This publish is Filed Under:

Home page Highlights,
Interviews as well as Columns

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1a

Kevin Eastman gained fame as the co-creator of teen Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird. He would go on to discovered creator-friendly Tundra Publishing, which gained much acclaim during its short history. He is currently publisher as well as Editor-In-Chief of heavy Metal. In August, he returns to his roots with IDW’s new teen Mutant Ninja Turtles series, together with co-writer Tom Waltz as well as artist Dan Duncan. Westfield’s Roger Ash inspected in with Eastman to discover more about this project.

Westfield: What drew you back to the Turtles?

Kevin Eastman: Besides convention sketches I haven’t truly done anything with the TMNT’s since approximately 1996, when I did the Bodycount book with Simon Bisley–until a few of the guys working on the new TMNT movie asked me to do some idea art–and I had a total blast drawing the guys again–I seriously didn’t recognize exactly how much I missed them.

So, when my great good friends at IDW, Scott Dunbier as well as Ted Adams, reached out as well as asked if I’d like to do some alternate covers on the new series–I not only jumped at the chance, however I stuck my whole foot in the door as well as stated indeed as well as can I come play with you guys on the stories too?

BUT, I have to tell you Tom Waltz as well as the team down there already remastered a vision I believed was remarkable on every level–and feel like the luckiest youngster on the world that I get to find play in their sandbox for a while!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1b

Westfield: The solicitation states this new series will be “true to the spirit of the original comics.” What does that mean to you?

Eastman: What that means to me is these guys get it, IDW as well as the entire crew, in partnership with Nickelodeon wished to keep as much as the original spirit as possible–yet open doors to some great concepts I totally flipped over! I can’t wait to see this land in front of a few of the hardcore fans–they’re going to dig it, in addition to it is going to open the flood gates to a whole new audience of new fans.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1c

Westfield: A number of preferred characters will be returning. will you be introducing new characters as well?

Eastman: Yes, as well as YES, as well as that is all I’m going to state for now… except I haven’t been this excited about the storyline since the original days Peter as well as I were cooking on all burners!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1d

Westfield: What can visitors look ahead to in upcoming issues?

Eastman: I honestly desire I might be more specific, however I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I will state fans will see some serious action sequences, plot twists as well as turns fans will be losing their minds over (in the very best possible way)–but most of all you’ll see the innovative team on this book having the time of their lives!

Westfield: are there any type of other jobs you’re working on that you’d like to mention?

Eastman: I have a number of great things going on in the heavy metal world–pop over to www.heavymetal.com for that news, however as far as right now I’m back to all things Turtles as well as can state it has been a decade or more since I have had this much fun drawing.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sam Kieth cover

Westfield: any type of closing comments?

Eastman: I just want to provide a shout out to all my old buddies, however particularly my new good friends down at IDW–these guys are playing at the top of their game, as well as have made an old hand like me feel like one of the boys from satisfying one!

The spirit as well as the drive there to produce stories THEY want to checked out as much as the fans are going to want to lusters through–complete with the clouds parting, the sun beaming through, as well as more than a few angels singing in the background!

I’m having a FREAKING blast!

Purchase

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

And don’t miss the teen Mutant Ninja Turtles ultimate edition HC!

This post is Filed Under:

Home page Highlights,
Interviews and Columns

The Spire #1

Simon Spurrier is a novelist and comic writer whose work includes X-Force, six gun Gorilla, X-Men Legacy, The Simping Detective, and more. Now, he teams with artist Jeff Stokely for the new series, The Spire, from BOOM! Studios. Westfield’s Roger Ash got in touch with Spurrier to learn much more about this upcoming book.

Westfield: What was the genesis of the series and how much world building did you do?

Simon Spurrier: Genesis grew from the easy desire to collaborate with Jeff again. I gave some thought to the sorts of stuff we both really enjoy—our commonalities of taste, basically—and then just leaned as hard as I could into them all. It felt like a smart way to proceed, y’know? I wanted this project to be something we both felt passionate about, so that Venn-diagram of excitement was an essential thing to visualise. In the case of The Spire the most significant overlaps are nebulous things to finish with creation, exoticism, crime, and culture, but I guess if you want the easy version they break down like this: Blade Runner! Dark Crystal! mad Max! 

That’s The Spire.

I’m being glib—there’s certainly way much more to it than that. but that’s pretty explicitly how it emerged. A desire to tell an intimate, crimey, hard-boiled story in a completely crazy and entirely distinct world. We had such fun world-building for Six-Gun Gorilla we knew we could do that stuff without any boundaries, so we sort of set ourselves an even higher goal. It wasn’t enough to simply create an remarkable and original universe, it also had to feel functional, y’know? Lived-in. We wanted to create a world which didn’t feel like it simply disappeared the moment we, or our readers, looked away from it. That sounds crazy, but you’d be impressed at how numerous sci-fi or fantasy worlds exist purely to prop up a single story, or a single McGuffin at the heart of that story. With The Spire we’ve set out to make an amazing and fascinating place, then we’ve changed our focus onto characters and stories which are even more incredible and even much more fascinating. For all its awesomeness, if we’ve done our jobs best the world ought to feel like the least interesting part of the package.

The Spire #1 preview page 1

Westfield: As you mentioned, you are once again teaming with artist Jeff Stokely. What can you say about your collaboration with him?

Spurrier: It’s a joy. Comics writers often spend their whole careers waiting for an artist to come along who not only understands what they’re trying to do on an intuitive level, but then takes it to the next level. Jeff’s work on Six-Gun Gorilla took everyone by surprise and forged a partnership we intend to revisit as numerous times as we can. this time round I’ve insisted Jeff and I share an equal ownership of the project, and it’s led to a really cool creative dynamic. For instance, I catch myself leaving deliberate gaps in the script where Jeff is invited to create a new race of beings, a new type of technology, a new architecture; whatever it may be, which I then go back and absorb into the tale. It’s the most reactive—and many rewarding—process I’ve ever been part of.

The Spire #1 preview page 2

Westfield: who are the main characters involved in the book?

Spurrier: I don’t want to spoil too much, but the clear protagonist is a amazing woman called Shå. She’s the commander of a civilian police-force in a mind-boggling city: the eponymous Spire. It’s a mile-high megastructure, ancient and exhausted, which juts from the desert of a timeless wilderness. The last refuge of humanity—and of far stranger beings. Shå herself isn’t entirely human, and on top of the day-to-day pressures of her life—brutal murders, bureaucratic corruption, insidious conspiracies slowly oozing into the light, mischievous lover—she has to deal with the deep vein of xenophobic intolerance which infects the city. She’s riddled with secrets of her own—many of them beyond even her own recollection—and rapidly finds herself embroiled in something deep, dark and deadly.

Other characters range from the aristocratic bluebloods who govern the Spire to the cackling, miniature fart-propelled messengers called Gargs, amongst whom we find Pug: one of Shå’s deputies.

Part of the charm of a tale like The Spire is that we never really felt it had the need to self-identify as purely “sci-fi” or “fantasy” or “apocalyptic” or whatever. There are elements of all those things, but so much more. We figured that pigeonholing ourselves in that way would only ever restrict our creativity, when there’s simply no need to do so. even the most non-human of our characters are, emotionally speaking, as human as it’s possible to get. just to labor my point: This isn’t a story about an amazing world, it’s a story about some astonishing but very familiar-feeling characters which just happens to be set in one.

The Spire #1 preview page 3

Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the story?

Spurrier: Oh, y’know. The usual. Murder, lunatic desert guerrillas, mutant races, program change, rhyming gangsters, an ancient WMD, a mystery at the heart of government, a killer on the loose, a racial vendetta, sexy funtimes, coffee and bacon, beetlewing fart-propulsion, flesh reshaping weirdness, and a cackling forest goddess. and that’s just in episode one.

Westfield: any closing comments?

Spurrier: happy STANDS THE SPIRE!

Purchase

The Spire #1

From the very first episodes of WandaVision, there has been extremely bit to grumble about. One thing that consistently frustrates fans (in the very best possible way) is just exactly how short each 22- to 30-minute episode feels. This runtime fits with the sitcom satire of the series, as well as the storytellers pack in a lot. However, for many fans it’s just not enough. Well, great news for fans of longer episodes, the final three installments of WandaVision should go well past the 22-minute mark. This means that as we get better to the “endgame” of the series, we’ll be costs more time in both Wanda’s as well as the genuine MCU world.

picture via Twitter

The above picture has been circulating on social media, as well as while I am unsure of its provenance, I can’t discover any type of official statement from Kevin Feige specifying this. However, he as well as members of the cast as well as team of the show have suggested that the final episodes of WandaVision will be longer than we’re utilized to. during the press tour, both Paul Bettany as well as Elizbeth Olsen have explained the series as a type of “six-hour movie.”

x

Mario Kart DLC Gold Rush.mp4

0 seconds of 12 minutes, 40 seconds

Live
00:00
12:40
12:40

Not counting the credits, the very first four episodes of WandaVision time out to about 22 to 28 minutes. The fifth episode, called “On A extremely special Episode,” is the longest at about 34 minutes. the latest episode ran about 30 minutes exactly.  So, while the staying WandaVision episodes may get longer, they would have to every run about an hour long to get to a overall of six hours. during an interview with Steven Weintraub, Kevin Feige noted marvel Studios’ approach to making TV.

He said:

“We’re looking at it as establishing them as either six hour-episodes, or nine or 10 half-hour episodes. So, for instance, WandaVision started that method as well as Falcon as well as the winter Soldier as 30 minutes, however since it’s streaming, it’s Disney+, as well as the rules have blurred over the years, yes. Some can be 23 minutes. Some can be much longer than that. however She-Hulk, for instance, is being established as 10 30-minute episodes. Some will be longer as well as some will be shorter. Loki, Falcon as well as the winter Soldier is being established as six 40-50-minute episodes.”

picture via Disney+.

The key point right here is “…WandaVision started that way…” (emphasis mine). We understand that marvel Studios revealed that the original series order was “extended” from six to nine episodes. So, at some point during the advancement of the series, they added some story to it. So, it’s risk-free to be that marvel Studios provided the storytellers appropriate area as well as time to do that well.

It’s a genuine mix of emotions we’re feeling, since it means that we’re getting more WandaVision, however these longer episodes mean the series is coming to an end.

WandaVision debuts Fridays on Disney+.

What do you think? exactly how do you feel about the length of the episodes? let us understand if you want more, less, or if they’re providing us just sufficient in the comments below.

Featured picture via Disney+