Butcher Brand.com

I started reading TMNT “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” as of issue #2. It was 1985 and I was reading a copy of The Comic Buyers Guide newspaper in my 9th grade math class (now I know why i stink at algebra), anyway I came across a huge one page ad for this crazy looking thing called TMNT. There were four dark and gritty looking mutants standing in front of a brick wall and I knew I had to know more. I rode my bike to my local comic shop as soon as I got home and found 2 copies of number 2, 2nd print on the shelves. How could I have missed this before?? I snapped up both issues, bought them and hurried home. After reading them over and over I was hooked. I started my hunt for issue 1 and eventually got my hands on a 3rd printing (I would eventually get a number 1 first print, the holy grail for me) and read it again and again. I collected the first series and enjoyed it very much. It was 1987 and I was at the San Diego Comicon. It was my first year attending and 16 it was kind of like heaven. I saw the Mirage Studios gang and couldn’t believe I could actually meet the guys who made my favorite comic. I was holding a sketchbook and Ryan Brown asked to look at it. Ryan, Steve Lavigne and Jim Lawson looked at my work and were blown away. They introduced me to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and then asked me to do a piece for their upcoming book Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I was going to have my art in a Turtles book. Well there is a lot more to this story and I will post some more as time goes on but to get to my original thought here, I got my hands on one of the coolest toys I have seen in quite some time now. It’s Leonardo from the original TMNT. This representation is so dead on. Finally somebody made a toy that captures the true feeling and essence of a character that I know and love. Here he is, chillin’ on my monitor:

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