By now you’ve heard about the fact that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sold to Viacom/Nickelodeon earlier in the week. Among the talents that have been working with the martially artistic terrapins in recent years is Tristan Jones. Jones had been writing Tales of the TMNT, a book that received favorable notices over time by our own J. Caleb Mozzocco. We approached him for comment, and were surprised by some of the things that he had to say in the following statement.
According to Jones:
“Mirage Studios, Inc. will close on December 31, 2009 - so the current crew will become independent contractors on January 1 to get the final issues out. Mirage will continue to publish “Tales” until the May, 2010 issue - but as of now - that’s the end of the line. Peter did keep rights for Mirage to publish 18 TMNT comic books per year through the direct market, which would only be based on the current Mirage Universe stuff (eg: a continuation/conclusion to Volume 4).
While Peter did maintain the rights to do comic books, Mirage no longer has the rights to do trade paperbacks. So the “Mirage Universe” book solicited for December is canceled. What I’ve been told is that Mirage can only publish material between 32 and 48 pages long.
What could possibly happen is that say Nickelodeon/Viacom/Paramount/whoever decided to pick up the ball and run in a completely new direction with the Turtles, they’d be able to license that out to another company, and that company could potentially do anything they like, except publish anything that continues the currently established Mirage Universe, so any comics that would come from another company would be something completely new (what IDW is doing with Transformers and GI Joe is a pretty good example of the sort of thing that could be done).
Peter still owns Mirage, so there’s a chance that Mirage could continue publishing but there aren’t any solid plans for anything Turtle related yet (outside of what I just mentioned) or any new IP’s that I’m aware of.”
It would seem that the most surprising note here is the lack of trade paperbacks. That would seem like a sure signal that the new ownership is looking toward their own deal in the future. If so, where might the future comics home of the Turtles be?
As for Jones, he continues to write and can be found at http://tristanhuwjones.blogspot.com/
UPDATE: There is a statement at the current Mirage Studios home that also invokes the May, 2010 date.
If you haven’t heard the news, Peter Laird has sold all intellectual property rights to the TMNT franchise to Nickelodeon. So Nick now owns the TMNT lock, stock and barrel. Of note, Peter did retain the right to publish up to 18 TMNT comics per year should he choose to do so - thus Mirage Publishing will remain in business at least until May, 2010 . . . .
Speaking of which, I will be creating a new Mirage Studios web site for us to continue posting news and info about our comics. This site will be up and running soon and hopefully there will be a link here before any major changes take place.
I’m tempted to say “So long, and thanks for all the fish” - but we’ll still be here for a bit and we’ll definitely be around at the new Mirage site once it’s established.
October 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
So the “established continuity”-Turtles are pretty much… dead.
I can live with a reboot but would a new publisher have to completely revamp the origin of the TMNT?
October 26th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Dang,
I didn’t know it was that bad.
I mean wow, in my opinion. I do wonder how Nick is going to try to use the TMNT title now.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
So no collected TMNT volume 2?!?!
Bummer.
When I first heard of the deal, I thought it was the animation rights that were being sold–which didn’t bother me in the least, as I wasn’t into them.
But the original, b&w, Mirage continuity turtles?!?! This makes me sad.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
My understanding is that Peter still has the opportunity to continue telling stories in the established continuity through Mirage. It’s up to him though, and I’d like to see him finish Volume 4, as I’ve really been diggin’ that story unfold (it’s just unfortunate that Peter’s enthusiasm seems to have waned just as the book was finding its stride, story wise).
I’m kinda bummed that we didn’t get to finish the story we were setting up in Tales. I loved what we did with Hun, and the stuff that was in the pipeline was really “balls-to-the-wall” material, and that actually starts on the very last page of Tales #64!
My hope is that someone will pick up the ball and do something new. I’d been working on a proposal when things were still up in the air regarding the direction of the comics beyond May next year that was pretty much an “Ultimate” version of the TMNT — it was a pretty radical departure from everything that’d come before but still retained the familiarity all these sorts of reboot books do. I’d love to see it happen, and maybe it will now that the license is out in the open, but I guess that all comes down to what Viacom/Nick/Paramount want to do with it.
All the guys at Mirage are excited about what the future holds for them, and they’re all massively talented guys, so I’m positive they’ll still be working on things in the future.
As far as what Nick plans on doing, nothing solid has been said, but I’ve heard they want to do things in both the harder-edged older audience direction as well as the retro styled stuff, so we’ll see. I reckon a smash-up of the two would be neat!
October 26th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
No, not neat. Historically, trying to please everybody… well, you know the rest.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I hope they continue/finish Vol. 4. I mean, they killed off Splinter for crying out loud! You can’t just leave a book like that. ‘Course, I was saying that before Nick bought everything too and V4 was already on hiatus.
Anyway, end of an era. I invested a lot of time and money and don’t feel like starting over. (same thing with GI Joe and Transformers)
October 26th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
So, that’s it. The end of an era.
Heck, I’ll still pick up whatever Mirage issues will still be available.
Thanks, Mirage. You made comics worth collecting.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Well, that kinda sucks. Some merger/aquisitions can be harmful. Along with Transformers they’re probably really aren’t any other comics to really get excited about now.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
@Tristan: Hopefully you’ll get to tell those stories. I always liked “Tales” and I hate to see it go away (and I don’t understand why Peter Laird won’t let it continue with you guys).
I also loved the direction Laird was going in Vol. 4. Yes, there was absolutely no emphasis on the “ninja” part but those characters still felt alive, they matured, the story went into one direction, not fore and back and the reader didn’t have to fear that Mephisto would show up to give another dose of his annoying retcon-bomb.
And while I’m not one of those that missed the conclusion to those Archie comics I’m still bummed that “Future Wars” is obviously done. Yay! Those fans waited for what - 15 years - and then it was announced and now nothing?
Sad, but yeah, I can understand Laird. I don’t have to like it though.
Hopefully some good publisher will snatch the licence. I wouldn’t mind IDW (although their G.I.. Joe reboot let me turn away from the franchise) and I sure hope it won’t be Dynamite.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I kinda figured when the Turtles were sold Mirage would be gone. I hope Nick does good things with this property.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
@Hollow: I’m hoping someone does. I’d heard that IDW wanted the license a while back, but I wasn’t sure what the go was there. To be completely honest, I’d rather let my work for Mirage stay as it is and hope that whoever does pick it up is keen to redefine the TMNT, and have me on board to help out! The core problem with the Mirage comics is that when the early ones were written, nobody expected it to last 25 years, so the earlier books — particularly stories like the origin — don’t tend to hold up as well these days.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Ooh. Edgier stuff and retro silly stuff? I’m liking this.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Peter Laird just posted this on his blog:
“Although I do have the right to publish up to eighteen issues of TMNT comics per year, it is highly unlikely that I will do that right away. In all honesty, the idea of doing ANY new Turtle stuff right now leaves me cold.
I need to get away from it.
During the negotiation, I asked for those “reserved rights” because, on some very basic, gut level, after putting so much of my life into the TMNT property over twenty-five years, I wanted to walk away from it with roughly the same deal with which I walked into it — the freedom to do some TMNT comics. But I also have the freedom to NOT do them.
I can’t guarantee when — or even if — Mirage will produce new TMNT comics again. It is most likely that the next TMNT comic thing I work on will be the conclusion of TMNT Volume 4, but at this moment I can’t even guarantee when — or if — I will do that. It’s too soon to make those plans.”
October 26th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
ok, wait, i’m confused. does this mean that viacom will have to change the turtles personalities, origin, etc… so it doesn’t match the mirage one? because if that’s true, then the turtles are truly dead to me now
October 27th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Oh No!!
What about the TMNT Adventures forever War mini?
October 27th, 2009 at 5:35 am
@Tristan
Was IDW the company Mirage was in talks with a couple of months ago?
October 27th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Sounds like ol’ Pete was suffering from Turtle Fatigue. Can’t say I blame him.
I loved the Mirage TMNT comic from the beginning all the way thru the “City at War” series. Once the regular continuity returned, the book wasn’t as cool as it had been. In its prime, it was really a showcase of “indie” style storytelling, completely off-the-wall type of stuff. Rich Corben one issue and Rick Veitch the next. Good times.
October 27th, 2009 at 7:53 am
oh man…
one of the last, most recognizable (popular) independant comic properties gobbled up by some corporate giant…
that’s how you know the market’s bad for creators…
October 27th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Can I still get my City At War TPB already GAWD…
October 27th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
@Monty: I’m not sure, I heard it through one of the guys at the studio a while back, and it was reinforced by someone else. It could have been years ago (back around Dreamwave), but it could’ve been a couple of months, too.
@doug_skywalker: had you seen the sales on the Mirage books? Hardly what I’d call popular (although it may have been just enough to scrape the top 300 every month or so).
@Sano: Sorry mate, not unless someone into Omnibus books picks up the license. Start hitting those Dark Horse or IDW message boards!
October 29th, 2009 at 3:23 am
That sucks as I just started pre-ordering TMNT 3 months ago!