Monday, November 23, 2009

Blast from the Past #254: Original "Mousers" idea

I recently found this in my archive of old, pre-TMNT stuff. It's an idea I had come up with for a story -- one I apparently planned to do in comic book form -- featuring a robotic rodent hunter called a "Mouser". Sound familiar?



This is, in fact, where the idea for Baxter Stockman's Mousers in issue #2 of the TMNT comic book came from. Of course, as TMNT fans well know, those Mousers ended up looking a lot different than the one roughly sketched out here.

I have to chuckle when I look at pieces like this -- not because of the content, per se, but because it reminds me of those days when I couldn't afford decent paper, and would use anything I had at hand to draw on, even really cheap typing paper. You can see in this one that I drew some stuff on the reverse side (I think it was notes and a sketch for a "Hampshire Life" drawing), which shows through the flimsy paper. -- PL

14 comments:

  1. Looking at this, I'm seeing maybe an early glimpse Ray Fillet as well?

    As always, Peter, thanks for sharing!

    - Austin V

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  2. Very intriguing. Its always cool to see where ideas are rooted from.
    Something simple yet deadly!

    If i may ask as the TMNT and Splinter's name were all inspired what about the name of April O'Neil? Was there any inspiration for her name or was it random like Oruku Saki for example?

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  3. I was thinking exactly the same thing as exscind. Now that this is up here, though, I wonder, Peter, do you have any recollection of where the idea came from originally?

    It seems like such a random, off-the-cuff concept, but you apparently cared enough about it to work it into TMNT, even repeatedly through several incarnations -- they even featured heavily in several of the video games. It always seemed to me that someone in charge really favored mousers, and I always wondered why that might have been.

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  4. @ mikeandraph87...


    I believe the name "April" came from a girl Kevin was dating at the time. I remember reading that once, as well as where the O'Neil part came from but can't seem to remember at the moment. Someone please correct or contribute for me.



    As far as this post goes, I love that your archives run so deep. I really would love to see you make a book compiling all your notes and reference materials one day. It's very interesting and informative about your creative process. I also like that you know a good idea when you have one so much to exhibit the patience until the right time to use it. I have a few handfuls of them myself...hope I get to put them to as good of use as you one day!

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  5. haha
    it could be used as tracing paper.
    the original mouser's story is good and almost tales from the crypt style.
    i wish the mice wouldve fought back in tmnt comics!


    personally im more curious of how casey,april,the rat king,and the fugitoid were created and what ideas they stemed from.
    do you recollect,PL?

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  6. that's about where I am right now, I only draw on regular printer paper. I scan the pencil's and print them back out light blue to ink over (a quick filter rids the blue on the rescan), otherwise the paper usually wrinkles, tears or warps when erasing the pencils. I'm barley scraping by lately, so it's all I got right now. I'm still using photoshop 3.1 which I bought back in 98, for some reason every time they release a new version and I demo it, it never seems worth the ridiculous amount of money they want when I can do everything I want perfectly fine in the old one. Also it's kind of funny how loading a file made in the new one
    works perfectly fine in 3.1 (except for some laying effects) it's like they never changed the format whatsoever at all. Hopefully someday I'll be rich too, and than I can laugh at my self now... probably won't happen though.

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  7. "mikeandraph87 said...
    Very intriguing. Its always cool to see where ideas are rooted from.
    Something simple yet deadly!

    If i may ask as the TMNT and Splinter's name were all inspired what about the name of April O'Neil? Was there any inspiration for her name or was it random like Oruku Saki for example?"

    April O'Neil's name came about in two parts. Part one -- "April" -- was inspired by a girl Kevin had dated in high school whose first name was -- you guessed it! -- April. Part two -- "O'Neil" -- was suggested by me because, well, I just liked the sound of it. And I have a little bit of Irish ancestry. I think the combination worked out okay. -- PL

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  8. " Tyrgermanic said...

    personally im more curious of how casey,april,the rat king,and the fugitoid were created and what ideas they stemed from.
    do you recollect,PL?"

    Casey Jones was almost wholly created by Kevin Eastman. I remember that he came to one of our meetings with a few sketches of a muscular guy in somewhat ragged clothing, a golf bag stuffed with weapons, and a hockey mask. I think in one drawing he was wearing a baseball cap which, thankfully, he lost. And Kevin was calling him "Casey Jones" right from the start.

    As time went on and Casey became a regular part of the Turtles' world, I put my two cents worth in on developing and expanding his character. But I always consider him to be originally a creation of Kevin's.

    April was a joint creation when it came time to work on the second issue of the comic and we decided that the Turtles needed some kind of human friend. I think we decided it would be good to make that friend a female as it would help to balance out the overwhelmingly male nature of the Turtle team.

    The Rat King, if I recall correctly, was a character created by Jim Lawson for one issue of the original "Tales of the TMNT" comics. I don't think Kevin or I had anything to do with his creation, though we used that character -- and evolved him a little more -- in later issues of TMNT.

    The Fugitoid was another joint creation -- in fact, the first such from the Eastman and Laird team -- but I suspect I may have had a bit more of a hand in his creation simply because he was more of a sci-fi thing (something I always was into more than Kevin), and his basic look is an homage to those great Russ Manning "Magnus, Robot Fighter" robots I used to love to draw back in high school. But in all honesty, it is impossible to say for sure at this point. Maybe Kevin has a more distinct memory of this. -- PL

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  9. " Josh said...
    I was thinking exactly the same thing as exscind. Now that this is up here, though, I wonder, Peter, do you have any recollection of where the idea came from originally?"

    At this point, I really don't. I think it was just an idea I had that I thought would make a cool short comic story, so I scribbled it down on a handy sheet of paper. And it must have happened not too long before we came up with the Turtles, as I clearly remembered it in time to suggest it for inclusion in the second issue of TMNT.

    "It seems like such a random, off-the-cuff concept, but you apparently cared enough about it to work it into TMNT, even repeatedly through several incarnations -- they even featured heavily in several of the video games. It always seemed to me that someone in charge really favored mousers, and I always wondered why that might have been."

    Part of that stems from the fact that it was through her involvement with the Mousers that April O'Neil came to know the Turtles, and she became such a big part of their lives that often in the retelling of their early adventures -- which include meeting April -- the Mousers get brought in.

    Also, I think they are cool little robots, and especially in animation they are enemies that the Turtles can smash and slash with abandon without offending anyone (except maybe robophiles). -- PL

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  10. -->> i see the ' MAN RAY ' look easily too , EX.



    Not sure what's more disturbing ( if you think too much about it.. )..

    the standard editon of the Mousers as we know the..

    coming up and devouring a living creature .. brutally and choppin' em up in their jaws..


    ..or this concept, where the robot dismembers them into bits and places them in a baggie for the owner.

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  11. -->> Pete , what do you suppose the date is on this ?!

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  12. "~ tOkKa said...

    -->> Pete , what do you suppose the date is on this ?!"

    While I can't say for sure, I think it was probably either 1982 or 1983. -- PL

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  13. I really enjoy seeing drawings that show the different things a character or being is capable of doing. It's just so "cool" to me and makes it seem so much more real. Was there a full drawing of this original mouser concept, or was it always just the few drawings shown on this paper? I often use whatever I have around to draw on also, I keep a stack of 4 folded sheets of paper on me while at work, just so I have something to make notes on/draw on when I get an idea.

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  14. "BahGlenn said...

    I really enjoy seeing drawings that show the different things a character or being is capable of doing. It's just so "cool" to me and makes it seem so much more real. Was there a full drawing of this original mouser concept, or was it always just the few drawings shown on this paper?"

    What you see here is all I put down on paper -- at least as far as I can recall -- regarding this original Mousers concept. -- PL

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