Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the creators of the Ninja Turtles, started their first TMNT black and white comic book in 1984. They made 3000 copies with just $1200.
It all started in 1983 when Kevin drew a turtle with nunchaku and called it a Ninja Turtle. When he showed the drawing to Peter, he thought of the idea of teenagers and that's how it got started.
They made 4 turtles that had a ninjitsu master Splinter. Since Kevin and Peter both studied History and they didn't want to confuse America with Japanese names, the turtles were named after renowned Renaissance artists.
Kevin got $500 from his income tax refund check so Kevin and Peter decided to self-publish the comic. They borrowed $700 from Kevin's uncle and the two printed 3000 copies in black and white. The two had enough money left to advertise their comic on a page in the
popular comic book newspaper, Comic Buyer's Guide. Instead of selling the comics from the Comics Buyer's Guide, distributors called Kevin and Peter and made it easier for people to buy their comic book.
The two went to a comic convention in New Hampshire, then they made a four-page press kit with the story outline and artwork and sent them to 180 t.v and radio stations. A lot of local newspaper wrote about TMNT in their newspaper and PBS did a 5-minute story about the Turtles.
All 3000 copies sold out quickly. A second printing was made of 15000 copies and then a third shortly afterwards of 35000 copies! The success of TMNT led to more projects. Palladium Books made a role-playing game on TMNT; Dark Horse Miniatures made lots of TMNT action figures and First Comic
produced full colour reprint volumes of the original series. Obviously, TMNT was made into a television cartoon series with great success as well as movies played by real people and not by cartoon. The Turtles disappeared a few hours but their back and ready to kick some cowabunga shell!
