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Eastman and Peter Laird created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984, when doodles on a piece of paper became four "turtle-men" martial artists, who were named after famous European Renaissance artists. As if that was not strange enough their sensei was a humanoid Japanese national rat, who also was a master martial artists, his name, Splinter. The comic was showcased in May of that year, with a distinctively different look, that included a color cover and black and white drawings inside. The studio that Eastman and Laird named Mirage distributed the Turtles comic and thanks to newspapers and other media outlets, the comic became a huge success. Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphel, and Leonardo parodied other superheroes and always seemed to have a wisecrack about the situations they faced and teenagers actually began to relate to them.
Each member of the group had a specific skill, weapon and attitude, that all came together to fight the evil Shredder, an arch rival of Splinter from Japan, as well as, a large assortment of bad guys. When the comic first ran there was no way to really tell the characters apart since the color cover showed them all wearing red masks over their eyes and the comic was in black and white. But through Eastman and Laird's sequential storytelling abilities, readers were able to discern the four through their traits and fell in love with the four adolescents. With the success in the comic book field, Playmates Toys agreed to put together a line of toys if an animated series would be released. Murakami, Wolf, Swenson, Inc. produced a mini-series that became a big hit, and the rest is history.
The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle animated show aired in 1987. The story was that an ambitious channel six investigative reporter, April O'Neil, is assigned to report on the mysterious thefts of hi-tech scientific equipment from various scientific laboratories across the city. April discovers that the thieves are ninjas and investigates the matter. Her investigation leads her into some serious Lois Laneesque trouble with some thugs. The Turtles save her from these thugs, and when she realizes what they are, she faints. When she comes to, she meets Splinter, who tells her how the humanoid superheroes came to be...
Some time ago in Japan, there was a Ninja Clan, known as The Foot, led by Hamato Yoshi, a quiet/gentle man who loved art. One of his students, Aroko Saki wanted to become the master of The Foot and through his efforts, forced Yoshi to leave the clan and Japan and flee to America for his life. Yoshi was forced to live in the sewers, where he made friends with the rats. One day, a small child was returning from the pet store with a fish bowl of baby turtles, tripped and fell, causing the bowl to crash on the street and the turtles to fall into a drain. Yoshi found the turtles and made four new friends.
One day, Yoshi discovers the turtles covered in some radioactive waste or mutagen that caused whomever touched it to take on the form of whatever animal they most recently had been in contact with. Thus, the turtles became human, because of their recent contact with Yoshi, while, Yoshi, a.k.a. Splinter, was transformed into a rat because of his recent contact with the rats.