Uncle of Kevin Eastman and financier of the first issue of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
If you haven’t heard the story, he is the guy that put up the dough to get that first issue printed.
He’s the third name listed inside the front cover of TMNT #1
Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird & Special Thanks to Quentin Eastman.
My Turtle Story:
When Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird introduced The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the Portsmouth Mini Con on May 5, 1984, I attended with my wife and our week-old son, driving down from Manchester, NH where we lived then. We met my brother, Kim, Kevin’s father, and his wife who had come from their home in ME. It was a very happy time for us, a high point, having seen Kevin develop his burning ambition from boyhood to young adulthood and publishing his first comic. We met Peter Laird’s mom and dad for the first time, who seemed as delighted as the rest of us. We all watched as proud families while our two young men joyfully presented their artwork and signed copies of TMNT#1 under the banner of Mirage Studios.
Mirage was in Dover, NH in a small rented house at 28 Union Street that Kevin shared with Peter and his wife. I had visited them there several times as they developed The Turtles and other creations. I was working for Charrette, a graphic arts supplier that carried the special “multi-tone” paper Kevin and Peter liked to use for the black and white interior pages of the comic. Once you inked the outlines you could brush on chemicals that made either small or large dots appear, or parallel lines (depending on which of the chemicals you used), enabling them apply “halftone” shading. Once or twice I brought the paper to them and always enjoyed visiting.
I saw “The Fugitoid” in its early forms and I really liked it, as well as the early Turtles. I didn’t understand the Turtle’s background at all, having never heard of Frank Miller’s Ronin, but I liked them visually. The way they were drawn (hilariously menacing?) was engaging and somehow, although I knew Peter had an equal role in their creation, the way their gritted teeth appeared on either side of their snouts seemed all Kevin to me.
The dark scenes rendered so nicely in black and white with the halftone tints made you forget it was not in color, and I’m guessing this helped TMNT stand out from other low-budget black-and-white creations in those days. While I could never be accused of being a rabid comic fan, I was certainly a Kevin fan, so when they needed few dollars to print the first batch of #1s, I was happy to step up, and it has been a privilege ever since to have that special connection!
Over the years their hyperbolic rise in popularity was such that journos of all stripes ran short of words to describe it. All we could do was watch with silly grins and shake our heads in some combination of wonder and disbelief. It certainly was never boring! My family and I got to attend a couple of movie premieres and my kids always had TMNT toys at Christmastime thanks to cousin Kevin. I was further blessed to be able to work with Kevin briefly during the Tundra Publishing years (early ‘90s) where I helped set up the company in Northampton MA. Then more recently I was delighted that three of my four kids were able to accompany me to the San Diego Comic Con in 2022 where we spent some time with Kevin, Courtney and all of the “Team Eastman” crew. Then last year came the TMNT 40th anniversary Mini Con event in Portsmouth where I got to see many of my friends from the early Mirage and Tundra years including Mark and Molly Bode, Eric Talbot, Steve Levigne, Paul Jenkins, and Mike Dooney, and last but certainly not least, Peter Laird!
And on it goes, and likely (who knows?) for generations! Count me as a proud uncle who considers his small connection to a large cultural phenomenon to be an unearned honor and privilege, and who has a profound appreciation for all of you fans who make the continued success of the TMNT a reality. God bless you all!
My Personal Story:
I am lucky to have grown up in rural ME on a small lake where summers were full of friends from all over followed by 3 seasons of solitude and natural beauty. The youngest of 5, my older siblings connected me to an era of record hops and hot rods while I came of age in the Woodstock generation. It was a time when children were free to roam and make their own fun and we spent as many hours as possible outdoors.
My earliest interests were photography and writing and have been my biggest passions ever since. Early on I chose not to do either one as my main profession—I was afraid it would ruin them for me—but applied those skills in sales and marketing roles where effective communication through the use of graphics and words is essential. I have been fortunate to apply them in several industries including: graphic arts products, printing services, computer-aided-design systems, publishing (my short stint with Tundra), teaching writing at UNH, helping to launch a business software company, and most recently HVAC sales, design, and project management.
I have been blessed with 4 great kids, all adults now, plus a son-in-law and one grandchild, all of whom love the outdoors as much as I do and continue to astonish me with all of their various talents and pursuits ranging from graphic design, to functional medicine, to hospitality, to engineering, skiing, snowboarding, zip lining, boating, mountain biking, and even a little auto racing. They are always doing something interesting, which has triggered me to adopt a favorite phrase: It’s nice to be around Millennials, they’re fun to watch!
Transitioning now to making writing and photography my primary pursuits, I have dozens of stories at various stages of development from years of dabbling with off-the-wall fantasies and 3AM inspirations, along with thousands of slides and negatives shot with my Nikons over 50+ years and never properly edited for lack of affordable tools—such as we now have with Adobe et al—patiently waiting for me to fall in love with them again. Then there are the current projects that come popping up out of my 70+ years of life experience and a new set of Nikon digital gear. I love meeting others who are consumed by creative projects, or who are simply enthusiasts, to share and learn and (who knows?) even find opportunities to collaborate. I am eagerly anticipating meeting as many of you as I can at “Free Comic Books Day.”
–Quentin Eastman, Glastonbury CT, March 2025