For Sale: 1986 "Hampshire Life" with TMNT cover story

Well, not just yet -- I still have to ask Dan if he can put these up on eBay and see what kind of response we get.

I found these today while looking for some stuff in my old studio, and doing a little cleaning and stacking of recyclable paper. There was a small pile of these -- about ten of them -- that I'd forgotten I'd saved. (I think these are the only complete copies of "Hampshire Life" that I ever kept -- usually I would just clip whatever art I'd had in them.)

It's kind of a neat bit of TMNT history -- a three-page story with interview quotes from both me and Kevin Eastman, plus photos and artwork. And they used Kevin's full-color cover art from the first printing of TMNT Volume One number 7 on the cover. There's also a nice editorial introduction by my "Hampshire Life" editor and friend Nancy Frazier, accompanied by a few examples of the art I did for the paper.

I took these photos tonight really quickly, so please excuse the sketchy quality. Here's the cover...

... the editorial...

... and the story. -- PL

 

Blast from the Past #330: Pete at Fred Wolf's office

I found this one while rummaging around in the horrific mess which is my room (I was going to say "cleaning", but that would not be at all truthful). It's a photo taken by Kevin Eastman, I believe, during our first visit to the Murakami-Wolf offices in California back in 1986 or 1987 (at this point in time, the dates are starting to blend together). It was during the time when the original TMNT show was being developed.

Kevin and I were out there to meet with Fred Wolf and go over what they he and his crew had already come up with for concepts for the show. Some of them were pretty bad, in our opinion (for example, they had the Turtles defeating the Shredder and his minions at the end of the first three episodes and then moving into the Technodrome, making it their headquarters... which made zero sense to us), but others were good. It was an exciting time.

In this photo, I am sitting at the table where Kevin and I were going over the stuff and sketching out our own ideas for the show. I think I am working on a design for a Foot ninja costume -- it's hard to tell. -- PL

Blast from the Past #323: "Turtlemania" cover art

Some (okay, many) of the details of the history of this piece have vanished from my brain, but I do remember Kevin and I drew this (my pencils, Kevin's inks) to go on the cover of a little mini-comic kind of thing that the organizer of a small convention in Florida planned to produce and sell at the show to which he had invited us.



It was a fun trip; our host was a nice guy, and I saw cool lizards on the sidewalks. And out of that experience came several now-collectible editions of this "Turtlemania" publication. -- PL

Blast from the Past #315: Toy ideas from sketchbook

This is another page from the aforementioned sketchbook, and on close examination I find several things of interest. Basically, these are doodles and notes for toy ideas we would have sent to Playmates in a more coherent form.



Of particular interest is the list of "Themes for TMNT's in 1989", about halfway down the page. Readers of this blog may recall the much-derided (unfairly, in my humble opinion) "Music Turtles" from a year or two ago. Well, look here -- we were thinking about music Turtles twenty-one years ago!

Of course, that COULD just mean it's a bad idea which doesn't want to go away, but I suppose we'll never know… unless Viacom busts out a whole bunch of musician Turtles in their new toy line!

Another thing of interest to me is that although this is a page from my sketchbook, apparently Kevin Eastman added some input to it. The handle of the Turtle "Fist Launcher" appears to have been drawn by Kevin, and that dark shading inside the muzzle seems to me to be one of his trademark drawing moves.

Also, I think he may have written in one or more of the "Themes" -- at the very least, the letter forms in the word "Diver" are very KBE, especially the inclusion of a lowercase "i". -- PL

Blast from the Past #248: A visit from the Governor

A dew days ago, Katie was going through some old files and found this cool photo from the late 1980's.



I can't remember all the details, but then-Governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis honored us with a visit at the old Mirage Studios space. It was a short, but long enough for a photo op. -- PL

Musings about the sale

This evening, my daughter Emily wisely advised me to make a statement about the MTVN/Viacom/Nickelodeon buyout of the TMNT property on my blog... so I am going to try to do that. I suspect it won't be the last statement I will make about this subject.

I will try to touch on some of the things that folks have inquired about, but I can't guarantee that all questions will be answered.

First, why did I sell the TMNT? There are a number of reasons, but first and foremost is that I have been doing this TMNT thing for twenty-five years, sixteen of them in partnership with TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and the last nine as sole owner of the property. That is a long time. It is almost half my life (I'm 55). I never expected to be working on the same thing for this long. And it has worn me down. I am no longer that guy who carries his sketchbook around with him and draws in it every chance he gets. That guy did all of the pre-TMNT artwork you have been seeing on this blog in many of my "Blast from the Past" posts.

I miss -- I really, really miss -- being that guy.

My fervent hope is that by divesting myself of this wonderful but needful-of-constant-attention property, I might -- I just MIGHT -- get back to being that guy. Or something LIKE that guy.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention that my energy level for things TMNT has flagged in these last few years. As one result, the production of TMNT Volume 4 comics has slowed to a crawl. That's not good. I have a conclusion planned out for that series, and at some point I want to get to it. Maybe this sale will help me get to that point. We'll see.

The idea of a sale of the TMNT property to a third party is not a new one. Kevin and I, while we were still partners, discussed it during the 1990's and actually came to the conclusion that if the right deal came our way, we would take it. We got a couple of offers -- one of which was, in retrospect, pretty decent, and another which was simply ludicrous and insulting. We took neither of them. This one, this sale which was completed on Monday of this week, came out of the blue. I was not actively pursuing selling the property, though Gary (CEO of Mirage) and Fred (my attorney) knew that it was something I might be interested in should the right buyer with the right deal come my way. And then Viacom/MTVN/Nickelodeon showed interest and we started talking.

I've known for a long time that at some point in my life I would sell the TMNT. I just wasn't sure when it would happen. But, as they say, in this case "the stars lined up".

I know that many fans are concerned with how the TMNT will be treated now that they have a new owner. I am also concerned, but I have faith that the new owner will treat the property with due respect and make the most of it. And the simple fact is -- I didn't have it in me any more, and the property DESERVED a new owner. Now it has one, with powerful roots in the entertainment business. I am actually quite excited to see where they take TMNT.

I am pretty certain that what Viacom/MTVN/Nickelodeon will do with the TMNT is NOT going to be what I would have done with it had I kept ownership. But is that necessarily bad? I think not. For example, if Kevin and I had had our way back in 1987, the original TMNT animated series would have been a lot different. It would probably have been a lot more like the 2003 4Kids show. Now, I really like the newer 4Kids series, but I also know that many fans much prefer the lighter, goofier original series. I don't know what the new Nickelodeon series will be like... but maybe it will be something better than either of the old shows, or simply something new and different, with a fresh approach and attitude. I think everyone should wait and see before passing judgment.

One comment -- which I have seen online several times -- expresses the sentiment that this sale will mean "the end of TMNT". This baffles me. Unless I am completely naive, the sale to Viacom could very well mean a brighter future for the TMNT property than was previously feasible.

On a final note (at least for this statement), please understand that I sold the TMNT property, not Mirage Studios. Mirage still exists, and it's still my company. It just doesn't own the TMNT intellectual property anymore. I'm not sure what its future will be. For a little while, it will be helping with the transition of TMNT over to its new owners. But after that...? I don't know. What I am hoping, however, is that this little core group of creators sticks together, both as friends and collaborators. And I think that is certainly possible. -- PL

Blast from the Past #235: Promo poster for TMNT/Cerebus crossover issue

This is a bit of an odd one. We produced this poster to promote the publication of TMNT #8, the issue which featured a crossover adventure with Dave Sim's great character Cerebus the Aardvark. Kevin Eastman was a huge fan of Cerebus and Sim, and really pushed hard to get this project together. Dave was amenable to it, and turned in some great stuff -- he did all the drawing of Cerebus in that issue as well as Cerebus' very witty dialogue.



As I recall, for some reason Kevin only penciled this image, and I got the job of not only inking it but coloring it as well. This was pretty unusual, as typically Kevin would handle color jobs of this nature. And given that this one involved Cerebus, it's especially surprising he didn't do this one. I don't remember all the details as to how I ended up doing this work, but it was fun, and I used a technique I was enjoying at the time of using acetate overlays to do wacky color backgrounds, mixing various color inks with salt to achieve some interesting effects. -- PL

Blast from the Past #231: Cover of second Palladium Books TMNT roleplaying game book

This is the black and white drawing Kevin Eastman did as the basis for a finished color piece that was used on the cover of the second TMNT role-playing game book published by Palladium Books back in the 1980's. I believe the title was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures".



I think this is one of Kevin's best cover layout designs, and the color version was very cool. But I always found the Foot ninja in the skirt (in the foreground on the left side) kind of odd. -- 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 #220: "How to be a Ninja" (?) cover pencils

I can't exactly remember the title of the publication for which this cover was done, but as I recall it was one of the things that Solson published during the eighties under license from Mirage.



Kevin Eastman penciled this cover, and I think I inked it -- but I could be wrong. -- PL

Blast from the Past 213: "The Good Ol' Days" in Sharon, CT

While looking for those old San Diego photos I posted last week, I also found these goodies from our days in Sharon, CT. These were taken at a time when we had not yet grasped the idea that, if we supplied a list of addresses and how many copies were supposed to go to which addresses, our printer could ship all of the books. Instead, we had the printer -- which at the time was in Lakeville, CT, one town over -- ship all the books to my rented house (or maybe we picked them up from the printer in my car, I can't remember). Here's a photo of Kevin taking a break on a stack of TMNT #2 in the living room of our house.



My wife didn't really care to have these boxes cluttering up the house, so we'd haul them down to the basement, where we'd begin the laborious job of counting out each order, then reboxing them to be shipped out to the various distributors. One of the reasons we did this instead of just depending on the count the printer put on the outside of each box was that we had discovered when looking through one of those early printings of TMNT #2 that it suffered from random bad trimming -- at some point in the binding and trimming process, something went wrong and some of the copies ended up trimmed at weird angles, rendering those copies unsaleable (and unreadable, in some cases). So, just to be sure none of our customers got any of these bad copies, we hand inspected each one before they went out. It was a giant pain in the butt.

Steve Lavigne moved down to Sharon around this time, becoming the first Mirage Studios employee. We put him to work helping us go through the boxes of comics, inspecting and counting and reboxing. Here he and Kevin are hard at work in the basement, packing copies of TMNT #3.



And here's Kevin doing the same thing with issue #2, in the living room.



But this grunt work wasn't the only thing occupying our time -- we also had to continue working on the drawing of the book itself. Here's Kevin working on issue #3 during the short time he lived with us in our rented house by Silver Lake.



Occasionally, the need would arise for goofy hijinks and silliness -- witness "Conehead Kevin".



Kevin would often do stuff like this, usually to make me laugh... and usually succeeding. -- 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

San Diego, 1985

Here's an "oldie but goodie" -- Kevin Eastman posing in front of the old San Diego convention center where the SDCC was once held. This was in 1985, the first year we went to that show. It was a bit smaller back then. -- PL

Emily "Shellebrates"!

My daughter, who is planning to attend the San Diego Comicon this year, also had the opportunity to go to one of the "Shellebration" TMNT tour bus 25th anniversary events with some of her friends this past weekend. Here's her report from the scene, taken from an email to me:

"On Saturday afternoon, Golden Apple Comics on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles hosted one of the final stops of the TMNT tour bus for the 25th anniversary "Shell-abration." We figured it was a must see event. I arrived with Nell, Steph, and Lainy around 6PM, when the event seemed to be winding down a bit. The bus was parked outside, where we posed with Leonardo. Inside, fans were lined up to meet with Kevin, and the store had free pizza and Turtle green Kool-Aid.

In these pictures I'm posing with Kevin Eastman...



...and Stephan from GoGreenMachine.org.



I also met Michael Hill, the former creative director of Mirage, who said he had met me when I was little. Inside the bus, there was various memorabilia from the comic books, tv show, and movies. This picture is me at the entrance of the bus, with your photo and biography, as well as what I think are covers from the first comic book.


Overall, it was a fun afternoon, and I got to get my first picture with Leonardo (my favorite turtle) since I was a few months old, when he held me on the set of the first movie.



It was fun to experience the Turtles through the eyes of a "fan" and also to be around so many fans for whom the Turtles mean so much. Looking forward to Comic Con!

-Em"

Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Steve Lavigne collaborate on a "Jake Black Benefit Print"

A few months ago, Steve Murphy had the cool idea of getting me and Kevin Eastman to work together on a drawing (something we had not done in many years) which would then be used as the basis for a print, the proceeds from sales of which would go towards helping our friend Jake Black out with his medical expenses. (Readers of this blog may recall the other Jake Black Benefit print that me and the other Mirage artists produced (http://plairdblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/jake-black-benefit-print-at-fcbd.html) and sold at "Free Comic Book Day" in New Hampshire.) Murph managed to convince Kevin to pencil up this drawing...



... which I proceeded to ink...



... and then that version was zapped off to Steve Lavigne so that he could do his digital color magic on it, as you see here in the finished 11 by 17 print.



(Please note that this is a somewhat poor quality digital photo of one of the prints -- the colors are much more vibrant in the actual copies.)

And here, direct from Murph, are a few more details about the print, which will be premiered at this years's San Diego Comicon:

"There are only 100 of them, each is signed by Peter Laird. This group of 100 is SDCC exclusive and will cost $25 each. All proceeds to benefit Jake. In addition, since Kevin is attending the con, people will have the chance to get Kevin to sign it as well.

We will also be selling the "Mirage group jam" prints at SDCC, for $20/each, also benefiting Jake."

(Note: Steve Lavigne will also be attending the SDCC, so buyers of this print can get Steve's signature on it, too.)

And here's a fun little thing -- while inking the piece, I would stop about every minute or so and take a digital photo of the art. When I was done, I put all of those photos together into this (somewhat shaky) "time-lase" movie of the inking process. -- PL

Blast from the Past #203: TMNT Volume 2 #13 cover pencils

This is Kevin Eastman's pencil drawing for the cover of the last issue of the Mirage color TMNT comic book series.



I'm pretty sure Kevin inked this one before I colored it in Photoshop. -- PL

Blast from the Past #201: cover for TMNT color series #6

I have the feeling that I've posted this before, though a quick search of this blog indicates otherwise. If I'm wrong, I apologize.

Anyway, this is one of the covers -- done for the old Mirage color TMNT comic series -- that I penciled and Kevin Eastman inked. This is the inked version. -- PL

Blast from the Past #190: Pencil art for cover of TMNT Volume 2 #9

This is Kevin Eastman's pencil art for the cover of issue #9 of the TMNT color series published by Mirage. I'm pretty sure I inked this, but I can't remember offhand who colored it. -- PL



P.S. -- Looking at the printed cover on the ninjaturtles.com website, it kind of looks like my Photoshop coloring, but I'm not completely sure.

Blast from the Past #184: Lawson/Eastman "Samurai Turtle"

Here's another slightly unusual piece from 1987 -- a Jim Lawson pinup of a samurai TMNT which was inked by Kevin Eastman. -- PL