Something Interesting About the Image run
 

I added these 2 gorgeous pieces of original art to my collection today. 2 Pages from TMNT vol 3. #12, pencilled by Gordon Purcell....

...what's that you say? Gordon Purcell didn't pencil issue #12 of the Image comics TMNT run?!?! It was all pencilled by Frank Fosco. You're correct, so let me tell you a story....

I'm Facebook friends with artist Gordon Purcell, And have purchased a number of original art pieces from him over the last 5 years. He's from the Minneapolis area and I'm from Northern Iowa, so I see him a couple of times a year at local shop signings and Comic Conventions.

Anyways, in early May this year he posted scans of these 2 pages:

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...sb6qplerr.jpeg

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...s7a90dbfb.jpeg


He was digging through his old portfolios of pages he'd done and came across these 2 mysterious pages. I instantly messaged him and told them I had to own these if he was willing to sell them, he was, and he agreed to sell them to me next time he appeared for signing at my local shop, which was today. What a way to celebrate IDW releasing TMNT #50 right? By adding these 2 gems to my art collection the same day I got to read that stellar issue.

So Gordon tells me the story behind how these 2 pages came to be. It was early summer 1997, when he was in the middle of pencilling his lengthy run on X-Files for Topps comics. At this time in his career he would have been best known for his photo-realistic art approach on Star Trek comics published by both DC and Malibu, which led to him landing the X-Files gig. He was approached by TMNT editor Erik Larsen, who he was acquaintices with to do a 2 page sample based on a full existing script from Gary Carlson, who Gordon also knew. At this time Gordon had done very little work for Image, so this was his chance to try to break in big with Image. He said that it was very rare at that time to pencil a sample from a full script, typically you were just asked to submit a couple of pages, so it was common for artists to make-up their own couple page action sequence to show off the characters in dynamic poses from multiple vantage angles. The reason for the change in submission protocol being they wanted Gordon to possibly do a fill-in issue in case Frank got behind. Obviously that didn't happen, as Frank on stayed on as the regular artist, pencilling all 23 issues of the Image run.

But that's how these 2 pencilled pages of the script for Images TMNT #12 came to be pencilled by Gordon Purcell on DC Comics art boards. Just thought I'd share this interesting little bit with all of the fans of the Image series out there.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing, dude. Looks to me like he took influence from Larsen & Dooney.

They look wonderful!

Thanks for sharing these with us! A lesser fan would have horded these away for themselves.

Always cool to see stuff like this; sort of like that 4-page TMNT vs. Spawn comic Fosco drew as his submission for the Image TMNT gig. Rare treats us outsiders seldom get to witness.

That's what I was thinking. Definitely see the Dooney influence and I really dig it, it looks neat taking that influence and adding the elements of the Image upgrades on top of it.

It was my pleasure sharing! I really dig peeks behind the curtain into how a series came about, and thought that it was very interesting that they considering giving Frank at least a temporary break with a fill-in artist to allow him plenty of time to stay on schedule. Obviously the Image run is pretty unique in that all 23 issues were written and pencilled by the same team throughout.

They're neat pieces to add to my somewhat eclectic TMNT original art collection.

Would you mind if I posted these on my site as an Awesome Turtle Picture (with proper source credit, of course)?

I'd love to post them side by side with Fosco's pages so people can see the two different interpretations of the same pages.

I support that demand!

Please feel free to share! That'd be great!

Looks great! I can definitely see how the artist drew from more traditional TMNT art influences of the day, notably Dooney.

Thanks, man!