SubscribeNote: We’ve been getting a spate of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles redesigns, but when they all happen to be this good I can’t complain. This time out, P:R regular Kris Anka turns in redesigns for two of the turtles — Donatello and Leonardo — with more planned. Anka, who is doing covers and design work for Marvel while also working on the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, is doing these to play out his idea to make the turtles super seriously. Although admittedly not a “super” fan, Anka really pulls from the vast array of fighting styles and not just ninja for his work. Leonardo seems to pull somewhat from the samurai tradition, while . – Chris A.
So this is my Donnie. Probably the largest jump I make from the original design of the character.
My train of thought on this design sort of went all over the place. My original idea was to go a more sumo route. To showcase another form of Asian fighting. I thought the idea of a large sumo wrestler type fighter who has to use a bow staff to extend his reach would be kinda cool. From there I added a bit more of the techy aspect of the character that is currently being used in the new TMNT show. I took it to the point where he is a walking workstation. I really wanted to make the character to seem like a guy who really spends almost all of his time tinkering and creating new tech. This brought me to giving him sort of a heavy leather work outfit. The kind people use at metal workshops and places involving a lot of sparks. Another idea I thought to add in there was the bomb aspect of ninjas. Dropping smoke bombs and the like. I just took Donnie to the extreme where he is strapped with a multitude of bombs. For any occasion.
By the end he became of a tank character. I think the sumo type fighting would be cool to keep, if he ever needed to get up close, but mainly he is a character that because he can’t move that fast, uses his tech and bombs to the fullest extent.
Clearly I tried to get Leo to be more of a Samurai character; very serious, very methodical, not very fast, but incredibly precise. I also toyed with the idea that he only speaks in japanese, which I might stick with.
