Comic Book DB - Kevin Brooks Eastman

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Kevin Brooks Eastman
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Bio:
Kevin 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," having been collaborating with Pater Laird for a short while on various comics projects. The following year, in May 1984, Eastman and Peter Laird self-published (for $1200) 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 duos 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.

Laird's newspaper experience led to the two creating "a four-page press kit," that, according to Flaming Carrot-creator Bob Burden's own Mystery Men press-kit included "a story outline and artwork that they sent to 180 TV and radio stations," as well as both the Associated Press and United Press International. This led to widespread press coverage of both the TMNT property and Mirage Studios itself, creating "a demand for the interestingly-titled comic that caught everyone by surprise." With the solicitation of their second issue, Eastman and Laird's Turtles comic began a meteoric rise to success, bringing in advance orders of 15,000 copies - five times the initial print run of the first issue. This, Eastman has been quoted as saying:

"basically ended up with us clearing a profit of two thousand dollars apiece. Which allowed us to write and draw stories full time: it was enough to pay the rent, pay the bills, and buy enough macaroni and cheese and pencils to live on."

The Turtles phenomenon saw the duo invited to their first comics convention at the tenth annual Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1984, where they mingled with the likes of Larry Niven, Forrest J Ackerman and Fred Hembeck (among others).

With their (November 1985) fifth issue, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles downsized to the more "normal" American comics-format and size, and the previous four issues were also reprinted in this size and format with new, color, covers. Also in 1985, Solson Publishing released a "How to draw" volume entitled How to draw Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Solson would also produce six issues of a TMNT "Authorized Training Manual" as well as a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teach Karate" volume in 1987.)

comic led to a widening media presence for the eponymous heroes: Eastman and Laird began to widely merchandise their property, including with Dark Horse Miniatures (who produced a set of 15 mm lead figurines for "role-playing gamers and collectors"), Palladium Books, who produced a role-playing game featuring the Turtles and with First Comics who, between 1986 and 1988, reprinted in four volumes the first eleven issues as color trade paperback collections.

Palladium's RPG brought the Turtles to the attention of licensing agent Mark Freedman, and the Turtles phenomenon took off, with the various characters soon appearing on "T-shirts, Halloween masks, coffee mugs, and all kinds of other paraphernalia." In December, 1987, a five-part televised cartoon mini-series based on the Turtles debuted. The half-hour episodes were produced by Osamu Yoshioka, and the animation was directed by Yoshikatsu Kasai from scripts by Eastman & Laird with David Wise and Patti Howeth, with initial help from "ad agency executive" Jerry Sachs. The success of the mini-series was swift, leading to a full (and ultimately a 9-year, 10-season, 194-episode run) series, with the mini-series forming the first season. Bob Burden writes:

"within days of it airing it was apparent that the TMNT would prove every bit as popular for the television audience as it had been for the comic readers. From there, Surge Licensing formed an unstoppable creative marketing powerhouse that set a new standard of excellence in the licensing and merchandising industries."

In January 1988, Eastman and Laird visited Playmates Toys Inc, who wished to market action figures based on the comic book - and now animated cartoon - series, further cementing the Turtles' place in history, and making Eastman and Laird extremely wealthy, since:

"crucially... they were wise enough from the outset to properly copyright and trademark their creation, and were never tempted to give over control to anyone but themselves."

Eastman and Laird, as with many creative partnerships did not always see eye-to-eye, and their creative partnership became difficult. Speaking c2002, Laird noted that the two "didn't really have anything to do with each other for the last nine years. He had moved to California and I stayed in Massachusetts."

On June 1, 2000 Peter Laird and the Mirage Group purchased all of Kevin's ownership in the TMNT property and the corporations, except for a small continuing income participation. Laird believes that the reasoning was simply that Eastman "was just tired of it. He wanted to move on and has other things to spend more time on."

On March 1, 2008 Peter Laird and the Mirage Group completed the buyout of Kevin's entire right, title, interest and income participation in the TMNT property and the four Mirage corporations involved in the ownership, management and protection of the TMNT. This event finalizes the transaction began on June 1, 2000.

Kevin Eastman has been a longtime fan of the Science fiction and fantasy magazine, much of whose content was translated from the French, and appeared in the original M�tal Hurlant publication of which Heavy Metal is only the American-licensed incarnation. He cites it (after Jack Kirby) as bringing to his attention the "second greatest influence" on him as an artist, Richard Corben. He saw in its pages European art which had not been previously seen in the United States, as well as an underground comix sensibility that nonetheless "wasn't as harsh or extreme as some of the underground comix - but... definitely intended for an older readership."

Discovering that Heavy Metal had been put up for sale, and with one of Tundra's stated aims being to bring a more adult sensibility (and mature, adult readers) to comics overlapping with the magazine's target audience, Eastman decided that Heavy Metal was "the final piece of the puzzle", and looked into purchasing it. Noting that:

"In my life, too many things have happened in a weird, sort of shit-luck sort of fashion," Eastman purchased the magazine in January 1992.

Despite the audiences for Heavy Metal and Tundra's intended product (as well as more mature-themed comics in general) being of a broadly similar demgraphic, Eastman recognised from the start that "most of the audience who read Heavy Metal buy it off the newsstands; they're not going into comic book stores," and stated early on that his intention was to produce "numerous crossovers from the cutting edge of comics creators" to expose the magazine's readership not just to the comics industry, "but anything from the visual media that can cross over."

Eastman also attempted to bring some European hardcover comics to America, using Heavy Metal to help serialise themand both defray the costs and boost readership. Initial interest, however, was "fairly cool."

Date of Birth: May 30, 1962
Birthplace: Springvale, Maine

Favorite Creators:
Kevin Brooks Eastman is a favorite creator of 22 users
Notes:
Eastman is married to B-movie actress and model Julie Strain. This relationship saw Strain star in the animated film Heavy Metal 2000, based on Eastman's magazine property Heavy Metal, and the direct to video sequel to the 1981 feature film Heavy Metal.

Being married to a model led to Eastman experimenting in photography himself, producing images (primarily of his wife) which are available on the Heavy Metal website, in galleries entitled "I Shot my Wife". This led to Strain taking up the camera herself, with some success, resulting in a number of books published by Heavy Metal Magazine of and by Strain-Eastman.

Eastman himself has himself also acted alongside his wife in a small number of films since the mid-to-late 1990s, and has acted as producer/co-producer on a couple of films, notably St. Patrick's Day (co-produced and featuring Julie Strain Eastman) in 1997.