Blast from the Past #367: pencil drawing for cover of Archie Comics' "TMNT Adventures" #41

This is interesting to me for the idea more than for the drawing. Where did I get the idea to have those two characters reflected in Leonardo's sword blades?

At this point in time, I can't recall. But it worked pretty well, even if logically and optically unrealistic. -- PL

Blast from the Past #355: Pencil drawing for Archie TMNT Adventures #35 cover

This may get confusing, but I think that I will continue to number both TMNT-related "BftP" material and non-TMNT-related "BftP" material in the same sequence. Since I split my original blog, "palbog", into two entities -- one devoted to TMNT stuff and the other to everything else that I want to show and tell -- it has been a little hard to keep track of what goes where. But I think with practice it will work out just fine.

One of the odd things which seems to have happened is that I have lost the ability to search this blog, which I have used in the past to avoid as much as possible the embarrassing happenstance of posting the same thing twice (something I have done several times in the past). I'm not sure why that search function is not working -- it may be some arcane cyber-artifact of the blog transfer process -- but I did discover that I can search from the "Edit" page. It's a little clunkier, but seems to work.

In any event, I did do a search to see if I had posted this piece before, and it appears I had not. I suppose I could be wrong... I hope not. Please feel free to let me know if I messed up!

This is my pencil drawing for the cover of issue #35 of the Archie Comics "TMNT Adventures" comic book. I am pretty sure that Ryan Brown inked this one, as he did many of my Archie TMNT covers. -- PL

Blast from the Past #284: Pencils for Archie "TMNT Adventures" #34

Here are my pencils for the cover of one of the Archie "TMNT Adventures" comics -- I believe it was #34.



I'm pretty sure Ryan Brown inked this one. -- PL

Blast from the Past #245: Pencils for cover of "TMNT Adventures" #37

I remember that doing this cover was extra fun for me because at the time I was into watching wrestling (WWF and WCW) on TV while I worked. -- PL

Blast from the Past #244: Pencils for cover of "TMNT Adventures" #40

Of the covers that I penciled for the Archie Comics-published "TMNT Adventures" book, this is one of my favorites.



The layout was inspired by my memory of the great Jim Steranko "Incredible Hulk" cover from "HULK King-Size Special #1" in 1968. -- PL

Blast from the Past #242: Cover pencils from "Archie TMNT Adventures" #32

This is the cover to issue #32 of the "TMNT Adventures" comic published by Archie Comics. I drew it in 1991.



When I was getting this image ready to post, I was thinking that the very clean pencils probably meant that I had "cyberinked" it for publication. But when I searched online to make sure that I had the correct issue number, I discovered that Dan Berger was also credited for the cover art. I'm not sure if this means he inked it, or colored it, or added stuff to it (I think I saw a tattoo or two on the sumo wrestler Tattoo in the printed cover that I didn't have in the pencils). Maybe Dan will see this post and provide some clarity. -- PL

Blast from the Past #223: Pencils for Archie TMNT Adventures Special, Fall 1992

Here's another of my Archie "TMNT Adventures" covers in pencil form, from 1992. I've always liked this one, partly for the unusual layout. I think Ryan Brown inked this cover.



I'm trying to remember if this layout was my idea or Murph's. It's been so long I don't really know. Maybe Murph does. -- PL

Blast from the Past #221: Archie TMNT Adventures #5 cover

Here's another Eastman/Laird collaboration from the Archie "TMNT Adventures" days. This is the cover for issue #5, which Kevin penciled...



... and I inked.



Looking at this again, I see something which has always irked me -- when a penciler doesn't take the time to fill in large black areas with pencil, instead just putting an "x" in the areas which need to be filled with solid black. It's probably an efficient way to save time, especially when you are inking your own work, but I've always thought it looks lame and unfinished. When I am inking somebody else's pencils, I like to see a completely penciled page. -- PL

Blast from the Past #217: Thumbnails for Archie TMNT covers

Over the years, I have tried -- generally successfully -- to save a copy of everything I've drawn. Sometimes they are just tiny scraps of paper with tiny, scribbly drawings on them, drawings that most people would probably just chuck in the wastebasket (and rightfully so). But every so often I run across something that reminds me of the process that one goes through in creating a drawing for, say, a comic book cover.



Case in point -- I saved this little piece of paper with three of my small and VERY rough "thumbnails" for three covers for the Archie "TMNT Adventures" book -- from left to right, #'s 42, 44 and 43. (In fact, I think these drawings may literally be about the size of my thumbnail!)



I thought it would be fun to show those thumbnails and then the finished pencil drawings that they eventually evolved into. -- PL

Blast from the Past #212: Archie TMNT Adventures #3 cover pencils and inks

Here's another Kevin Eastman-penciled cover to the Archie "TMNT Adventures" series that I inked. First, Kevin's pencils...



... followed by my inks.



I always find it interesting to note what gets changed during the inking stages. -- PL

Blast from the Past #211: Archie TMNT Adventures #1 cover

Here's another penciled cover for the old Archie "TMNT Adventures" book, this one for the first issue. The pencils are by Kevin Eastman.



And here are the final inks, by yours truly. -- PL

Blast from the Past #210: Archie TMNT Adventures #33 cover

This is one of a series of covers I penciled for the Archie "TMNT Adventures" comic. I remember having a bunch of fun doing these drawings. Here's my pencils...



... and here's the finished version, inked by Ryan Brown with his brush of renown. -- PL

Blast from the Past #56 repost: Kirbyship

Some years ago I had the idea of bringing together the Mirage black and white turtles with the Archie color version of the TMNT, and I was going to use the concept (introduced in the Mirage DONATELLO one-issue "micro-series") of the artist Kirby (based on the late great Jack "King" Kirby) and his "warp crystal". The character of Kirby would use the cosmic powers of the warp crystal to bridge the gap between the two universes (Mirage and Archie), and we would see the color turtles interacting with the black and white ones (literally -- I planned to do the art in color to represent whatever was in the Archie TMNT universe, and black and white with grey tones to represent the Mirage TMNT universe, sometimes mixing the styles on the same page). I intended to work with my pal Ken Mitchroney, who had penciled many of the Archie TMNT books -- he would handle the pencils on the color TMNT elements, whereas I would do the black and white TMNT stuff. I had written out a rough plot, and done the sketch below (of the ship Kirby creates to travel back and forth between universes), but the project never got off the ground, for a variety of reasons. -- PL

Blast from the Past #44 repost: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

This single drawing -- penciled by me in 1992 -- showing the turtles (along with Ray Fillet and Mondo Gecko) battling the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was actually split into three separate pieces for three separate covers for the Archie TMNT book... and it was brilliantly inked by my pal A.C. Farley. I remember having a lot of fun coming up with the designs for the Four Horsemen. -- PL

Blast from the Past #28 repost: Archie TMNT movie one adaptation covers

When the first TMNT movie came out in 1990, we did a comic book adaption of it which was published in two versions by Archie Comics. Above is my pencil art for the “deluxe” edition...

... and below is my pencil art for the cover of the regular newsstand edition. I'm pretty sure Kevin inked both of these. -- PL

Blast from the Past #99: Achie TMNT miniseries #1 cover

Here's yet another look back at the Archie TMNT experience. This is the cover to issue #1 of the first minieries we did with Archie. First up is Kevin's penciled cover...



... which I then inked. The weird part about this one is that Kevin apparently didn't like the way I'd inked April's face, and took it upon himself to redraw that face on a separate piece of paper, and then cut and paste it onto the inked cover, as shown here.



As you might imagine, I wasn't too thrilled by that move, so I removed the pasted-up face (as seen below).



And finally, here's the printed version in color. Curiously, on close examination of this final version, it appears that some further minor alterations were made to my original inked April face, by whom I can't recall. Strange... -- PL

Blast from the Past #98: Archie TMNT Adventures #44 cover, pencils and inks

Here's another cover from the Archie TMNT days, this one from issue 44 of "TMNT Adventures". It features everyone's favorite shark mutant, Armaggon. The first image is of my penciled cover...


... followed by Ryan Brown's beautifully inked version. -- PL

Blast from the Past repost #17: Archie TMNT Classics digest #2 cover

Some of the Archie TMNT Adventures comics were reprinted in digest-sized editions. For this one, TMNT Classics Digest #2, Steve Lavigne drew this rough cover layout...



... which I referred to when I penciled the cover (below). Ryan Brown inked these pencils (I think he may have inked all of the covers I did for the Archie TMNT comics).



And here's the final cover:



It's a little weird for me to look at these covers, as -- when I did them -- I had to make myself conform to the style of the animated Turtles, i.e. no tails and eyeballs, among other things that I would not ordinarily draw when I drew the Turtles. -- PL