HELP! Toss A Rope Down The Rabbit Hole...!

I got this inspiration earlier this evening...

I simply sketch out the storyline for 4 major characters in the screenplay Brian & I are developing. That way I know what moments have to be in the script, and I can thereby compose the overall structure of the story.

My Genius Friend Dave (an animator) compares it to Key-Pose animation that allows me to then animate Pose-To-Pose. It's an excellent description! It's a little like putting together the corners and then the border of a jigsaw puzzle, then working on the inside of the picture. (That's a much weaker analogy, but it's more universal.)

Easy enough, right?

So I create my files for each of my major characters and get a paragraph or two written to start myself off...

Then I hit one technical detail in one storyline that needs a bit of research...

2.5 hours later, I don't have the technical answers I'm looking for, but I know a great deal more about peripheral topics pertaining to my specific subject matter.

:(

I mean, the peripheral knowledge will probably serve me well sometime in the future. But I feel like I sort of lost 2 1/2 hours, lol. And I didn't gain the specific knowledge I set out for!

Bleh... what are ya gonna do?

Hey, My Genius Friend Dave tipped me off to a SPECTACULAR way to kill some time!!! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles online!!! You can read the ORIGINAL comic books -- those works of pure genius that started it ALL -- at NinjaTurtle.com!!! :D

See, you probably don't understand: The TNMT animated TV series (plural; '87-'96 and '97-'98), the resultant Archie Comics comic book series, the early-90s movies, even the very EXCELLENT 2007 movie ARE NOT the ACTUAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Although, the 2007 movie is the closest translation so far!) The REAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can only be found in the pages of the original Eastman & Laird indy comics put out by Mirage Studios!

I know. I am old enough to have been there from the start. I read the original issues long before the first animated series was created (which came before the first movie) and I remember the world of the Ninja Turtles before people started editing their language, changing the color of their masks (they originall all wore red masks) and just generally watered-down, dumbed-down and tarted-up the franchise.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that other interpretations of the TMNT aren't good, or don't at least have their merits (except for the TV series and the Archie Comics series -- seriously, wtf were they thinking?!!), but I definitely believe that reading the original comics has a spirit and entertainment value uniquely its own! :D

Like reading the original, Ben-Edlund-written The Tick comic books! The animated series was GREAT, as was the brilliant live-action TV series starring Patrick Warburton!!! But the original Ben Edlund comics (the first 12 issues of the series) were brilliant in a way that is unique, even to the other, Edlund-produced versions. (But New England Comics -- or Edlund, whoever controls the rights to the original 12 issues -- has yet to recreate the comics online, so I can't point you to a website for them. The only way to read them is to buy them, and in these times I'm not trying to persuade anyone to buy anything, lol.)

Oy!

With this blog entry, I appear to be slipping down a different rabbit hole, lol. ;P

I should wrap-up and get back to work.

If you have time, though, go read some of the original TMNT comics! I'll bet you're not disappointed! :D