BCC 2016 Guest of Honor: KEVIN EASTMAN

 

from the official press release . . . . . .

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - July 8, 2016 - The Baltimore Comic-Con takes place in the beautiful Inner Harbor on September 2-4, 2016 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The Baltimore Comic-Con is proud to announce our 2016 Guest of Honor, Kevin Eastman. Don't miss out on the opportunity to see his premiere attendance at our show -- tickets are now on sale.

Kevin Eastman, collaborating with Peter Laird, self-published the first black & white issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in May, 1984 under their Mirage Studios banner. The 40-page over-sized comic had an initial print run of 3,000 copies, but received 3 additional printings within the next year and a half. Their second issue brought in advance orders of 15,000 copies - five times the initial print run of the first issue. By their fifth issue, TMNT was reformatted to the "normal" American comics size, and the previous four issues were reprinted to match with new color covers. With the Turtles' growing success and exposure, the property was licensed to numerous parties, including Dark Horse Miniatures, Palladium Books for an RPG, and First Comics, who reprinted the first eleven issues as 4-color trade paperback collections.

Palladium's RPG brought the Turtles to the attention of a noted licensing agent, and the Turtles phenomenon took off, with the various characters soon appearing on t-shirts, Halloween masks, and coffee mugs, just to name a few. In December, 1987, a five-part televised TMNT cartoon mini-series debuted. Due to its success, this cartoon mini-series led to follow-on seasons that resulted in a run of 9 years over 10 seasons with 194 episodes in total. The ongoing success of the animated series also led to yet further merchandise sales, and new action figures and licensing agreements.

In 1990, Eastman went on to found Tundra Publishing, which enabled him to meet his own projects as well as those of creators looking for a way to publish independent work. Titles that eventually found their way under the Tundra banner include From Hell, Lost Girls, The Crow, American Splendor, and Madman. Discovering that Heavy Metal had been put up for sale, and with one of Tundra's stated aims being to bring a more adult sensibility to comics, Eastman purchased the magazine in January 1992. In 1993, Eastman sold Tundra Publishing to Kitchen Sink Press but maintained ownership of Heavy Metal, which he continues to edit.

He continues to work in comics for IDW Publishing, writing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe, Fistful of Blood, and Hero Comics: A Hero Initiative Benefit Book, drawing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Kevin Eastman Notebook Series and variant covers for TMNT titles such as TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything, and reprints of his past work is featured in IDW's TMNT Color Classics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection, and TMNT collections. He has also provided variant covers for DC's Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"This is really exciting for us," said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. "We've been hoping to line this up for some time now, and thanks to our friends at IDW Publishing, we can finally put this one in the books. Kevin is one of the people we hear about regularly, with fans asking us if we can bring him to the show. We're thrilled we can finally answer, 'Yes!'"