Peter Alan Laird (born January 27, 1954) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is best known for creating a joint Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer and artist Kevin Eastman.
Video Peter Laird
Early life and career
Laird was born on January 27, 1954 in North Adams, Massachusetts. Toward the end of 1983, Laird earned only ten dollars an illustration from a local newspaper in Northampton, Massachusetts. He also does illustrations for fanzines like The Oracle .
Maps Peter Laird
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
In May 1984, Laird and Kevin Eastman published their own black & amp; white edition Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , on an early print of 3,000 copies for a forty-page comic grandeur. It was largely funded by a loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin (an experience that had a major impact on Laird, and led indirectly for his later work with the Xeric Foundation), and published by the Mirage Studios duo, the name chosen for "no studio in fact, just a kitchen table and a sofa with a roller board. "The first issue received a number of subsequent prints over the next few years, as Turtles phenomenon began to take off.
The Laird newspaper experience caused the duo to create a "four-page press kit," according to Flaming Carrot -the author of Bob Burden's Mystery Men press-kit including "a story line and artwork that they send to 180 TV and radio stations, "as well as Associated Press and United Press International. This led to extensive press coverage of both TMNT properties and Mirage Studios itself, creating "a request for interesting comic-titles that surprise everyone." With their second edition invitation, Eastman and Laird's
The Turtles phenomenon saw the duo invited to their first comic convention at the tenth annual Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1984, where they mingled with the likes of Larry Niven, Forrest J Ackerman and Fred Hembeck (among others). With their fifth edition (November 1985), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is downsized to the more general format and size of American comics, and four previous issues are also reprinted in size and format with new colors, including. Also in 1985, Solson Publications released Eastman's How To Draw and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Solson will follow this up with six issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Authorized Training of Martial Arts Manual as both as one edition of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teach Karate volume in 1987.
Unexpected success
That the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became such a success (and in a short time) a surprise for Eastman and Laird. Laird has stated on several occasions that:
This led to increased pressure on the two creators (and the team they formed to help them), including a long period (about a year) from the artist's block at Laird. "The tremendous growth and business complexity" sprung up around their successful Turtles property directly, causing Laird: "suddenly found [to my horror that I no longer enjoyed drawing.] That's really surprising, because if I ever had anything I could count on... that is that I like to draw. "
The creations of Laird and Eastman continue to be a popular cultural phenomenon, forcing them both to take periodic leave of comics to deal with the daily pressures of running what has become a multimedia franchise. Eastman sold its share of the franchise, with the exception of sustained small-income participation, to Laird and Mirage Group on 1 June 2000. On March 1, 2008, Laird and Mirage bought Eastman's remaining rights and interest and both went their separate ways. Regarding Eastman's departure, Laird expressed his belief that Eastman was "just bored." On October 19, 2009, Laird sold the franchise to the parent company Viacom Nickelodeon, but retained the right to create and publish up to eighteen black-and-white comics based on franchises annually.
Animation
Though pretending to be looking at the Turtles animation project via Mirage, Laird has minimal direct involvement in the development of the original animated series, and even less with the Next Mutation series. One of the unique products of this series, the female turtle Venus, is famous for being one of the additions to the franchise that Laird hates most. However, he took a more active role in the subsequent animation effort TMNT, acting as a "consultant, and... working with the person I consider to be the lead author, Lloyd Goldfine." In this role, he says "[f] rom that I can do, I have seen it all, from day one.. Location of story, outline, script complete and sketch and design of character and arrangement I've done a bit of drawing myself. I have seen several episodes, and it is very neat to see the many things I do. "While final preparations are underway, it re-launches the official comic canon of the franchise with the" Volume Four "(third published by Mirage Studios), with artwork which is provided by fellow writers TMNT, friends, and the creator of Rat King, Jim Lawson. When the new series proves successful, Laird launches Tales of the TMNT to accompany the fourth volume.
After a successful deal to revive Turtles theatrically, Laird placed Volume Four to develop a new movie; leaving some unresolved plot lines. The stories of TMNT are considered hiatus in 2008, and the franchise's future beyond its presence is uncertain, but the staff insists that this is not the case. It was confirmed on Steve Murphy's blog that Peter Laird intends to return to Volume 4 and that the title will be back, digitally distributed by Mirage.
Mirage Studios
With the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Eastman and Laird hired the artist's core group to help with the increased workload, starting with Eastman's high school friend Steve Lavigne, who was brought in 1984 as a letter-maker.
In 1985, Eastman and Laird hired Cleveland Ryan Brown artist to help them as inks, and a year later Jim Lawson's coverer covered the painter Michael Dooney joining the studio. These six people will allow Mirage to expand into a number of spinoff titles and companions, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, designed to fill the continuity gap in the main title. Operating from a renovated factory space in Florence, Massachusetts, the Mirage team produced most of their work at home, including the design of Playmates toys and 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 popularity of the Turtles increased, more people were added to the studio, including Eric Talbot (who attended Eastman and Lavigne middle school), author Stephen Murphy, and Brown's friend Dan Berger, who was brought in from Ohio to tackle Teenage. Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures from Archie Comics. Aside from Eastman (whose creative and other pursuit distinctions see him go and sell his interest to Laird and Mirage), these people remain with Mirage to this day. Stephen Murphy resigned from his position as Managing Editor in the summer of 2007 to support Dan Berger; Murphy remains as Creative Director. In 1988, Mirage Studios participated in the preparation of the Bill of Rights Creator for comic book makers.
The Xeric Foundation
In addition to his other interests, Laird founded the Xeric Foundation, a nonprofit organization created after a considerable thought, as "the right way to give back something extra to the comic world," by granting a grant to self-publishers. While Eastman founded Tundra Publishing to realize the Bill of Rights Creator's aspirations from a publisher's perspective, Laird's vision involves funding rather than actively publishing individual works. The reason for this decision was partly because he "too much to do the same with Mirage." He "prefers to do something where it is more than a transfer of capital," with "all the concerns... in the other of the shoulder." The foundation itself, he explains is: "in fact two foundations in one. Half of it is for charitable organizations, and the other half is for creators who want to publish their own comics." Half later may be the most recognizable foundation, working with generous funds, involving the applicative process detailing how much money is used and why.
Origins
"Laird's experience with Turtles and self-publishing" is a learning process which, he says, "will be invaluable for others to pass" as well as, "in teaching creators about themselves, about life [and] about the hard reality of business." He cites his peak, Eastman, Scott McCloud, Dave Sim and others (leading directly to the formalization of the "Bill of Rights Creator," setting in writing the necessary work arrangements that feel the comic creators must be fulfilled about their job ownership and remuneration etc.) in informing of his decision to establish the Foundation, but also noted that he received "many requests for money," which necessitated the creation of a charitable charity of the Xeric Foundation only to handle the request "in an organized fashion."
Indeed, when asked in an interview on Project Fanboy's website, Laird was quoted as saying:
"The initial impulse to create the Xeric Foundation is frustration - when the Turtle thing starts to get really big, people start getting out of the wood for money, many of them are legitimate charitable organizations or creators that need funds, but there are also some silly things - like a foreigner who asked me for a quarter of a million dollars to fund the general store.That is to the point where I am overwhelmed by making such a decision, and it is suggested to me that a foundation may be a good way to "separate the wheat from the chaff" official and clear channels depicted in which people who make money should make their way. "
Laird recalls that the publication of Eastman's first edition of Eastman's Mutant Ninja Turtles Comunic comic appeared thanks to a loan obtained by two people from Quentin Eastman, Kevin's uncle. Although both were able to repay him quickly, it caused Laird to speculate on what could happen: "if we do not get the loan from him at that moment in our lives, it may have taken us a few more months to raise the money from other sources, and who does know what might happen differently as a result of the delay? "It occurred to him that" there must be so much time in which the publishing business itself can sink or float on the power "of relatively small amounts of money, so he feels the desire to use some of his "good fortune, financially, to help people out" (and, in addition to the creators, the Foundation also helps those "who are involved in charitable organizations").
In addition, he cites "[a] big difference" between personal situations and Eastman Turtles and charitable foundations as "that the Xeric grant is not a loan, to be paid back, but the actual grant, that is not." "credits Kendall Clark, who has been running the foundation for me from the beginning, as one of the main reasons why he has worked so well... he has done a great job."
Naming and processes
The Foundation's nickname "comes from the Scrabble game with the brother [Laird's] Don," "Xeric " just becomes "a word [he] like [d]" as if it meant dry and desert like - once has no direct connection to the foundation. "
The creative side of the Foundation involves the usual application process, but in addition, the Foundation begins with "an advisory committee composed of three... people working in industry" whose input is sought on how best to proceed with each application. Shipments are evaluated prior to Laird's involvement, and then he makes a final decision based on their recommendations. Laird declared in 1993 that: "... knocking wood, God willing, and the river does not rise, if we continue for decades, and I can put more money into the funding of the Xeric Foundation, then the amount of money that can be given can really be significantly improved. "He hopes that ultimately that figure can be raised from" thousands of dollars "to" hundreds of thousands of dollars, "to support the improvement of large and small projects.
Other jobs
In a 1993 interview with Stephen Bissette and Stanley Wiater, interviewer of Comic Book Rebel , Laird commented:
Since then, Laird has been able to find time to pursue several other comic book works, including publishing the Heroes of Fool, and the graphic novel trilogy Planet Racers with Jim Lawson. In fact this relationship becomes TMNT, because in season 3 and 6 of the 2003 series TMNT , the episode is based on the theme of Planet Racer .
Note
References
- Peter Laird at IMDb
- Peter Laird at ComicBookDb
- Peter Laird in the Grand Comic Database
External links
- Peter Laird at IMDb
- "Blast from the Past" Laird "
- Peter Laird's Blog
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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