Another season another newsletter! This one is a bit late, and we’re gonna keep it short (….short-ish…) cause, uh, I’ll explain. LET’S GET INTO IT!!
WHAT I’M WORKING ON
As usual, COMICS. SO MANY GODDAMN COMICS. I had the amazing opportunity in March to be a part of Webtoon’s artist alley at ECCC and oh my gosh what a fun time!! The first time in 4 years I had a table all to myself, and oh my god the upgrades. THE UPGRADES, PEOPLE. I’ve come a long way and I’m very proud of where I am now.
ECCC 2022
ECCC 2026
I also spoke on a panel about webtoon canvas and publishing on there alongside Fawnduu and I had a lot of fun! I really hope people were able to get something out of it. I’d so love to do more panels in the future and I love yapping about my thoughts and process and opinions. It’s no small miracle that people listen to me lol. In any case I don’t take it for granted it’s amazing.
ECCC 2026 was my best show TO DATE! Even beating out NYCC last year! Which is CRAZY. Thank you Seattle! I love you dearly, my weird fishing hamlet vampire of a city.
However, it did come with the caveat that right after ECCC, I started new living space hunting. I’ve lived in a cozy 1bd for 5 years and it’s high time I upgraded to a bigger space so I can have a FULL OFFICE. Office of my dreams! So most of late March and ALL OF APRIL was dedicated to this endeavor, and while I still have a good amount of Eldritch buffer, I don’t want to lose it, so back to the comics mine I go. Except not because now that everything is settled I gotta start moving. Which will take up more of my time that could be used for comics. Fuck. Well. Wish me luck!! Once I’m all settled and the spirit of summer is upon me I will (hopefully!) be a force to be reckoned with.
I also have gotten into the habit of once I’m accepted to a show I start prepping and ordering new merch stuff RIGHT AWAY, and that has served me extremely well so far. Pro tip life hack or whatever. AnimeNYC and Rose City Comic Con I’ll see you soon!
WHAT I’M WATCHING
This time around I’m not gonna talk about something I’ve found recently, but something I’ve loved for years. My sleeper agent activation code. My very autistic special interest. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You all knew this would happen eventually, don’t lie. With the art book coming out in April I had a renewed wave of love and appreciation for this show that is always simmering in my heart. It’s so good, y’all, it’s so goddamn good.
The way I pitch it is “Hey what if the ninja turtles were magical girls and animated in a studio trigger style” and if you’ve ever seen it—or any of the action scene clips that make the rounds—you know I’m extremely correct.
Growing up a late 90’s and early 00’s kid there was no way to escape TMNT. They were everywhere. Heated debates on the playground of who the coolest was. You HAD to have a favorite. You were born into a post ninja turtle world and it was sink or swim. I never had a huge interest in them, in the 4Kids lineup I was more likely to tune into Winx Club or Mew Mew Power (if you know you KNOW). I did briefly watch the 2012 version, but between the cringe writing of Donnie’s crush on April and the general drab colors of the show it got old fast. Then came Rise. I unfortunately didn’t watch it until the day after the final episode aired, but I do remember the ire directed at it for changing the Classic Turtles Formula. Even I had the passing thought of “huh this is weird, why would they make Raph the leader?” (cue the old Game Grumps clip of the ninja turtle leader debate). Boy have I never been more happy to be wrong.
While the art is INCREDIBLE, bold, dynamic, strong shapes while also dripping with gorgeous saturated colors, I want to talk about the writing. Truly I’ve never seen such a fresh take on a decades old franchise, and so much for the better! Switching the sibling order immediately creates more interesting dynamics to explore. Raph being the oldest gives him a sense of responsibility to care for his younger brothers that has always been present, but here’s it’s at the forefront. Don’t get me wrong, he still believes every problem can be solved by punching something hard enough, but he has an air of caring and true big brotherness to him. He fits perfectly in the character archetype of “big muscles bigger heart” that I adore so much. He’s also an alligator snapping turtle, and my friend Alex and I decided he’s a Florida boy at heart. Not a chaos god like Florida man, but a whimsical rowdy creature. That’s Raph, and he’s great. (sidenote! If you watched Sinners? Cornbread? Yea same actor)
A while Raph has gotten the big brother mantel, where does that leave Leo? Well, ok, you know how the typical Leonardo Ninja Turtle character arc is “You’re the leader, here’s all the trauma, go deal with that”? NOT HERE!! IT’S SOOO MUCH MORE INTERESTING. Leo in Rise is peak middle child. He’s a shitty little coping with humor Bugs Bunny ass idiot. He’s a lazy lil clown boy who somehow has the most common sense out of the four AND YET is trying so hard to seem SO cool and chill with it. This post explains it better than I ever could. Meanwhile! He has all the qualities to actually be a good leader! He’s strategic, cunning, runs circles around villains. In a mission to retrieve a dog tag in enemy territory he’s the one who actually gets the closest! It’s only when he’s forced to step up—to RISE, if you will—that he accepts his role as leader, and it’s so compelling and cool. Peak writing. He still has the classic Leo “i’m nothing without my brothers” struggle, and at his heart is still classic Leo, but the way he gets there is so fun to watch. If you told me years ago goddamn Jean Ralphio Sonic Ninja Turtle would end up being one of my favorite characters, I’d have laughed at you. And who’s laughing now? Probably still me, cause what the fuck lmfao.
Speaking of laughing this show is so funny. I’ll remember jokes and burst out laughing. I wish I was in the pitch room for some of those jokes (especially the Sasquatch picture. I so desperately wish to know the whole process).
And the character designs! While I will give 2012 credit of starting different designs for the turtles, Rise is where it was perfected. This is the first iteration to make them different species of turtles! GENIUS!! I’ve already mentioned Raph is an alligator snapping turtle, and because he looks so big and intimidating he’s allowed to have a more prominent softer side and that just makes his character better imo. Leo is a red-eared slider, which is the Classic Ninja Turtle species, cause try as he might he still has the Leonardo curse of being the basic bitch. And getting pummeled. But he has these cool red stripes! Nice! Donnie is a spiny soft shell, which means he doesn’t have the hard shell his brothers do, so he compensates for that by building his own shells to protect him in battle. Which, again, GENIUS!! He also believes he’s the smartest and right in every situation. A running joke in a watch through with friends last year was “Donnie’s causing an episode again”. And Mikey is an ornate box turtle, so he can retract all his limbs and head into his shell. He also lives up to the “ornate” part of his species by decorating his shell and being the artist of the family. He’s also an empathetic sweetheart and truly the heart of the group. Plus he has cute lil knee pads with smiley faces on them!
I haven’t even talked about their new powers! The magical girls part!! While most TMNT iterations have a more sci-fi lean, Rise goes more into the fantasy aspects. With new lore! There’s a mystical hidden city under NYC! John Cena is an evil scientist and their dad! (I’m not kidding the crew had yaoi art of Splinter and Draxum in the studio. THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING.) They all have mystic powers and they’re COOL!! Raph can make bigger versions of himself like an energy gundam, bigger fists bigger smash. Leo makes portals, which plays into his strategic and trickster side. Donnie leans into science for the show, but once he unlocks his powers he can make constructs, very green lantern etc etc. I mourn the arc of Donnie learning his mystic side and taking to it like a softshell turtle to water. Mikey starts off with fire weapon powers and ends up the most mystically inclined, including levitation and eventually his own portals. And the way the board artists display those skills is incredible to watch. The fight choreography is absolutely insane, and you can see the love letters to anime and 70’s kung fu movies. This series is truly a huge love letter to martial arts movies, classic campy sci-fi, and all sorts of other things the crew clearly love. You know how I say that you can tell when someone was passionate about their work? Rise absolutely shines with it.
NOT TO MENTION THE ANIMATION ITSELF!! Absolutely gorgeous, fantastic, to die for. Some of the best out there. You know that Avatar The Last Airbender movie that leaked recently? Same studio. Flying Bark, absolute legends. If they’re on a project get ready for some absolute eye candy.
With the release of the art book, I got to dive into that world again, and read little trivia things I absolutely ate up. A combination of comedy writers and action storyboard artists gave the show such a cool look while being hilarious. The writers team used Always Sunny In Philadelphia as their true north, and looking back it honestly shows! You can see the DNA of Frank in Splinter, and I love that. Rise Splinter is the best Splinter cause he’s the funniest Splinter. And the most compelling. You can fight me on that I don’t care. This isn’t a story where he’s the static serious mentor, he starts as a kinda bad dad bastard and grows with his sons. It was the action that brought me in but Splinter that made me stay (“Ooohhh, I would stay with “Meat Sweats””/ “I will never marry any of them off” /“Are [your sons] red, orange, blue, and purple?”“Oh you know their names!”) He’s hilarious. (side note: a running theme across all versions of TMNT is that Leo will always be the one to take after Splinter the most and that remains true in Rise SO MUCH and I love it beyond words)
There’s so much more I could talk about that I don’t have time for. The new villains (gay hippo Rhys Darby and gay worm), the fun visual sound effects, the Tales of the Hidden City episodes, how April is just one of the guys and is a part of their crew immediately, the decision to not write any romance (outside of Splinter’s tryst with a hot villain lady and his terrible yet staying amicable for the kids divorce from John Cena), FOOT RECRUIT MY FOREVER AND EVER BELOVED. Rise is one of those things where I could talk about it for hours if you really let me loose.
Also fun story, the Rise movie came out in 2022, but that weekend I was in chicago at C2E2–when the con schedules were messed up due to COVID for a time—so that Friday I did my artist alley day then went right back to the hotel to watch it. I was sharing that hotel with my friend Ayme (of Clawshot! and UnDivine, she’s lovely!!) and some friends of hers, and meeting one of those acquaintances a couple years later she went “oh yea you’re the turtle girl!” and… yea….. yea I am. I didn’t choose this life but this is how I live.
This series came to me during COVID and honestly changed my life. It made me fired up to create again in the midst of a years long burnout. I won’t even get into the fan character I made for the show, Tomiko, but she’s my special little guy whom I love very very dearly. This show has made me a better artist, connected me to so many dear precious friends, lets me yap about something I’m passionate about, and brings joy to my life. And! Craziest of all! I was on a book release livestream with the art book author, Colin Stein! I was reading the book release day, put it down, and checked my phone to SO MANY FRIENDS DM-ING ME SCREAMING “you were mentioned in the stream! By name!!” So I hopped on twitch and somehow ended up invited into the discord call, talking and being part of the same livestream as series director JJ Conway, character designer Bryce Collins, prop designer Jack Rossi, and series co-creator Andy Suriano. I’m still reeling from that. Like, hey, uh, what the fuck??? Holy shit????? What is my LIFE.
(Also Seth Rogen, Brian Robbins, Playmates toys, private equity that killed Toys R Us, I will never forgive you, I am a hater for life. If they have no haters assume I am dead etc etc. Like, ok, listen, if you watched the Tales of the TMNT show and loved it, go watch Rise. Everything good from that show’s style came from Rise. Nickelodeon killed her a stripped her for parts.)
Man I don’t want to end this whole thing on that. I had a really good time on that stream and love this show and don’t want its sad production end and run of bad luck to be the ending note here. Uh, go watch Rise of the TMNT. Get the art book while you’re at it it’s really good and pretty!! You can feel the ripple effects Rise has had over the years, even if you’re not aware of it. If you watched the Sonic 3 movie, Rise crew worked on that (shoutout to board artist Kevin Molina-Ortiz who got his start with Rise. He’s insane and one of the best out there.) The Alan episode of Smiling Friends, those two insane action sequences? Rise board artist Sheldon Vella (who also worked on the Vox Machina show). I’ve been saying for years that time will only ever be kind to Rise, and I believe that more and more each passing year. It may not be a perfect show, nothing ever is, but it’s something I love deeply and I owe a lot to, as an artist, for inspiring a really good catgirl OC, and for the friends I’ve made through it. It’s really good. Please trust me on this why would I ever lie to you. Yes, you, specifically. And if you’re seen it, see it again! I know I’m due for a rewatch. Hot Soup!!
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
Mid 00’s music is a bop. Recession indicator be damned, it was good fun music. “Glad you came” has been on repeat for a couple weeks and DAMN it’s good. Go listen to it. That’s it this segment is done.
WHAT I’M EATING
More like what I’m drinking, which is green tea. It’s always green tea. I haven’t kicked my coffee habit quite yet, but I’m never getting rid of the green tea. It’s tasty, comes in different flavors (jasmine green tea you’re forever that girl to me), has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, and is extremely refreshing. My personal favorite is “hojicha”, which is a roasted green tea, giving it this slightly smoky and nutty flavor that’s just delish. Put a bit of lemon in there? Mm. Now that’s a late spring and summer delight.
SEASONAL DELIGHTS
Speaking of delights, CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!! Living in the Seattle area there’s a huge amount of Japanese culture and influence, including many cherry blossom trees brought over from Japan to Seattle in the 1920’s as a symbol of friendship between Japan and the Pacific Northwest. Every year I love seeing them bloom, coating the streets in vibrant pink. It feels like a gift for surviving the long, dark, and wet winter. While most trees explode into color mid-March, there’s a cherry blossom tree outside my apartment that’s a bit of a late bloomer and doesn’t flower until mid-to-late April, and I’m very very glad I got to see her bloom one more time before I move. Luckily the block I’m moving to had a whole row of cherry blossoms so I will not be blossom-less! Yippee!
That’s it for this season! See you in summer!! Right after my birthday! Cheers!