"The Turtles do have parents. They are Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who put up their last 2,000 dollars to create the comic book of their dreams.

"When Peter and I came up with the Ninja Turtles -- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- in a lot of ways out out of a love of comics, and some silliness. Late one night after watching some bad TV, and feeling really silly, I did a drawing of a turtle with a mask on and nunchucks strapped to his arms -- to make Peter laugh.

"So then I had to do my own version of it, and change a few things, tweaked it a little bit, threw it back at Kevin -- kinda dueling sketches. And, ended up Kevin drew a -- made a drawing of four turtles, each with a different martial arts weapon and in pencil, which I inked, and added to his "Ninja Turtles", "Teenage Mutant." So then we had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and that was the beginning of it.

"I wanna stress that we were laughing to kill ourselves at the time. Sort of chucked the drawing aside, and the next morning we get up and looked at the drawing and said, "Geeze, we should really come up with a story to tell how they got to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and that's when we began working on the first issue."

The Turtles have been given different origins, but each have the same essential facts. According to the original story, a truck driving out of control had to swerve to avoid collision with a blind man. The jolt shook free a parcel of its cargo -- a glass canister containing mutanagenic material. The jar bounced a good distance until it struck a glass aquarium in the hands of a small boy named Chet. The bowl shattered, dropping all four of his baby turtles into an open manhole, along with the canister. As it hit the sewer floor, the container oozed a sticky liquid that covered the unharmed turtles. Splinter saw the whole ordeal and attempted to clean them off. The next few days brought Splinter some astonishment; they had all begun to grow in size and he grew most in intellect. After several years, the turtles and Splinter had reached maturity. Their growth level had slowed dramatically -- the turtles at the teenage level and Splinter at the middle age level. Splinter being older at the time of mutation and being mammalian, grew much more rapidly. He began training the Turtles in the art of Ninja, in order to avenge his master's slaying. Splinter found a discarded Renaissance book in the sewer and decided to name the turtles after his four favorite artists -- Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo. Leonardo was trained in the art of katana wielding, Donatello mastered the Bo-staff, Raphael's weapons are the three pronged sai daggers, and Michaelangelo whirls the deadly nunchacku. Leonardo is the unofficial leader, as well as the most mentally and physically toned. Donatello is the "gadget guy" and curious shy type, while Michaelangelo is the wisecracking, fun-loving partier. Raphael is the loner, a guy who harbors anger and rage, loves to hate, but is strangely devout and loving of his family.

The cartoon origin differs some from the original story line A small boy trips over his own feet, and loses grip on the bowl of turtles. They fall down the sewers, just as the Shredder is pouring what he thinks to be a deadly chemical into a drain pipe. His aim was for the elusive Hamato Yoshi who had been living in the sewers since his exile to America. When Yoshi finds the turtles in the ooze, they each transform into a mixture of their former selves and whatever animal they had last come into contact with. The turtles had last been in contact with Yoshi, but Yoshi had last touched his pet rat. Unlike the Mirage universe, the characters mutated instantly. Yoshi trained the Turtles and named them after his favorite Renaissance painters. Their mission was to defend the world from evils, unlike the somewhat dark assignment of assassination as in the Mirage series. "Splinter taught them to be ninja teens. Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, Raphael is cool but rude, Michaelangelo is a party dude!"

Splinter's character is based on a character of Marvel's Daredevil series -- Stick. He was meant to be a parody, but the character just grew as the Turtle phenomena took off. It began in Japan. The rat Splinter's master Hamato Yoshi was one of Japan's finest shadow warriors. His only competition was a ninja by the name of Oruku Nagi. They competed in all things, but none more fiercely than for the love a woman Tang Shen. Shen's love was only for Yoshi, and when Nagi tried to force himself on her, Yoshi killed him. By honor, he was to commit kabuki, or suicide, to keep from dishonoring his family, but Shen forced him to flee with her to New York. He took his rat with him. They lived in the States for some time, but one day Nagi's younger brother showed up and murdered the couple. Splinter was forced to live on the streets alone. Upon witnessing a truck accident involving a blind man, a young boy with a bowl of turtles, and a mysterious flying projectile, Splinter went down the storm drain to investigate. The shattered canister. and bowl lay in a puddle of radioactive gel on the sewer floor. After Splinter cleaned the Turtles off, he noticed that the material had begun to give each of them human qualities. When he and the Turtles had evolved both mentally and physically, Splinter began the training. He named the turtles, and told them of their mission to avenge his master's death.

Similarly, the cartoon and Archie universe has origins in Japan, where Yoshi and Saki were fierce competitors. By having Yoshi banished to the US, Saki could take over the clan. Yoshi, meanwhile, was forced to take refuse beneath the streets of Manhattan. One day, he and his pet rat came upon four baby turtles crawling in a strange ooze. The mutagen immediately transformed the turtles and Yoshi into cross hybrid creatures -- their genes were combined with those of the last animals they had each come into contact with. The turtles had most recently been with Yoshi, and he had most recently been carrying his pet rat. Splinter became half rat, half man and the turtles named him Splinter because of his ability to splinter foes easily.

The idea of the Shredder was brought to life when Kevin Eastman found some cheese graters that you can slip onto your arms. The idea was to turn the cheese graters into something more lethal, like the razor sharp blades that we are all too familiar with. Originally the younger brother to Oruku Nagi, Yoshi's mortal enemy, Oruku Saki trained heavily in the Foot Clan to seek revenge. Yoshi had killed his brother in the fight for Tang Shen, and Saki did everything in his power to return the favor. Saki built up the American branch of the Foot into a dishonorable gang of thieves and drug smugglers. In New York, he found Yoshi and Shen, and killed them both. The chain of revenge still had another link, and it lay with Yoshi's pet rat Splinter. Saki began calling himself Shredder and dressing in blade-decked dogis. When the Turtles were smart enough, and physically capable, Splinter assigned the them to avenge his master. It took two tries, but Shredder was destroyed.

In the cartoon, Saki was a student of Yoshi's who was riddled with jealousy, had Yoshi exiled, became Foot leader, formed an alliance with an alien warlord named Krang, and was ultimately responsible for the mutation of the Turtles and man-to-rat Splinter.

April O'Neil wasn't meant to be a television reporter, but hey a girl can make a strategic career move, ne? She was introduced as Baxter Stockman's lovely lab assistant in the second issue of TMNT. After being chased throughout the sewers by vicious Mousers, the Turtles came to her rescue and told her their story. She was given a dad, a sister, an archaeologist friend, a limited wardrobe, and a love life ...and about six different haircuts. But she's a babe, and we all love her. She was originally a brunette with a standard shoulder length haircut, and a blue jump suit, and she was the scientific assistant to the insane Baxter Stockman (don't worry, she didn't have a clue). A few issues later, April got a new "do" and began her adventures with the TMNT.

When the cartoons debuted, April's jumpsuit was replaced with a yellow one, and she was given a new job as a television field and anchor reporter. April is a diverse character, and seems the most realistic in the Mirage and Archie Comics universes.

Originally created as an "Asian" character in Peter's notes, but named after an "African American" woman Kevin once knew (his ex-wife), the character of April O'Neil was introduced in issue #2, and would have a bunch of different "looks" throughout the TMNT history. (Artobiography, 32)

I asked Kevin Eastman who he modeled Casey Jones after, and he gave me a satisfactory answer. "Ever see Big Trouble in Little China?" So his point was clear. Casey Jones is molded after the Kurt Russell character in the early '80s movie. Here is a great quote from the movie that I think pretty much sums up Casey's character: "Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big old storm right in the eye and says, 'Give me your best shot. I can take it.'" Truly, Casey has had his share of ups and downs. He fell for April, killed a kid, lost April, fell for Gabrielle, lost her forever, raised her kid, fell for April again, and settled down with her. He is beneficiary to the old farmhouse his family owns and that served as TMNT HQ for a long time, and his mother sold April the apartment building that she tended.

Kevin and Peter only worked on a dozen or so issues of TMNT together before the "business" end of it all totally consumed them. In addition, both creators were expanding their horizons... finding new and wonderful things to create.

In 1996, Eastman and Laird once again teamed up for a sort of TMNT renaissance. They'd struck a deal with Fox Kids for a live action series, and went to work collaborating on ideas. As popular as the series was, the network cancelled it in the first season, and the TMNT once again faded for a few years.

In 2001, after Kevin Eastman sold his share of the TMNT to Peter Laird, who was insistant on reviving an interest in the heroes, a new comic book was drawn up for Mirage Publishing. Plans immediately went underway for a new CGI movie. Unfortunately, those plans fell through. Undaunted, Peter got the media interested in the property once again. 2002 saw Playmates faithfully sign on as the exclusive toy manufacturer, a television series deal for Fox was signed by 4Kids Entertainment, and Konami returned to create cross-platform video games for 2003. Once again the Turtles are a hot commodity.

Find out more about the TMNT history in Kevin Eastman's book "Artobiography" published by Heavy Metal.