Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1983–1986: Conception and first comics The comic book authors Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird met in Massachusetts and began working on illustrations together. In 1983, Laird invited Eastman to move in with him in Dover, New Hampshire . That November, Eastman drew a masked turtle standing on its hind legs armed with nunchucks to make Laird laugh. Laird added the words "teenage mutant". The concept parodied several elements popular in superhero comics of the time — the teenagers of New Teen Titans , the mutants of Uncanny X-Men and the ninja skills of Daredevil — combined with the comic tradition of funny animals such as Howard the Duck . Eastman and Laird developed the concept into a comic book. They considered giving the turtles Japanese names, but instead named them after the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo , Donatello , Raphael , and Michelangelo , which Laird said "felt just quirky enough to fit the concept". They developed a backstory referencing further elements of Daredevil : like Daredevil , the Turtles are altered by radioactive material, and their sensei , Splinter , is a play on Daredevil's sensei, Stick . In March 1984, Eastman and Laird founded a comic book company, Mirage Studios , in their home. Using money from a tax refund and a loan from Eastman's uncle, they printed copies of the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and advertised it in Comics Buyer's Guide . This attracted the interest of comic distributors, and all 3,000 copies were sold in a few weeks. Sales of further issues continued to climb.