The Dark Horse ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Comic That Never Was

During this month's WonderCon, IDW announced that they've picked up the rights for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, with plans to kick off a brand new "reimagining" of the series that conquered the world of comics and animation back in the early '90s. But while it ended up at IDW, it looks like the coveted TMNT license almost ended up at another home. According to Ross Campbell, one of the artist of Action Double Feature, there were originally plans to move the series to Dark Horse Comics.

As Campbell wrote on his tumblr, "I was supposed to draw the new TMNT comic for Dark Horse, they were poised to get the license from Nickelodeon (after Peter Laird sold TMNT to Nick in 2009) and it was going to be amazing and awesome. I almost got to draw an issue of Turtles for Mirage before Tales of the TMNT stopped being published at #70 (I did get to do a few covers though), so the Dark Horse thing was my even better second chance, and would've been the best shot in the arm my career could've gotten, not to mention something i'd wanted to do all my life and be a part of something that heavily influenced me as both an artist and writer. but alas, Nickelodeon pulled out, and TMNT cruelly slipped through my fingers a second time!"

"Amazing and awesome" might seem like a pretty vague statement, but from what I've seen of Campbell's art, I'd believe it. Check out his amazing TMNT covers, plus sketches of all the characters, after the jump!

Campbell's art is both absolutely beautiful and perfectly suited for the characters, so hopefully the move to IDW won't mark his last chance to draw the Turtles.

For more, check out Campbell's DeviantArt gallery.

(via Robot 6)