Kevin Eastman

Kevin Brooks Eastman (born May 30, 1962) is an American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird.

Eastman was also formerly the editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.

Eastman was born in Portland, Maine.

He attended Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine, with comic book illustrator Steve Lavigne.

He grew up a comic book fan, with Jack Kirby as his idol and Kamandi as his favorite title of his.

In 1983 he worked in a restaurant while he searched for publishers for his comics.

He met a waitress who was attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst and followed her to Northampton, Massachusetts.

While searching for a local underground newspaper to publish his work, he began a professional relationship with Peter Laird, who worked at nearby Dover, New Hampshire, and the two collaborated for a short time on various comics projects.

In May 1984, Eastman and Laird self-published the first black & white issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The forty-page oversized comic had an initial print run of 3,275 copies and was largely funded by a US$1000 loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin.

It was published by the duo's Mirage Studios, a name chosen because, as Eastman says, "there wasn't an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards."

The Turtles phenomenon saw the duo invited to their first comics convention at the tenth annual Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1984, where they mingled with notable fandom celebrities like Larry Niven, Forrest J. Ackerman and Fred Hembeck.

By September 1985, their first issue had received three additional printings.

Laird's newspaper experience led to the two creating a four-page press kit, which included a story outline and artwork.

They sent the press kit to 180 television and radio stations as well as to the Associated Press and United Press International.

This led to widespread press coverage of both the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mirage Studios itself, creating a demand for the comic.

With their second issue, Eastman and Laird's Turtles comic began a quick rise to success, bringing in advance orders of 15,000 copies, five times the initial print run of the first issue.

This earned Eastman and Laird a profit of $2,000 each and allowed them to become full-time comic book creators.

Their fifth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in November 1985, and was downsized to the more common American comics-format and size.

The previous four issues were also reprinted in this size and format with new colored covers.

Also in 1985, Solson Publications released How to Draw Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Solson would follow this up with the six-issue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual as well as one issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teach Karate volume in 1987.

Mirage's Turtles comic led to a widening media presence for the heroes.

Eastman and Laird began to widely merchandise their property.

Dark Horse Miniatures produced a set of 15 lead figurines for role-playing gamers and collectors, Palladium Books produced a role-playing game featuring the Turtles, and First Comics reprinted in four volumes the first eleven issues as color trade paperback collections.

Palladium's role-playing game brought the Turtles to the attention of licensing agent Mark Freedman and the Turtles phenomenon took off, with the various characters soon appearing on T-shirts, Halloween masks, mugs, and other paraphernalia.

A five-part televised cartoon mini-series based on the Turtles debuted in December 1987.

The half-hour episodes were produced by Osamu Yoshioka and the animation was directed by Yoshikatsu Kasai from scripts by David Wise and Patti Howeth.

The mini-series was successful, leading to a full series, with the mini-series forming the first season.

The series had a 9-year, 10-season, 193-episode run.

Bob Burden writes:

"within days of it airing it was apparent that the TMNT would prove every bit as popular for the television audience as it had been for the comic readers. From there, Surge Licensing formed an unstoppable creative marketing powerhouse that set a new standard of excellence in the licensing and merchandising industries."

In January 1988, Eastman and Laird visited Playmates Toys, who wished to market action figures based on the comic book and animated cartoon series, further cementing the Turtles' place in history and making Eastman and Laird extremely successful.

Multiple other Turtles comics, toys, books, games, and other merchandising items have subsequently appeared, overseen and sometimes fully created by Eastman and Laird.

Among these are five live-action films: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).

Four more television series were also created: Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018).

There also were two animated feature films: TMNT (2007) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023).

Eastman wrote the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Lone Rat and Cubs".

He also co-wrote the 2016 stand-alone TMNT short "Pizza Friday".

Eastman also made a brief cameo in Out of the Shadows, and made a voice-over cameo in Mutant Mayhem.