SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird (The Turtle Fathers)

Without these dudes there would be no Turtles. Here's to Peter Laird (left) & Kevin Eastman (right) who are a huge inspiration to any artist trying to make they're visions come true. Their Turtles represent underground comics, self-publishing, and creating an empire out of something you love doing (living the dream).  Today Peter Laird runs the Xeric Grant, which helps comic artists self-publish their own books. Kevin Eastman owns Heavy Metal magazine, which was one of his main inspirations in creating the Turtles.

Easy Night

My contribution to the Turtles show. Unfortunately, my hard drive crashed while I was making a scan of it, so you can't really see the tones. I did this on Grafix Duoshade paper, the same paper that Eastman and Laird used for the original comics. Years ago, I emailed Peter Laird to ask him how they did it and he tipped me off about the Grafix paper and where to get it. He said old tymie newspaper comic artists used it for their shades, because the dots and lines reproduce well on newsprint. There is a chemical embedded in the paper, and when you paint over it with the shading developer, it brings out your tones. The paper is being discontinued, so I stocked up on a bunch last year. Shame of it is, I have to use it soon, because the developer evaporates and dries out - even when capped tight in the jar.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to use it appropriately in this Ninja Turtles tribute show. I think I was too old to really appreciate the teevee cartoons or movies. I was in 7th grade when the show hit, and I never really liked all the "Cowabunga Pizza Time" stuff. But I still love those early comic books. They were a movement in independent comics. They showed me as a kid that I could make my own comics if I wanted. Plus Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird played a huge part in the Creator's Bill of Rights. Furthermore, Laird gives a lot of money every year to self-publishing comics creators through the Xeric Foundation. Good dudes.