DOVER, New Hampshire — As the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grew into pop culture stars, there were few references to the places they came from.
It wasn’t the sewers of New York City, where the Turtles had mutated from ordinary reptiles into a crime-fighting quartet, fighting their enemies with nunchucks, snark, and pizza. Rather, it was a small town off the coast of New Hampshire.
The new exhibit puts the community of Dover, New Hampshire, at the center of the Turtles story, hoping to attract fans who are obsessed with the Turtles or who grew up reading the comics and watching the Ninja Turtles movies and TV shows. At one point in the 1980s, the craze surrounding the Turtles was called Turtlemania.
“It’s the birthplace,” said Kevin Eastman, who created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird in Dover 41 years ago. The first issue sold a year later. “That’s where the Turtles were born. … It’s very historic and very important to us.”
The turtle exhibition opened last month at the Woodman Museum, which also features a variety of collections including a stuffed polar bear and a Victorian funeral exhibit with a horse-drawn hearse.
Featuring cabinets filled with colorful, action figures, the exhibit aims to be a destination for all things turtle-related.
The franchise had humble beginnings in Dover, where the duo created Mirage Studios, a play on the fact that they made their first comics in their living room rather than an actual studio. Inspired by Eastman’s fascination with turtles and martial arts, they came up with the crime-fighting Turtles and self-published their first comics in black and white.
“We hoped that one day we would sell enough copies of the 3,000-issue $1.50 comic book to pay my uncle back,” Eastman said, adding that he had no intention of writing a second issue until fans asked for more.
“We loved the characters. We loved what we were doing. We told the best story we could. We hoped for the best,” he continued. “But I never imagined that one comic book could do this.”
Ralph DiBernardo, who owned a comics and games store near Rochester, was one of the first to champion the turtles. He had met Eastman and Layard while selling them, and was the first person to sell a turtle comic commercially after buying 500 copies. But at the time, it seemed more like a favor to his friends than a business decision, and he said he thought, “Those guys are never going to get their money back.”
“Watching these two guys who were struggling to make ends meet go from being multi-millionaires to being the American dream that never happens,” said DiBernardo, who remains friends with both artists.
The exhibition details how the turtles, featuring pizza-obsessed characters and catchphrases like “Kowabunga” and “Booyakasha,” emerged as a global phenomenon.
Highlights of the exhibit include a video game console that allows visitors to play Turtles arcade games, vinyl records of the Turtles movie soundtracks, and signed, first-issue Turtles comic books, some of which are worth tens of thousands of dollars. The Turtles’ marketing prowess is also on display, with Turtles-inspired Christmas ornaments, rugs, backpacks, and a talking toothbrush.
At its center is a set of massive bronze sculptures depicting four turtles—Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael—along with a mutant rat and the resident wise man, Master Splinter. The exhibit was one of 12 Eastman created as part of a fundraising drive to benefit the museum in Northampton, Massachusetts.
“The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a multi-billion dollar international franchise that started in Dover,” said Jonathan Nichols, executive director of the Woodman Museum. “So it was a natural fit for us to incorporate the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here. This gallery really celebrates the history of the Turtles from their inception to today.”
Eastman said the exhibit showcases the Turtles’ broad appeal, which he attributes to their heroic nature, which he said is that they operate like a family who bicker but work better as a team. Fans also love that they are “four green mutant turtles of no race, creed or color.”
“Anyone can be a turtle,” said Eastman, who now lives in Arizona but will be attending a comic convention in Manchester, New Hampshire, later this month. “I love talking to my fans about not only what they love about turtles, but also what their favorite turtle is.”
“I ask them who they empathize with. That says a lot about their character,” he added.
The opening of the exhibit is part of a larger effort by Dover to embrace the turtles, which some say is long overdue. A state historic marker was erected next to the museum last year, acknowledging Dover as the birthplace of the Ninja Turtles. A few blocks away, a decorative manhole was installed in front of an empty lot where the creator’s home used to be.
“I grew up in Dover and had no idea that I actually grew up in the town where they were made,” Nichols said. “So when it really started to come to the forefront, I think there was a huge push to make it really well-known in the town.”
Nichols said the exhibit has already attracted a few enthusiastic fans dressed as turtles, but more recently, the exhibit has drawn visitors who came to see other parts of the museum and then took a stroll down Memory Lane with the turtles.
“I just remember the turtles eating pizza,” said Heidi Stevenson, who was visiting from Canada with her family.
David Sarge, a Pennsylvania chef and avid comic book collector as a teenager, said the show reminded him of his time at a comic convention in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he bought his first ever comic book. He bought autographs of the first two Turtles comics, but it was the excitement of his youth that ultimately led him to miss out on a chance to make a fortune.
“I traded it for some marijuana right after that and I regret it to this day,” he said with a laugh.
