Blast from the Past #35 repost: TMNT Volume 1 #2 cover/inks and tones

Back in the early days of the TMNT comic book, Kevin Eastman and I would alternate cover duties. He did the artwork for the cover to the first issue (although, if memory serves, I did the mechanical color separation overlay for the red color on that cover), I did the second, he did the third, and so on.

This is my cover drawing for TMNT #2, done on the duo shade board we used for the interior art. I’ve reproduced this black and white art in color to show the sepia tones created by the aging toning chemicals in the paper.



I think this was the first time I tried using the toning chemicals in my airbrush -- boy, did that dark tone chemical stink! It was truly vile. -- 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 #109: unifinished Donatello sketch

I found this one while going through a pile of old, partially-used pads of drawing paper the other day. This drawing had gotten stuck into one of these pads and forgotten.



There's no date on it that I can see, but from the look of it -- especially the fact that I was using a real brush and ink to ink it -- I'd say it was from the early 1980's. It's funny... I have several of this type of unfinished drawing in my files, and sometimes (as in this case), for the life of me, I can't remember WHY I didn't complete them. -- PL

Blast from the Past #33 repost: Donatello with radio-controlled motorcycle

This drawing, penciled and inked by me in 1987, was inspired by a period when we were living in Connecticut during which Kevin Eastman, Steve Lavigne, and I got into radio-controlled (RC) racing cars. Those babies were awesome! The first time we saw them was behind an ice cream parlor in Amenia, NY -- there was a hobby store on the second floor, and they had a little dirt racetrack for the RC cars out in back of the building. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw these cars flying around the track, banging into each other, jumping over berms, and throwing (relatively) huge roostertails of dirt behind them. We bought several kits (another fun aspect -- you had to build these things, and you could buy all kinds of trick speed parts for them). I still have the first one I bought, and it still goes like a rocket! One of my favorite things to do with this car was to take it out onto the lake near our house in Connecticut, in the winter when it was frozen over and there was a light, one or two inch dusting of snow on the ice. The car would make cool tracks in the snow as it skidded and slid around, throwing up sprays of snow.

Eventually, I did find an RC motorcycle, a lovely Tamiya model of a Honda RC-30 superbike racer... but it was never quite as much fun as the car (due to the inevitable balance problems of a two-wheeled radio-controlled vehicle). Of more recent vintage is the seven-time Supercross champion Jeremy McGrath-branded RC motocross bike from Tyco Toys, which is not only cheaper and more durable than the Tamiya kit, but comes fully assembled, has working front and rear suspension, does great wheelies, and can actually be driven on dirt... plus it has an uncanny ability to (most times) right itself when it had fallen over.

A curious thing about this drawing that I just noticed is the strap arrangement I gave Don for carrying his bo staff. I don't think I've ever used that configuration in the comics or elsewhere -- just in this pinup. -- PL

Mirage Universe cover pencils

We're planning a "Mirage Universe" book, which --- as I understand it -- will be a kind of reference work for all of the characters which have appeared in the Mirage Turtles comics. I volunteered to draw the cover, which I decided to do as a "flip cover". Here's my drawing, which I did in "photo blue" pencil.



I just finished inking it today -- I'll put up those finished images soon. -- PL

Girl Turtles

My daughter sent me these two photos of her and three friends -- Sara, Colleen and Ellen -- at a Hallowe'en party this past weekend.



They decided to costume themselves as the four Turtles (although I think they went more for comfort and practicality rather than authenticity). -- PL

Donatello marker sketch

This sketch of Donatello represents something I rarely do, which is to draw a full figure Turtle without first at least roughly penciling in the basic shapes.



I did this one at some comic show in 2000. It's kind of funny to see what cheap paper I was working on -- as you can see from the photo, the yellow of the cover of the sketch pad I was using as a drawing surface shows right through the paper I'm drawing on.

This drawing was done with a Sharpie marker, a great tool but very unforgiving, especially on cheap paper, as Sharpies tend to bleed if not handled with lightness and precision. Drawing like this makes me nervous -- it's far too easy to make a mistake, and then the whole thing is ruined. This one came out okay, I think. -- PL