigne & Lawson do the work then edited it, would that be enough? I know its odd to speculate but it just seems like he could have done something in the past decade to make use of the provision, otherwise why fight to include it in the sale?

If Nick owns the turtles, how would they not own anything he puts out? I heard him himself say he didn't want to do more at a cost to himself, self publishing it, just for nick/idw to be able to reprint it basically dirt cheap... seems really pointless again, for the clause to exist for both parties.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

So if he drafted the script/outline and then let Lavigne & Lawson do the work then edited it, would that be enough? I know its odd to speculate but it just seems like he could have done something in the past decade to make use of the provision, otherwise why fight to include it in the sale?

He's been very clear about why. To have the peace of mind while signing the deal that IF he so chose to, he could one day continue/complete Vol. 4. Rather than remove that possibility entirely, which would make him not want to sign.

If Nick owns the turtles, how would they not own anything he puts out?

Because that isn't the deal they signed. Though I admit, (and I'm sure it's airtight because it would've had to have been) I'm curious... not that he would, but out of curiosity could he put out a new issue of Vol. 4 and have Casey go nuts and shoot up a grocery store and Nick could have absolutely nothing to say about it? I'm not sure. There might be some Nick provisions in there. Maybe he does have to run any scripts/material up the flagpole to Nick for some measure of approvals and he didn't like that pretty quickly and that's part of why he didn't do much more Vol. 4.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

He's been very clear about why. To have the peace of mind while signing the deal that IF he so chose to, he could one day continue/complete Vol. 4. Rather than remove that possibility entirely, which would make him not want to sign.



Because that isn't the deal they signed. Though I admit, (and I'm sure it's airtight because it would've had to have been) I'm curious... not that he would, but out of curiosity could he put out a new issue of Vol. 4 and have Casey go nuts and shoot up a grocery store and Nick could have absolutely nothing to say about it? I'm not sure. There might be some Nick provisions in there. Maybe he does have to run any scripts/material up the flagpole to Nick for some measure of approvals and he didn't like that pretty quickly and that's part of why he didn't do much more Vol. 4.

Interesting theory. Quite the jump on character to use Casey. Lol

I don't know anymore than I heard him say he wouldn't want to put the work in, at cost to himself (even tho he can probably afford to do it) just to have IDW be able to turn around & reprint it [if/when they get to volume 4]. And again, while I can't prove it, it makes sense with the cover price of the last 4 issues of v4 being $10 that he'd not want to do all that work and then IDW gets copies & prints copies in China (or wherever) and cover price is $3.99 & they're mass produced to whatever they're printing these days, 20k copies?

I wish Laird well in his chillaxing & all, but I'd still hope he at least writes down where he was going so someday we might all gain access to closure of the series...

[frank_one]

IF Laird managed to put an end to Vol 4 and to produce and print the remaining issues with his own money, THEN he could sell the rights for those last issues to Nickelodeon and gain his money back.

[Coola Yagami]

It's kinda rough but at times I feel Laird is a grumpy old man that wished he never created the Turtles in the first place despite the fact that he most likely owes his current lifestyle to them.

[Andrew NDB]

I wonder if Kevin and Peter time-traveled to their younger bodies in even the early 90s, knowing what they know now, if that would make things turn out differently.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I wonder if Kevin and Peter time-traveled to their younger bodies in even the early 90s, knowing what they know now, if that would make things turn out differently.

Kevin would probably be too busy hushing Peter up cause Kevin might think of ways to maybe prevent selling out while Peter would be trying to yell out 'DON'T DO IT!!!! IT'LL RUIN YOUR LIVES' through Kev's hand.

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I wonder if Kevin and Peter time-traveled to their younger bodies in even the early 90s, knowing what they know now, if that would make things turn out differently.

Kevin might have saved some early Turtle money and bought out Laird? Or they stayed better friends, stayed together & built a turtle empire. Weekly books, NECA toys sooner, no more Playmates after the initial contract ended... lol. A better fleshed out vol 2, a fully completed back in the day vol 3, a vol 4 that has an ending... Maybe another volume of Tales? A Mirage vol 5 that gets weirder. A Turtles Multiverse book. A Lawson & Lavigne duo book. Maybe they never end vol 1 and just keep telling the later volumes stories without renumbering.... legacy numbering, lol...

Or maybe they fvck it all up and it just ends.

[Andrew NDB]

Going the optimistic route, Kevin probably never would have bothered with buying Heavy Metal and never would have tried NT:TNM. The first movie would be the same but both of them would put their foot down for a proper TMNT II. 2k3 cartoon would had them both at the wheel. It'd also be nice to imagine Vol. 2 - 4 (or whatever) with them still doing comics together, however sporadically (maybe 4 issue events every once in a while between 15-20 issues of Lawson stuff).

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I wonder if Kevin and Peter time-traveled to their younger bodies in even the early 90s, knowing what they know now, if that would make things turn out differently.

Maybe it was too late, but if the property could have been reigned in and survived, we could be in a really cool place right now. It almost seems like it was headed that way, before Peter sold it.

I'd probably trade what we have now for the position Hellboy has typically been in. At least until that unfortunate recent film.
Seems comparable enough, if you focus on the comic aspect of TMNT.

Fans of Hellboy have much less to talk about, but it's of generally higher quality. They got a couple films that are much better than any TMNT film aside from the first.

Then there were those pretty cool direct-to-dvd animations based on stories from the comics - would have traded all the modern tmnt cartoons for something like that, in an instant.

I guess the point is that Hellboy is more quality than quantity. Maybe it's a pointless comparison, but you get the idea - quality>quantity.

On the bright side, I'm glad to be reading the current TMNT comics, playing the games, and keeping an eye out in case the property can strike gold in the movie department again, someday.

[serpentnight]

According to this email I got from Mirage before they closed their doors they do.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by serpentnight

According to this email I got from Mirage before they closed their doors they do.

Again, except for the issues since the sale, yes.

[serpentnight]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Again, except for the issues since the sale, yes.

There were also a few Tales- Vol. 2 issues featuring the Cowboys of Moo Mesa that had to be excluded from the Viacom sale for legal reasons.