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

One hundred and forty-five down, fifty-five left to go! (Plus...)

I came in to the office today to grab a bicycle for my daily ride, and took some TMNT #30's with me, thinking I might find a nice spot somewhere along the way to do more head sketches. I ended up sitting in the shade on some steps at Smith College, and enjoyed the air while I finished another twenty of them.

When I got here this morning, I was pleased to find these five copies of TMNT #30 sitting in front of my office door.



Yesterday I had asked the dudes if they would each do smallish head sketches in these five copies of the book, so that five lucky people would get copies with a sketch from each of us. (These copies will be randomly inserted into the order stream.) Jim Lawson had to show everybody up by doing full figures. I like the sepia ones Eric did... and check out the wacky expression Dan gave one of his! (Must be Mikey...) -- PL

One hundred and twenty-five down, seventy-five left to go!

Just finished another twenty-five head sketches in copies of TMNT #30 and gave them to Katie.

Also, Eric gave me this photo of some of the head sketches that he recently finished doing in copies of TMNT #30. Cool, huh? -- PL

Blast from the Past #183: Cover of TMNT Volume 2 #4 pencils

I'm pretty sure this hasn't been posted here before -- I did a search and didn't see it -- but my apologies in advance if I somehow missed it.



This is another one of the covers I penciled (and Kevin inked, and I colored) for the color TMNT series that Mirage published. -- PL

Blast from the Past #182: Jim Lawson "Samurai Turtle"

Jim drew this pinup back in 1987, depicting a Turtle in samurai-style gear. It's interesting to compare and contrast this drawing to the more recent "samurai Turtle" art from the "Tales of Leo" issues of "Tales of the TMNT". -- PL

Berger, Lawson and Talbot Turtle head sketches now available in TMNT issue #29!

A few days ago, I was asked if Dan, Jim and/or Eric would be willing to do head sketches in issue #29 of TMNT as well as the new issue #30. Today I asked them, and they said yes! The same rules apply as for those sketches they are doing in TMNT #30. I think we have a few hundred #29's left. -- PL

Blast from the Past #181: Laird/Lawson Turtle sketch

I have this troubling feeling that I've posted this one before... but I did a quick search on this blog and couldn't find it. So maybe I'm just confusing it with another drawing. In any event, if it is a repost, my apologies.



This is a drawing that, very likely, I did while bored at a convention. Jim Lawson inked it in his style of the day (this was back in 1986), which, if memory serves, involved use of the famous Tombow roller-ball pen (a tool much beloved of Mirage artists of that time). -- PL

TMNT Volume 4 #31

Just wanted to mention that I started the toning work on issue #31 today. It's probably a few months away from publication, but I'm pretty sure this one will be coming out more quickly after #30 than #30 appeared after #29. -- PL

Forty-five down, one hundred and fifty-five left to go...

I worked a little bit yesterday and some more today on doing the head sketches in issue #30 of Volume 4, and I managed to do another thirty-three of them.

For the ones I worked on today, I used a 90% cool grey Prismacolor marker. I decided to try this to give a little more variety to the look of the sketches. I like how they came out.

Here's a photo of some of the new head sketches, taken in the front office at Mirage Studios. -- PL

Twelve down, one hundred and eighty-eight left to go...

Today I started doing the promised head sketches on the inside back covers of our copies of TMNT Volume 4 #30. I got these twelve done this afternoon.



My plan is to definitely do this in two hundred copies, and possibly a few more (I'll decide that when I get to the 200th one). But the exciting news today is that, in addition to Eric Talbot, Jim Lawson and Dan Berger have also agreed to do some head sketches in these books! Woohoo! (Maybe we can even get Dooney to join in...!)

I'm pretty sure Dan posted the ordering information today over on ninjaturtles.com. Be aware that it's one head sketch per book, and you should make clear when ordering who you want to do it. -- PL

TMNT#30... in the house!

Just wanted to let you all know that we received our copies of TMNT #30 from the printer today. I plan to start doing some Turtle head sketches in them tonight. And Eric Talbot surprised me today (before we went with Jim Lawson on a short-but-sweet motorcycle ride) by offering to do head sketches in some of them. So that might mean anyone who'd prefer a Talbot sketch to a Laird sketch could probably get one by requesting it when ordering. Cool, huh? -- PL

Bookplate

A couple of weeks ago, Dan "The Man" Berger asked me if I'd be interested in doing some art for a "bookplate", which I think he said would be "tipped in" to some of the upcoming collected editions. (Dan, if I'm getting this wrong, please correct me!)

As reference, he gave me a really cool one that Jim Lawson did. Last week, I was sitting at my desk in my Mirage office trying to think of something to draw, when this idea for Donatello with some wacky gadget on his hand popped into my head. So I decided to take a leftover piece of tone paper I had in my office and draw it on that. Here's the inked version...



... and here's the finished version, with tones. -- PL

Is that... the Shredder?

It was "new magazine day" at Barnes and Noble two days ago, and I picked up this special issue of "MacLife", mostly because my eye was drawn to one element of the cover.



I can't tell for certain, but that sure as heck looks like a Shredder figure climbing up the front of that G5 tower. If I had to guess, it's the one Playmates made as part of the line for the 2007 CGI movie. -- PL

More images from Free Comic Book Day 2009

Here are a few more photos from Free Comic Book Day last Saturday in Rochester, NH. This first one is of a young lady named Meagan Windham, who asked for -- and got -- her shirt signed by all of the Mirage dudes.



A photo of Jim Lawson signing her shirt was featured in an article in "Foster's Daily Democrat", a local paper -- here's the link for the online version: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090503/GJNEWS_01/705039837

This little dude below is, I think, one of those "second generation" TMNT fans we've started to encounter at shows.



These two gentlemen came in their cool homemade costumes -- that's Brandon Berry as Casey Jones, and T.K. Travis as the Shredder.



There were some folks selling these cool horns at the show -- they're held on by elastics, and really fit quite well. I like how the positioning of the camera's lens in this one of Mike Dooney about to take a photo makes him look kind of like some weird Cyclops.



And here we all are, modeling the latest in demonic cranial excrescences.



Unfortunately, I lost the business card of the people who make these fine add-ons. I thought they were very nifty. -- PL

Free Comic Book Day in Rochester, NH

I'm back home after a busy, somewhat exhausting day at Free Comic Book Day in Rochester, NH. This event was put on by Ralph DiBernardo of Jetpack Comics (that's the name of his store in Rochester). Jim, Mike, Dan, Steve and I got there a little bit before 10AM, and I was signing almost non-stop from then until about 3PM, with a little break for lunch (ten minutes, at the table). As the event wound down towards its close at 4PM, I took advantage of the moment to take the photos which make up this panoramic view from my seat at the Mirage Studios tables.



Steve Lavigne and Mike Dooney can be seen on my left, and Jim Lawson is on my right. Dan Berger was behind Mike -- I don't think you can see him in this image.

I'd like to thank Ralph and all the people who showed up for FCBD... and my Mirage Studios pals for making it a fun trip. -- PL

On the road to FCBD...

I was originally planning to ride a motorcycle -- probably my Gold Wing -- to New Hampshire for Free Comic Book Day, along with Jim Lawson and Steve Lavigne. Unfortunately, the predicted weather for today and Saturday was just too iffy, and that plan got shelved.

So today Mike, Jim, Dan and I drove up to Portsmouth (where we're staying overnight) in my car. Here's a photo taken by Eric Talbot (who can't come with us, sob, weep, wail!) just before we took off from Mirage early this afternoon:



I drove, and I like to take some non-highway roads to get to Portsmouth. One of these led us close to "Madame Sherri's Castle" (which I have blogged about before), and I aksed the guys if they'd like to check it out. They were interested, so I took them there. Here's a photo I took of Jim bravely climbing to the top of the ruined staircase:



... and here's a photo of Jim, Mike and Dan with that same staircase:



This little digression, plus a stop at the Vermont Deli in Brattleboro (where Mike bought a cookie that was almost as big as his head), and a later one to a Toys 'R' Us for a bathroom break, may have led to our being a little bit late in meeting up with Steve Lavigne in Portsmouth. Okay, it was also my missing the entrance to Route 95, which led us to travel some miles up the coastal road to Portsmouth -- nice views of the ocean, but definitely not as quick.

But Steve forgave us, and we all had a nice dinner at the Rusty Hammer in the center of Portsmouth. Being a little tired after dinner, I bid adieu to the dudes, who were going out on the town, and headed back to the hotel. I hope they had a lot of fun. Not TOO much fun, though... we have to work tomorrow! -- PL

Jake Black benefit print at FCBD

Some of you may be aware that our friend Jake Black, writer on several issues of "Tales of the TMNT", was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. We're all rooting for Jake, and to help out a little with his medical bills, the dudes at Mirage put together this jam drawing, which we have made into a print to be sold for the first time at Free Comic Book Day in Rochester, NH, tomorrow. Mike Dooney started it off with his Leonardo, then I added Donatello, followed by Dan Berger's Casey Jones, Jim Lawson's Michelangelo, and Eric Talbot's Raphael. Here's the black and white art:



Our old bud Steve Lavigne agreed to color the piece, and although we didn't give him a lot of time, I think he turned in a sterling effort. Here's what the art on the final print will look like:



I'm pretty sure we'll be selling this 11 by 17 inch print for $20. Eric Talbot, who unfortunately couldn't come with us to this FCBD event, did sign all one hundred copies that we brought with us, and all the guys will be happy to add their signatures tomorrow for anyone who purchases a print. All proceeds will go to Jake. -- PL

(Art © 2009 by the respective artists, characters ™ and © 2009 Mirage Studios.)

To get more info on Jake and his health status, check out his blog at http://jakeboyslim.blogspot.com/2009/04/breaking-news-update-april-6.html

Fugitoid just misses the last shuttle to Free Comic Book Day

(Do they really have Free Comic Book Day on D'Hoonib? Hmm...)

Anyway, we're only a few hours away from heading up to New Hampshire for the FCBD event in Rochester. It's on Saturday at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 40 Columbus Ave, Rochester, NH. The doors open to the public at 10AM. Hope to see you there! -- PL