This is where it all started.
Dover, New Hamshire. 1983. This is the house where Pete and I created The Turtles.
This was the very chair that I sat in in, in the shared studio space with Peter, and late one night I did a sketch of a Turtle standing upright, a mask on, nun chucks and dubbed him a Ninja Turtle! That was enough to kickstart the brainstorming session where we had to come up with the story to tell who they came to be!
We worked on the 40 page origin story from the fall of 1983 to late spring 1984, and when it was finished, and printed--we had all the books shipped to our house on Union Street where we made furniture out of them, because we didn't think we ever sell them all! 
May 5th, 1984 was the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Comic Convention where we premiered the very first issue! I think we sold a couple dozen, and a lot of those were to family members that came from all over the state of Maine down to the show!
After we finished the first issue we had all these awesome fans writing, "Hey, when are you going to do a second issue?!" Well, we figured we'd better come up with a second story and get on the job! Here's me inking on a page in Peter's studio in the fall of 1984!
By February, the drawing was done and so was the printing--when the books arrived in the studio, we could help but pose a stuff Turtle doll Peter's sister Chris made for him on top of the first box we opened! 
By the sumer of 1985, we had done a lot of signings and smaller conventions--but we finally made the pilgrimage to the biggest convention in the states, the San Diego Comic Con! Here's Pete posing in front of the old Civic Center where it used to be held. 
Here we are, the following year, 1986, shopping all the recent issues up to Raphael at that time--and doing sKetches for $5 each--most all the money at the end of the show we would then run around and buy as many old comics we were missing from our collection before getting on the plane back home.
Year after year we kept coming back to the con--this year (2011) will be my 27th year there, and over te years, we met many awesome people--like in this one, here's my first mini comics publisher--Clay Geerdes!
Here's a great candid shot of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley during the Ronin years--they were still easily accessible to fans at the show. He was a great guy, very open about what he was doing back then.
One of my best friends from those days that I sill hang out with today is Mark Bode, son of the famous Underground Cartoonist, Vaughn Bode! Mark and I went on to work on several TMNT stories together---maybe we'll get to do another one someday!
Peter hanging out with Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Saki (center) and fellow cartoonist Jim Groat.
A highlight, after several years at the convention was meeting Jack Kirby and buying the original art of some of our favorite Kirby stories--Kamandi for me, the Demon for Peter! DC Publisher, Julie Swartz is doing the peace sign in the background! 
Here's the wild and crazy zoo crew--all the original Mirage Studios gang, having a few to many beers after the show, and generally taking the edge off a busy day--because we'd all be back signing in the morning! 
And of course there's the bed diving---every year at the show Peter and I would make sure the beds would hold up to wild and crazy room parties--and the only way to do that was run from across the room, jump as high as you can, and dive on the bed! Here's Pete go...
And here's my turn! Can't wait to do it again this again this year--I have to pass the ritual on to my kids after all! ... to be continued.
(Prepping for Comicon 2011, see you guys there next week!)
