Vintage TMNT Greeting Cards Available During Limited Offer

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As a limited time fundraising effort, I am currently offering a special deal on a selection of vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles greeting cards. All of these cards feature art by Steve Lavigne and Ryan Brown that is unique to each card. I am not aware of this art being reprinted anywhere else. Cards themes include Happy Birthday, Get Well Soon and Friendship.

See all available cards and purchase through secure checkout:
http://ninja-pizza.ecrater.com/c/1077781/greeting-cards

During this offer, cards are all a flat price of $5. That price includes free first class letter shipping within the US. (This means that cards will be sent through standard mail.) International buyers or buyers who wish their card(s) to be shipped as protected packages can email me and I will create a customized invoice for you.

Supplies are limited. All proceeds will be reinvested into bringing you new content for Ninja Pizza.

Cowabunga!

Free Comic Book Day is This Saturday!

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Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 2!

Be sure to visit your local comic book store(s) to pick up some fabulous free comic book offerings, and just to support the industry in general. (Go on, find a little something extra to buy while you're there.)

If you happen to be in Maine, or can get yourself there, be sure to visit Steve Lavigne's Shellback Artworks, where TMNT co-creator Peter Laird will be doing an appearance and signing comic books.

Location:
Shellback Artworks
1509 Post Rd
Wells, Maine

Laird will be appearing from 12:00-3:00pm.

And if you do find yourself at Shellback Artworks, Laird and Lavigne will also be selling the previously unpublished TMNT Vol. 4, #31. This means that all of Volume 4 will have finally been published!

Remaining copies will likely go up for sale on the official Mirage website soon after, so watch for news of that sale if you can't make it to the event.

No matter where you go to celebrate Free Comic Book Day, be sure to get to your store early so you can secure your copy of this year's special Free Comic Book Day TMNT comic, Prelude to Vengeance.

The Turtles’ final battle with Shredder begins here! This book will take us inside the minds of key characters in the TMNT universe, revealing the epic moments that have led to the present, as well as setting the stage for the biggest storyline yet with all new material!

Whew! It's going to be a big day for TMNT fans!

TMNT 30th Anniversary Celebration at Shellback Artworks

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Just in time for the official 30th anniversary of the original TMNT comic book (first published on May 5, 1984!), Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird will be making a joint appearance at Shellback Artworks on May 4, 2014, just one day after Free Comic Book Day.

As part of this special event, Shellback Artworks will be selling an exclusive Eastman and Laird art print. This piece features pencils by Eastman, inks by Laird, and colors by Steve Lavigne. Peter recently previewed this artwork on his blog (below).

You will also be able to pickup the just-published TMNT Vol. 4, #32 at the event.

Also appearing will be Jim Lawson and Steve Lavigne, and maybe more surprise guests!

Details are on the poster above. If you need more information, you can contact Steve on the Shellback Artworks Facebook page.

Shellback Artworks Commercial

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Shellback Artworks, the art supply and comic book shop owned and operated by Mirage Studios alumni Steve Lavigne, recently released a commercial for the shop starring Steve's son. It's rather humorous!

Be sure to visit if you ever find yourself near Wells, Maine.

Shellback Artwork
1509 Post Rd.
Wells, ME 04090

Visit the Facebook page for store hours and more!

Mirage Studios Artists to Appear at Shellback Artworks August 11

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Steve Lavigne's Shellback Artworks shop will be hosting an appearance and signing with many of the old Mirage Studios crew on August 11. Scheduled to appear are TMNT co-creator Peter Laird, Jim Lawson, and Dan Berger. Michael Dooney may also be present, although he is not currently confirmed.

The event is scheduled from 11am-4pm.

Shellback Artworks
1509 Post Rd.
Wells, ME 04090
(207) 251-4340

Most of these artists have not been making convention appearances recently, so this is an excellent opportunity to visit and maybe pick up some art!

Shellback Artworks Grand Opening Tomorrow

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Here's one last reminder that Steve Lavigne's new store of comic stuff opens tomorrow. Details on the opening have been a bit lacking, but the above image showed up on Facebook, which seems to give all the info you need to know.

Looks like it'll be a good time!

Peter Laird Appearing at Shellback Artworks Saturday, June 16

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Former Mirage Studios employee Steve Lavigne is opening a combination art supply store, art gallery, and comic book/memorabilia shop this Saturday, June 16. The shop, titled Shellback Artworks, should of particular interest for TMNT fans.

While the specific offerings of the shop still aren't known, Peter Laird has revealed on his blog that he has given Steve the TMNT life-size figures that once hung on display in Kevin Eastman's Words & Pictures Museum. And as a show of his further support of Steve's new business venture, Peter will be appearing at the shop on Saturday to sign autographs from 12-3pm.

Scan thanks to tOkKa/terrible2z on Flickr.

Location:
Shellback Artworks
1509 Post Road
Wells, ME 04090

If you go, send in a report!

The TMNT Guide to San Diego Comic-Con 2009!

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Here it is! You're guide to the TMNT at San Diego Comic-Con 2009! Well, the best I could put together in between throwing socks and t-shirts into a suitcase while hoping I don't forget anything.





PROGRAMMING

There are two panels of particular interest for TMNT fans. As a Special Guest at this year's Con, Kevin Eastman has a panel dedicated to him on Thursday. The TMNT 25th anniversary panel will be on Friday, having something to do with the last 25 years (exactly what and how I haven't figured out). Also, expect John Fusco to be introduced as the writer of the upcoming movie planned for 2011.

THURSDAY

1:00-2:00 Spotlight on Kevin Eastman— TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman not only reflects on his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle years (with a preview his Comic-Con exclusive 25th Anniversary hardcover collection of favorite TMNT stories!), but also shares sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes teasers or trailers for his upcoming animated film projects—War of The Worlds: Goliath! and Underwhere—and introduces the new Tor Books Novel line Heavy Metal Pulp and the in-development Biz and Buzz animated series. Last but not least, Kevin will give you an update on the new David Fincher/James Cameron–produced Heavy Metal film! Room 5AB

FRIDAY

4:15-5:15 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles— This look at the whole spectrum of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (from comics to toys to TV to movies to video games) celebrates the 25th anniversary of the world-famous brand. Moderator Gary Richardson (CEO, Mirage Studios) discusses the evolution of the Turtles with those people instrumental in the characters' incredible success. Panelists include Kevin Eastman (co-creator of TMNT), Lloyd Goldfine (supervising producer, 4Kids Productions), Steve Barron (director of the original TMNT movie), Karl Aaronian (senior VP of marketing, Giochi Preziosi U.S.A.), Matt Leunig (associate producer, Ubisoft), and Galen Walker (producer of new TMNT movie slated for 2011). Room 6DE

EXCLUSIVES

• NECA will be selling the April O'Neil w/ Mousers figure.
• KEVIN EASTMAN will be selling his TMNT 25th Anniversary book at the Heavy Metal booth.
• MIRAGE STUDIOS will be selling the two Jake Black fund-raising prints at their tables in Artists' Alley.

ON THE FLOOR

• Expect Ubisoft to be demo-ing at least one of the two upcoming TMNT titles.
• As one of the participants in the button give-away (see below), expect Sideshow Collectibles to reveal new TMNT product(s).
  

EVENT

• Friday night there is a preview screening of the the upcoming TMNT direct-to-video special, "Turtles Forever." An invitation to the event is required to attend, and can be acquired by collecting five buttons available at the following locations: Ubisoft's booth, Uclick's booth, Prima Games' booth, Sideshow Collectibles' booth, and the Turtle Van, which will be parked somewhere in or around Horton Plaza.

PEOPLE TO SEE

• Kevin Eastman can usually be found around the Heavy Metal booth, though possibly with less regularity this year than others.
• Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo, is also a special guest at the Con this year and can be found the entire weekend around his booth, or at several scheduled panels.
• Kevin Munrore, director of TMNT (2007), will be moderating the Thursday panel Masters of the Web and previewing his upcoming movie, Dead of Night starring Brandon Routh. An autograph session in the Sails Pavilion follows the panel.
• James Arnold Taylor, Leonardo in TMNT (2007), can be found throughout the Convention at several panels and scheduled signings.
• Mike Sinterniklass, Leonardo in the 4Kids TMNT cartoon, will be on the Saturday night Adult Swim/Venture Bros. panel.

ARTISTS' ALLEY

The following people can be found in Artists' Alley throughout the weekend:

• Dan Berger
• Michael Dooney
• Steve Lavigne
• Jim Lawson
• Eric Talbot
• ... and more!

TMNT Flashback: 1989 Comic Book Store Signing

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In a real testament to the idea that "You can buy anything on eBay," I recently acquired some photographs out of of someone's personal collection. The idea of buying someone's personal photos is a bit creepy, but these seemed interesting enough for me to get past that. And I'm glad I did, because in addition to being a truly fantastic blast from the past, there are some really interesting details hidden in the background. These pictures appear to be date stamped August 12, 1989 - nearly 20 years ago!

These first two pictures are pretty similar and feature Steve Lavigne behind the table. I think you can also see a piece of Peter Laird's head in the first picture. What is really great though is in the background there appears to be pictures of the Turtles and Splinter costumes for the then-upcoming movie. The movie filmed in September 1989, so this was even before then!

Here we have one more picture of Steve Lavigne, then a shot farther down the line looking back at both Steve and Peter. In the second photo you can get a slightly better look at one of the photos on the wall.

And here we have a better look at Peter, and finally Kevin Eastman as well. Now we can see a few more pictures on the back wall as well as some comic book covers (and cereal boxes!).

Last, but far from least, we see the end of the autograph line with Jim Lawson, Michael Dooney, and Steve Murphy.

NYCC: Friday Night Mirage Panel

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Friday night at NYCC there was a panel featuring four long-time TMNT artists: Steve Lavigne, Michael Dooney, Jim Lawson, and Eric Talbot. Moderated by occasional TMNT writer Jake Black, the panel was meant to focus on the artistic evolution of the TMNT. I don't know if they hit that mark exactly, but it was still a good hour-long conversation with these guys who have had so much creative input into the TMNT throughout the years.

Mega TMNT fan (and reliable videographer) Neil came through with video of most of this panel for those of us stuck in parts of the world that are too far from NYC. You can check out the panel, in five parts, below.

Rewriting TMNT25.com: About Mirage Studios

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Savvy TMNT fans were watching TMNT25.com on January 1, when the site relaunched itself with loads of new content. However, and rather sadly, the content on the site is poorly written, features bad grammar and punctuation, and, most unbelievably, is full of inaccurate information.

If the TMNT25 team doesn't believe in the use of editors or fact checkers, that's their choice to poorly represent the TMNT brand. As easily as I could, I'm not going to tear apart the site to show off its poor use of design, poor writing, inaccuracies, etc. However, there is one page so greatly misleading that I cannot ignore it.

You would think the "About Mirage Studios" page would be the easiest page for the TMNT25 team to write. But it only took a quick glance for me to find glaring errors. As such, I did a bit of digging into my personal TMNT archive to find references and do some fact checking. The result is what you find below. I realize that this is a lot more depth than the "About Mirage Studios" page was intended to have, but if you compare the two you'll see the conflict in information, especially with certain dates.

ABOUT MIRAGE STUDIOS

Steve Lavigne, high school classmate and friend of Kevin Eastman, as well as the real-life inspiration behind Michaelangelo, was Mirage's first employee, hired in 1985 to help with lettering duties beginning with issue #5 of the original TMNT comic book. His duties would expand to coloring comics and art and penciling licensing art that was used on thousands of TMNT products sold around the world. Lavigne left the studio in 1995 to return to his home state of Maine. He still does occasional freelance work for Mirage when asked.

After giving Eastman and Laird a piece of fan art at a comic convention in Detroit in 1985, Ryan Brown was asked to "get in touch" with the studio in the letters column of the 4th reprinting of TMNT #1, published in September 1985. He did so immediately, resulting in an inking tryout for a short comic titled "New York Ninja" that would later see print in the back of the TMNT RPG supplement book titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures!

Passing that test, Brown was then invited to join the studio, making the move to Northampton, MA in September 1986. He would eventually use his inking skills on most of the licensing art drawn by Lavigne, as well as some comic covers. A life-long love of toys made him a perfect match for the role of the in-studio Toy Coordinator after Playmates launched its line of highly successful TMNT toys and action figures. Brown left the studio in 1995 to return to his home state of Ohio. He still does occasional freelance work for Mirage when asked.

Around the same time Brown set foot in Massachusetts and after a successful portfolio presentation, Jim Lawson was invited to move up from his home in Connecticut to join Mirage. Lawson and Brown then teamed together to draw and ink, respectively, a new companion comic title, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lawson would also contribute to licensing art and penciling of the regular TMNT comic book series, becoming the main penciler starting with issue #48 of original series, a role that he maintains today with Volume 4 of the series.

Michael Dooney wrote a fan letter to Eastman and Laird after the original publication of the very first TMNT comic book. Dooney, an inspiring comic book creator in his own right, kept in touch with Mirage and would pencil issue #9 of the comic book, released in September 1986, while still living in New Jersey. After moving to the studio full-time, Dooney contributed art to more issues of the original comic book, full-color paintings for the official TMNT magazine, and some of the early issues of the Archie comics TMNT series among other things. Dooney remains with the studio today, contributing art for licensing, comic books, and toy design in collaboration with Playmates Toys.

In mid-1989, after the first few issues of the Archie comic series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, which were simply adaptations of the TMNT cartoon series, the book was horribly late and in danger of breach of contract. Seeing an opportunity, Brown asked his friend and roommate, Steve Murphy, to collaborate with him to create original stories for the comic series. Murphy, who was writing his own comic series, The Puma Blues, and doing proofreading and editing for Mirage, was hesitant to commit to the project, but finally agreed to take on the writing duties under the pen name Dean Clarrain. Murphy left Mirage with the end of the Adventures series in 1995, but would return in January 2002 as Creative Director of Licensing and Managing Editor of Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 when the title was established January 2004. Murphy resigned from his duties as Managing Editor in August 2007, but remains in the position of Creative Director of Licensing.

With Adventures back on track, Brown and Murphy needed a permanent inker for the book. Brown contacted his old roommate in Ohio, who had just graduated from art school, and asked him to join the team. Dan Berger came to Massachusetts in August 1989; his first Turtles work was TMNT Adventures #8, published in February 1990. He has also contributed to the original TMNT comic book, licensing art, and the daily TMNT newspaper comic strip. Berger has been the Webmaster of ninjaturtles.com since 1998 and Managing Editor of Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 since Murphy's resignation in 2007.

Like Lavigne, Eric Talbot was a high school buddy of Kevin Eastman. His first work with the TMNT came with issue #17 of the original TMNT comic book, published November 1988. He would continue to contribute to TMNT comics and various licensing endeavors throughout the duration of the TMNT's popularity in the 90s and continues working with Mirage to this day.

Riding on the success of the TMNT, Kevin Eastman bought Heavy Metal magazine in 1991. His last TMNT work was the comic Bodycount, published by Image in 1996. In 2000 he sold the creative rights of the TMNT to Laird so that he could focus completely on Heavy Metal. However, this separation was not the end of his involvement with the TMNT. In 2002 he published his TMNT "Artobiography" under the Heavy Metal label and in 2005 he gave Mirage the connection they needed, with Imagi Animation Studios, to make a new big-screen TMNT adventure a reality in 2007. In 2008 he sold his remaining TMNT holdings to Laird, but with plans to republish a handful of classic TMNT stories, the first of which, Bodycount, was released the same year.

Tales of the TMNT Michelangelo Mini-Series Covers!

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My buddy tOkKa got an exciting email from long-time TMNT artist and colorer Steve Lavigne with cover art for all four issues of the upcoming Tales of the TMNT Michelangelo Mini-Series attached! The covers are penciled by Jim Lawson with colors by Steve.

The cover to issue #1 is featured to the left. You can check out all four covers over at Mikey's.

Cowabunga Cartoon Classics!

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Veteran TMNT artists Ryan Brown and Steve Lavigne have started a new blog titled Cowabunga Cartoon Classics. In addition to sharing random tidbits with everyone, they are taking commissions.

From the blog:

If you ate Ninja Turtle pork rinds, slept in a Turtle sleeping bag or chowed down on Turtle Pez candy while playing a Turtle video game you've seen our art. Peter and Kevin had us design, pencil, ink and color lots of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle art for a lot of different TMNT product back in the eighties and ninties. We now offer commissioned artwork for sale so if you are interested in obtaining that special piece of Lavigne Brown artwork for your home or office space just email us for our industry standard rates.

Dood! Cowabunga!