CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD T M N T B O O K CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD T M N T B O O K III FOR THE LOVE OF MY LIFE PAM MY AMAZING FAMILY PETER “BUCK” LAIRD AND THE OLD MIRAGE GANG CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD T M N T B O O K CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD T M N T B O O K V HISTORY I always felt my artistic inter- est and skill was inherited, but MISTER DARK AND MOODY 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 PHOTO BY SYDNEY 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 ONE OF MY FIRST COVERS FOR CLAY GEERDES the man himself. HIGH SCHOOL MURAL CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD 4 T M N T B O O K MY NEW HERO 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 adventurous young man from 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 Prairie 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 AmericanCLICK forts HERE for the House Committee on Military Affairs. After completing nearly all of his paintings, on FORAugust THE 31, COMPLETE 1875, Seth slumped over at his easel and died. The Washington National Republican carried a brief DIGITALobituary DOWNLOAD on Thursday, September 2nd. T M N T B O O K 5 “THE FIRST TURTLE” BIRTH PLACE OF THE TURTLES MY FIRST SKETCH PETE’S TWEAK THE FIRST EASTMAN As for me, I was born May 30, 1962 in Portland, AND LAIRD Maine to parents Kim and Sandra Eastman. I grew DRAWING 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. GROUP DRAWING MY ROUGH SKETCH FOR THE FIRST CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD 6 T 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 CHARACTER SHEETS 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. RY O ST My mother says I drew all the time, especially when I was supposed to be doing HI 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. PRE-ISSUE ONE GROUP SHOT In pursuit of more Corben, I found “underground” comics and self-publish- ers. I loved the freedom of expression they had, whileCLICK most HERE mainstream FORcomics THE COMPLETEwere restricted by DIGITALa ratings DOWNLOAD board. T M N T B O O K 7 THE FINAL SHREDDER CONCEPT HI S T O RY THE FIRST CONVENTION AD 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- THE FIRST ISSUE tion from high school in 1980, and a brief visit to the Portland School of Art, THE FIRST CONVENTION 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 CLICKsimilar HEREinterests named Peter Laird. With a mutual love FORof comics THE COMPLETEand Jack Kirby, we became fast friends, and began DIGITALworking on DOWNLOAD short stories together right away. 8 T M N T B O O K ONE OF THE FIRST ADS THE FIRST PRESS RELEASE 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 HOME TOWN PRESS 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 CLICK HERE myself-- the dream FOR THE COMPLETE had come true. DIGITAL DOWNLOAD T M N T B O O K 9 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? THE ART OF BED DIVING CHARACTER ART- - ALSO T-SHIRT IRON ONS 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. FIRST SAN DIEGO CON 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 thoseCLICK that struggled HERE before me who created FORan environment THE COMPLETE that allowed the turtles DIGITALaccomplishments DOWNLOAD to be possible. 10 T M N T B O O K RY O T S HI A TRUE “MIRAGE” STUDIO 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.