Hey gang!
Just wanted to let you know that the Sideshow Michelangelo’s are shipping. I just got mine in today (my place is about a half hour drive away from the warehouse, so expect yours soon). Click the pic for more pictures!
Every day, people ask me, “Stephan. Why don’t you show us some Peter Laird work that hasn’t been seen in over 30 years?!”
Ok…That is a lie. However, if you asked me that today, I would oblige you!
It is no secret that I have an undying passion for the work of Turtle artists created before they worked on the Turtles. I find tracking their careers backwards through time both fun and rewarding. Over the years I have been lucky enough to acquire many early works from artists like Kevin Eastman, Ken Mitchroney, Mike Dooney, and Rick Veitch. However; my collection has been sorely lacking in the work of Peter Laird. But no longer!
It is my honor to present to this community, Issues 1-8 of Ten Penny Funnies and Issue 1 (of 1) of Barbaric Fantasy. As I said previously, this is really the first time in 30 years that these books have been publicly shown. Peter himself has posted small bits of cover art, and spoken breifly about them via his blog, but nothing of substance has surfaced until now (go ahead and google Ten Penny Funnies and see what you find!).
Now for a breif history lesson. While Barbaric Fantasy #1 is not dated, Peter once spoke about it on his blog saying:
“Back in college, I did my first self-published black and white comic book titled “Barbaric Fantasy”. I was heavily into the “Conan” comics being published by Marvel at the time, and this was an unabashed “homage” to them. I had it printed and side-stapled (500 copies, if memory serves) at the campus print shop for not much money, and tried to sell them at a table set up in the Campus Center. I think I may have sold fifty in all over several days.”
He goes on to say in the comments that:
“It was while I was at UMass, between 1972 and 1976.”
With that information we can conclude that Barbaric Fantasy is the earliest self published Peter Laird Work in existence. Unfortunately, as the book is side stapled, I was not able to scan the book without damaging it, so I scanned the cover and took photos of the rest.
As for Ten Penny Funnies, here is what Peter has said about them on his blog:
“Back in the late 1970′s, while I still had my tiny used book and comic store in Northampton, I tried my hand at self-publishing minicomics. There was a copy shop right across the street, so it was convenient to bop over there and get the 8.5 by 11 inch copies made. They had a cutter which could slice big piles of these copies in half, so it made it easier for me to put together the 5.5 by 4.25 inch comics. I think I did about five issues of “Tenpenny Funnies” which — coincidentally — I sold for ten cents apiece. (I’m not going to say I sold very many of them — in fact, I probably never recouped the printing costs.) It was a lot of fun.”
Well, we are lovingly able to correct Pete about part of his story. While he states there were 5 issues, we now know there were atleast 8 issues made. Publication dates for these are kind of interesting. While the first 5 issues were published in May-September of 77, 6 and 7 didn’t release till Jan-Feb of the folliwng year, and then 8 released in September of the same year. As the issues progress, Pete allowed guest artists (including Laird family members)and ad space for local shops. My favorite is an ad in issue 4 which simply says “Vote Jon Roache for Mayor – Sept 20!”
So how did these impossibly scarce books fall into the GoGreenMachine collection? Well, I was actually approached a few weeks ago by a man named John (now 48) that frequented the Little Used Book Shop as a kid. He had googled the books, and happened upon my name in the comments section of Pete’s blog (crazy luck, huh?). As his story goes, he and his brother would go into the store to buy Science Fiction novels. On a lark, John purchased the books as well. When Pete “made it”, John put them away for safe keeping, until passing them to me today.
So, once again, it is my extreme honor to share these books with the community for the first time in over 30 years. Click the cover below to read each one!
Need I say more? Click the pic to check it out!
You may also click here to learn more about Turtlemania Gold
So SDCC 2010 has come and gone. Can You believe it? 5 nights of hard core nerding out, and Heather and I seem to have survived. As last year celebrated the 25th anniversary of the turtles, this year paled in comparison for those of you are simply Turtles fans. However, for comic and media fans at large, this year was just as big as any other.
But you’re hear to talk turtle right? Well lets do that then. I’ll go over some TMNT related stuff that we did! First stop, Heavy Metal.
In addition to promoting War of the Worlds: Goliath, and the new graphic novel by my long time personal friend MF Wilson: Flourecent Black, Kevin and crew was there in full force to greet turtle fans as well. As Kevin often has a TMNT related exclusive; this years was this nifty 70′s throw back poster of various TMNT covers by Kevin. And while these posters are a limited run of 1000, Kevin was kind enough to spare a few for GGM to give away at a later date 
On a personal note, on night 1 I has brought Kevin a bunch of Pre-Mirage work that he had done (as the name implies, this is all stuff he drew before meeting Peter). That night I took the signed work and carefully placed it all in a museum quality album. The next day I brought the album back to Kevin and asked that he sketch the cover. He seemed more than happy to do so.
And the finished product:
Kevin and crew also held a War of the Worlds: Goliath panel, at which they spoke about the project. I actually took video of the panel for the audio turned out to be garbage so I am not going to bother to post it… Here is a picture of the gang sitting at the table though.
Afterwards, I asked Kevin if it would be creepy if I took his name plate. He chuckled and gave it to me. Hehe!
Other familiar faces we saw at the con included Michael Zulli (who actually hosted a panel that we sadly missed), Mike Dooney, Dave Garcia (of Panda Khan fame), Stan Sakai, and Jake Black (who, while not having table space, was running around the floor having the time of his life!)
I got the opportunity to pick up some great original work from Dave, Mike, and Stan! Mike was also kind enough to sign almost his entire body of work for me.
Last but not least, it would be silly not to mention the SideShow Exclusive Mouser. These were available to those of us to Pre-ordered through the website a month or so prior to the event.
They look and feel every bit as cool as they’ve been recently hyped to be. In addition to the Mouser, a prototype of Mike and Leo were also in attendance. I have to say…the Leo head is growing on me. Not perfect…but less gut wrenching now that I’ve seen it in person.
So that just about does it for our romp through SDCC 2010. Heather and I checked out a TON of stuff that isn’t Turtles related, and if you’d like to see our full photo album for the event, you can go here!
Hey guys,
I try not to blog about cons while they are going on, since I try to treat this time as “me time”…or in this case “us time”, as Heather is with me this year.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw up a post real quick with some pictures. On preview night I do my exclusive shopping…not to mention we were late to the show… so most of these pictures are just shots of stuff I bought. Tomorrows pictures will be more pics of actually interesting stuff.
Oh I gotta say, now having seen the leo statue in person at Sideshow…the head is growing on me. I hated it before…now its upgraded to strong dislike 
Anyway, at the end of the con, I will actually make a structured post about the whole thing. Until then, enjoy the daily picture posts (Click the pic).
Steph
Last week I put up this post showing you a very cool Godzilla Jam Lithograph I had found. At the time, we knew very little about the piece. However; the reason we do these posts isn’t just to share information, but also to collect information on things we may not know much about. This is one of those times that things worked out.
Shortly after the post went up, a GGM read by the name of John Pannozzi had this to say:
This was from a Godzilla portfolio published by Dark Horse. You can find a listing for it at http://www.darkhorse.com/Products/91-249/The-Godzilla-Portfolio-1
There was a second portfolio, which you can find a listing for at http://www.darkhorse.com/Products/91-250/The-Godzilla-Portfolio-2
Thank you so much for this new information John!
Of course as soon as I read this, I went on the hunt for the full portfolio from which this print came…and I found it!
Without further hesitation, I am happy to present to you the 1988 Dark Horse Godzilla Portfolio featuring: Arthur Adams, Eastman and Laird, Alan Moore, Doug Wildey, Paul Chadwick, Mark A. Nelson, Hilary Barta, Mark Badger, Cynthia Martin, and Bill Wray!
Click here to go to the album!
Today I present you with the newest addition to the collection; and my new favorite commission! Talented TMNT artist and all around super hero, Mark Martin, created this this piece for me. This is my favorite turtle atop what is my favorite sea creature (which I actually didn’t tell Mark at the time of the commission…he just decided to draw a ray all on his own!). But what makes this particular piece isn’t necessarily the art (which I do totally love), but the uniqueness of the medium. This particular piece of art is actually enshrined into a plate! Yes, as in a dinner plate! Completely amazing. I totally love it. Thank you again Mark!
Long time GGM supporter, PlastronCafe, actually requested this interview from me specifically the other day when they saw that I had acquired the September 89 issue of Amazing Heroes. This issue features an interview with the very talented, and all powerful, Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing, TMNT Volume 1: The River). Since I was scanning the issue, I thought I would share it with everyone, as it is a rather interesting read. Poopbucket ordered the pages backwards, so I have numbered the pages in the correct order. Click the pic to read the interview.
-Steph
Here is something kind of special and strange I picked up from ebay. It is a lithograph of Godzilla and some of his foes, created by the Mirage A-Team at the time. Featured artists are Ryan Brown, Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Steve Lavinge, Steve Bissette, Michael Dooney, Eric Talbot, and Jim Lawson.
Michael Dooney has this to say about the art:
Steve Bissette did the rough layout for the pic and then we all picked our own creature to draw (I did MechaKong). I remember doing this very clearly, it was the late ’80′s and we did it in the then very small Mirage office…so small we were all working in separate rooms. Pete actually has some video of this day I think. I also think that at least some of the art was done as separate pieces so we could work on it at the same time, and then pasted up to make the big picture.
Steve Bessette also gave his insight on the piece:
That’s a rare piece, and yep, we all did it — a massive jam piece by the whole crew, circa Northampton MA Mirage Studios in the early days (1988). I drew the Mothra larvae with the singing ‘Peanut’ twins atop her head. With some effort, I might be able to identify who did what, to a point — that’s Peter Laird’s MechaGodzilla, Mike Dooney’s MechaKong, Eric Talbot’s Frankenstein, Ryan Brown’s Godzilla (I think), Steve Lavigne’s Barugon (right foreground), I think Jim Lawson did the Ghidrah, and Kevin Eastman’s Rodan soaring above. [We did it] just because, I think — maybe for a convention? That’s possible.
Thanks for the information guys! At any rate, I LOVE it, and it is definitely my new favorite print!
Former Playmates concept artist, Ted Mayer, wrote in to show off some of his designs for the TMNT toy line. Enjoy!
You can visit Ted’s website HERE!
Thanks a million for sharing, Ted!
