It’s rare that I take to the GoGreenMachine blog anymore (I really have to remedy that. I still have Turtle Soup to finish…heck the books are right behind me on the coffee table.) but I’ve been really bothered of late. What’s bothering you, Kevin/Jester? you may ask. Well, I’ll tell ya. I’m getting sick of all the negativity in this fandom. Hear me out here…
We’ve got a new show coming from Nickelodeon. It’s got Rob “Raphael Yakko Pinky et all” Paulsen in it (Enough to make this obsessive fan boy anxious to see the new series, or even hear audio recording of the “mutation in process.”) and is being directed (as far as I know, Rob’s facebook is my only source…seems like a good one to me, but I’m obviously biased.) by the incomperable, multi-Emmy winning Andrea Romano, who has worked on everything from Animaniacs (with Rob), to Batman: The Animated Series, to Teen Titans (the show that the new TMNT is being compaired too, which stars our new Mikey, Greg Cipes.) This is a HUGE deal, and something to be excited about. I mean, cue the fan-gasm. But what is the buzz about on the TMNT message boards? “OMG They cast Samwise Gamgee as Raph! This can’t happen! Mikey can’t be Raph! Say it isn’t so, RUDY!…50 First Dates…” Yes, despite the pedigree of Rob “The Voice of Your Childhood….admit it” Paulsen and Andrea Romano people are griping about Sean Astin as Raph…and eariler it was Jason “The Guy Who Humped a Pie in That One Movie” Biggs as Leonardo. I’ll admit that one caught me off guard, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see the show. I just wish other could too. Speaking of waiting until the series airs…
How some fans will see Raphael in Nick’s new series. (Image found at forkparty.com)
A series of story boards were released (and then removed, then re-released by fans. Hope Nick doesn’t go all sue-y on people.) They showed a very basic action scene featuring the Turtles taking on the “Baxter-pod.” As this is just a storyboard, and not a fully realized episode of the series, there were grammatical errors, and some very clunky dialogue. Some fans were excited to see news. Progress! YES! Others griped about the obvious typo. Others talked about how juvenile the scene was, comparing the “We did it!” at the end of the scene (I’m sure if I just took out a giant killer robot I’d excitedly yell, “WE DID IT!” too.) to Dora the Explorer (actually that’s kinda cute…I can see it. Funny.) and still others saw it as a sign that what they feared is true and this new series, that hasn’t been released yet mind you, and despite some strong casting and direction (yes I’ll continue to harp on that. It makes this Rob Paulsen, and to a only slightly lesser extent Andrea Romano, fanboy giddy with anticipation.) is going to suck. Again, can we at least reserve judgement on that until we see an episode. Then we’ll know for sure if it is in fact sucky kids schlock…or (and I’m really hoping/betting on this) not.
How some fans see the storyboard. (I did it myself!)
Now lets move on to the comics. IDW has the rights to the Mirage comic back log, and in the coming months is going to release over-sized hardcover releases of the early Eastman and Laird issues. The first volume is going to have issues 1-7 with the Raphael one-shot sandwiched in the to fit continuity and will hit the streets September 6th. Volume 2, in stores November 15th, will have issues 8-11 with the rest of the Turtles one-shots placed where they need to be. Oh the grumbling that was made about this…”Where’s the Fugitoid issue?” “Why only 8 issues? Mirage released these issues as one trade, for the same price!” “AGAIN!?” (OK the last one I can understand, these issues have been released a lot.) What people seem to forget is this is the first time these have been available to a very broad market. The other TMNT collected books were only available through comic shops or Mirage themselves, making them hard to find. That and many had very limited print runs. These will be bigger, better, easier to find books. Heck, they may even have some awesome bonus tid-bits. Heck, with Kevin’s seemingly heavy involvement with the IDW TMNT comics, it’s bound to be worth the clams. As to the Fugitoid question…I think it’s summed up great here.
