Cowabunga! New England town celebrates being the birthplace of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

DOVER, NH — While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became a pop culture sensation, their origins are rarely discussed.

It wasn’t the sewers of New York City, where the Turtles mutated from mere reptiles into a crime-fighting quartet that fought enemies with nunchucks, snark, and pizza. Rather, it was a small town on the coast of New Hampshire.

A new exhibit hopes to put that community, Dover, New Hampshire, at the center of the Turtles’ story, and in turn, appeal to Turtle-obsessed fans or anyone who grew up reading the comics and watching the Ninja Turtles movies and TV shows. At one point in the ’80s, the Turtle frenzy was dubbed Turtlemania.

“It’s the birthplace,” said Kevin Eastman, who co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird 41 years ago when the two shared a house in Dover. The first issue was sold a year later. “That’s where the Turtles were created. … It’s very historic and very important to us.”

The Turtles exhibit opened last month at the Woodman Museum, which features an eclectic collection including a stuffed polar bear and a Victorian funeral exhibit featuring a horse-drawn hearse.

With its explosion of colours and cabinets full of action figures, the exhibition aims to be the place to find everything about Turtles.

It begins with the franchise’s humble beginnings in Dover, where the duo founded Mirage Studios, a play on the fact that they were creating the first comic in their living room rather than an actual studio. Inspired by Eastman’s fascination with turtles and martial arts, they created the crime-fighting Turtles and published their first comic in black and white.

“We hoped that someday we would sell enough copies of our 3,000 printed $1.50 comics that we could pay my uncle back,” Eastman said, adding that they didn’t plan to write a second issue until fans asked for more.

“We loved our characters. We loved what we were doing. We were telling the best story we could. We were hoping for the best,” he continued. “But I also never imagined that one comic book would lead to all of this.”

Ralph DiBernardo, whose store in nearby Rochester sells comics and games, was an early supporter of the Turtles. He knew Eastman and Laird from selling comics to them and was the first person to sell their Turtles comic commercially, having bought 500 copies of it. But he said at the time it seemed more like a favor to friends than a business decision, thinking, “Those guys are never going to make their money back.”

“When you see how they go from two struggling guys just making ends meet to becoming multimillionaires, it’s the story of the American dream that never comes true,” said DiBernardo, who remains friends with the two artists.

The exhibit chronicles the rise of the Turtles as a global phenomenon, with characters obsessed with pizza and using catchphrases like “cowabunga” and “booyakasha.”

Highlights of the exhibit include a video game console where visitors can play Turtles arcade games, vinyl records with Turtles movie soundtracks, and signed, first-run Turtles comics, some worth tens of thousands of dollars. The marketing power of the Turtles is also on display, with everything from Turtles-inspired holiday ornaments, doilies, and backpacks to a talking toothbrush.

At the center of it all is a set of enormous bronze statues depicting the four turtles—Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael—along with the mutant rat and local sage, Master Splinter. The exhibit was one of 12 Eastman created as part of a fundraiser to benefit a museum in Northampton, Massachusetts.

“The Ninja Turtles are a multibillion-dollar international franchise and they were born right here in Dover,” said Jonathan Nichols, executive director of the Woodman Museum. “So it was a no-brainer for us to integrate the Ninja Turtles here. This gallery is really a celebration and the history of the turtles, from their origins to today.”

Eastman said the exhibit demonstrates the Turtles’ broad appeal, which he attributes to their heroic nature and that they operate almost like a family that quarrels, but also function better as a team. Fans also love the fact 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 plans to attend a comic convention in Manchester, New Hampshire, later this month. He said he enjoys “talking to fans not only about what they love about their Turtle,” but also “what their favorite Turtle is.”

“I ask who they identify with. That says a lot about their personality,” he added.

The exhibit’s opening is part of a larger effort, some say long overdue, by Dover to embrace the Turtles. Last year, a state historical marker was placed next to the museum, recognizing Dover as the birthplace of the Ninja Turtles. A few blocks away, a decorative manhole cover was installed in front of an empty lot where the creators’ home once stood.

“I grew up here in Dover and had no idea that I was actually growing up in the town where they were made,” Nichols said. “So when that really started to come to the forefront, I think it was a huge push in the town to really get that out there.”

Nichols said he’s already had a few superfans show up in Turtles gear. But the other day, the exhibit drew visitors who had come from other parts of the museum and found themselves transported back in time with the Turtles.

“Just memories of the Turtles eating pizza,” said Heidi Stephenson, who was visiting from Canada with her family.

David Sarge, a Pennsylvania chef who was an avid comic book collector as a teenager, said the exhibit brought back memories of a comic book convention in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the first comic was sold. He bought signed copies of the first two Turtles comics, but let his youthful exuberance get in the way of what could have been a big payoff.

“I traded them for a joint shortly after and I regret it to this day,” he said with a laugh.