)3&&,$*-$ 0&.$5&1-)5&03' jack kirby’s kamandi --i wanted to write and...

CLICK HEREFOR THE COMPLETEDIGITAL DOWNLOAD

http://www.heavymetal.com/shm/product_info.php?products_id=5656

T M N T B O O K



IIIT M N T B O O K



T M N T B O O K

FOR

THE LOVE OF MY LIFEPAM

MY AMAZING FAMILY

PETER “BUCK” LAIRDAND THE OLDMIRAGE GANG



VT M N T B O O K



4 T M N T B O O K

I always felt my artistic inter-est and skill was inherited, but I never knew to what depth until recently.I had seen many of my grand-mother Eastman’s watercolor paintings, and had traced over many car and motorcycle dra-wings of my Dad’s when I was younger. My mother was always doing something creative, and today paints better with oils and pastels than I ever will. It seems both sides of the family brought a piece to the table.It wasn’t until George Eastman contacted me through the “Ninja Turtles” web site in the late ‘90s to confirm some facts for the Eastman family geneal-ogy web site that he was build-ing, did I get the full picture. It was there I first discovered Seth Eastman. Here are some of my favorite drawings, and the man himself.

H I S T O R Y

MISTER DARK AN

D MOODY

ONE OF M

Y FIRST COVERS FOR CLAY GEERDES

PHOT

O BY

SYD

NEY

HIGH SCHOOL MURALCLICK HERE

FOR THE COMPLETEDIGITAL DOWNLOAD


5T M N T B O O K

Arguably, the foremost

pictorial of the American Indian,

Seth Eastman was born in

Brunswick, Maine on January 24,

1808. Thomas Jefferson was

finishing his second term as

president of the United States--

there were seventeen states.

The eldest of thirteen

children of Robert and Sarah

Lee Eastman, Seth Eastman

descended directly from Roger

Eastman, the first Eastman in

the colonies. An adventur o u s

y o u n g m a n f r o m Wiltshire

(the southern country of England

wherein lies Stonehenge), Roger

boarded the ship “Confidence”

in Southampton harbor, bound for

Massachusetts Bay Colony, in

April 1638.

Upon graduation from

West Point, Second Lieutenant Seth Eastman was assigned to the First Infantry and sent halfway across

the continent to the edge of civilization at Prair ie du Chien, where Colonel Zachary Taylor was rebuilding

old log Fort Crawford from native rock.

Like many of his fellow officers, Eastman had taken an Indian wife in 1831. The third daughter of Chief

Cloudman of the Lake Calhoun village, her name was “Stands Like A Spirit.”

Largely unbeknownst to the outside world, besides keeping peace on the frontier, Captain Eastman

was also amassing an amazing portfolio of paintings of Indian life. Consumed by an unquenchable passion

to preserve for posterity the customs of a race he thought to be dying, Eastman was assembling a pictorial

history of “The Dakota” that would be second to none.

Seth’s mixed-blood daughter, Nancy, had grown to bewitching young womanhood. She was said to be

the most beautiful of all Dakota maidens, and Indian tradition insists that she was as good and virtuous as

she was comely of face and figure.

Eastman’s final commission in 1870, also for the government, specified seventeen paintings of

American forts for the House Committee on Military Affairs. After completing nearly all of his paintings, on

August 31, 1875, Seth slumped over at his easel and died. The Washington National Republican carried a brief

obituary on Thursday, September 2nd.

MY NEW HERO



6 T M N T B O O K

THE FIRST EASTMAN

AND LAIRD DRAWING

As for me, I was born May 30, 1962 in Portland, Maine to parents Kim and Sandra Eastman. I grew up in the tiny country town of Groville, Maine with sisters Marlene, Judy, and Maryann. Did all that normal kid stuff, and I liked to draw.

MY ROUGH SKETCH FOR THE FIRST

GROUP DRAWIN

G

PETE’S TWEAK

MY FIRST SKETCH

BIRTH PLACE OF THE TURTLES

“THE FIRST TURTLE”



7T M N T B O O K

All my earliest submissions to publish-ers were Underground ones, like “Last Gasp,” “Rip Off Press”, and “Kitchen Sink.” One of my biggest supporters, high school art teacher Jane Hawkes, found my interest in the edgier content of these comics disheartening, but still encouraged me to practice drawing “everything I see” as I would “need to” if

I intended to draw comics for a living. She was pretty special.

My mother says I drew all the time, especially when I was supposed to be doing homework.I still clearly remember the day I decided what my call-ing would be, it was right after I read the first issue of Jack Kirby’s Kamandi --I wanted to write and draw my own stories.This was pushed to the next level of intensity when I discovered Heavy Metal magazine, and the artwork of Richard Corben.In pursuit of more Corben, I found “underground” comics and self-publish-ers. I loved the freedom of expression they had, while most mainstream comics were restricted by a ratings board.

HI

ST

OR

Y

PRE-

ISSU

E ON

E GR

OUP

SHOT

CHAR

ACTE

R SH

EETS



8 T M N T B O O K

HI

ST

OR

Y

Although I was rejected by most of the Underground publishers, one of the smallest took a chance. Clay Geerdes “Comix Wave” was my first publisher, and it was an incredible feeling. I had tasted blood, and now needed more.After gradua-tion from high school in 1980, and a brief visit to the Portland School of Art, I spent the su-mmer cooking lobsters before

moving to Amherst, Massachusetts with a friend. There I found a comic magazine called Scat and took the bus to their office in Northampton to sell them some of my work. They weren’t interested, but said I should meet this local artist with similar interests named Peter Laird. With a mutual love of comics and Jack Kirby, we became fast friends, and began working on short stories together right away.

THE FIRST ISSUE

THE FIRST CONVENTION

THE FINAL SHREDDER CONCEPT

THE FIRST CONVENTION AD



After another summer of cooking lobsters, Pete and I made a studio out of his living room and called it “Mirage Studios.” Our plan was to join forces and sell our skills.It was there in Dover, New Hampshire after some late night joking around, the first finished sketch of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” evolved.Tired of rejection letters, and inspired by the newest self-publishing movement, especially Dave Sim’s Cerebus comic, we pooled our money and borrowed some more from my Uncle Quentin to come up with enough to print 3,000 black and white comics we were sure would never sell.May 5, 1984 we pre-miered the first issue at a local co-mic book conven-tion. It was incredibly exciting, but I was back cooking lobster in June. In early 1985, the sales for book two exceeded 15,000 copies, and by mid 1986, Turtles book number eight shipped more than 125,000 copies. I was drawing comics all day, and supporting myself-- the dream had come true.

THE

FIRS

T PR

ESS

RELE

ASE

ONE

OF T

HE F

IRST

ADS

HOME TOWN PRESS

9T M N T B O O K



10 T M N T B O O K

Throughout the eighties we traveled a lot for promotional events, and met lots of other creators, and began to expand our publish-ing. We also began to do some licensing deals like the Palladium Books “Role Playing Game.”Through its publication we met an agent named Mark Freedman, who had savvy, and a lot of the same kind of luck we had-- Good Luck.Mark worked the right deals with the right toy and animation studios, but would “Mutant Turtles” sell?

Fortunately we were wearing our seat belts when we found out. By 1990, in addition to the number one toy and cartoon show status we had, New Line Cinema, Golden Harvest, Jim Henson, and director Steve Barron added a big screen smash hit to the list.

We had now accomplished what no other comic industry individuals had, not only did we write, draw, and publish our own charac-ters, we had reached a major level of success in the entertainment business by making specific decisions for characters we fully owned and fully controlled.I’m very proud, but very respectful to all those that struggled before me who created an environment that allowed the turtles accomplishments to be possible.

FIRST SAN DIEGO CON

CHARACTER ART- - ALSO T-SHIRT IRON ON

S

THE ART OF BED DIVING



11T M N T B O O K

TOY PROTOTYPES FROM 1988

THE FIRST TOY FAIR WITH OUR AGENT

The licensing program that launched in 1988, and dwindled to a trickle by 1998, was an amazing adven-ture. Although Peter and I nearly completely stopped drawing to handle the business of the turtles, we never stopped being creative.Together we worked on close to 300 of the cartoon shows, three live action films, a dozen video games, a live action TV series, a touring stage show, and over 3,000 other licenses worldwide.Every success story seems to come with a personal cost, and although Pete and I had, and still have a strong bond, there certainly were times it seemed we were married, and only staying together for the kids. Regardless of the bumps, we couldn’t have done it without each other. Besides, the journey more than

exceeded any of my wildest dreams, and allowed me to see and do things that could fill a couple of lifetimes.

A TRUE “MIRAGE” STUDIO

HI

ST

OR

Y



12 T M N T B O O K

CASEY JONES

In 2000 I found a book entitled, “Seth Eastman, A Portfolio of North American Indians” publ ished by the Afton Historical Society Press, and it hit me like a freight train.Basically, 120 years after his death, here is this amazing book about his work, and I decided I wasn’t willing to wait that long.Although I would never dare to compare my accomplishments to his, I felt I had a footnote in my family’s history that they should have access to, if they had the desire to know.

THE “LOOK” FOUR YEARS

NEXT TO THE TURTLES THEMSELVES, MY FAVORITE CREATION...Everytime I considered doing

a book of my personal con-tributions to the turtles, I’d think, “How vain! How dare I? Besides, who would care?”Some of the earliest tho-ughts came when people would ask, “So who of Eastman and Laird writes and who draws?” and after you’d explain, they’d say, “Hmm, how does that work again?”The next time I thought of doing a book was when I was reorganizing the massive piles of my turtles archives, most of which had never been seen, but I would always stop myself with the, “Who cares but me?” bit.That is basically where I left it until two years ago.



13T M N T B O O K

At the end of the day, all the history and the family aside, I have to tell you I had an absolute blast putting this book together. Going through drawings I hadn’t seen in ten years, all those great personal memo-ries- - I’d only be kidding myself if I didn’t admit I really did this book for me.

I’ll be forty years old by the time this book is published, an age where most people might say my life is nearly half over, I’d like to think it is just getting started.Over the years, I’ve cre-ated many other charac-ters, drawn lots of other comics, and plan to do even more in the future-- but I honestly have to say, no matter what other exciting things I will create in the years to come, nothing could ever compare to my adven-

tures with the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” I hope you enjoy the book

ON THE SET WITH JIM HENSON

A TM

NT

MOV

IE O

NE

CAM

EOAMAZING ACTOR ELIAS KOTEAS BRINGS CA

SEY

JON

ES T

O LI

FE

MY FIRST ACTING GIG

HI

ST

OR

Y



14

B O O K O N E

In the history chapter you were told in “broad strokes” of how the great adventure evolved, now let’s get down to the books starting the historical first issue. From day one we knew the best way to reach the main comic audience was through the legendary Comic Buyer’s Guide-- and the AD cost fit our tiny budget. It was cool to find this rough layout for the first AD and you can even see the price at the top.

PENCIL ROUGH FOR THE FIRST CBG AD

MY FIRST FULL GROUP SHOT ROUGH

FINAL 1984 CBG AD



15T M N T B O O K

FIRST OFFICIAL CREDIT

MID-EIGHTIES PHOTO (HOW CUTE!)

THE FIRST ISSUE DEDICATION (I DON’T THINK MILLER’S

EVER FORGIVEN US!)

THE FABULOUS FIRST PAGE

MY ORIGINAL NOTES - - IN BALLPOINT PEN NO LESS

We were so wide-eyed and jazzed to do our own book back then - - influenced and created by rolling all our favorite comics into one idea, and dedicated to our artistic heroes.Although both Pete and I were huge Jack Kirby fans, I was a much bigger Frank Miller fan than he, and much like Dave Sim doing his best “Barry Winsor-Smith to a barbarian Aadrvark,” I forced the look of Miller’s Ronin on our turtles.



16 T M N T B O O K

Most all of my original thumbnails were done 5” x 7” in size while we were saving up to buy the “Graphix Duo-Shade” paper to give it the finished look we wanted.We knew we could afford to do only a limited number of black and white comics, and we wanted to make the most of it by adding two shades of gray to the final art.

“Graphix Duo-Shade” works by using two clear chemicals to develop pre-printed cross hatch lines just below the surface. Once you’ve pencilled, and inked your art, you use one developer to bring out the lines going in one direction, and the other will bring out the lines going in the other. When it is copied, or printed, it looks like the “toned” page to the right.

THE FINISHED

THUMBNAIL TO

INKED AND TONED PAGE



17T M N T B O O K

FIR

ST

LO

OK

THUMBNAILS



18 T M N T B O O K

THUMBNAILS

TH

UM

NA

ILS

BO

OK

ON

E



19T M N T B O O K

Although the thumbnails throughout this chapter are the original ones from late 1983 and early 1984, I added more details in the following year while working out ideas for the next few issues. It was a great place to retreat and touch some of the original roots while sorting through additional plot points.After the thumbnails were done, Pete and I shared pretty much equally the pencilling, inking, and toning of the issues by passing them back and forth in the studio, trying to get some of each of our “talent” on every page.I have some pretty great memories of the first studio in Dover, New Hampshire, which was actually our living room and where the name “Mirage Studios” came from.

THE INKED ART, AND THEN THE FINAL ART WITH ALL THE TONES IN PLACE.

THUMBNAIL



20 T M N T B O O K

BO

OK

ON

ET

HU

MB

NA

ILS

TH

UM

BN

AIL

S



21

At some point during, or shortly after, fin-ishing the first issue, we were already think-ing about changing the guys outfits for future adventures, (if we ever had the chance to do another one) and these are some of my concepts.

Some of the ideas came from traditional Japanese styles, but it is pretty obvi-ous that the new Raphael outfit was inspired by the “New Spider-Man” look con-ceived around that time.

U l t i m a t e l y , we never real-

ly used any of concepts-- just a piece or two here and there-- but Pete did do a great painting of the guys in these costumes for the booth of the first comic show we ever did.



)3&&,$*-$ 0&.$5&1-)5&03' jack kirby’s kamandi --i wanted to write and...

Documents