Interview with Bobby Curnow on IDW’s TMNT Comics, Issue 50, and Future Plans

Hey guys, Raphael here at the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles. Did you say podcast? Dudes, do

this! You're listening to a podcast on the Gatecast

Radio Network. Hi, this is Bobby Kurnow, Chief

Turtle Editor at IDW Publishing, and you are

going to have a shell of a good time inside the

pull bag. Hello and welcome to the pull bag.

I am one of your hosts, TfG and Mike. Joining

me is Joe Reed. Hello, sir. Hello. Today we have

the pleasure of welcoming back the turtle who

edits IW Publishing's TMNT comics Bobby Kernow

returns. Hi Bobby. How are you? Hey, I'm doing

all right. Thanks for having me back Yep, thanks

for coming back I'm glad that we can still be

one of the podcasts that you do an interview

for that won't make you say Cowabunga or freak

out in your ear. That's my goal Before we get

started, can you give us the scoop on what is

going on in the world of Bobby Kernow? Any upcoming

Turtle events you are allowed to reveal that

haven't been revealed already? I don't think

so. We got pretty far out ahead of the game with

our Turtle panel at San Diego Comic Con. We announced

we're going to see Leatherhead next year. We

talked a little bit about Ninja Trolls Batman,

which is now pretty well known. So those are

sort of the big announcements coming up. We've

got some other stuff in the works, but they need

to remain a little bit on the down low for right

now. Do you guys are doing any other conventions

this convention season? IDW is doing a smattering

of different conventions. I'm going through a

convention in Buenos Aires in September, and

then in October I should be at New York Comic

Con. That's not confirmed yet, but I think I'm

going today. Do you know if any of the artists

are getting around to some of the, I don't know,

Chicago, what's that one? Wizard World Chicago

or any of the others like that? You mean C2E2?

That too. I'm sure some are, but if IDW isn't

there, I'm usually not aware of who's doing what.

Unless it's deadline time and they're on deadlines,

then I will be curious where they are. So before

we hold you down and pour sewer water down your

throat, I want to know... If you were stuck,

and this is a stupid desert island question,

I'll admit that right up front, folks. If you

were stuck on a desert island, what IDW TMNT

arc would you want to have with you to read all

the time? That's a good question. I don't know,

maybe Secret History of the Foot Plan? Sort of

where I felt like the first book where I really

felt like we nailed it from start to finish and

I was pretty happy with everything that happened

with that. Yeah, I guess that in lieu of anything

else coming to my mind immediately. Or I guess,

you know, we're doing these IDW collections now

that... that collect entire years worth of books,

the ongoing and any mini series that go with

them. I'd try and get one of those books, I think.

That'd be a longer read. A good bang for the

buck. Oh my god, I so want that volume one. When

is volume two coming out for that? that collection

series. I don't know exactly. Sometime next year,

but just literally today I saw Dan Duncan's cover

design for volume two and it's got a splinter

as the main figure for that volume. It looks

really great. It's actually the best splinter

I've ever seen him do. So I'm excited for that.

Awesome. Very cool. That's one of my favorite

things that IDW has been doing, especially for

the Turtles series. And maybe that's because

what I watch. But it's been real easy for us

on this podcast to tell people what you need

to read to get caught up. And they collect the

trades well. And now with the volume, the big,

giant hard covers that collect the the 12 issues

worth, that's just so nice to say, hey, now this

is what you read. And then you jump on with the

current. So, you know, thanks. to the company

and you for having that all lined up for us.

Right now, our digital team is working on putting

a chronology list online. So anyone who's curious

about what falls in where can just go to that

and go to our website and check that out. That's

not up yet, but it should be within the month,

I think. So that's good. Fantastic. I know it

takes you guys a lot of hard work and time putting

those giant hardcover volumes in together, but

I wish they'd come out faster. Sure, me too.

So we have you here now and this is, well your

problem, I can imagine everybody in the office

is done with the up to issue 50 work and you're

already beyond that, but. a lot of us are still

reeling from issue 44 and I guess I want to thank

you for not having solicited that issue or bringing

up anything about the death of Donatello because

you know we all knew when Superman was gonna

die everybody was already on that book waiting

for it to happen getting the lead up I read my

Turtles comics while sitting outside the comic

store and and so when that hit man totally unexpected

and you really let all of us listeners feel that,

and that was art. But where did the discussion

to incapacitate? Because, no, we know Donnie

is going to be okay in the comic book sense of

things, but where did the discussion start to

potentially lead the readers to killing off a

turtle? Geez, I don't know. We've had that planned

out. Uh, several years back, um, at least since,

uh, uh, at least since city fall, uh, as we were

wrapping up city fall, we kind of, uh, city fall

ended sort of the, the first half of, uh, our

road to 50. Uh, and so then we started thinking

about, and we knew, we knew generally some big

beats that are going to happen on the road to

50, but then we started flushing that out, uh,

more, more formally. So around then, um, You

know, in Northampton, Donatello starts talking

to Splinter about how it's important that they

start concentrating on the technodrome and Splinter

is preoccupied with other things. So we started

laying the seeds for it then around issue 29

or 30. So I guess, you know, and that's a good

two years ago now, but about 14 issues before

it actually happened. So, a couple years ago,

I guess. Whose idea was it? Not so we can blame

them, because it was beautifully done. I don't

know, who do you... I can't imagine wanting that

to be on my shoulders as a writer, but then again,

what a powerful thing to be a part of. That was

my idea. Most of the big plodding beats come

from me. Kevin and Tom and I will have a brainstorming

session where I usually have a sort of beat sheet

of things that I think could work well. And then

we'll discuss them. Some things will be shot

down. Some things will be added from Tom or Kevin.

But pretty much the big story beats since around

year two have been... For me more or less. I

mean, I need to stress that the collaborative

effort and you know Tom does all the scripting

and really and really makes the ideas shine and

we I Come up with a lot of bad ideas to that

that gets shot down. So it's a good a good collaborative

team effort, but uh... i don't know uh... it

will come on what do you know i don't want to

give it away because you might use that bad idea

someday yeah well the thing is that once it's

one side it goes away then it's kind of deleted

from the memory banks i can talk about things

that were rejected just recently but then that

kind of spoils stuff that happens post fifty

so that's the kind of conundrum i'm in once once

it's yet one of the things where people ask me

about what happened in a book A year ago and

I'm like, oh man I'm not sure I remember because

I'm usually thinking about books a year ahead

from now instead of a year ago, so The human

brain can only fit so much in I think I don't

know. I'm sorry. Don't have to I couldn't imagine

the pressure of needing to Not say the things

you're not supposed to say if it hasn't come

out yet But it's you're already beyond it that

would so good on you for managing that kind of

stress Well, it's all it's all fun turtles is

a lot of fun Well, I can imagine that in the

letters column you got your fair share of death

threats But I any any remarkable fan backlash

that you guys received or what was the fan backlash

like when you? did that Pretty minimal. I think

some people were definitely pretty upset. And

I think Tom got called some names because he's

sort of the most visible face on the writing

side of this. But overall, pretty minimal. The

vast majority of it was really supportive and

really encouraging and really liked it. You know,

the sort of funniest letter we got, and I think

it's going to be printed in 49, is someone asking

us to tell all the websites to not put in spoilers

in the comics. And I'm like, we really have very

little control over what people write about it.

So that was sort of an amusing request that we

got. How do you, again, in the office, does it?

affect you when okay 44 comes out and I went

and read the issue said oh my gosh something

major happened and I had my emotional thing and

I went back to the store the very next day and

bought the the cover be the second cover yeah

and I don't usually buy all of them but I did

because something special happened and then not

a day after that the speculators seemed to jump

on that and buy it up dry it up can't find it

anywhere does that bother I while you're selling

books but how do you feel about the speculators

jumping on that? I mean, you know, there's arguments

being made that speculators are bad long -term

for the industry. Everyone, it was sort of a

mixed reaction here because obviously we went

to three printings on 44 and we're still seeing

a sustained increase in the readership from 44

on. So everyone's really happy about that. You

know, you mentioned we didn't spoil what happened

in 44. That was very deliberate. It was very

important to all of us in the creative team that

it be a genuine surprise. But we kept it also

quite sort of internally too. Part of it is that

we didn't know how big of a reaction it was going

to get. We didn't imagine that it was going to

get such a big reaction. That being said, we

knew there'd be some reaction, but we kind of

kept on the downloads because we didn't want

to leak internally either. We didn't want marketing

to accidentally start talking about it. So we

kept on downloads. So everyone was kind of surprised.

And it's a relatively small team here at IUW

who's working on the thorough book. So the company

on the whole was a little bit surprised, I think,

at the reaction because we didn't really prep

them for it. Partly because we want to keep it

secret partly because we didn't know what to

expect though But yeah, everyone everyone is

obviously is very happy You know, it's pretty

remarkable for turtles to be doing as well as

it is This far into a run. It's really rare for

an issue 44 to go to a third turning So, you

know everyone everyone was pretty happy. Well,

but between that happening, kind of drawing all

of the new readers to the book. I mean, I'm glad

to hear that numbers are up. That was my follow

up question there. You guys also did a fantastic

job with Free Comic Book Day as another opportunity

for us on this podcast to say go pick up the

Free Comic Book Day issue, and then you can start

reading immediately at 45. So good going on that.

Cool. The Free Comic Book Day was tricky because

that actually needed to be to the printer much

earlier than even 44. But we knew it would come

afterward. So we need to get some of those illustrations

done way ahead of time before even 44 was even

started to be worked on. So it's kind of a weird

logistical thing to figure out. But I was happy

with how that turned out. And I do feel like

it's a good jumping on place. So I'm happy to

do that. The funny thing is with that free comic

days you entitled Prelude to Vengeance. You guys

pretty much Nullified everyone needing to go

back and get all 44 issues because there's one

panel There's one giant two -page spread in that

book that basically sums up the last four years

of the comic And I was like wow they put almost

all four years worth of big events under two

pages. That's amazing If you consider it like

a panel per trade, then it works out okay. All

right, so all the turtles get a raw deal except

Mikey. Now just hear me out on this. So it seems

within the four -year span of the main ongoing,

It has had a lot of emotional arcs taken on everyone

except Mikey. Sure, there was the whole thing

with him and Woody and their little friendship

breaking up and then getting back together and

there was even something in, I believe it was

either secret history or it was no, it was Turtles

in Time. I think that Mikey met his mom as a

turtle. Is Mikey... ever going to have an emotional

storyline? I mean, I know, you know, you got

Raph, who wasn't even a part of the team at first,

then you got Leo turning evil, and, you know,

you've quote -unquote killed Donnie. It seems

like Mikey is the fun -loving glue to the whole

thing, so is he immune to having emotional stuff

happen to him? Uh, no, definitely not. Uh, I

think, I think you, you kind of answered your

own question in that, uh, you know, uh, we've,

uh, it's, it's definitely, we're kind of still

in the midst of, uh, Donatello's, uh, year as

it were. Um, when you look at it for 12 issues,

I kind of take them up to 48 and we'll just kind

of fold up to 50 into that. Um, but so, uh, so

it's definitely going to be the, uh, very Mike

centric, uh, post. post 50. So Michelangelo fans

out there can expect big things for him coming

up. That's another thing that you've managed

to do with IDWs. Yeah, I was a child when Turtles

was coming out, 10 years old and on. When I was

a kid, Mikey was always my favorite character

because, yo, he had the catchphrases and ate

the pizza and was funny. But as I kind of started

to grow older, Mikey became my least favorite

because he was the dumb one, the idiot. And I

kind of never really jived with that, but what

you've done with the IDW series and Mikey, and

man, I can't wait to hear Mike's story arc. and

another, you've brought me back to that character

in a good way. And this is, that's great news

to hear that we're gonna get to go on a ride

with him coming up soon. Yeah, and you know,

that's really, that's really a testament to how

Tom writes him. Tom, I think, you know, everyone

can find some personality traits themselves in

a turtle. And I think there's a lot of Tom. Uh,

or there's a lot of Michelangelo in Tom, uh,

and there's just such warmth and, uh, and spirit

and, and vitality in Michelangelo. And that's,

you know, when I talk about me, uh, you know,

sort of plotting ideas, um, you know, that it's

hard to, it's hard. You can't plot that, that

kind of vibe. So that's really all Tom's doing.

Um, so yeah, I agree. I mean, I, I love, I, I

didn't really care much for Mike, uh, growing

up, but, uh, yeah, he's. I don't know that I

have a favorite one, but I always really love

seeing what he's up to. Even in the last issue,

48, when they're being chased by the stockman

swarm, he's still having fun doing cannonballs

into the river and things like that. I laughed

so hard at that. He's a great spirit. All right.

So we are almost at the end of the road to issue

50. What has been your favorite part of the current

arc to this point? Well, you know, the biggest

treat that I get personally as an editor is seeing

the artwork come in Every day and I think this

story arc has had both Corey and And Mateus is

some of their best art. So that's been a real

treat in terms of story It's sort of something...

I really liked how we were able to visit Don's

journey into the afterlife in 45. But that's

also a regret, because I wish we could spend

more time with Donatello and what he's feeling.

We sort of envisioned a whole sequence where

we see how his brain works inside Metalhead,

sort of a Tron -esque sequence. and that got

cut just for time reasons. If we could have done

it again, I would have moved some things around

and done it a little bit differently and got

more time on Don and more insight into what he's

going through in this process. But I think it's

been a lot of fun to see Donatello in Metalhead

and see Like in the last issue, seeing him turn

into a boat, that sounds kind of dumb and stupid,

but like it's really fun to see. And it's been,

and we're gonna, you know, Donatello, we've got

a long running thread of him kind of struggling

with spirituality and what the soul means. And

we're gonna continue to explore that. And this

has obviously been a great opportunity to explore

that a little bit. Like I said, I wish we could

have gotten into it more, but I'm happy that

we were able to get into it. There's your in

for a metalhead one -shot issue. You could do

the whole thing, Donnie in his head and how that

works out. Yeah, we'll talk about all that stuff

in a moment when it comes to micros and minis

and everything else. As a follow -up, can you

give some info on issue 50? Not spoilers for

the story, but some info on the release and whatever

I saw in the solicits there are going to be numerous

covers. How many will there be? And I know since

it's a double -sized issue, it's going to be

$7 .99. So how many covers are those die -hard

cover collectors going to have to buy? That's

a good question. So many that I don't know off

the top of my head. We have just last week, we

closed the orders to retail exclusive covers.

I think we've got eight or nine of those. And

then for our normal covers, we've got a cover.

We've got the Kevin cover. We've got a Gabriel

Rodriguez cover. We've got we've got a cover,

a Jack Kirby cover. He did the only drawing that

Kirby ever did, of the turtles, he gave to Kevin

and Peter. And then Kevin has kept that, and

he inked it, actually. Oh my golly. A wide release.

And also a different Rodriguez, Robert Rodriguez,

the film director, he is inking a cover that

Kevin did. They're friends. And so this is Robert

Rodriguez's first published comic book art, if

I'm not mistaken. So some cool special stuff

there and then a good desi of retail exclusive

covers which and I've seen there's some really

cool unique concepts there that they're doing

that are a little bit different than the normal

retail exclusive cover. So I think it's an appropriate

it's an appropriate celebration of the milestone

and it's like you said it's 48 pages so that's

bigger than a double -sized our normal issues

are 22 pages. And really, we use every single

one of those pages. I'm really proud of number

50. So without getting into what happened, we'll

see. We're working on it right now. So knock

on wood, hopefully it does get finished. But

so far, it's the issue I'm most proud of. I'm

excited for people to see it. In the beginning,

you know reading Dan Duncan's art line and getting

the hints of the technodrome coming I imagined

that knowing you guys had the 50 issue Mapped

out that the technodrome was going to be the

big arc But now we have we have Donnie's story

going on and Baxter doing his flyswarm. I kind

of almost don't know what Incredible climactic

thing could happen just yet, but I think it's

gonna get real hairy Harrier than it is now in

the next couple of issues But are you? You're

at 50 now probably that I imagine art and colors

are coming in it's gonna go to the printers very

soon How far are you out into the future? I mean

your your biggest outline. I'm always Hoping

that IDW makes it past issue 72 because that

was the the line that Archie drew in the sand

for the longest turtle series Exactly. Yeah,

I'm very I'm very eager to pass that my personal

I mean, we've got ideas. We've got a we've got

a loose beat sheet going up to 100 So you just

kind of basic story arc so and I'm sure it'll

get rearranged. Oh, yeah But um, we've got this

net we've got through issue 60 pretty tightly

plotted. Tom is scripting 52 right now. 51 is

being drawn by artist Ken Gearing concurrently

with number 50, so we can get ahead a little

bit there. So that's sort of where we're at right

now. I'm looking at the next storyline after

55, storyline of 56 through 60, kind of plotting

that out right now. So yeah, that's where we're

at. Any vague adjectives or nouns? I don't definitely

don't want you to give away specifics, but I

don't know. Where's the post 50 going to take

our emotions? Yeah, no, I really can't say anything

because number 50 is a bit of a game changer.

And the first story arc is going to be kind of

dealing with the aftermath of that. But we will

be returning to Burno Island and the Technodrome

and see what's going on there after that storyline.

So around 55, 56, we'll be getting out of New

York City again. Let me ask before I move on

here, because I have to ask this since we already

brought up somebody writing into you guys and

asking them to have you guys not have all the

websites on the internet post spoilers. the Issue

50 or the I forget one of the solicitations in

the solicitation. It said on the road to 50 the

final issue It said something about the final

issue there somewhere And I know you just told

us that you guys have mapped out through 60 so

far And you're you know you're gonna eventually

get up to a hundred But was that something IDW

is that something you guys on the editorial team

sent? websites or is that just something they

wrote in there because i remember reading those

solicitations for the issues that are out already

are out now uh you know two three four months

ago five six seven months ago and i'm like the

final issue seriously they're stopping at 50

i was really mad at that yeah i know that was

definitely um that was from us but that was just

i think us not thinking every like a lot of people

did get that uh impression but that was not our

intention at all i think the exact wording was

something like uh the final storyline leading

up to number 50 yeah that's what it was so you

know to me that says that's and i think there

was another qualifying statement after that saying

like this is like what everything's been building

to um since the start and that's all accurate

this is the sort of the final storyline in in

this um in this grander scheme of it it lays

to rest a lot of what was was started was established

in the first year. But the point being is that

a lot of people got the impression that number

50 was going to be the final issue. And that

was never, no one thought that for a second.

We did talk about maybe relaunching the series

with the new number one after 50. That was briefly

discussed internally. But there was never intention

for it to be the last issue. But I definitely,

you're not alone in that. I remember reading

that in I think it was comic shop news They did

they did that same use the lines leading up to

the end and and I kind of immediately figured

oh They you know, there's a misunderstanding

there. There's a miscommunication. It's gonna

go on forever and they're just they that's okay

I get I get and I immediately climbed out of

the tree and This great books not going anywhere

Alright, so let's talk about the micros and the

miniseries and all that good stuff. With so many

miniseries like Turtles in Time and TMNT Ghostbusters

and Mutanimals and now Casey and April, we're

just lo - at least Joe and I for the most part.

I know Joe's not the biggest fan of - TMTGB,

but we're loving the spotlight on the other characters

from the ongoing. These miniseries allow more

character growth that might not fit into the

main book. What's your favorite part about crafting

the miniseries' stories? Yeah, I think just essentially

what you said, getting a chance to explore the

supporting characters in the world a bit more.

We really have sort of a breakneck pace in the

ongoing itself. And that's something I think

is important, but I also kind of wish we could

slow down in the main storyline. I think we will

after 50. But that being said, I am really thankful

that we have the chance to explore the world

more in the side series and that we've got sales

that can support those side series. I mean, these

stories are... You know, there's great action,

there's great art, there's great plot twists,

but all of that's sort of meaningless without

interesting characters. And the more you can

flesh out those characters and make them real

and relatable, that's crucial for the narrative.

So yeah, I'm just really thankful we have those

opportunities because, you know, they're... They're

fun in and of themselves, and we always try and

make them really matter. We always try and either

introduce new ideas or new characters that affect

the ongoing. So you can read the ongoing without

that stuff, but your experience is going to be

greatly enhanced if you are reading the side

series. So I'm proud that we've been able to

create stories that work on their own, but also

are part of this. larger rich universe Are there

any editing editor? tricks or secrets or troubles

that you have trying to keep the books I don't

occurring releasing at the same at the right

time or tying in together is there a challenge

to that it hasn't been to cityfall and the villain

micros were really hard because That was sort

of a week -by -week thing and you know You've

learned something the cry micro that you need

to know in the next issue of the ongoing That's

about as interconnected as it'd gotten, and that

was a big headache. And there's a reason why

we haven't done that since then, because I was

just like, oh, that was really hard to pull off.

Let's just pick the one. We want more micros.

Yeah. I mean, I love the micros, too, and would

love to revisit that. And what's really nice

is what's going to happen post, it's still in

development, but what's going to happen post...

Turtle fat man will will allow will allow us

to take that sort of a we'll kind of be able

to combine the micro and the mini series approach

into one one cohesive thing I can't really it's

pretty big but um it was after after I had read

the all the meat animals issues and Jonah recorded

that show that I was like Oh my god, we need

a Mondo micro, we need a Herman micro, we need

micros for the Mutanimals. It's really what we

need, because, I mean, don't get me wrong, I

love that miniseries, and Paul Allard did an

amazing job on the writing, and Andy Kuhn on

the art, but I just want, and the funny thing

is, I think I said in that podcast that what

I would really want now, for a miniseries is

some sort of like buddy cop team -up thing with

Mondo or not not not not not yeah with Mondo

and Herman because of how Paul because of how

Paul Allure had characterized them in the first

two issues of the Mutanimals miniseries I mean

Herman is this guy that doesn't know what to

do with himself Unless he's in the heat of battle

and Mondo Can get serious, but he's mostly chill

half the time. So that would be amazing. No,

it's probably not gonna happen. Yeah Some good

news for you and this is a little bit of a spoiler

is we are going to be revisiting hob and the

mutant animals in between issues 51 and 55 so

There there before the end of the year. We're

gonna see more of those guys I'm slowly, with

all those minis and micros, I'm hoping that they

eventually mutate into the Tales of the Turtles

that the Mirage books used to do. Well, but I

say that and then I love what you guys have done

weaving the story back and forth between those,

but maybe someday it might be fun to see weird

oddball writers and artists take on the Turtles

for an out of continuity fun fest, I don't know,

but. I don't think I want to see that anymore.

I think I just want you guys to keep doing what

you're doing, because it's been amazing. No out

of continuity stuff. No way. They've spent four

years, man. Come on now. You're right. You're

right. Well, the thing is, I think I've got some,

what's going to happen is I think will please

both of you guys in that what I hope to do at

The Troubles Bad Man is to do stories that are

in continuity, but are more creator focused in

that it'll allow for writer artists to kind of

put their own, to kind of tell their own stories

and kind of put their own unique stamp on it.

So it's still, you know, going to be in continuity

and I'm going to be looking over it. But what

I'd like to do is get some, inject some weirdness

here and there too. So I think we're on the same

page. Awesome. That kind of sounds like Tales

of the Turtles. So you've mentioned it twice

already and this is the big reason for this interview

folks is because it's San Diego Comic -Con IDW

publishing announced a collaboration with DC

Comics and we are getting a Batman Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles crossover Tell us as much as you

can You know without spoil like I want to know

stuff like how many issues is it gonna be? How

long is it gonna run who's on the writing in

the art all that stuff? without actually spoiling

the story for us. Sure. It's a 96 issue mini

series starting in December. DC is running it.

So it's their creative team. But James Kenyon

is writing it, who writes a lot of the Batman.

I think he's writing Batman internal right now.

Freddie Williams, the third, who I've talked

to a lot. He did the cover during City Fall.

I think maybe issue 24. And he's been chomping

at the bit to work on Turtles forever. And it's

just been an issue of me finding the right project

for him and the timing working out. And DC was

talking to me, Jim Chadwick, the editor over

there who's doing Turtles Batman, he wanted my

input on if I had any suggestions for a creative

team. And I said, well. Freddie is a guy that

has worked for you guys. I know he loves turtles.

And Jim said, I'm talking to Freddie right now.

I think he's a great idea, too. So that was one

of those rare things where we both had the exact

same idea in terms of artists. So I know this

didn't come true. I actually got to introduce

Freddie to Kevin Eastman at Comic -Con, and I

think I made his Comic -Con by doing that. He

was really happy to meet Kevin. And Kevin was

happy to meet him too. Kevin is a huge Batman

fan. He's going to be doing some covers. So those

are for the logistics. In terms of plot, the

Turtles, against their will, are teleported to

Gotham. And Shenanigans... So it's similar to

how they got to Ghostbusters New York? Yeah,

it's a little different. So it's not the exact

same device, that narrative device that got them

there, but the end result is the same, that they

are fished out of water again in an unfamiliar

place with unfamiliar characters. The similarities

really end there. Gotham is a very different

place than Ghostbusters New York, so it should

be interesting. What's been really exciting to

me is, we were talking about characters earlier,

is to see how the Batman universe characters

both have similarities and differences from the

turtles. And getting to explore those characteristics

a little bit is the thing that I'm most excited

to see in that miniseries. So before Joe asks

his next two questions here, I just have to know

because we already mentioned continuity earlier

Is this because DC is running this you said is

this going against the continuity or is this

adding to it for TMNT? It's not in official IDW

continuity what it is though is it is a use our

these turtles are inspired by our turtles there

in terms of characteristics and I think to a

large degree their their history there there

are turtles, but it does not For reasons they'll

become clear as things move on it is not in actual

our turtles continuity So you said earlier that

DC came to you to propose this. I couldn't imagine

the logistics between essentially two competitors

doing this. What are the details of who called

who with the idea? Essentially, what's really

nice about working at IDW is we're kind of the

company that's friends with everyone. We do a

lot of the artist editions that we do. We have

to get permission from either Marvel or DC or

like Magnolia or at Dark Horse. So we've got

a lot of goodwill. We treat their stuff with

care. We do a lot of crossovers with people.

We had already done Greenlight for in Star Trek.

That's happening right now. That was interesting

to see. And so this was a year or two ago. The

head of the company here, we're meeting with

the head of the company at DC, and they're exploring

what might work well in terms of crossovers.

and a couple different things were discussed.

We also did, I believe, Star Trek, not Justice

League, but Star Trek. Why am I blanking? What's

the other? It's on the tip of my tongue too.

Star Trek Daredevil? No, no, Star Trek League

of, what is the, like Superboy was a part of

it, the other team. Oh, League of the Superheroes.

Legion of Super Heroes, thank you. I am a genuine

comic book nerd. I just did the name. So we did

that. We did Star Trek Green Lantern. And this

is the next evolution of our creative partnership

with them. We did Star Trek Green Lantern. And

they're doing Turtles Batman. So we kind of switched

off editorial duties. But beyond that, I couldn't

tell you what kind of business deal was reached.

That's above my paper. Well, yeah. No, yeah.

I mean, we understand that. We were just wondering

on the logistics of how it came together as far

as the creative stuff. It's essentially, in terms

of Turtles' Batman, They put together the team

and then the end of run thing passed through

me and through Nickelodeon And you know, we we

all kind of come to agreement, but it didn't

you know, it was pretty easy It was a chance

put together a really good story. So it should

be also be a lot fun So if this crossover is

happening Anything is possible. What would be

your dream Ninja Turtles crossover now that this

has happened? If you got to know you know I'm

personally not a big crossover guy. I know Kevin

would die if we could do a Turtles Daredevil

for obvious reasons. No way. My show notes say

the right answer is a Daredevil crossover. We

talked to Marvel on occasion about doing crossovers.

So far it doesn't seem like anything's in the

works, but we remain optimistic. Oh, I mean,

for me, well, that's actually, I said I don't

really care for crossover, but there is one crossover

I would, I am continuously fighting for every

month, every year. My favorite comic book of

all time is You Saw You Jimbo. And obviously

they've done that crossover in the past, back

in Mirage days. I would love to see it happen

again. You know, small steps are taken. You know

over time so I'm optimistic, but you know can't

say it's not there's no guarantee at all yet

My assumption on that and I don't know anything

of anything But I just have this feeling that

Stan Sakai is a little scared of Nickelodeon

having access to Usagi like he trusts Eastman

and Laird and let them run with his character

sometimes But I think I hope that that can that

business relationship will get worked out and

that they can handle it and that we can eventually

see our rabbit samurai in your book but yeah

that's that's i forgot to think about that that's

totally right yeah well i'd love it too so yep

absolutely all right so new animated adventures

it's getting a rebrand a bit you tell us what

is entailed with the rebrand and where the direction

of that series is going now because the series

to this point has just been little mini stories

that kind of tie in but don't really tie into

the cartoon series. Yeah, this month now that

we're in August, geez I just realized that out

loud, is Amazing Adventures number one and basically

what we're doing, it's the same basic approach

in that we've got a sort of a main story that

usually will last two issues and then back up

stories. So the format is the same, but what

is different is, I think, the content. We've

got more freedom now. We can create new characters.

We don't have to stay as confined to the continuity

of the television show so much. So if Leatherhead

is in Dimension X, we don't have to worry about

that so much. just say, oh, he's here in New

York City and tell a story, go for a story that

we have with him. Which is really nice. It was

tricky sometimes. We'd say, oh, we want to do

a story with Pizza Face. Oh, no, we can't do

a Pizza Face story because who knows, he's going

to appear in the next season. So we don't have

to worry about that so much now. Nickelodeon

was understandably concerned about confusing

readers. and having everything in line. But now

that both the comics and the series is pretty

well established, they're saying, oh, hey, have

a little bit more freedom, have a little bit

more fun in the types of stories you're telling.

So I think that allows us to really play in that

universe. And it's a great universe to play in.

It's a great version of The Turtles. So I'm excited

about that. I'm excited about the first storyline.

which features a brand new villain from both

Splinter and Shredder's past. And what's also

great is that the backup stories now are gonna

be more sort of creator spotlights, where ideally

it's either gonna be a cartoonist who's both

a writer and an artist doing it, or sometimes

a writer will pair with a specific artist to...

kind of capitalized on that artist's talent.

So it's more sort of a focused specialized creator

focused series. But number one is we have a really

funny backup by James Pachaca, who is a hilarious

cartoonist that I've been a fan of for years.

I'm actually looking at a collection of American

Elf here at my desk. And so those are going to

be a little bit more special and memorable too,

I think. So I think overall it's It's a version

2 .0 where we get to have more fun, tell crazier

stories. It's basically the series I wanted to

start out with, but just due to the logistics

of the cartoon being new, some things were hard

to pull off, but it's exciting to have that for

you to know. How does editing the new animated

adventures, is that role different from editing

the IDW -verse books? Yeah, it is. We had a fair

amount of scrutiny on our IDW series early on

because it was the first Turtles project that

was coming out out of Nickelodeon at the time

before the cartoon came out. But then, you know,

they realized, okay, we know what we're doing.

We're not going to, you know, destroy the franchise.

They gave us a bit more freedom. And by that

point, you know, our notes we get from Nickelodeon

are pretty minimal and they're extremely supportive

of us. And then the animated console came around.

And then the animated adventures book came out.

And it was kind of like that control came back.

It had to be routed through not only Nickelodeon

Central, but also the studio. And rightfully

so. It's their world. But that sort of making

sure it had to go through a bunch of different

levels of approvals came back. And for an editor

that's Never kind to deadline that process. So

it's a stressful process and so I am excited

that we're we can the world the world is opening

up a little bit and We get we get a little bit

more freedom. So Wow, it seems kind of how the

Archie series started out really tied close to

the cartoon but then by a certain issue it just

took off and and Became its own thing. I'm glad

to see this and I've Purchased every issue and

maybe someday I will well, I hope no I will someday

read all these I'll definitely read them with

my son when he just gets a little bit older to

get it But this sounds like another book that

will have to read while I'm still parked in the

parking lot at my comic store So I'm excited

for yeah adventures. I was a huge fan of adventures,

too and so It's really nice to that. I always

wanted already made a book to be a new version

of what Archie did back then I'm happy we're

moving closer in that direction. Okay, let's

go behind the scenes. I'm excited for the news

that I think it was San Diego Comic Con or slightly

before it. You guys have a board game coming

out based on the IDW series. Can you tell us

about it? Have you had a chance to play it and

how much of the story of it is kind of coming

from the comics? I can't tell you much about

it. It's still in design stage, but it sounds

really cool. You know, I think we've got some

meetings coming up in just this next week or

two to talk about the story more. Right now,

the game mechanics are being worked out. It sounds

like you can choose, you can play as one of the

turtles. It can be a five -person game where

you've got four people playing the turtles and

then one person playing as Shredder and the Foot

Clan, so sort of as the villain. So I love games

like that that have a cooperative but also antagonistic

game mechanic to it. So I'm excited about that.

I'm excited that there's going to be character

figurines based on our art. I hope we can get

characters like Old Hob that have never had an

action figure. It'd be great to keep that on

my desk. So, you know, I can't tell you that

much about it just because I'm not in the games

department and we haven't had those sort of formal

meetings yet, but everything I've heard about

it so far is really exciting. I'm a gamer myself,

so I'm super psyched about it and apparently

there's a lot of... Gen Con was just this weekend

and IDW was there and just today, this morning,

one of our games guys was saying that that's

what was being asked about more than any other

game was our turtles game. So it seems like there's

a lot of interest in there in it. I'm relatively

new to the designer board game world, but I want

to be a fan I think this is gonna be the perfect

in for me It sounded from the description like

it was gonna kind of be built like mice and mystics

where there was a Scripted story and I was like,

okay. I would be happy to DM that for new players

But if if there's that villain element or the

for lack of a better term a dungeon master Controlling

it that sounds like it might be a little more

Open -ended and I'm a fan of that open -ended

stuff that that still is kind of story based.

So I'm excited for that man Yeah Next behind

-the -scenes question you guys are in the IDW

and I guess tying in with the the Nickelodeon

adventures You guys are pulling from so many

different places throughout Turtles history and

putting in your own ideas. You guys must be doing

a ton of research or have done the research.

Is there a research library at IDW or are you

relying on your own collections? How do you cram

for the exam when you're writing these books?

Yeah, we got virtually everything. I think there's

still a good amount of Mirage Volume 4 that we

don't have. But when we first got the license,

Viacom kind of sent us everything, both hard

copies and digital copies of everything that

they got from the Mirage warehouses. So we got

a lot of it. I read up through Volume 2 as a

teenager. So I was pretty familiar with that

stuff. I read Adventures up through a good, you

know, pretty close to the end, I think. So I

was sort of naturally familiar with all that

stuff. And, you know, that stuff that we still

consult with, you know, just go on our server

and, you know, pull out an issue or maybe I'll

go into my closet and take out an issue. And

that's always fun. And it's been great. What's

great now is having the ultimate collections

too. So there's this, you know, really nice,

those are right at my desk. So if I ever want

to see the Eastman Laird issues, I can just grab

that immediately and see what they did. That's

fun. How far are, are there plans to continue

to publish through volume two and maybe not the

image stuff, maybe the image stuff, but then

into volume four? Yeah, I know we're doing volumes

here right now and the image will be next year

We you know, we plan to we plan to collect it

all if we can I'll be sad if we don't so Very

cool. I know some of the the tail end of volume

4 is difficult to get a hold of From personal

experience because that's what I was working

on. I recently got every turtle book I'm very

happy about that, but I imagine that can be very

difficult As you know, you need that stuff to

do the research that you're doing I haven't read

the last five issues or so. You can borrow mine

if you want. You're working in this office. I

imagine a lot of the art comes in digitally because

maybe these guys are everywhere, but just working

where you do, you've probably had an opportunity

to get some very interesting turtle collectibles.

What is your favorite piece of art or? I don't

know, schwag's not the right word, but what piece

do you have in the office or at home that you

are most ridiculously proud of? Well, I've got

the NECA turtle action figures on my desk. They're

my personal possession that I love to look at

and play with. But what's kind of cool is that

IDW moved about two, three years ago, months

ago, sorry, to a new location, and we've got

an art gallery now. And what's in the art gallery

is a Kevin Easton exhibit. So there's just ton,

it's an entire room filled with, you know, preliminary

sketches, original inked artwork, notes. We've

got a recreation of Kevin's office, which this

was just built, crazy memorabilia. You know,

if you're ever in San Diego, you got to check

it out if you're a Turtle fan, because it's just...

It's just your jaw drop. There's so much cool

stuff there and Kevin has kept so much of his

records and it's really cool to see. I was gonna

ask if that place is public. It sounds like it

is. To hell with Comic Con, Joe. We gotta catch

the next flight out there. So what are you reading

right now? You said you're a comic geek and I

think we talked a little bit about it last podcast,

but what comic books are currently in your pull

bag? Geez, I read a lot. How do you have time

for that? We kind of have a monthly, I'm sorry,

a weekly, you know, editorial kind of as a group

go to the comic book store and pick stuff up

on Wednesdays. And, you know, that's what weekends

are for. I read a lot of image books. I'm a huge

fan of Southern Bastards. I'm trying to think

of what else. Mind management. I still read a

fair amount of Marvel and DC. I am a huge Batman

fan. I'm a huge Spider -Man fan. I like a lot

of the quirky books that are coming out of Marvel,

like Howard the Dog and Squirrel Girl. It's just

one of those things you ask and your mind just

goes blank. Like when I go to the record store.

Yeah, exactly. Descender the new Jessamir doesn't

win book is really great I Read the first issue

of Descender. I've been meaning to catch up Yeah,

I recommend it there's a time there's we are

in a golden age of comics there's more there's

too many good books out there and that's That's

a good problem to have Not for my wallet Very

true. Alright, so the fandom. Let's talk about

the fandom just for a moment before we let you

go. We're four years in at this point to the

IDWverse. What is the overall reaction been for

you guys at this point? Fibregasting. It's been

fantastic. The fandom is extremely intelligent

and kind and creative. At Comic Con, at the Turtles

panel, it was a packed room. We would have two

hour signings with Kevin, and you're like, a

lot of signings, they kind of peter out by 40

minutes or so, but that was just two hours of

just people after people after people. The response

to number 44 and how that kind of got wider media

attention, it's been really fantastic. If you

look at the sales, You know, we kind of dipped

in sales between issue one and 15, but then it

just plateaued. And then it went up some during

city fall, and then it went down a little bit,

but above where it was before city fall, and

now it's gone back up again, past where city

fall was. And you're at issue 44, you're four

years into that, and you can just look at any

comic book, pretty much except for Walking Dead

and maybe a few others. It's really rare for

sales to be that consistent and not necessitate

a reboot or a relaunch with the new number one.

So the fact that we've been able to get the 50

in all times point to a long future ahead of

that has been extremely satisfying. And that's,

you know, we're working our asses off and putting

out a good book, I think. But, you know, it's

the fan base doing that and, you know, the fan

base talking to each other and, you know, people

like you guys doing your thing. spreading the

word. It feels like a family and that's what

Turtles is all about. It's really great to be

a part of that family. I've read on more than

one website and heard from more than one person

and I happen to agree that you guys are creating

the best version of the turtles that we've ever

had a chance to read. I'm sure you've read that

other places. I mean, how does that affect you?

I mean, you grew up with the turtles like I did.

You and Tom and Kevin with his part, you guys

are giving birth to a lot of people's favorite

version of these characters. What does that do

to you as a former 10 -year -old geek reading

these books? It feels great. It's very flattering,

but I disagree with that assessment personally.

I think the original Eastman Laird stuff is impossible

to beat. I think the first movie was pretty perfect

in terms of encapsulation of what Terrell can

be. And here's the thing is that we are doing

new stuff and we're putting pieces together in

a new ways and we're contributing brand new ideas.

If we didn't have all of that stuff that came

before us, we'd be... That's a shell of the book

that we are not intentional pun, but let's go

with it So, you know, we're you know Kevin is

always always says that you know any success

that he and Peter had was built on people like

Frank Miller and Jack Kirby And that they would

never there never be turtles about people like

them So we're just one step further down that

path standing on on Kevin and Peter's shoulders

and they're standing on the great shoulders as

well. So, you know, hope maybe someone will stand

on our shoulders down the line. But, you know,

we really call on comparison to this from the

stuff that's coming before us. So it's great

to hear. But I'm always very aware of what's

come before us. And, you know, in all and all

of those accomplishments, because there it's

a lot it's a lot harder to create something totally

new without 30 years of fandom to to draw upon.

So we're really lucky. We're in a unique position

and extremely lucky. All right. Would you like

to inform the people where they can interact

with you online, sir? Sure. I'm The Disastrix

at Twitter. Or you can just look up my name,

Bobby Curnow. I answer questions on the IDW forum

in the turtle section. So those are good ways

to get in touch with me. Awesome. So before we

let you go, we need you to run down the list

of what's currently happening. We know Casey

and April's going on, and we know that 48's out,

but what else is coming up just to remind the

listeners? Right now, the next issue coming out

in August will be Turtles 49, and September is

number 50. We've got Amazing Adventures number

1 out this month. August we're in the right in

the middle of the case in April mini -series

Charles Batman starts in December And that's

we've got our color classics lines to that if

you ever want to check out the old material and

our reprints are doing the party stuff and the

mirage stuff so It's a great time to be a pro

fan. There's a lot of stuff about this Awesome,

we'd like to thank mr. Kernel for taking the

time to chat with us in this latest interview

here inside the pull bag on the Geekcaster radio

network after my favorite Renaissance painters.

I knew the outside world would consider them

freaks, so I trained them in the art of ninjitsu.

Donatello, whose simple wooden bull can disarm

any adversary. Raphael, no sword on earth can

withstand his sigh. Leonardo, his swordsmanship

is unmatched. Michelangelo. of the whirling Nunchukus.

And master of the whirling pizzas. And that is

how they became the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.