This coming weekend (March 30-April 1) I’m going to be at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle! You’ll find me with Blank Label Comics at booth 210! Come see me there! I’ll have books and posters and doodling abilities at the ready.
This coming weekend (March 30-April 1) I’m going to be at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle! You’ll find me with Blank Label Comics at booth 210! Come see me there! I’ll have books and posters and doodling abilities at the ready.
Yeah…I’d lose my fucking gasket too if I were Amber.
Seriously, Giant mutated turtles are an equivalence of aliens? Sounds legit.
But no, really, WHO FUCKING PUT MICHAEL BAY ON THIS PROJECT?!
The quality of the films aside, Bay’s Transformer films collectively made Billions. From the financial POV of the producers, he’s a strong choice.
Michael Bay IS the producer. The director is Jonathan Liebesman.
I dead. I laughed until I died and I dead.
No Leslie, nooooo.
But seriously wait until after Amber has the baby, before giving her that rush of anger.
Amber Alert. lol. Also, in the first panel, whats that weird face next to Exhibit A?
I think it is a Soggie. Robin is getting her conspiracies crossed.
I’d totally watch a movie where the Ninja Turtles fight Soggies.
AMBER ALERT! Dear lord, my humor bones are fracturing and excreting laughter-juice into my lungs! Well done, David, very well played
…isn’t that just that crazy guy who shows up every so often to Amber? He’s the one who yelled at her in the bath randomly, I think.
…No, nevermind. The tag list has ‘Soggies’ on it. False alarm.
You would think that Michael Bay’s Michael Bay-ness is a “meh” matter by now.
“Michael Bay is the reason you only weighed 3 pounds when you were born, son.”
How many people must Michael Bay hurt before he realizes he’s doing more harm then good?
Enough that he stops making oodles of cash for himself and his bosses?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Same answer.
So, 16.5 board-feet per day?
A woodchuck could chuck as much as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
But would a woodchuck chuck wood, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Basically, TMNT fans are well and truly chucked.
If millions of dollars from people who went to see your movies doesn’t prove that you know what you are doing (ie; entertaining people), then what will?
“Amber Alert”
I see what you did there, Willis. You can’t pull one on me.
CURSE YOU MICHEAL BAY!!!!!!!
Yup, Michael Bays Michael Bay-ness is a ‘meh’ matter for sure. And how else would Mike take this presentation?
Bay is only producer. The director is all like “It’s the ooze that’s alien…”
Yeah, and the ooze has been alien for a looooooong time.
I thought it was nuclear waste.
In the 2003 cartoon, TCRI, the company that spilled the ooze, is a front organization for the Utrom, a Krang-like alien race.
If the alien angle is all designed to bring in Krang to a live action movie, all is forgiven.
Hell, even if they are aliens it could still work if they’ve been abandoned on earth as babies and raised in the sewer. The only thing that would change is the shocking reveal conclusion to their search for their own origins.
Krang is actually very losely based on the Utroms from the original Mirage comics from 1984. Like in the 2k3 series the ooze was a byproduct of their transmat devices.
Actually, the ooze was alien in the original comic books too. The 2003 cartoon followed very closely to the original comic book, even lifting certain stories right out of the comic.
So if that’s what Michael Bay means by the Turtles being alien, then there’s no harm, because it’s been that way since the beginning.
I doubt Bay knows the difference between ‘are Alien’ and ‘come from alien tech/science’.
Naw, I’m willing to bet that Michael Bay knew EXACTLY what he was saying. There was very little buzz about the movie until good old Michael lets it slip that the Ninja Turtles were going to be aliens in the remake. After that, the movie practically became headline news, and everybody who’d ever been a Ninja Turtles fan was talking about it. Well played Mr. Bay.
Willis himself — prophetically — had Ethan sum it up in the comic that introduced Jeshua to the cast:
ETHAN: Hey, Amber. Look at television today. I swear, the only way people know how to get attention these days is to flirt with controversy.
AMBER: Well, yeah, but you can’t say it doesn’t work.
ETHAN: No. Sadly, it’s all too easy to find something that might piss folks off and ride the wave of outrage into profitability.
That’s exactly what this “alien” business reeks of to me. I’m more bugged by the whole smug “oh, gee, what are you silly people getting all worked up about?” responses from Liebesman and everyone else from the production staff who have commented. Yeah, like pissing off the fans in order to create controversy around the movie wasn’t EXACTLY what you wanted.
Oh, this has gotten transferred to TMNT? Awesome. I always thought it was funny how a lot of people who don’t like the Transformers movies seem to assume Michael Bay is really dumb and his only reason for diverging from (their preferred version of) G1 is that he has no idea he’s doing it “wrong.”
You can dislike the Transformers movies on the merit of their stories, and the acting and whatnot, but I think it’s really dumb to dislike the movies just because the characters don’t look 100% like a 25 year old cartoon. That’s just fan purism at its worst. Of course they’re going to look different. So that way they can actually look like they could exist in our world. Changes like this are always ALWAYS made when a comic or cartoon is adapted to live action.
Unfortunately just because someone is directing a movie, doesn’t mean they’re in charge of it. You hear about it all the time, where a producer bullies the director into making THEIR vision of a movie, regardless of what the director really wants.
And knowing Bay’s opinion about how movies should be made… I don’t think any of us could doubt he might not have a major hand in this.
The person to really ask is the screenwriter. You know, the one who decides on the plot & everything?
Again, even the screenwriters don’t get a say in everything. Remember when Kevin Smith was writing Superman, and the producers kept wanting to change everything and include a Giant robotic spider for some reason?
DECIDES?!? I need more floor to ROFL on…
While I am not a fan of them being “Aliens,” I think it’s being done as a way to connect them to Krang and have him be the baddie in the movie. So I’ll see how it plays out.
They could still be mutants from Dimension X if they wanted to go that way. Interdimensional travelers are different than extraterrestrial.
If they are aliens how can they be Teenage MUTANT Ninja Turtles? I supposed they could be mutated aliens, but if so, what’s the point?
Does this mean we’ll see Turtles vs. Predator one day?
Turtles vs Predator vs Aliens vs Terminator vs Robocop
Splinter wins.
No, I saw this fight once. Mr Rogers won.
Nah, he just thought he did before Betty White took him out.
How can they be turtles for that matter? At best they’re a species that bears resemblance to our earth turtles.
And are they teenage in earth-years or space-years or not teenaged at all but rather biologically pubescent and socially adolescent? Does a species with four fingers still count in base 10? If they use base 8 then that fundamentally alters which ages could even be considered teenage.
Yes Leslie go stop her. If Amber gets turned on in her condition I would hope that for the baby’s sake they refrain from traditional intercourse.
Pregnant can and do have vaginal sex and it does not hurt the baby…do you think Mike’s dick is going to poke her head or something? LOL
He’s a super human alien abductee! “Probably blows a load like a shotgun blast… right through her back!”
I am pretty sure that when the Head Alien augmented toddlers into being superhuman soldiers, he left their genitalia alone.
Lack of vision that Head Alien.
*raises hand* I need an adult.
A different one!
Yeah, but you’ll never get Joe to admit his junk isn’t superhuman.
Damn you, Willis, you’ve prevented an opportunity to link to “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”. Now people who’ve never seen it will just have to Google it.
Thanks for clarifying that because that’s just what I was thinking without getting too deep. I’m still suffering nerve damage from what Faz does in the mirror. Yes, normal heterosexual couples have sex even when it’s late into the pregnancy, but I was taking into consideration his augmentation.
Then again, that would be a very Mike thing to do.
Its those god damn Soggies. They are out to get you. And put you in a storage closet I guess. A closet of EVIIIIIIL.
So I guess the self-righteous lecture against anyone who would have the temerity to care about a franchise enough to be annoyed when someone decides to shit on its core concepts is coming next update, right?
I see what you’re doing, and yes, inherent in this strip is the absurdity of Amber’s fandom. But this strip has always had people, mainly Ethan, getting mad about minute changes in their favorite show or toy or whatever. That is leagues away from yelling at anyone who dares have a conversation about gender, which seems to be what you’re attempting to create an equivalency with.
If I’m wrong and that’s not what you’re trying to get at, I apologize for jumping to conclusions. But I am confused about your intentions, in that case.
No, I think WTF is saying: Lots of Shortpacked strips have customers going on “they changed it now it sucks” rants, and Ethan is always there to tell them how stupid they are. Why isn’t he doing so now?
And the answer would be: Because 1) Amber hasn’t actually went on a TCINIS rant, they’re just assuming she would, and 2) the issue right now isn’t how stupid Amber is, but how safe her baby is.
Yeah, my post was about the Ethan vs. Strawman fandom rants, not the gender stuff.
Shortly followed by the self-righteous defense in the comments wherein you explain that, no, it really is worth getting bent out of shape over Raphael wearing slightly the wrong shade of red.
If Leslie’s not gettin’ any, NO ONE is gettin’ any, by tiny black Jesus.
Jesus! Thank you! I was trying to work out who the curly haired guy was. Forgot about THJ.
I love that Robin factored Soggies into this theory. I heard a rumor that they will rule.
Well, they may.
Nooo the baby still looks like a fetus in the cast page! You can’t have it prematurely!
Did anyone else think the baby was falling from a crane game before they read the dialogue bubble?
I thought maybe they got Zoidberg to deliver it.
I didn’t know about the three toes thing. That bugs me, if only because I thought the reason for two toes was to make them look more like they were wearing…eh, whatever you call those ninja slippers that all the kids who find the martial arts supply shop wear around school to prove how ninja they are.
…
Or maybe that was just my high school.
So, uh, Mike still loves Amber, right? When are we going to see more (fleeting) evidence of this?
Tabi socks, american ninja nerds wear to prove their ‘dorkiness’ but I think there all over the place in Japan
Only when wearing traditional footwear, I believe. Coincidentally, the only time one might bother to wear traditional footwear in Japan is during festivals or other traditional events.
I believe shinobi operations count as a traditional event.
Actual operations, anyway. When you’re being a complete failure at stealth.
Not just the socks, though. There’s some kind of boot/slipper with the same sort of divide that they sell in martial arts shops. They have soles on them and all.
You’re correct, and those are called jika-tabi. I have seen jika-tabi used to great effect in river races. They’re just thick enough to keep you from cutting your feet, and they don’t absorb water so they don’t slow you down.
Cool! Glad to finally know what those are. Thanks for that!
Also, construction workers wear them, despite the lack of protection they provide. I think they make it easier to climb up scaffolding, or something.
Why was Galasso included in this briefing? If anything, this might give him ideas abut how to use the baby in his plans for global domination.
Also, why did they include FAZ?!!!! That’s orders of magnitude worse than Galasso or three-toed Alien Ninja Turtles!
Even Galasso knows the dangers of upsetting a pregnant woman. Particularly one who can go all “Dark Phoenix” when her fandom rage is provoked.
He has to make sure Amber’s first born is successfully carried to term. Otherwise how is he going to get his hands on her second born?
even if he wasn’t invited, faz would have attended because it’s a meeting about amber. i think robin did invite him, if only to make sure everyone knows not to bring up the issue. to be honest i’m surprised all the regular customers aren’t in attendance.
But now Faz is schemiing how this pregnancy will result in Amber having hot sticky sex with the Great Faz, and if telling Amber what was done to her fandom will get him said sex that much sooner.
that’s a great point. and i think it would work. someone who really loves amber would tell her about this travesty.
hmm i guess that’s why mike left, actually. that and to be a dick.
Buying that chalk board has really paid off for Robin
Leslie is so heterophobic.
I believe Mr. Bay has molested my childhood. Does anyone have a doll that I can point to to show you where he touched it?
Also, since it’s now been Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Mr. Bay all screwing over my childhood, am I allowed to claim that it was gangbanged?
I say tell Amber. Robin’s making the assumption that it’ll induce early pregnancy. But it could instead just unleash Amber’s fully power of TMNT-cartoon-fandom-rage, that will destroy the cinematic monster known as Michael Bay before he properly rapes another childhood nostalgia for many of us.
Maybe I should add “Do not use ‘rape’ to describe changes to a cartoon for kids” to my posting rules.
But what if Alan Moore is writing them?
…Nah, he’s pretty clearly never going to work for Hollywood in any capacity, if he can possibly help it.
What if its a cartoon for kids adapting the classic event of Roman legendary history, the Rape of the Sabine Women?
Then you’re not actually using it to describe the changes, merely to refer to the work, so it’s cool.
Now, if you said it totally raped the rape, then that would be an infraction.
My apologies. Its a knee jerk reaction to things like that.
Thank you, Willis.
I support this 100%.
Can we also get a ban on cutesy misspellings of “rape”, and on the term “rapeface”? Internet-wide? TIA
Second. I HATE the rape analogy, aside from being overused in the extreme, it trivializes something truely awe-full.
What next? “This film holocausts my childhood?”
Well played, Robin.
Well played.
What’s up with that dude and aliens? Seriously, he hammered it home with a sledge hammer that Transformers were aliens more than just robots, now he’s doing it with Turtles? I think Bay’s an alien…
I think he’s Giorgio Tsoukalos. (Yeah, this guy.)
From Wiki: “majored in sports information and communication.”
Yeah, THAT guy is a credible source of reliable facts and scientific accuracy. *snerk*
Someone with hair that wacky is nothing BUT reliable. lol.
He’s the Bob Ross of alien conspiracy theories: “that guy with the hair.”
So did every version of Transformers, at least all the cartoons make it obvious they are aliens.
They were obviously alien, but it wasn’t the primary driving element of their design process like it was with the live action movies.
Thank you. Obviously they’re aliens, but if I recall, only the live action movies actually make it a point to call them that.
Also, it was a joke Createiverealms. *sigh*….
The early Marvel comics by Bob Budiansky emphasized the alienness of the Transformers, portraying them as odd, strange, and frightening to humanity. The Transformers were often cold and distant, and had consistent trouble understanding human culture.
But eventually everyone just starts writing them as big metal humans.
…he said of the toy line where some of the main characters don’t have heads.
*Sigh*….okay, let me try this again….
Jeeze, what is it with Michael Bay taking alien (both figuratively and literally) characters and totally driving it home that they’re totally aliens??? See – that’s not funny that’s rubbish. The statement was more of a joke than a debate on the alien-ness of Transformers or Turtles.
As you’re responding to me, I feel inclined to respond – and as an added bonus, I have *two* responses for you!
- The toys you speak of all were lifted from prior lines with no consistent design esthetic whatsoever, aside from the commonality that they transformed from one thing to another (for sometimes loose values of “transformed” – see Omega Supreme) and that one of those forms was usually humanoid (give or take certain tapes). The first things that were transformers as its own franchise were the tv show and the comic (I don’t recall which came first). And in those, all the characters did have heads – if not at the start, pretty soon thereafter. Which suggests that the transformers cartoon was making an effort to increase the ‘humanness’ of the show to within ‘big metal humans’ limits.
- They did so have heads! Apply your stickers, man!
I don’t see the origin story as a big issue.
The problem will be stupid, unfunny stereotypes (like Leonardo speaking with a badly mangled brooklyn accent) and the US military being the focus.
Because when you go to a movie labelled Ninja Turtles, you’ll want to watch navy seals using automatic rifles on foot clan mooks.
You’re probably right. *sob*
……so, Michael Bay directs the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic movie, y/n?
I’d put money on the Rifftrax being totally epic, so, yes.
Stupid, unfunny stereotypes like way gnarly surfer party-dudes?
I really don’t think the alien thing happening. Even if it’s a possibility now I have a feeling that idea will be scrapped before the movie is released.
Whenever I read news about certain shows and comics, one of my first thoughts is always what will the characters in Shortpacked think about this.
If they are alien turtles, are they even really turtles?
Well there was Planet of the Turtleoids in the old cartoon.
I find it odd that Robin draws aliens looking like Roswell aliens and not, well, the aliens.
That’s because those are *fictional* aliens!
Uhhh, Willis?
How would Amber have reacted if she learned about the that Voltron-esque original series TMNT resurrection anime?
I mean that didn’t get nearly as much recognition but….dear lord…
Voltron-esque? What, the Turtles combined to form Splinter or something?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGMfb60lc14
That looked interesting before they started merging. Japan: Always taking everything one step too far.
For the record, this isn’t a summary of previous episodes or anything. This is all the explanation that was given for why the characters were now knockoff Power Rangers.
Please don’t confirm my ridiculous jokes. It plays hell with my grip on reality.
I’m seriously hoping that Michael Bay meant the Turtles came from an ooze that came from alien race aka the Ultroms from the old comics/2003 cartoon.
Hearing that who I thought who was Baxter when I was 7 in the 2nd movie was originally an ultrom. I was kind of disappointed the story didn’t went in that direction. Seeing this has Ultroms and Krang, maybe this is a good thing.
When it comes to the crunch, we will have to wait for the actual movie to be released before giving final judgement.
Possibly, but it’d save time not seeing the movie at all. Just throwing that out there.
I’ll see you there, sir!
I’ll just wait another 30 days or less for it to be released to video and head over to my local Library ro fast forward through it … or not.
By the sound of it it will be in my Mystery Science Theater 3.14156 Clubs schedule soon enough. Yes our projection screen is washable? Why do you ask?
Did Michael Bay give a reason for why he thinks they should be aliens instead of turtles?
Wait. Amber was MAD they added a toe? BITCH IS DEAD TO ME. The fact they had 2 toes and 3 fingers ALWAYS bugged me, even as a kid, the third toe is what gave me faith this show will be good. So yeah. I already hated Amber, but now, I SUPER HATE her.
If mutants can’t have mismatching numbers of digits, I dunno who else can!
I would like to add to this conversation the fact that frogs and I believe many lizards have different numbers of digits between front and back legs.
OH WAIT maybe they’re aliens?!
Correction: I’m not finding anything about the average four-legged lizard having differing numbers of toes, but there are definitely a number of lizards that have lost one set of legs but not the other–different numbers of toes sort of by definition there.
Considering in most material the mutagen caused humanoid-traits in animals (aside from the original cartoon, of course), it makes even less sense since both humans and turtles have 5 digits. So for some reason going from turtle to humanoid turtle caused them to loose half their digits.
To be honest, I suspect this info was leaked deliberately to make more people aware of the film.
I also suspect the alien angle is not such a big deal.
It seems fairly sensible to me. Space Aliens that look like giant tortoises are far more plausible than mutant terapins.
Why does Robin have an extra speech bubble line? What was that supposed to say?