So, in January 1985, they completed issue #2 and quickly received orders for 15,000 copies, which was so successful that distributors demanded 30,000 reprints of #1, and even more of a second print of #2. By May, they’d made enough money to pay back Eastman’s uncle and split a roughly $200 profit.Īlthough the comic was meant to be a “one-shot,” a single issue, self-contained story, they realized they might be on to something. With more orders coming in, they printed another 6,000 copies and easily sold through those, too. Thanks to that one ad, comic distributors across the country started calling, and Mirage sold all 3,000 copies within a few weeks. After printing costs, they had just enough money left to run an ad in Comics Buyer’s Guide Magazine, an industry publication. Then, Eastman used his $500 tax return, Laird emptied his bank account of $200, and they borrowed $1300 from Eastman’s uncle to print 3,000 copies of their first comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In March 1984, Eastman and Laird created a new company, Mirage Studios, so named because there was no actual studio other than Laird’s living room. Splinter finds the turtles crawling around in a viscous fluid seeping out of the broken canister, which is the mutagen that turns the Turtles and Splinter into human-sized heroes. Later, he uses his heightened senses to fight crime as Daredevil.įor the Turtles' origin, the same scenario plays out, except the canister bounces off the boy’s head and smashes into a bowl of baby turtles, who fall, along with the canister, into an open manhole. The canister is filled with a radioactive substance, which blinds Murdock, but enhances his other senses to super-human levels.
As the truck swerves, a canister flies out the back and strikes Murdock in the face. In Daredevil #1, Matt Murdock sees a truck barreling down on an old man, so Murdock knocks the man out of the way. However, the coolest connection is that the Turtles and Daredevil seem to share the same origin story. The Foot Clan is a take-off of the ninja clan in Daredevil known as The Hand. For example, Splinter, the Turtles’ father figure and sensei, is an homage to Daredevil’s sensei, Stick. There are many aspects of the Turtles that are a nod to Marvel Comics’ superhero Daredevil. In May 2012, that original drawing of the Turtles sold at auction for $71,700. Laird told me, “It felt just quirky enough to fit the concept.” So they tried great Renaissance artists instead – Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. At first they tried Japanese names, but it just wasn't working.
~tOkKa, Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0Īs Eastman and Laird began fleshing out the Turtles to create a comic book, they had to give the Turtles names. Laird outlined the group shot in ink and added “Teenage Mutant” to the “Ninja Turtles” title.Īn unpublished set of pages from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 (1984). Not to be outdone, Eastman drew four turtles, each armed with a ninja-style weapon. Laird laughed and then drew a more refined version of the turtle. Eastman wrote “Ninja Turtle” on the top of the page.
As a joke, Eastman drew a turtle standing on its hind legs, wearing a mask, with nunchucks strapped to its arms. Struggling artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were living in Northampton, Massachusetts, when they came up with the Turtles in November 1983. If you're looking for a thorough history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this is a pretty good place to start. To make sure I got the scoop on everyone’s favorite pizza-obsessed heroes in a half-shell, I went straight to the source-co-creator Peter Laird-who was kind enough to answer our burning questions about the franchise. If you were a kid in the 1980s or 90s, you probably spent some time reading, watching, or playing with four adolescent reptilian martial arts experts with irregular DNA.
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