I had fun with the Mirage Studios crew -- Dan Berger, Mike Dooney, Jim Lawson, Eric Talbot, and Steve Lavigne -- this past weekend. We all travelled up from Massachusetts to do a signing at Steve's store "Shellback Artworks" in Wells, ME.
Here's a sampling of photographs from the event. (Of course, I followed my usual bad habit of not getting the names of most of the people I took photos of. Sorry!)
There was one gentleman who drove a LONG way to come to the signing -- I can't remember which midwest state he was from, but I think he easily took the prize for "most miles driven to get to Shellback Artworks". He brought with him a nifty vintage VW van toy, which we all took turns signing. Mike even did some "Turtleizing" of it, adding some shell texture to certain areas.
I think this next person's name is David, and after talking with us for a while and getting some things signed, we posed for a photo with him. Then he went to the local Wal-Mart and got it printed in a large format, brought it back, and we all signed it.
Cool idea! I had no clue that you could get prints done like that at Wal-Mart.
Here's Eric signing the photo.
Chris Parlon and his girlfriend Katie, who were also at the grand opening signing, showed up for this one as well.
We signed this dude's yellow shoulder bag…
… and the back of this pizza box (which had previously held some of our lunch).
I have to draw particular attention to the thing Jim Lawson sketched on this box -- something that, in all the years of the TMNT, with all the references to pizza and surfing, has NEVER been done before (as far as I know): a Turtle surfing on a piece of pizza.
Genius! Jim, you're too much.
Here's Jim in the act of creation -- I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to him at the signing, and thus caught this moment for posterity.
Mike took it upon himself to, um, enhance the image of infant April on the cover of this fan's copy of TMNT Volume 4 #22.
Here's Steve posing with one of his store t-shirts which we all signed. I don't know where the shirt ended up.
It was great to have Eric with us -- I hadn't seen him in months. He brought with him some blank stickers with the die-cut shape of a skull and crossbones (the result of a printing error) and invited us all to draw something on them. Here's a photo of Eric working on one…
… and here are five COMPLETELY different approaches to using that space. Can you guess who did which?
All in all, a fun time! -- PL
6 comments:
Awesome Stuff!!
Does Steve have a website or a newsletter for his store? This blog is the only way I have been able to find any information on events at his store.
Thanks PL!
P.S.....any chance you will be at the Pixel & Paint Festival this year in Northampton on 10/20??
Very cool! One day I hope to find an excuse to make a trip up to New England, hopefully the Mirage crew will all conveniently be located at the same place when that day comes. I would love to have a something like that shirt or pizza box loaded with sketches!
Hi Pete,
Yes you are correct. My name is David and I am so thankful to God to have had such a good time, and to have actually had enough time to go to Walmart and do that. I thought that the TMNT stuff that you had signed for me was gonna be the most valuable stuff I would come home with, but after that photo, and talking about Triumphs ( They really are awesome bikes. GO BONNIE!) with you and "daredevil" Jim and his stories of riding bikes on one wheel and nearly taking you out...... I am very pleased to say that what I came home with could never, or will ever have a price tag on it. Thanks again for just "being yourself" LOL and I hope we can do it again some time....... with or without autographs. Maybe a bike run in the future might happen. Please post any good runs in your area on your blog whenever you remember BTW....
All of you.... Eric, Steve, Mike, Dan, Jim, and of course you were everything that I hoped you'd be since I was a kid. All that is simply to say thanks so much and I pray my God blesses all of you and your families very much! BTW I will be at shellback this weekend again,unbelieveably......., My wife seems to have found a sweet spot for a nice seafood restaurant about a mile down the road and now she'll have me driving another 80 miles this weekend for a lobster roll! HA HA HA. Sounds like a great excuse to support Shellback to me...... Take care....
Sincerely,
David Rivera
"Does Steve have a website or a newsletter for his store? This blog is the only way I have been able to find any information on events at his store.
Thanks PL!"
As far as I know, right now there is no official "Shellback Artworks" website or newsletter. When and if Steve does something like that, I will post the news here.
P.S.....any chance you will be at the Pixel & Paint Festival this year in Northampton on 10/20??"
Probably not. -- PL
"Yes you are correct. My name is David and I am so thankful to God to have had such a good time, and to have actually had enough time to go to Walmart and do that. I thought that the TMNT stuff that you had signed for me was gonna be the most valuable stuff I would come home with, but after that photo, and talking about Triumphs ( They really are awesome bikes. GO BONNIE!) with you and "daredevil" Jim and his stories of riding bikes on one wheel and nearly taking you out...... I am very pleased to say that what I came home with could never, or will ever have a price tag on it. Thanks again for just "being yourself" LOL and I hope we can do it again some time....... with or without autographs. Maybe a bike run in the future might happen. Please post any good runs in your area on your blog whenever you remember BTW…."
David, it was a pleasure to meet you and talk Turtles and bikes, etc.. I should tell you that after that signing, I decided to get a bike out of mothballs -- a Honda Pacific Coast PC800 which I'd had custom-painted years ago in British racing green. I was shocked to discover that I'd last had it registered in 1995 -- SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO! But my local dealer picked it up, took it to his shop, and got it going again in a few days. I took two rides on it yesterday, and it's still a sweet bike.
"All of you.... Eric, Steve, Mike, Dan, Jim, and of course you were everything that I hoped you'd be since I was a kid. All that is simply to say thanks so much and I pray my God blesses all of you and your families very much! BTW I will be at shellback this weekend again,unbelieveably......., My wife seems to have found a sweet spot for a nice seafood restaurant about a mile down the road and now she'll have me driving another 80 miles this weekend for a lobster roll! HA HA HA. Sounds like a great excuse to support Shellback to me...... Take care.... Sincerely, David Rivera"
Thanks for all the kind words! You and your wife should try Warren's in Portsmouth, NH, or Newick's in Dover, NH… two of our favorites for seafood and casual atmosphere. (And Warren's has a nice salad bar as well.) Just two of MANY seafood restaurants in that area. There is also a really nice place we've been going to in recent months in York ME -- it's called the "Sun and Surf" at 265 Long Sands Beach. It's actually ON the beach, and has some great views of the ocean, and the food is pretty good. It's open for breakfast, too, which is nice. And Long Sands Beach is one of the prettiest in the area. -- PL
Regarding your comment about the signed shirt, Steve has it displayed at the shop!
I was in there yesterday after seeing this post and knowing from your photos here (and the ones from the trip prior) exactly where in Wells this shop is located. I got some very nice prints and a Mikey plush that you signed one of the times you were there. And I even picked up an original TMNT page from Tales v2, #70!
I wrote it up and posted images on my blog:
http://mrmaczaps.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/shellback-artworks/
Thanks for all that you've done with the Turtles. I can recall in 2nd grade drawing them with a friend and thinking how some day we would work on the actual comics. Of course I couldn't draw all that well at the time, but I'm almost certain my friend continued to draw when him and his family moved away.
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