Kevin Eastman/Tortues Ninja. Original drawing illustrating Leonardo. Felt pen, signed and dated 2018. TBE+. 30 X 42 Kevin Eastman (1962) is an American comic book writer, illustrator and editor. He is best known as one of the creators of the 1984 Ninja Turtles comic. His first comics (around 1980) were published by small independent publishers. In 1982, he met Peter Laird in Northampton. The two struck up a friendship, and in 1983 created their own publishing house, Mirage Studios, to publish their creation, Tortues Ninja, from 1984 onwards. This black-and-white comic quickly caught the attention of readers and became an early success in the new comic-store market. Eastman and Laird team up with Mark Freedman to develop Ninja Turtles licenses. While the early adventures were dark and aimed at a teenage readership, the later ones were aimed more at younger readers, and the animated series and films that were produced took up this version of the characters, achieving major success. Eastman makes a comeback with Laird in 2019 for a mini-series with the Ninja Turtles entitled the last Ronin, taking an unused Eastman script written in 1987 and adapting it for the present day. In December 2020, he works for Marvel Comics for the first time, drawing a short Conan the Barbarian story in the King-Size Conan anthology.