Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

• 1. Introduction

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  In November 1983, in Dover, New Hampshire, the artist Kevin Eastman drew a masked turtle standing on its hind legs and gripping nunchucks. He drew it to make his fellow artist Peter Laird laugh. Laird answered by adding two words above it: "teenage mutant." That scribbled joke became Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a franchise that spread from a self-published comic into cartoons, films, video games, toys and theme park rides. It has passed through many owners and many tones, from gritty to goofy and back again. How does a sketch made for one laugh turn into a toy phenomenon? Why did its own creators complain about the cartoon that made it famous? And who owns the Turtles now?

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• 2. Borrowed Heroes and Villains

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  New Teen Titans, Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil and Howard the Duck were all raw material for the Turtles. The teenagers came from the first, the mutants from the second and the ninja skills from the third. Howard the Duck stood for the old comic tradition of funny animals. Together they made a parody of the superhero books that were popular at the time.

  Daredevil supplied more than ninja skills. Like that hero, the Turtles are changed by radioactive material. Their teacher, a rat named Splinter, is a play on Stick, who trained Daredevil.

  Eastman and Laird briefly considered Japanese names for the brothers. They chose Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo instead, borrowing from Italian Renaissance artists. Laird said the choice "felt just quirky enough to fit the concept."

  In most versions of the story, radioactive ooze turns four baby turtles into humanoids. They live in the sewers of New York City and fight evil there. Leonardo is the leader, the most disciplined and skilled of the four. He is an expert swordsman who carries two katana and wears a blue bandana. Raphael wears red, is the strongest and quickest to lose his temper, and fights with a pair of sai. Donatello, in purple, uses his intellect to invent gadgets and vehicles, and he carries a bō staff. Michelangelo, in orange, is the most fun-loving and least disciplined. He is usually shown as the fastest and most agile, and he uses nunchucks.

  Splinter, a mutant rat, is their wise adoptive father and teaches them ninjutsu. In some tellings he was once the pet rat of the ninja master Hamato Yoshi. In others he is Yoshi himself, mutated. April O'Neil helps the Turtles, and her job changes with the version. She is a news reporter, a lab assistant or a genius computer programmer. In most versions Casey Jones, a vigilante in a hockey mask, pursues her romantically and usually becomes the Turtles' ally.

  The Shredder is the Turtles' nemesis, a criminal mastermind in samurai-like armor who leads a ninja clan called the Foot Clan. His real identity is usually the ninja Oroku Saki. Karai, a skilled martial artist, is usually his second in command. In some iterations she is his daughter. Some versions add Baxter Stockman, a mad scientist, and Krang, an alien warlord from Dimension X. Krang first appeared in the original animated series, was inspired by the Utrom race from the comics, and is sometimes shown as an Utrom himself. That same series also invented the Shredder's buffoonish henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady, a mutant warthog and a rhinoceros.

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• 3. The Comic Books

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  In March 1984, Eastman and Laird founded a comic book company, Mirage Studios, in their own home. A tax refund and a loan from Eastman's uncle paid for printing the first issue. They advertised it in Comics Buyer's Guide, and the notice caught the eye of comic distributors. All 3,000 copies sold within a few weeks.

  The book debuted in May 1984 at a comic convention in a Sheraton hotel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was an oversized, magazine-style publication printed in black and white on cheap newsprint. Its creators meant it as a one-shot. Demand turned it into an ongoing series.

  The main Mirage series eventually ran for 129 issues across four volumes. Mirage also published a companion book, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to fill gaps in the franchise's continuity. No Mirage issue has appeared since issue 32 in 2014, and the studio closed in 2021.

  Other publishers took their turns. From 1988 to 1995, Archie Comics published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures for a younger audience. It began by adapting episodes of the first cartoon, then moved to original stories and reached 72 issues. A spin-off series, Mighty Mutanimals, followed a team of supporting characters.

  In 1996, Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen noticed that no Turtles comics were being published. He oversaw a relaunch as the third volume of the main series, with Gary Carlson writing. The story turned strange and dark. Splinter became a bat, Donatello a cyborg, and Leonardo lost a hand. Raphael, scarred, took on the identity of the new Shredder. The series was canceled in 1999 after 23 issues, with no conclusion. In 2018, IDW reprinted it in full color as Urban Legends and commissioned three new issues to finish the story.

  Dreamwave Productions published a monthly comic inspired by the 2003 television series from June to December 2003. Peter David wrote it and LeSean Thomas drew it. Dan Berger's daily newspaper strip began in 1990, with an adventure story on weekdays and puzzles on weekends. At its peak it ran in more than 250 newspapers, and it ended in December 1996. Japanese artists also produced several manga, including a 15-issue adaptation of the original American cartoon and a 1995 series by Ogata Nobu in Comic BomBom.

  IDW Publishing gained the license in 2011, and its new ongoing series launched in August of that year. Eastman and Tom Waltz wrote it, and Eastman and Dan Duncan provided the art. In 2017, issue 73 made it the longest-running series in the franchise's history. Volume one ended at issue 150 in April 2024, and volume two began three months later, in July.

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• 4. Toys and Cartoons

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  Eastman and Laird licensed the Turtles to Playmates Toys in 1987, and the results were enormous. About 1.1 billion dollars worth of Turtles toys sold between 1988 and 1992. That made them the third-bestselling toy figures ever at the time, behind only G.I. Joe and Star Wars. Between 1988 and 1997, Playmates produced around 400 figures along with dozens of vehicles and playsets.

  Mirage's staff artists supplied concept designs for many of the figures, vehicles and playsets, and the legal text on the packaging credits them. Playmates also made Turtles and Star Trek crossover figures, because it held the Star Trek action-figure license. Karl Aaronian, the company's marketing vice president, assembled the designers and writers. The writers John Schulte and John Besmehn wrote the copy for the toy line, and their ideas filtered into the television series.

  Playmates had watched G.I. Joe, He-Man and Transformers promote toys with animated series, and it followed the same plan. The first Turtles cartoon premiered in 1987 as a five-part miniseries. It became a regular Saturday-morning syndicated show on the 1st of October 1988 and ran for ten seasons, ending in 1996. The show gave the Turtles their color-coded masks, catchphrases, love of pizza and distinct personalities.

  To suit parents and television networks, the cartoon dropped expletives, cut the violence and made the villains less threatening. In the United Kingdom and some other European regions, the franchise became Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, because the word "ninja" sounded violent.

  In 1989, Eastman and Laird answered worries that the series was drifting from its roots with an editorial in the comic. They wrote: "We've allowed the wacky side to happen, and enjoy it very much. All the while, though, we've kept the originals very much ours." Eastman later said he regretted approving some projects. Laird wrote that he disliked the softer tone of the cartoon.

  In London's Lewisham, the Army & Navy Store gave its entire basement to Turtle games, videos, costumes and other goods in the run-up to Christmas.

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• 5. Films and Television

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  In 1990, the first Turtles film reached theaters. Actors wore costumes with animatronic heads, first built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The film followed the comic more closely than the cartoon, with a darker tone. It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1990 and broke the record for highest-grossing independent film, earning more than 200 million dollars worldwide.

  A rushed second film, The Secret of the Ooze, followed in 1991. Its lighter tone brought weaker reviews and weaker box-office results. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III in 1993 was aimed at Japan, then the largest foreign market for US films. It never opened there, and its reviews and sales were weaker still.

  The computer-animated TMNT came out in 2007. In August 2014, a live-action reboot directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay received negative reviews but succeeded at the box office. Its sequel, Out of the Shadows, directed by Dave Green, arrived in June 2016 and was a box-office bomb. A third film was canceled. Netflix released a sequel to the Rise cartoon in 2022. In August 2023, Mutant Mayhem, directed by Jeff Rowe and produced by Seth Rogen, was released as an animated reboot. Several critics named it the best Turtles film.

  A live-action series, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, aired on Fox in 1997 and 1998. It introduced a fifth, female turtle, Venus de Milo, who was skilled in the mystical arts of the shinobi. The show was canceled after one season of 26 episodes. Eastman said he liked it. Laird called it the only Turtles project he "truly regrets."

  In 2003, a new animated series from 4Kids Entertainment began airing and ran seven seasons, to 2009. Mirage co-produced it and owned one-third of the rights. That stake gave Laird a role in the production, and the show was closer to the original comics, with a darker tone than the 1987 cartoon. It ended with a feature-length television film, Turtles Forever, made for the franchise's 25th anniversary.

  Nickelodeon's computer-animated series premiered in September 2012 and ran five seasons, to 2017. It drew on anime-like imagery. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began in 2018, returned to 2D animation and leaned on lighter humor. It ran for two seasons. Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a 2D spin-off of Mutant Mayhem, reached Paramount+ in 2024. It was canceled in 2025 after management shifts that followed the Paramount-Skydance merger.

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• 6. Games and Stage

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  In 1989, the Japanese company Konami released the first Turtles game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It sold approximately four million copies, making it one of the bestselling games on that console. An arcade game followed the same year, and it was ported to the NES as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game.

  In 1991, Konami released The Manhattan Project for the NES and another arcade game, Turtles in Time. That game reached the Super Nintendo in 1992. Later in 1992, The Hyperstone Heist for the Sega Genesis reused many of its elements. Konami also made handheld Game Boy titles: Fall of the Foot Clan in 1990, Back from the Sewers in 1991 and Radical Rescue in 1993.

  In September 2002, Konami acquired the license to adapt the 2003 cartoon, leading to games with 3D play inspired by the older beat 'em ups. Ubisoft took over the rights in 2006, starting with a game based on the 2007 film. Activision released the downloadable Out of the Shadows in 2013. In 2016, Activision and PlatinumGames developed Mutants in Manhattan, a team-based brawler with an original story by the IDW writer Tom Waltz.

  The Turtles also became guest fighters. They are playable in Injustice 2 and in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. In those games, Cam Clarke, Townsend Coleman, Barry Gordon, Rob Paulsen and Jim Cummings reprise their roles from the 1987 cartoon. Shredder's Revenge, released in June 2022, was inspired by that cartoon and the early Konami games. In March 2023, Paramount Global announced a big-budget game based on The Last Ronin, a five-issue miniseries published from 2020 to 2022. In August 2023, Black Forest Games was named as developer and THQ Nordic as publisher.

  On the 17th of August 1990, the "Coming Out of Their Shells" tour premiered at Radio City Music Hall. Live-action Turtles played as a band on stage. Donatello played keyboards, Leonardo bass guitar, Raphael drums and saxophone, and Michelangelo guitar. In the plot, the Shredder kidnaps April O'Neil and the Turtles rescue her. The Shredder, who only rapped about how much he hated music, tried to eliminate all of it, and rock and roll defeated him. The show played 40 dates across the United States, was sponsored by Pizza Hut, and was promoted with an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. A pay-per-view special, a studio album and a VHS release followed. A second tour, Gettin' Down in Your Town, was less successful.

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• 7. Everywhere Else

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  In 1985, Palladium Books published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, a tabletop role-playing game with rules for creating anthropomorphic animal mutants. Its appendices offered antagonists such as the Terror Bears, Caesars Weasels and Sparrow Eagles. Supplements appeared for years, until Palladium ended its license with Mirage Studios in January 2000 because of the cost of maintaining it. In 2026, Wizards of the Coast released Turtles sets for Magic: The Gathering as part of its Universes Beyond collaborations.

  At the height of their fame, the Turtles turned up in the grocery aisle. Chef Boyardee sold canned pasta shaped like the four brothers, and one version added the Shredder. Royal OOZE Gelatin Desserts, distributed by Nabisco, came in orange, strawberry and lime. Shreddies, a Canadian cereal, carried Turtles box art. Customers could mail away for an exclusive Shredder figure, darker than the standard Playmates version and shipped in a plastic baggy. It is now one of the more valuable Turtles action figures.

  Nickelodeon Universe at American Dream Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, opened in 2019 with two record-breaking Turtles coasters. The TMNT Shellraiser is the steepest roller coaster in the world, at 121.5 degrees. The Shredder is the world's longest free-spinning coaster, 1322 feet long and 62 feet at its highest. Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, added Shell Shock in 2012 and the pendulum ride Shredder's Mutant Masher in 2015. One of the nine zones of Dream Island in Moscow is also Turtles-themed, and Majaland Gdańsk opened a Turtles ride called Lot Żółwiem in 2024. The Turtles even reached NASA, which allowed a logo with a Ninja Turtle to be designed for the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module.

  The Turtles began as a parody, and the comic's explosive success soon brought parodies of its own. Small-press black and white comics appeared with titles such as Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters and Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos. Dark Horse Comics launched Boris the Bear in response, and its first issue was titled "Boris the Bear Slaughters the Teenage Radioactive Black Belt Mutant Ninja Critters." Once the Turtles went mainstream, the satire magazines Cracked and Mad took aim too. The British television series Spitting Image ran a recurring sketch called "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turds." Samurai Pizza Cats is also considered a Turtles parody, and its theme song boasts, "they've got more fur than any turtle ever had."

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• 8. Changing Hands

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  In 2000, Eastman sold his share of the Turtles franchise to Laird, who then owned it alone. On the 21st of October 2009, it was announced that Laird had sold the franchise to Viacom, now Paramount Skydance Corporation. Laird said he had tired of working on Turtles. He wrote: "I am no longer that guy who carries his sketchbook around with him and draws in it every chance he gets." He kept the right to continue the Mirage comic series.

  The toy line that had started it all changed hands too. Later in 2025, Paramount ended its agreement with Playmates Toys, concluding a tenure as the Turtles' toy maker that had lasted nearly 40 years. In February 2026, Mattel acquired the Turtles toy license.

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