Peter Alan Laird (born January 27, 1954) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book artistComic Book Artist was an American magazine devoted to anecdotal histories of American comic books, with emphasis on comics published since the 1960s....
. He is best known for co-creating
Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four mutant turtles, who were trained by a giant, talking rat sensei, Master Splinter, in the art of Ninjitsu...
in the fall of 1983 with
Kevin EastmanKevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Biography:Kevin Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
.
Peter Laird was born on January 27, 1954 in
North AdamsNorth Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,681 at the 2000 census, making it the least populous city in the state...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. Toward the end of 1983, Laird was earning "the princely sum of ten dollars an illustration from a local newspaper in
Northampton, MassachusettsNorthampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 28,978 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hampshire County...
." The following year, in May 1984, Laird and
Kevin EastmanKevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Biography:Kevin Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
self-published the first black & white issue of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, at an initial print run of 3000 copies for the forty-page oversized comic.
It was largely funded by a loan from Eastman's uncle, Quentin (which experience had a profund impact on Laird, and led indirectly to his later work with the
Xeric FoundationThe Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which awards self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations...
), and published by the duos
Mirage StudiosMirage Studios is an independent American comic book company founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, based in Northampton, Massachusetts and best known for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.-History:...
, a name chosen because "there wasn’t an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards." That first issue received a number of subsequent printings over the next few years, as the Turtles phenomenon began to take off.
Laird's newspaper experience led to the duo creating "a four-page press kit," that, according to
Flaming Carrot-creator
Bob BurdenBob Burden is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of Flaming Carrot Comics and the Mysterymen.Born in Buffalo NY in 1952, Burden grew up in the industrial rust belt of the great Northeast. After 20 years of Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Akron and...
's own
Mystery MenMystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It starred William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who need to...
press-kitA press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials of a person, company, or organization distributed to members of the media for promotional use...
included "a story outline and artwork that they sent to 180 TV and radio stations," as well as both the
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
and
United Press InternationalUnited Press International is a news agency headquartered in the United States with roots dating back to 1907. Once a mainstay in the newswire service along with Associated Press and Reuters, it began to decline as afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fail with the rising...
.
Peter Alan Laird (born January 27, 1954) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book artistComic Book Artist was an American magazine devoted to anecdotal histories of American comic books, with emphasis on comics published since the 1960s....
. He is best known for co-creating
Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four mutant turtles, who were trained by a giant, talking rat sensei, Master Splinter, in the art of Ninjitsu...
in the fall of 1983 with
Kevin EastmanKevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Biography:Kevin Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
.
Early life and career
Peter Laird was born on January 27, 1954 in
North AdamsNorth Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,681 at the 2000 census, making it the least populous city in the state...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. Toward the end of 1983, Laird was earning "the princely sum of ten dollars an illustration from a local newspaper in
Northampton, MassachusettsNorthampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 28,978 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hampshire County...
." The following year, in May 1984, Laird and
Kevin EastmanKevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist, best known as the creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the current owner, editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.-Biography:Kevin Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine...
self-published the first black & white issue of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, at an initial print run of 3000 copies for the forty-page oversized comic.
It was largely funded by a loan from Eastman's uncle, Quentin (which experience had a profund impact on Laird, and led indirectly to his later work with the
Xeric FoundationThe Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which awards self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations...
), and published by the duos
Mirage StudiosMirage Studios is an independent American comic book company founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, based in Northampton, Massachusetts and best known for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.-History:...
, a name chosen because "there wasn’t an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards." That first issue received a number of subsequent printings over the next few years, as the Turtles phenomenon began to take off.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Laird's newspaper experience led to the duo creating "a four-page press kit," that, according to
Flaming Carrot-creator
Bob BurdenBob Burden is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of Flaming Carrot Comics and the Mysterymen.Born in Buffalo NY in 1952, Burden grew up in the industrial rust belt of the great Northeast. After 20 years of Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Akron and...
's own
Mystery MenMystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It starred William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who need to...
press-kitA press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials of a person, company, or organization distributed to members of the media for promotional use...
included "a story outline and artwork that they sent to 180 TV and radio stations," as well as both the
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
and
United Press InternationalUnited Press International is a news agency headquartered in the United States with roots dating back to 1907. Once a mainstay in the newswire service along with Associated Press and Reuters, it began to decline as afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fail with the rising...
. This led to widespread press coverage of both the TMNT property and Mirage Studios itself, creating "a demand for the interestingly-titled comic that caught everyone by surprise." With the solicitation of their second issue, Eastman and Laird's
Turtles comic began a meteoric rise to success, bringing in advance orders of 15,000 copies - five times the initial print run of the first issue. This, Eastman has been quoted as saying:
- "basically ended up with us clearing a profit of two thousand dollars apiece. Which allowed us to write and draw stories full time: it was enough to pay the rent, pay the bills, and buy enough macaroni and cheese and pencils to live on."
The
Turtles phenomenon saw the duo invited to their first
comics conventionA fan convention, or con , is an event in which fans of a particular film, television series, comic book, actor, or an entire genre of entertainment such as science fiction or anime and manga, gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and...
at the tenth annual Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1984, where they mingled with the likes of
Larry NivenLaurence van Cott Niven is a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective...
,
Forrest J AckermanForrest J Ackerman or Mr. Science Fiction, was for over seven decades one of science fiction's staunchest spokesmen and promoters.Ackerman was a Los Angeles, California-based magazine editor, science fiction writer and literary agent, a founder of science fiction fandom and possibly the world's...
and
Fred HembeckFred Hembeck is an American cartoonist best known for his parodies of characters from major American comic book publishers. His work has frequently been published by the firms whose characters he spoofs. His characters are always drawn with curlicues at the elbows and knees...
(among others).
With their (November 1985) fifth issue,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles downsized to the more "normal" American comics-format and size, and the previous four issues were also reprinted in this size and format with new, color, covers. Also in 1985, Solson Publishing released a "How to draw" volume entitled
How to draw Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Solson would also produce six issues of a TMNT "Authorized Training Manual" as well as a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teach Karate" volume in 1987.)
Unexpected success
That the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became such a success (and in such a short space of time) came as a surprise to both Eastman and Laird. Laird has stated on several occasions that:
This led to increased pressures on the two creators (and the team which they formed to help them), including a prolonged period (about a year) of
artist's blockWriter's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand...
in Laird. The "incredible growth and complexity of the business" that sprang up around their instantly-successful Turtles properties, led to Laird:
- "suddenly discover[ing] to my horror that I no longer enjoyed drawing. It was a real shock, because if I ever had anything that I could rely on... it was that I loved to draw."
Laird and Eastman's creations went on to become a popular cultural phenomenon, forcing both of them to take regular sabbaticals from the comic to deal with the day to day pressures of running what became a multimedia franchise. Eastman eventually sold his share of the franchise to Laird (and the Mirage Group) on June 1, 2000, except for a small continuing income participation. On March 1, 2008, Laird and Mirage bought out the remaining rights and interest of Eastman, and the two went their completely separate ways.
Laird believes that the reasoning was simply that Eastman "was just tired of it. He wanted to move on and has other things to spend more time on."
Animation
Although ostensibly over-seeing the animated
Turtles projects through Mirage, Laird had minimal hands-on involvement in the development of the original animated series, and even less with the Next Mutation series. However, he took a more active role in the next - TMNT - animated venture, acting as "a consultant, and... working with the guy I consider the head writer, Lloyd Goldfine." In this role, he says "[f]rom the get-go I've been looking at everything, from day one. Story premises, outlines, the full scripts and the sketching and designing of characters and settings. I've been doing a little drawing myself. Lots of suggestions. I've seen a few of the episodes, and it's neat to see a lot of the stuff I've worked on." While final preparations were underway, he relaunched the
official comicsTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American comic book published on and off by Mirage Studios since May 1984 . Originally conceived by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a one-off parody, the comic's popularity has gone on to inspire three television series, numerous video games, four feature films,...
canon of the franchise with "Volume Four" (the third published by Mirage Studios), with artwork supplied by fellow TMNT writer, friend, and
Rat KingThe Rat King is a fictional character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles multimedia franchise. The character was created by Jim Lawson and first appeared in the comic Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 written by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and has made various appearances since, in...
creator
Jim LawsonJim Lawson is an American comic book artist best known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Lawson created the Rat King and also co-created the series Planet Racers with Peter Laird. He is also the writer/artist of the black and white comic series Paleo: Tales of the Late...
. When the new series proved a success, Laird relaunched
Tales of the TMNTIn May 1987, Mirage Studios began publishing Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson handling the writing and artwork...
to accompany the fourth volume.
Following a successful deal to revive the Turtles theatrically, Laird put Volume Four on hold to develop the new movie; he has yet to return to the comic, leaving several plot lines unresolved.
Tales of the TMNT was thought to go on hiatus in 2008, and the franchise's future beyond its on-screen presence was uncertain, but staff confirmed that this was not the case. It was confirmed on
Steve MurphySteve Murphy is a Minnesota politician and a member of the Minnesota Senate representing District 28, which includes portions of Goodhue, Wabasha and Winona counties in the southeastern part of the state. A Democrat, he was first elected in 1992, representing the old District 29 until...
's blog that Peter Laird was intending to return to Volume 4 and that the title would return, distributed digitally by Mirage.
Laird rejected the pitch for TMNT's disputed seventh season, as it again attempted to give the franchise a "gimmick" to sustain itself as a series, he has since finally accepted a proposal, though when it will be revealed remains to be seen.
Mirage Studios
The name "Mirage Studios" was chosen because of Eastman and Laird's lack of a professional art studio at the start of their career, before their creation made them both multi-millionaires. With the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Eastman and Laird hired a core group of artists to help with the increasing workload, beginning with Eastman's high school friend
Steve LavigneSteve Lavigne is an American comic book illustrator best known for his lettering and coloring on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title for Mirage Studios. He is the creator of Cudley the Cowlick, Sgt...
, brought on in 1984 as a
lettererA letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer crafts the comic's "display lettering": the story title lettering and other special captions and credits that usually appear on a story's first page. The letterer also writes the...
.
In 1985, Eastman and Laird hired
ClevelandCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
artist
Ryan BrownRyan Brown is a comic book artist best known for his work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.-Career:Brown began inking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1985 and continued until 1988 when he and partner Steve Lavigne began producing artwork for licensed TMNT products...
to assist them as an
inkerThe inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After the penciler gives a drawing to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
, and a year later penciler
Jim LawsonJim Lawson is an American comic book artist best known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Lawson created the Rat King and also co-created the series Planet Racers with Peter Laird. He is also the writer/artist of the black and white comic series Paleo: Tales of the Late...
cover painter
Michael DooneyMichael Dooney is an American comic book artist best known for his works on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Dooney also created the comic book series, Gizmo in 1986 under Mirage Studios....
joined the studio. These six individuals would allow Mirage to expand into a number of spin-off and companion titles, starting with
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesIn May 1987, Mirage Studios began publishing Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson handling the writing and artwork...
, designed to fill in continuity gaps in the main title. Operating from a renovated factory space in
Florence, MassachusettsFlorence is a village in the northwestern portion of the city of Northampton, near Westhampton and Williamsburg in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.In 1832, Samuel Whitmarsh planted of mulberry trees in Florence in order to raise silkworms...
, the Mirage team produced most of their work in-house, including the Playmates toy designs and the Archie TMNT comic series, until Tundra Publishing took over the building.
Eastman and Laird along with Brown, Dooney, Lavigne and Lawson toured extensively over the years, making personal appearances and attending many comic book conventions. As the Turtles' popularity increased, further people were added to the studio, including
Eric TalbotEric Talbot is an American comic book artist known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series under Mirage Studios.Talbot co-wrote the graphic novel The Melting Pot along with Kevin Eastman and Simon Bisley, which was used as the basis for the film Heavy Metal 2000.-External links:* *...
(who attended Eastman and Lavigne's old high school), writer
Stephen MurphyStephen Murphy is an American comic book writer best known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. He revamped the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures title for Archie comics beginning with issue number five and created the characters Jagwar, Nova Posse, Snake-Eyes and...
, and Brown's friend,
Dan BergerDan Berger is an American comic book artist best known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.Berger began his career working on the TMNT Adventures series published by Archie Comics and officially began working on TMNT in August 1989...
, who was brought in from Ohio to ink the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventure title from
Archie ComicsArchie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenage Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe "Jughead" Jones characters were created by...
. Aside from Eastman (whose creative differences and other pursuits saw him leave and sell his interest to Laird and Mirage), these individuals have remained with Mirage to the present. Stephen Murphy stepped down from his position as Managing Editor in summer, 2007 in favor of Dan Berger; Murphy remains as Creative Director.
In
1988-First issues by title:*The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free* Fright Night *Punisher War Journal...
, Mirage Studios participated in the drafting of the
Creator's Bill of RightsIn 1988 a number of comic book artists and writers began a discussion on a Creator's Bill of Rights. They hoped that by drafting such a document it would protect their rights as comic book creators and help aid against their exploitation by corporate work-for-hire practices...
for comic book creators.
The Xeric Foundation
In addition to his other interests, Laird founded the Xeric Foundation, a nonprofit organization created after considerable thought, as "an appropriate way to give back something extra to the comics world," by providing grants for self-publishers. While Eastman founded
Tundra PublishingTundra Publishing was a Northampton, Massachusetts-based comic book publisher founded by Kevin Eastman in 1990.-Overview:Tundra was meant to provide a venue for high-quality work by talented cartoonists and illustrators. Its publications were noted in the trade for their high production values,...
to embody the ideals of the
Creator's Bill of RightsIn 1988 a number of comic book artists and writers began a discussion on a Creator's Bill of Rights. They hoped that by drafting such a document it would protect their rights as comic book creators and help aid against their exploitation by corporate work-for-hire practices...
from a publishers standpoint, Laird's vision involved funding rather than actively publishing individuals' work. His reasoning for this decision was in part simply due to him having "far too much to do as it is with
MirageMirage Studios is an independent American comic book company founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, based in Northampton, Massachusetts and best known for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.-History:...
." He "preferred to do something where it was more of a transfer of capital," with "all the worries... on
other people's shoulders." The foundation itself, he explains is:
That later half is perhaps what the foundation is best known for, working much the same as any benevolent fund, involving an applicatory process detailing how much money is being applied for and why.
Origins
Laird's "experience with the Turtles and self-publishing" was a learning process that, he felt "would be very valuable to other people to go through" as well, "in teaching creators about themselves, about life [and] about the hard reality of business." He cites the summits he, Eastman,
Scott McCloudScott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium.-Biography:...
,
Dave SimDavid Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist, best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark.-Early life:...
and others had (which led directly to the formalising of the "Creator's Bill of Rights," setting out in writing the necessary working arrangements that comics creator's felt ought to be met regarding ownership of their work and proper remuneration, etc.) in informing his decision to set up the Foundation, but also notes that he received "many requests for money," necessitating the creation of the Xeric Foundation's charitable end simply to deal with such requests "in an organized fashion."
Indeed, when asked in an interview on the
Project FanboyProject Fanboy is an American website that publishes news, interviews and reviews about the American comic book industry. In addition, the site is host to comic-book fan voted awards...
website, Laird was quoted as saying:
"The initial impetus for creating the Xeric Foundation was frustration -- when the Turtle thing started getting really huge, people started coming out of the woodwork to ask for money. Many of them were legitimate charitable organizations or creators needing funding, but there were also quite a few ridiculous things -- like the total stranger who asked me for a quarter of a million dollars to fund his general store. It got to the point where I was getting overwhelmed with making these kinds of decisions, and it was suggested to me that a foundation might be a good way to "separate the wheat from the chaff", providing official and clearly delineated channels through which people looking for money had to make their way."
Laird recalled that the publication of the first issue of his and Eastman's
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic came about thanks to a loan the two secured from Quentin Eastman, Kevin's uncle. Although the two were able to pay him back swiftly, it led Laird to speculate about what could have been:
- "if we hadn't gotten that loan from him at that point in our lives, it might have taken us a couple more months to raise that money from other sources, and who knows what might have happened differently as a result of that delay?"
It occurred to him that "there must be so many times where a self-publishing venture can sink or float on the strength of" a relatively small amount of money, so he felt a desire to use some of his "good fortune, in the financial sense, to help people out" (and, in addition to the creators, the Foundation also aids those "involved in charitable organizations").
Moreover, he cites "[a] big difference" between his and Eastman's personal
Turtles situation and the chariatable foundation as being "that the Xeric grants are not loans, which have to be paid back, but actual grants, which do not." He "credit[s] Kendall Clark, who has run the foundation for me from the beginning, as one of the main reasons it has worked as well as it has... she's done a wonderful job."
Naming and process
The naming of the Foundation "originated out of a
ScrabbleScrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
game with [Laird's] brother Don," "
Xeric" simply being "a word [he] like[d]" ostensibly meaning dry and desertlike - but which ultimately "has absolutely no direct connection with the foundation."
The creative side of the Foundation involves the usual application process, but in addition, the Foundation began with "an advisory committee made up of three... people working in the industry" whose input is sought on how best to proceed with each application. Submissions are evaluated prior to Laird's involvement, and then he makes the ultimate decisions based on their recommendations. Laird stated in 1993 that:
He hoped that ultimately the figure can be raised from "thousands of dollars" to "hundreds of thousands of dollars," to support an increasing number of large and small projects.
Xeric Grant output
Among those creators and comics which have been approved for a Xeric grant, are such high-profile and notable individuals and titles as:
- Jessica Abel
Jessica Abel is an American comic book writer and artist.-Overview:Abel's most recent work is Life Sucks, written with Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece in 2008. She also wrote La Perdida, first published by Fantagraphics Books between 2000 and 2005 as a five-part mini-series...
for Artbabe
- Ryan Dunlavey and Fred Van Lente
Fred Van Lente is a Dutch-American writer, primarily of comic books and graphic novels.-Biography:He is the co-founder, along with artist Ryan Dunlavey, of Evil Twin Comics, which produces his and Dunlavey’s non-fiction comic books, the first and most famous of which is Action Philosophers.Recent...
for Action PhilosophersAction Philosophers! is a comic book series by artist Ryan Dunlavey and writer Fred Van Lente, first created for a comic book newspaper "Prophecy", which was never published...
- The Friends of Lulu
Friends of Lulu is a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, founded in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry...
for Friends of Lulu: Storytime
- Neil Kleid
Neil Kleid is a U.S. cartoonist raised in Oak Park, Michigan, now living in Bronx, New York. He has received a 2003 Xeric Award grant[ at Xeric Foundation] for his graphic novella Ninety Candles ....
for Ninety Candles
- Jason Lutes
Jason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction. His work includes the Berlin series and Jar of Fools, as well as The Fall , and many short pieces for anthologies and compilations.Lutes was born in New Jersey, but his...
for Jar of Fools
- Linda Medley for Castle Waiting
Castle Waiting is a comic book series created by Linda Medley. It is in a world of fairy tales and mythology featuring a mix of old-fashioned storytelling and more ironic, modern touches....
- Jim Ottaviani
Jim Ottaviani is the author of several comic books about the history of science. His best-known work, Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists, features biographical stories about Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, and several stories about physicist Richard Feynman...
for Two-Fisted Science
Other work
In 1993, Laird invited Stephen Bissette and Stanley Wiater, interviewer-editors of
Comic Book Rebels (CBR) to:
Since that time, Laird has been able to find time to pursue some other comic book work, including publishing the graphic novel trilogy,
Planet Racer, with Jim Lawson. Even this ties into the TMNT, however, since in season 3 of the 2003
TMNT series, an episode was based on the
Planet Racer's theme.
Philosophy
External links