My career in comics began in 1986, when I first joined Mirage Studios (owner and publisher of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). At the time I came on board, things were really beginning to take off for the TMNTs and their creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. In an effort to ease the growing workload, others jumped in and before long, we were a small but real publishing and licensing empire.
As for myself, I remained dedicated to the comics, which continued to be black and white. My first job was inking which then grew into penciling and then later the writing for the main title, from the years 1993-95. These books were officially known as volume 2. Besides volume 2, I wrote and illustrated many sub-titles (including Tales of the TMNT), various mini-series and one-shots. It was a crazy, busy time. There were 32 issues that comprised volume 4 (last of the Mirage TMNT books, 2001-2014) and on that run I was the exclusive penciller.
My days at Mirage Studios officially ended in 2014, years after the TMNTs were sold to Viacom/ Nickelodeon (2009). In total, I had been on the Turtles 28 years, making me one of the rare artists having the longest run with a single property.
Now, many years later, I remain a professional comic book writer and artist. I still self-publish, even to this day, and I am the only remaining Mirage artist to do so. Under my name, I release new comic book content every year. A list of my titles are as follows: Guzzi LeMans, A Walk Through Dinosaurland, Dragonfly, Hellride, Dinosaur Head Cat and The Box City Wallops.
Besides the books, I’m busy with commission work and the occasional cover.
You can check out my work at: jimlawsonart.com.
