About Mirage Studios
Mirage Studios was the small independent comic book company founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird while they were living in the Portsmouth, NH area, and is best known for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series that was introduced in May 1984.With the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Eastman and Laird hired a core group of artists to help with the increasing workload. The first addition to the studio roster was Eastman’s high school friend Steve Lavigne, brought on in 1984 as a letterer.
In 1985, Eastman and Laird hired Cleveland artist Ryan Brown to assist them in inking the Turtles. Brown would be the first in a long line of artists, other than Eastman and Laird that would work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. In the following year, two new members were added, penciler Jim Lawson from Connecticut and New Jersey’s Michael Dooney who would paint a number of covers. With the addition of these four core artists, Mirage’s Ninja Turtles output would expand over the next couple of years to include numerous Mirage Studio spin-off titles, as well as a companion comic book entitled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Eastman and Laird along with Brown, Dooney, Lavigne and Lawson toured extensively over the years, making personal appearances and attending many comic book conventions around the country. After the TMNT became a phenomenon, later additions to the studio would include Eric Talbot from Eastman’s and Lavigne’s old high school, writer Stephen Murphy, and Brown’s friend, Dan Berger. With the exception of Kevin Eastman, all the original artists are still with Mirage today and contribute to the ongoing success of the TMNT.
In 1990 four separate corporations were formed to handle all activities related to the TMNT. The four corporations are Mirage Studios, Inc., Mirage Publishing, Inc., Mirage Licensing, Inc., and Mirage Management, Inc. All the companies operate out of offices in Northampton, MA. Peter Laird is the sole shareholder of all four companies and the Chief Executive Officer is Gary Richardson.
