One of the highlights of this year’s Free Comic Book Day has to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird making their first public appearance together in 20 years! They signed at Jetpack Comics in New Hampshire, and I’m sure it was quite an event. TMNT celebrates their 30th anniversary this year and the new movie is coming out August 12th while IDW has been having a lot of success with their current run on the comics, including work by Eastman. A big 30th Anniversary anthology comic is coming out this month, with work by various folks.

The incredible durability of these characters and this concept is pretty mind boggling. And to think it actually just started out as a Frank Miller parody—the original comic was based on Miller’s Ronin, which is now one of Miller’s lest remembered works.

While Laird seems to have banked his money and lived a contented life since the earliest Turtle craze, Eastman has had a more, um, dramatic career, but he’s still in there making comics and having a good time doing so. It’s amazing what happens when you own the rights to your IP. (And yes I know that Nickelodeon now owns the Turtles, but no one could say Eastman and Laird haven’t earned a lot from their creation.)

For comparison, here’s how the duo looked 20 years ago.

tmnt-laird-eastman.jpg

And here’s the trailer for the new movie which features CGI Turtles.

Hey, William Fichtner!

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7 COMMENTS

  1. So happy to see them together again, these gentlemen really changed the world with a crazy idea and a comic! It never felt right that they drifted apart, their combined team-work made them a creative dynamo. Separately, they were quite good, but together?

    Unchained LIGHTNING!

  2. Mark Mazz speaks the truth! I’d love to see them do a new book sometime, as they just have that synergy. I grew up in the Northampton, MA area and it was always a blast to run into them at the local comic shop for a signing, or just seeing them buying and talking comics.

  3. Wasn’t TMNT more of a Daredevil parody than Ronin? It’s been a while since I read the latter, but the Hand -> the Foot, Stick -> Splinter, radioactive ooze in both characters’ origins …

  4. It was sort of a parody of Frank Miller’s work in general. There are several Daredevil references, but the early TMNT covers were parodies of Ronin’s covers.

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