TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
THE STORY BEHIND THE SF AND FANTASY OF YESTERYEAR 1990
MY FAVOURITE TURTLES project – entertainment or otherwise, ever in the entire world – was the first Turtles movie,” grins a buoyant Kevin Eastman, co-creator of those enduring Heroes in a Half Shell, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “It was really a series of happy accidents that pulled it together and made it all that it is. It was Herculean that it came out as beautifully as it did.”
Back in the late ’80s, Eastman and his co-creator pal Peter Laird had already tasted success with their cult comic book series about four crime-fighting, mask-wearing, pizza-loving reptiles. First appearing in 1984, their monochrome graphic novel had become an overnight hit, spawning more comics, a line of collectable toys and an animated series which, alongside pizza, swiftly became a staple ingredient of every ’90s kid’s pop-culture diet. However it wasn’t until director Steve Barron released his live-action feature-length adaptation in 1990
