A rag to riches story of two misfit best friends

And the $6 billion franchise they created

Dec 12, 2022

It started out as a joke … just a little something to make his friend laugh.

But then it turned into a drawing contest to see who could “out draw” the other.

By the time these two friends were done, their sketches would eventually morph into a comic book.

That comic book then turned into the number one children’s cartoon … then into the most wanted toy for kids … and eventually into a series of movies that were worldwide -- a box office success.

By 1995 Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s drawing grew into a $6 billion franchise.

And what exactly did they draw back in 1983?

A bunch of turtles.

Struggling Artists

At the time both were artists living in Massachusetts. Peter worked as an illustrator for a local newspaper as well as did artwork for a magazine.

Kevin on the other hand was more of a struggling artist. He worked at a restaurant but on the side, would sell sketches to local newspapers.

In fact that’s how he met Peter.

Peter is older than Kevin by eight years. They were mis-matched friends because the only thing they shared in common was being an artist.

However one day in November, the two were hanging out when Kevin sketched a turtle standing on its hind legs, wearing a mask, while holding nun chucks.

Peter thought it was cute but figured he could draw one too, but his version would be much funnier.

The next thing you know, they had sketched four different turtles.

Making the turtles seem real

Kevin titled their sketch Ninja Turtles. But Peter added two more words to complete the title -- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Their intuition kicked in. They knew they were onto something. Since both men were already comic books fans, they decided to make one of their own, with the four turtles as the main characters.

They also added one other character … a father-like figure (or sensei) that would offer guidance to the four turtles. And to make this character stand out, they made it a rat instead of another turtle.

Now they’d have to give each character a name.

First, they tried Japanese names to go along with the ninja theme. But nothing seemed to stick. As they brainstormed for names, they were looking through books of Renaissance artists.

This was their “light bulb” moment. They would use the names of those artists for each of their characters: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo.

In an interview Peter explained that the names were “just quirky enough to fit the concept.”

The rat character however got a simpler name … Master Stick.

Follow what works

With names in place, the next step was to develop a storyline.

But instead of coming up with one from scratch, they figured why not follow the same formula that most comic books use?

And the one they liked best was Marvel Comics’ Daredevil.

Daredevil’s main character, Matt Murdock sees a truck barreling down on an old man, so he knocks him out of the way. But as the truck swerves, a canister flies out the back and strikes Murdock in the face.

The canister is filled with a radioactive substance, which blinds Murdock, but enhances his other senses to super-human levels.

The same story happens with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Except the canister smashes into a bowl of baby turtles, who fall into an open manhole. Splinter the rat finds the turtles crawling around in a viscous fluid seeping out of the broken canister, which turns them all into human-sized heroes.

Take it to the market

In March 1984, Kevin and Peter created a new company, Mirage Studios, so named because there was no actual studio other than Laird’s living room.

Mirage would be the publisher of their single comic book. But to make that happen, they needed money. So Kevin Eastman used his $500 tax return, and Peter Laird emptied out his bank account of $200.

Then they borrowed $1,300 from Kevin’s uncle to print 3,000 copies of their single edition comic book. They had just enough money left over to run an ad in Comics Buyer’s Guide Magazine, an industry publication.

Thanks to that one ad, comic distributors across the country started calling, and Mirage Studios sold all 3,000 copies within a few weeks.

With more orders coming in, Kevin and Peter printed another 6,000 copies and easily sold through those, too. By May, they’d made enough money to pay back Kevin’s uncle and split a $200 profit.

Repeat what works

In January 1985, the two men completed issue #2 and quickly received orders for 15,000 copies, which was so successful that distributors demanded 30,000 reprints of issue #1.

But they also wanted more copies of issue #2. Yet even that wasn’t enough because distributors wanted Kevin and Peter to create a third issue. That issue fetched orders totaling 50,000 copies.

Sales and issues continued to climb, peaking at issue #8, which sold 135,000 copies.

But here’s the thing to keep in mind. These weren’t kid friendly comics.

The Turtles diced up enemies while spewing curse words, and one of the Turtles’ allies was hockey mask-wearing vigilante Casey Jones, who beat down low-level crooks with baseball bats and hockey sticks.

However things were about to change.

Make it kid friendly

Sometime in 1986, Playmates Toys expressed an interest in producing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as action figures. However the way Playmates marketed their action figures was through cartoon shows.

And those cartoon shows appealed to children, aged 4 to 8. This meant the Turtles had to become kid friendly.

So Kevin and Peter made changes to their storyline. The Turtles became wise-cracking jokers obsessed with pizza and instead of using curse words, they shouted catchphrases like, “Turtle Power!” and “Cowabunga!”

Playmates Toys suggested even more changes, especially for each character. Their costumes had to be more colorful. In fact each was given his own signature color, displayed on the mask and elbow/knee pads – blue for Leonardo, orange for Michelangelo, red for Raphael, and purple for Donatello. In addition, they wore belt buckles with their first initial.

And the money rolled in

From 1988 – 1997, Playmates produced around 400 turtle figures, as well as dozens of vehicles and playsets. For the first four years of what would become known as “Turtlemania,” about $1.1 billion worth of toys were sold.

This made Turtles the #3 top-selling toy, behind only G.I. Joe and Star Wars.

Turtlemania reached new highs when in 1990, the Turtles hit the big screen with the live-action film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With a budget of $13.5 million, the film raked in over $200 million at the box office worldwide. And that lead to a spin-off of more Turtle movies.

In all, the Turtles franchise generated over $6 billion dollars.

Kevin and Peter’s story just goes to show how one quirky idea can be the foundation of a business that turns into one the most recognizable brands in the world.