"A Turtless future?"
"With the recent announcement of the cancellation of the current Turtles
title from Image, the realization hit the industry that one of the
cornerstones of the modern comics era was going away. For the first time
in 15 years, there would be no new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics.
"Like their entire experience with the Turtles, their creators took a
philosphical stance on the fact that 200 will come and go sans Turtles.
""It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at the comics industry now
and realize that it's completely messed up: Comics--damn good
comics--are dying left and right," Laird said. "Comics that sold 100,000
copies a few years ago are struggling along with 10,000. That's one of
the reasons that the Image comic book is being canceled. It just wasn't
making back the money that it needed to pay for itself-- which is sad,
but in this kind of market, it's the unfortunate truth."
"In addition to the comics, for the first time in many years, Playmates
will not release a new line of Turtles toys in the United States this
year. "The Turtles line in this country has basically gone into
hibernation," Laird said. "You kind of run up against the inevitable
lack of interest that happens with any property. The Turtles came out,
had a huge, long run in comparison to other action-figure lines, with
greater sales than every other line that they competed against, with
only a few exceptions.
""That was fantastic," he went on. "Every toy line, especially boy's
action toys, come out, have a ramping up period, and then fall off.
Sometimes you hear from them again, but most times you don't. The
Turtles are at the end of that downward slope."
"Eastman continued, "Intellectual properties come and go. Even Batman
has had peaks and valleys-- we had our peak and we had our valley, and
today we're in this interesting plateau where we're still producing some
new toys and we have a few other entertainment ideas involving The
Turtles that we're kicking around. They're still there and doing some
business, which to me is stunning. We're talking well over 10 years
since the initial release of the first cartoon show, which is stunning.
Who knows where it will all end up? Despite the lull and lack of a comic
book, I don't think we've seen the last of The Turtles."
 
 

And if we weren't banded together like we are now, the popularity of the
TMNT right now wouldn't even be where it is, which ain't too terribly
much. Well, let me put this another way... I don't see the TMNT's
popularity as being very low--I see it as being dormant.