Kevin Eastman

Born in Portland, Maine in 1962 Kevin Eastman began drawing at a very young age copying children’s books and reading comics. Inspired by master storyteller Jack Kirby, and later by self publishing creators Richard Corben, Vaughn Bode, and Dave Sim, all of his early work focused more on Science Fiction influences than traditional Superhero style comics.

In 1982, while trying to sell some of his illustrations to local fanzines, he met Peter Laird in Northampton, Massachusetts and the partnership studio; Mirage Studios was formed. Less than a year later in the middle of a late night jam session, Eastman doodled a new character he dubbed a “Ninja Turtle” to make Laird laugh—several sketches a final drawing of four characters later “Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” had officially entered the universe!