DREAMWAVE'S TMNT ENDS WITH ISSUE #7

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

Peter David has announced on his website (http://peterdavid.malibulist.com) that Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, published by Dreamwave, will end as of issue #7, and the publisher is hoping to relaunch it as a new series in the summer.

Peter David’s Comments:

"I have been informed by the fine folks at Dreamwave that they are suspending publishing on the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, with issue #7 (the second half of a two-parter) being the last one to ship. Issue #8 was to have kicked off the four part "T4: The Turtlenator," which Dreamwave has been advertising. Instead that storyline, currently being written and drawn, is being halted halfway completed with an eye towards possibly relaunching in the summer.

As fun as the series has been to produce, writing the first four issues under the constraint that they had to be based on the first four animated episodes resulted in issues that were, I think, not representative of what the series could have been. Plus, of course, one runs the risk of seeming superfluous since you're just rehashing stories people can see animated and for free. Issue #5, starting the run of wholly original stories, was the first issue I was completely happy with, and it was very well received...but not by enough readers. Particularly when one considers that Dreamwave has to pay licensing fees and thus has to sell a lot more copies than a creator-owned title in order to turn a profit.

I suppose sales on issues 6 and 7 will help determine whether we'll be seeing another run at the Dreamwave TMNT during the summer.

PAD"

Afterwards, the artist on the series, LeSean Thomas, posted on the TMNT fan board Technodrome his reaction:

“i've kept it on the low until its been official. but i guess Peter david aint waste no time. This is tru, TMNT has been canceled and for the reasons above.

its a pretty hard core blow, especially to the fans... but this is just a reocurring event in a string of canceletions of dreamwave titles, to what reason, i've yet to know, but i can only hope for the best of those cats and that i can continue to work with them in some form or fashion in the future.

i've been told, like peter david, that the series will return hopefully next year. but that is indefinite. and although it may return, i doubt I will be apart of that. it's been suggested, that Pat Lee would be the possible candidtae for penciler should the series returns...

and for peter david's clarity, issue #8 is actually finished.

what they do with that remains to be seen. in anycase, i had to keep it on the humble until its been confirmed. i was told yesterday , i had no idea when pAD was gonna be informed. i had a great run on the series with him, and i do agree with him and feel similar in terms of what my initial expectations of what TMNT run with my approach and what one of my teen hood favorite writers would conceive together.

it didnt turn out as i or PAD had expected

i had a fun on the run, and hopefully, i can get an opportunity to work with peter david again.

in terms of why it hasnt done well, theres a number of reasons i can guess but my guesses are as good as yours in certain departments, and in others i cant quite speculate on at this moment. “

LeSean went on to say that he had completed the pencils for issue #8, and was halfway through the inking process. LeSean Thomas has previously announced his creator-owned title Cannon Busters with UK publishers, Com.X, with Corey Lewis.

When reached for comment, Dreamwave Productions said they would have an official announcement soon.

[Jeffbot]

This was/is actually a good series. I think that having the first four issues directly torn from the cartoon was a mistake...issue five was where the fun started. As surprised as I am to say it (when I first heard about the series, I didn't care one way or the other), I hope that the book sticks around. I'll wait for it.

[Pascal]

So let's all buy issues 6 and 7 of the book, so that there really will be a relaunch in summer!

Don't let another "hidden gem" die...


Let's do something about this!

[cyclopsfan]

Save the Turtles!!! We need April O'neal!

[Kintoun]

This article leads me to wonder if the Dreamwave series managed to sell better than Peter Laird's Mirage title or Steve Murphy & Dario Brizuela's upcoming Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. I know Mirage doesn't need to deal with the licensing problem so the profitability issue isn't quite as simple as which Studio sells more Turtles comics. I'm just curious if comics published in black and white can surpass the popularity of Dreamwave comics nowadays.

Kintoun

[Pascal]

The Dreamwave title sold much better than the one from Mirage.

[Endocrine]

i'm glad Leason wuzn't riting the serees, 'cause he shur can't spel.

[Gregg Cummings]

Originally posted by cyclopsfan
Save the Turtles!!! We need April O'neal!

Call April O'Neil in on this case
You better hurry up there's no time to waste
We need help like quick on the double
Have pity on the city, man it's in trouble
We need heroes like the Lone Ranger
When Tonto come pronto when there was danger
They didn't say "We'll be there in half an hour"
They displayed Turtle power

How sad is it that I still remember those lyrics?

[Gregg Cummings]

Originally posted by Pascal
The Dreamwave title sold much better than the one from Mirage.

Do you have a link to the figures?

[SmileOnADog]

Canceling this title is the dumbest thing. Peter David was writing some excellent stories and I hope that the same art team is intact for the relaunch. Don't forget that Mirage Studios also publishes two TMNT titles. Buy those while you wait.

[Nathan Jewell]

Originally posted by Gregg Cummings
Call April O'Neil in on this case
You better hurry up there's no time to waste
We need help like quick on the double
Have pity on the city, man it's in trouble
We need heroes like the Lone Ranger
When Tonto come pronto when there was danger
They didn't say "We'll be there in half an hour"
They displayed Turtle power

How sad is it that I still remember those lyrics?

Glad you posted it. I remember them too, and it saves me the embarassment of posting them myself.

vanilla ice... :::shudder:::

[Gregg Cummings]

Originally posted by Nathan Jewell
Glad you posted it. I remember them too, and it saves me the embarassment of posting them myself.

vanilla ice... :::shudder:::

I still have that cassette. It was one of my favorite tapes back in elementary school. I really used to like rap before it went all gangsta. Actually, I liked early Snoop and Dre. . .

BTW, Turtle Power was performed by Partners in Kryme and not Vanilla Ice.

I still have a Vanilla Ice cassette. Shup up all of you!

[saiyanspider]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

DUDE THIS SUX!!

[Kryptokid]

I was going to drop this because of the first 4 issues...but...then 5 and 6 came out and I really enjoyed them. Oh well, it happens.

[dk2]

Yeah there is no doubt that the DW TMNT book sold better than the Mirage TMNT titles. Don't forget that the first DW TMNT issue had a sell out, and that they were a part of the '80's notalgia return and reluanches of old properties. So orders would've been high at that moment. Last I knew the TMNT book from Mirage (Tales of TMNT hasn't started yet) at least made the top 300 on the Diamond listing. And from what I knew the first issue of the Mirage boook came in at around 15,000 copies. No doubt these numbers have dropped after the first issue, and it is a b&w book.
Yeah I'd like to know the true numbers too, but from what I mentioned, is at least accurate. I never knew the first 4 DW TMNT issues were even adaptations of tv eps, yet I have only seen 2-3 eps of this new toon. I do get the Mirage books and like it too. If the DW TMNT doesn't return at least I have the Mirage books to enjoy. But I agree that the first 4 DW TMNT issues probably killed and set a bad precedented notion to most of its readers for its stories: "We pay to read what we've already seen?" Not a good start that may have led to its end.

[FIG]

You know why I wasn't interested in this comic?-IT wasn't becuase of the art because the art by Lesean was rock solid but I'd point to the turtles being for kids. I wish we'd get a turtles book thats ultra violent and not a rehash of everything thats come before it. Just for a minute I'd like to see them wipe the slate with an old tv idea like this and go totally mature with it. A MAX series for the turtles, something gritty and realistic with Lesean as the artist of course.

[Bullwinkle]

Originally posted by Endocrine
i'm glad Leason wuzn't riting the serees, 'cause he shur can't spel.

Sorry, but was that really necessary .... ?!

I think LeSean is a great artist on the book (and a great creator in his own right), so comments like this are really unproductive and uncalled for. The guy may express himself differently to you, but Hallelujah for that! I'm glad that we all have our own ways, approaches, and styles ....

I'm not saying what to post or what not to, but I do think there need to be certain standards of decency and respect applied. I, for one, would much rather see LeSean keep on communicating on the Net in his own way and keep sending messages out to the fans rather than being yet another creator who feels chased offline by comments such as this.

Think a little more before you post, okay?!

- Chris

[ChrisArrant]

Someone earlier asked for a break-down of the sales figures, and a poster on Peter David's website, Joseph, has done a great job of breaking them down. Here's what he wrote:

Figures for the Dreamwave title:
#1 (06/03) 32,273 copies
#2 (07/03) 22,371
#3 (08/03) 21,319
#4 (09/03) 19,567
#5 (10/03) 19,071
While there seemed a substantial dropoff from #1 to #2, if memory serves, #1 had multiple covers. Even if that's not the case, your book hasn't suffered the typical dropoff in sales that other books have--only losing a little over 3000 copies from #2 to #5 (just under a 15% decline in sales).

Compare those figures to the Mirage title's sales over the same 5 month period (the Mirage book is bi-monthly, so only three issues came out):
#10 (06/03) 7,073 (at a $3.95 cp)
#11 (08/03) 6,694 (at the regular $2.95 cp)
#12 (10/03) 7,232

Keep in mind that Mirage doesn't have to pay licensing fees for TMNT. Dreamwave definitely had a higher overhead due to the licensing fee, plus the talent on the book, and the higher quality printing. Because of the higher overhead, they had to bring in more money to break even with the book.

If fans of this book really want it to come back, a letter writing campaign similiar to the one that revived Marvel's Spidergirl is needed. Dreamwave has their email & mailing address posted on your website.

Either way, Mirage's version of TMNT is good too. It's worth the extra time asking your retailer to order it for you in the future.

[Kintoun]

Originally posted by ChrisArrant
While there seemed a substantial dropoff from #1 to #2, if memory serves, #1 had multiple covers. Even if that's not the case, your book hasn't suffered the typical dropoff in sales that other books have--only losing a little over 3000 copies from #2 to #5 (just under a 15% decline in sales). [/b]

Dreamwave's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 was available with a regular cover by LeSean and an incentive cover by Pat Lee which wouldn't significantly affect sales.

Kintoun

[Taltos]

I dropped the series because it was based on the cartoon. I'll probably give it another shot if it relaunches.

[FIG]

If it was a gritty as the first graphic novels by Eastman and Laird, then I'd be all down for collecting again but chances of that happening look slim to zero.

[Darkhawk]

I thought the last few were good. The art is better than I expected

[Charlie Hustle]

lmfao Dreamwave is a joke.

[AnimalMan#1-26]

Why do a comic based on a cartoon based on a comic where the cartoon pitched itself as being more like the original comic than the previous cartoon series? With Archie's TMNT Adventures, at least you could say that the comic was closely based on a cartoon that WASN'T closely based on the comic that was its source material. In this case, it seems like fans would be better served by actual TMNT comics rather than comics closely adapted from the cartoon closely adapted from the comic-- its like 3 degrees watered down. Besides-- comics like TMNT Adventures main audience was kiddies at newsstands, Hallmark franchises, drug store, etc.-- not exactly where most Dreamwave books are selling.

[Pascal]

Sure, it didn't make sense. Then again, PAD had plans to write it as if it were an original series. Where something actually could happen. So I'm still hoping...