| abstract | - Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American comic book published on and off by Mirage Studios since May 1984. Originally conceived by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a one-off parody, the comic's popularity has gone on to inspire a major pop culture franchise, including television series, five feature films, numerous video games and a wide range of toys and merchandise. The concept originated from an evening of casual brainstorming. Kevin Eastman drew a picture of a turtle with nunchaku strapped to his arms. Peter Laird thought a slow turtle as a ninja was very funny. Eventually, they created a team of four turtles, each specializing in a different weapon. Using a tax refund and a loan from Eastman's uncle, they formed Mirage Studios and published a single-issue comic book that would parody Daredevil, Cerebus, Ronin and X-Men/The New Mutants. The traffic accident and truck carrying radioactive waste that caused the turtles mutation was an allusion to Daredevil's origin. The name "Splinter" is a parody of Daredevil's master, "Stick". Also, The Foot is a parody of a ninja clan in Daredevil called "The Hand". Also in this series rather than having unique mask colors all bandannas were red. This is a much darker and grittier version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Over the years, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would cross over with other successful independent comic books, including Dave Sim's Cerebus, Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon, Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot, and Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo. In 2009 Peter Laird sold the Turtles to Viacom, the parent company of Nickelodeon. At WonderCon 2011, it was announced that IDW Publishing had secured the rights to publish a new series and reprint the older comics.
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