IDW has renewed its deal with Paramount to publish Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. December’s top-selling graphic novels revealed. Gail Simone reveals she almost wrote Mortal Kombat for DC Comics. All on Comic Book Club News for January 9, 2024.
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Episode Transcript:
IDW renews TMNT license.
December’s top-selling graphic novels.
Gail Simone almost wrote Mortal Kombat for DC.
This is Comic Book Club News for January 9, 2024.
IDW Renews Paramount Agreement For Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might be more like Middle-Aged Ninja Turtles given they’re celebrating their fortieth anniversary this year. But IDW still has plenty of stories to tell, as they have renewed their licensing agreement with Paramount to publish TMNT in 2024 and beyond.
Said Lourdes Arocho, SVP, Licensing & Publishing, Consumer Products, Paramount, via press release: ”We are delighted to continue our relationship with IDW Publishing for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES comics and graphic novels. After 40 years, there are still so many more stories to be told, and we can’t wait for everyone to see what’s next.”
It’s no surprise why IDW would want to continue with TMNT. The Last Ronin spinoff series has been a massive hit, regularly hitting the top of sales charts for graphic novels and individual issues. And sure enough, a sequel series, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE LAST RONIN II – RE-EVOLUTION, will hit comic book stores on March 6. Add in the regular series about to hit 150 issues, and the promise of more to come, and this year promises to very cowabunga. Yes, very comabunga, indeed.
December’s Top-Selling Graphic Novels Revealed:
Yesterday, we broke down the sales chart of top individual issues sold in December, 2023. And now it’s time to take a look at the top-selling graphic novels, and the book in the top slot is downright criminal.
Or rather, it isn’t, as Where The Body Was by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is not a continuation of their hit series Criminal. But it did steal the top slots on ICv2‘s charts in both units and dollars sold.
The latest volume of Saga took number two on the chart. And per our last item, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin hardcover is still sitting at number three, despite being in stores for over a year. Particularly given Heartstopper Volume 5, and other YA and all-ages books like Wings of Fire and Dog Man were included on the chart, this is a pretty huge continued strong showing for the TMNT book.
The other strong showing on the chart? James Tynion IV, with the first volumes of both Something is Killing the Children and W0rldtr33 both holding steady, months after their release. There’s been a lot of talk amongst the “comic book industry is dying” conversation that stores need another perennial best-seller like Saga or The Walking Dead. Perhaps the answer is already there: James Tynion, and Turtles.
Gail Simone Almost Wrote Mortal Kombat For DC:
And in a non-Turtles but still ninja-related story: Gail Simone almost wrote Mortal Kombat for DC Comics. And not only that, the Mortal Kombat characters almost got added into the DC Universe proper.
As Simone tells the story on X (formerly Twitter), over a seafood lunch during San Diego Comic-Con one year, former DC EIC Dan Didio asked Simone if she had her choice of Warner Bros. characters, who would she choose. And while she didn’t share others, apparently he showed her a long list of possible properties that could have not just been written into comics, but added into the DC Universe.
Simone, after a night of thinking, settled on Mortal Kombat. Her thought process was that Mortal Kombat has a large enough fanbase to make it viable, and would help flesh out the martial arts side of the DCU, something she found lacking. She also thought the mythology of the video game could add some interesting gods to the DC Comics.
Added Simone: “And finally, the idea of an annual fighting tournament for the various realms, that could be a MASSIVE boost to the DCU’s coolness factor. Black Canary fighting Sonya Blade, Superman vs. Raiden, Plastic Man vs. Scorpion…the matches would have been huge.”
However, after working on the concept for a year, it fell through due to corporate shenanigans. And of course, some comics did come out of that list, including Lost Boys, Mad Max, and the Hanna-Barbera/DC crossover comics. Unfortunately, though, we never got to say “get over here” to Simone’s big idea.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And just an idea, but Tynion Mutant Ninja Turtles. Think about it.
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