The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were one of the pop-culture rages of the 1980s and early 1990s. With their origins in a little-known comic strip, the Ninja Turtles gained mass popularity as a television Saturday morning cartoon (see entry under 1960s—TV and Radio in volume 4) series. The characters then appeared in movies and video games (see entry under 1970s— Sports and Games in volume 4) and as popular toys. The key to the Turtles' success was their funky combination of muscle-bound heroism and downright goofiness.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared in 1984 as a black-and-white comic strip coauthored by Kevin Eastman (1962–) and Peter Laird (1954–). According to the story the pair devised, the Turtles were born when a load of "mutanagenic" material spilled onto a quartet of pet turtles, giving them super powers. The Turtles—named Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello, after...