Kevin Eastman

Eastman was born in Portland, Maine. He attended Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine, with comic book illustrator Steve Lavigne. He grew up a comic book fan, with Jack Kirby as his idol and Kamandi as his favorite title of his.

In 1983, he worked in a restaurant while he searched for publishers for his comics. He met a waitress who was attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst and followed her to Northampton, Massachusetts. While searching for a local underground newspaper to publish his work, he began a professional relationship with Peter Laird, who worked in nearby Dover, New Hampshire, and the two collaborated for a short time on various comics projects.

In May 1984, Eastman and Laird self-published the first black & white issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The forty-page oversized comic had an initial print run of 3,275 copies and was largely funded by a $1,000 loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin. It was published by the duo's Mirage Studios, a name chosen because, as Eastman says, "there wasn't an actual studio, only kitchen tables and couches with lap boards." By September 1985, their first issue had received three additional printings.

Aside from his work on multiple Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles projects, and as publisher of Tundra Publishing, Eastman created Fistful of Blood, a black and white graphic novel featuring a blend of influences from Spaghetti Western and horror. The book featured art by Simon Bisley and was published by Heavy Metal.

Eastman has acted in a small number of films, including Guns of El Chupacabra in 1997 and The Rock n' Roll Cops in 2003. He also had a supporting role in the 2004 Troma film Tales from the Crapper. Before that, he had a cameo in the 2000 sequel to The Toxic Avenger called Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV and had a small role in the first TMNT movie as a garbage collector. He also wrote one episode of the animated children's series Corn & Peg.

He was the subject of an interview in the documentary films Independents and Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In the early 2000s Eastman was commissioned to create artwork for the drum kit used by System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, an avid comic book collector and vendor. Dolmayan commissioned Eastman to illustrate the Ninja Turtles on one drum, while the art for other drums in the kit, which depicted other characters and scenes, were produced by Simon Bisley, Tim Vigil, and Arthur Adams.

Family

Eastman has a son whom he had via surrogate. He was previously married to model and actress Julie Strain from 1995 to 2006.

Eastman married actress and producer Courtney Carr on October 5, 2013. They lived in San Diego with his son and pet dachshunds.

Religious beliefs

Eastman grew up in a church-going Christian family. He considers himself both "Christian" and "spiritual", saying that what he most appreciates is Christianity's message of universal love, which he believes is shared by many other religions.

Foundation

While co-managing Mirage Studios, Eastman and Laird often spoke of the difficulties in maintaining creative control of their work. Eastman decided to address this problem by using his own personal knowledge and connections to help other creators. Approaching Laird with his ideas, Eastman was met with a less than positive response:

[M]y first thought was to expand the publishing arm of Mirage. But the more sane of the two partners said, "What are you, nuts?"...[w]e were working pretty much full time just on the Turtles. Pete told me, and I agreed, that he didn't want to have anything else on his brain in terms of publishing at the time. So with his blessing, I started Tundra Publishing.