Saturday, April 17, 2010

Blast from the Past #294: Turtle puppet and Corben cover art

In my ongoing photo-scanning project, I ran across this snapshot from years ago -- I think it's from 1985. What you see here, sitting on the couch in our house in Sharon, CT, are two very cool TMNT artifacts -- a large, handmade Turtle puppet crafted by Tony Basilicato, creator and penciller of "Prime Slime Tales", a comic which Mirage published at one point; and the painting by Richard Corben for the reprint of TMNT Volume 1 #2.



I remember that Kevin was ecstatic that he had been able to get Richard Corben, one of his top artist heroes, to do something for the TMNT comics. It really is a beautiful painting. -- PL
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10 comments:

  1. Joshua AyersApril 17, 2010 at 2:43 PM

    i remember seeing that picture in the turtles calendar i had! i remember being blown away by all the painted images of the turtles :) very cool :)

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  2. mikeandraph87April 17, 2010 at 3:47 PM

    I really like that pupppet! Could it the first mass produced other media TMNT product outside the role playing game?

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  3. bluemagewadabouApril 18, 2010 at 11:18 AM

    Man, I love that cover for Issue 2 reprint! Whose idea was it to have a painted image in the first place?!

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  4. PLApril 18, 2010 at 12:39 PM

    "mikeandraph87 said...
    I really like that pupppet! Could it the first mass produced other media TMNT product outside the role playing game?"

    Hmmm... I would not call it "mass produced", because as far as I know, only two were made -- this one and one that was given to Kevin. I think the first truly mass-produced TMNT product, after the comics and the Palladium Books role-playing game, was the first line of lead miniature figures from Dark Horse Miniatures. -- PL

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  5. PLApril 18, 2010 at 12:45 PM

    " bluemagewadabou said...
    Man, I love that cover for Issue 2 reprint! Whose idea was it to have a painted image in the first place?!"

    It was Kevin's idea. Kevin loved (still does, I think) the work of Richard Corben, and really wanted to get him to do something for the TMNT comics. I don't recall how, exactly, he got Corben's contact information (probably less easy then than it would be now, given that this happened in those dusty, distant pre-Internet days), but he did, and contacted him, and convinced him to do it. Corben painted this cover and also inked a short TMNT story of Kevin's that I believe appeared in color in Volume 1, #7, with colors by Kevin. -- PL

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  6. mikeandraph87April 18, 2010 at 1:07 PM

    Only two? Ah,man. I really wanted one. Thanks for the info. :)

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  7. ~ tOkKaApril 18, 2010 at 1:14 PM

    -->> ..was that puppet foam core or something similar ??

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  8. bluemagewadabouApril 18, 2010 at 6:49 PM

    Issue 2 is actually one of my most favorite issues. Artwork is amazing as always. The Mousers and everything...pure classic! What I always wondered though was how come Leonardo only has one katana in that issue?

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  9. MayhemApril 19, 2010 at 11:31 AM

    @Peter - Corben also did the whole of issue #1.33 entitled "Turtles Take Time". Have a couple of original pages from that issue, always rather loved his style :)

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  10. ~ tOkKaMay 28, 2010 at 2:35 AM

    -->> Pete, guys .. here is a photo of Ryan posing with Muppet puppeteer Tony Basilicato's TMNT puppet ** here..

    ~ t

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