Only a week into the CCS semester and already I've visited Mirage Studios, home of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Got to meet Dan Berger, one of the resident artists, Stephen Murphy, who gave us the grand tour, and the man himself, Peter Laird, the co-creator of the turtles! They were all very welcoming and informative and I had a really fun time.
As Stephen gave us a rundown on the business end of the TMNT franchise, mostly having to do with licensing and merchandising and the ups and downs thereof, I and the other students perused the huge collection of Turtle merch that the office was stocked with: piles and piles of everything from movie posters to turtle face masks to Star Trek crossover action figures. Actually, there were several walls lined with TMNT action figures; I think it was Mr. Berger's office that had practically every figure produced completely covering every wall. Really something to see!
A couple of people were taking pictures, so maybe they'll upload them at some point. I'm pretty interested in going back and reading some of the TMNT comics now -- I missed out on the comics and the show when I was a kid. It was very interesting, inspiring even, to observe what an independent studio (hell, it was just two guys fucking around back then, wasn't it?) can become when it makes it big, but doesn't become too bogged down by commercialism and profit.
Check out Chuck's Flickr photos.
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