Kevin Eastman

Kevin Eastman is an American comics artist and writer who co-created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird. Born in Portland, Maine, he met Laird in Massachusetts and developed the characters from a playful drawing of a turtle with martial-arts weapons. Their first comic was self-published through Mirage Studios in May 1984.

The initially independent comic developed into a franchise spanning animation, toys and film. Eastman's subsequent projects include Drawing Blood and Radically Rearranged Ronin Ragdolls. His career retains a connection to the small-press comics and imaginative character drawing from which the Turtles emerged.