Blast from the Past #713: Pete working on color art for TMNT t-shirt iron-on, circa 1984

I came across this photograph yesterday while continuing my long-term project to scan and digitally archive all of our family photo albums, a project which seems to go in fits and starts. Maybe I will have it completed by 2020.

Anyway, I had not seen this one in a while, and found it interesting. This shot was taken in my little studio room in the house in Dover, NH, probably sometime in early 1984. It was actually a second floor bedroom, right at the top of the stairs as I recall. I don't recall working in that room a lot, but apparently I had my airbrush set up in there, and in this photo I am using the airbrush to do part of the coloring on one of the pieces of artwork we produced to make the TMNT t-shirt iron-ons which we sold in the early days of Mirage Studios. I can tell this by the fact that the lettering of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on the piece is backwards, which was necessary so that when the iron-on was ironed on to a t-shirt, the writing would then be correctly oriented.

Very technical. -- PL

Blast from the Past #156: another iron-on TMNT group shot

Here's another piece of art created to be used to make iron-ons during the early Turtle days. This one I did all by myself.



This is one of just a handful of pieces from the old days on which I used my airbrush, a tool which I was never very competent with, but almost always had fun using. -- PL

Blast from the Past #77 repost: Iron-on TMNT group shot with logo

I’ve always liked this art done for a t-shirt iron-on back in 1984. We based this on a piece of black and white art Kevin and I did for promotion of the first issue of the TMNT comic. I’m pretty sure we both inked on a pencil drawing by Kevin, and then Kevin colored it. It’s one of the first things we ever did showing the turtles in color.



This image is actually a "flipped" version of the original art, which we did with the logo in reverse, so that when the iron-on was applied to a shirt, the logo would read properly. These iron-on's were fun to do -- we made them at a copy shop in Portsmouth, NH which had the first color copier we'd ever seen -- but even when applied perfectly, they didn't last too long. After a few washings, they started to crack and peel and look pretty bad. -- PL

Blast from the Past #34 repost: "Who is this? Fugitoid" iron-on

This is another piece of art from 1983 (pre-TMNT) done to be used to make iron-on t-shirt transfers -- this one was penciled by Kevin and inked and colored by me.



We did a few of these at the local Portsmouth, NH copy center, the only place in the area with a color laser copier (actually, now that I think of it, those devices were nearly as rare as hen's teeth back in 1983). These iron-ons were created to promote the "Fugitoid" comic story we had done, which at that time we actually planned to publish in the form of "poster comics" -- four 8.5 by 11 inch pages which then unfolded into a huge 17 by 22 inch fifth "poster" page. (This is why, if you have the original "Fugitoid" comic book, you may have noticed that nearly every fifth page is a full page spread.)

The original art was done in reverse, so the iron-on appeared in the right orientation when applied to a shirt. For this "Blast", I flipped the art so it would read easier. Now that I think of it, this may be the first color image of the Fugitoid that we ever did. -- PL

Blast from the Past #107: Mirage Studios Triceraton iron-on

This drawing was done by me in 1983, and was used as the basis for an iron-on t-shirt transfer. Kevin and I had found this great copy shop in Portsmouth, NH, which had one of the first color copiers. This machine could copy your color artwork onto iron-on transfer material. Of course, we had to try it, and made several different designs.



Successfully getting these transfers to, well, transfer was hit-or-miss. I think we ruined a number of t-shirts. But occasionally they came out well. I think I still have one or two from those days, somewhat worse for wear (literally).

This design was probably done with the thought that it might serve as some kind of advertising for our fledgling business, Mirage Studios. Just how many jobs we thought we might get as the result of one or both of us walking around Dover wearing these t-shirts, I don't know.

Curiously, although this is obviously an ad for Mirage Studios, there is a "© 1983 Peter Laird" line on it. It makes me wonder if this is actually a drawing I had done prior to the forming of Mirage Studios. Or it could just be a mistake. -- PL