Blast from the Past #682: Sketchbook page 26, close-up of Raphael in new mutation mode

Here on page 26 of the sketchbook is a study of Raphael in his new mutation mode, with claws extended. This one was inked with a brush. -- PL

Blast from the Past #680: Sketchbook page 24, Raphael fighting Foot ninja

From page 24 of the sketchbook, here's a more elaborate drawing, fully inked with a brush, depicting Raphael -- in new mutation mode -- engaging some new-look Foot ninja in a bloody battle. 

I like this one. -- PL

P.S. I just noticed an interesting detail -- the skull-like sculpting of Raph's plastron.

Blast from the Past #677: Sketchbook page 21, inked drawing of new ideas for Raphael

On page 21 of the sketchbook, I did this more finished piece showing some ideas for Raphael's new look, including a chain belt and thigh-strap holders for his sai, as well as some physical manifestations of his new mutation.

For some reason, when I look at this drawing I feel a deja vu, like I've already posted it, a couple of years ago. But I can't remember for sure. -- PL

Blast from the Past #674: Sketchbook page 18, Raphael leaping

This loose drawing from page 18 of the sketchbook gives me pause. I'm pretty sure I drew it, but it also has the flavor of a Kevin Eastman sketch, especially in the pose. Perhaps that day I was inspired by something Kevin drew in his sketchbook...?

In any event, this is another attempt at a new look for Raphael, focusing on his gear. Notice the said strapped to his leg, the hooded cloak, and the curious look to the kneepads. -- PL

Blast from the Past #668: Sketchbook page 11, Raphael posing on gargoyle

     Here's another partly-finished drawing from page 11 of the sketchbook, this time of Raphael standing atop a sculpted gargoyle on the corner of a tall building.

     I'm not sure why I drew this one, as there is nothing abut it which speaks of new mutations. Perhaps it was just something fun. I do like the pose and gesture. -- PL

Blast from the Past #264: Raphael lifting machinery pinup

I hope I haven't posted this one before -- I did a quick search and didn't find it. This is a pinup drawing I did back in 1987. Raph's lifting a big hunk of machinery -- not sure why, maybe he's just showing off. -- PL

Blast from the Past #195: Raphael with shoulder-mounted weapon

I'm not sure exactly WHAT this weapon on Raph's shoulder is supposed to fire -- maybe some kind of missiles -- or WHY I drew it back in 1987. But I do like the way it turned out. -- PL

Raphael, Rabbit Hunter

While cleaning up my Mirage office a bit (okay, a LOT) today in anticipation of the return of the TMNT fan documentary dudes, I ran across a couple of cool pieces of art I'd forgotten that I had. Here's one of them, a nifty rendering of Raphael by the inimitable Eric Talbot, from back in 1991 (if I'm reading that date correctly). The other one is by Steve Bissette -- I'll probably post that tomorrow. -- PL

Blast from the Past #88 repost: Raphael wth TCRI alien gun

Raphael wields one of the TCRI aliens' (otherwise known as the Utroms) blasters in one of my pin-ups from 1986. -- PL

Blast from the Past #165: Kevin Eastman's original plot for Raphael "Micro-Series"

I don't have Kevin Eastman's "Artobiography" close at hand to check, but it is possible he may have printed this document in it. Regardless, I thought it was interesting enough to post.



I found this while going through my folder of stuff from the Raphael "One Issue Micro-Series". This is the typed page which I got from Kevin when he was plotting out that issue, the one which introduced the character of "Casey Jones". There's no date on it, but it's probably from some time in late 1984 or 1985. -- PL

Blast from the Past #81 repost: Raphael's shower

Going through files a few years ago, I came across some stuff I had forgotten about. The most surprising thing was a stack of penciled layouts that I did for the DONATELLO Micro-Series. What was surprising to me was how detailed the layouts were -- it was (and still is) very unusual for me to do more than really rough, sketchy drawings for my layouts, but these were almost complete, tight pencils. I think we could have just inked these layouts. But we didn't, instead following our typical practice of enlarging the layouts on a photocopier and light-tabling them onto the Graphix Duo-Shade board for final penciling, inking and toning.

Also interesting were two preliminary drawings of the first page -- I really don't know why I did them, as I did not do anything like this for any of the other pages.

Here's the first preliminary drawing:



And this is the second preliminary drawing:



Here's the final layout drawing:



And this is the way the finished inked and toned page appeared:



While I like the two preliminary drawings, I think the final layout works better. -- PL

Blast from the Past #40 repost: Raphael's new look

This is the last of the proposed redesigns for the unfilmed fourth live-action TMNT movie. One of our ideas was to give Raphael the ability to “morph” into what we were calling “Raptor Raph”, complete with big gnashy teeth and claws to complement his big gnashy personality.



This was not much of a stretch, obviously. In retrospect, while this new approach was probably appropriate for Raph, it was also uncomfortably close to what we were proposing for Splinter.

Years later, during the Volume 4 run of my TMNT comic, I decided to (temporarily) transform Raph into a beastly-looking thing with some similarities to this iteration (minus the "morphing" powers). However, I think the look that Jim Lawson came up with for what some fans call "GameraRaph" is a lot cooler looking than this. -- PL

Blast from the Past #101: Raph fighting a Foot ninja (unfinished)

I'm not sure why I never finished this drawing, begun sometime around 1984 or 1985. This was very likely something I had started as a drawing I could take to a comic convention or store signing to sell. -- PL