Kevin Eastman
Kevin Brooks Eastman (born May 30, 1962) is an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the co-creator alongside Peter Laird of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman is also the editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.
Early life and career
He attended Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine with comic book illustrator Steve Lavigne.
In 1983 he worked in a restaurant while he searched for publishers for his comics. He met a waitress who was attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst and followed her to Northampton, Massachusetts. While searching for a local underground newspaper to publish his work, he began a professional relationship with Peter Laird and the two collaborated for a short time on various comics projects.
In May 1984, Eastman and Laird self-published the first black & white issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The forty-page over-sized comic had an initial print run of 3275 copies and was largely funded by a US$1000 loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin. It was published by the duo's Mirage Studios, a name chosen because, as Eastman says, "there wasn't an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards." By September 1985, their first issue had received three additional printings.