Kevin Eastman - Early Life

Early Life

Eastman was born on May 30, 1962 in Springvale, Maine. By 1983, he was "working in a restaurant and seeking underground publishers for his comix stories." He began his career after meeting a waitress who went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, whom Eastman followed to Northampton, Massachusetts. While searching for a local underground newspaper to publish his work, he began a profressional relationship with Peter Laird and the two collaborated for a short while on various comics projects. The following year, in May 1984, Eastman and Peter Laird self-published (for $1,200) the first black & white issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The forty-page oversized comic had an initial print run of 3000 copies, and was largely funded by a $1000 loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin, and published by the duo's Mirage Studios, a name chosen because "there wasn’t an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards." By September 1985, that first issue had received a further 3 printings.