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The ’80s TMNT cartoon was far less serious and far more funny than the original comics, and co-creator Kevin Eastman loves it for that reason
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman doesn’t mind that the 1987 cartoon was sillier than the original comic, because it made him feel like a kid again
FeaturesbyJoshua Lapin-Bertone, Contributing writer
Published on Wed Jul 15 2026
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If you grew up with the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, you might be surprised to see just how different it is from the original comic. While the 1987 cartoon gave the Turtles bombastic personalities and zany adventures, the original comic was a grim and violent homage to Frank Miller’s Daredevil
Kevin Eastman, who co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles alongside Peter Laird, didn’t mind the cartoon taking the characters in another direction. Not only did it help Eastman feel like a kid again, but the comic creator feels the cartoon expanded the characters in meaningful ways
“When we did the original Turtles comic series, it was a little darker and edgier,” Kevin Eastman says during a panel at Florida Supercon. “The pure joy and the love of doing the cartoon series was the crossover of all the things that we liked about our favorite cartoons growing up. You know, Scooby-Doo and so many wonderful things, but adapting the Turtles and exploring so many different Turtles adventures. There was stuff that we did in the original comic series that was brought to life in a whole new way.”
“We added things like the different colored bandanas. When I did the first color painting of the Turtles, I did them with all red bandannas. And so, when we started on the development of the show, we added different colored bandanas. That helped associate their personalities with their bandanas. Adding the humor, things like the pizza and even cowabunga, and things like that. The [original comic] was so serious, and we had so much fun on this series.”
Cowabunga
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Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear
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