TMNT Logo Blue

White text in a red banner above larger green text that mimics the pattern of a turtle's shell on a blue background.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) were created by cartoonists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The four anthropomorphic turtles, named after Renaissance artists—Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo—made their debut in the eponymous comic book series published by Eastman and Laird's Mirage Studios in 1984. The duo published subsequent issues of the series in response to the Turtles' initial popularity. By the late 1980s they would go on to license their creations in one of the most successful franchises in entertainment history, yielding additional comic books, television shows, video games, motion pictures, and a wide array of merchandising.