The Peter Laird First Turtle from Justin Ishmael/ISH and Bottleneck Gallery hit my stoop this week and I’m extremely happy to have it on my shelf. It’s home next next to the 2015 Mondo Kevin Eastman First Turtle. While the people and company who produced the figure aren’t connected to the 2015 Kevin Eastman First Turtle, it feels a lot like an excellent sequel. The box is similar, down to the corner flag noting which edition between the black and white, orange mask, or red mask version.
There’s a real joy to this figure. I grew up with the original drawings from Eastman and Laird of the turtles, showing a difference in their style of an idea. There’s something wonderful about being able to hold the original idea for characters that have defined most of my life in my hands. The Eastman drawing came first with the title “Ninja Turtle,” Laird did his own spin on it, then Eastman drew four turtles together for Laird to ink, who added “Teenage Mutant” to “Ninja Turtles” and history was made.