Arts Commission seeks historical marker for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, created in Dover

posted on: 6/19/2021

The City Council last week endorsed to an Arts Commission concept plan to install a unique historical marker commemorating the former site of Mirage Studios, the comic book studio that created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) in Dover in November 1983.

The Arts Commission endorsed the concept plan at its June 7 meeting.

The concept plan calls for the historical marker to be incorporated into a custom-designed maintenance hole cover in front of the lot where Mirage Studios was founded on Union Street.

The idea to create art and a historical marker on a maintenance hole cover was envisioned by resident James Lane who proposed it to the Arts Commission. “Most storylines in TMNT comics take place in the sewer, making this unusual location relevant,” Lane wrote his Arts Commission proposal.

Mirage Studios was founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird at 28 Union Street where they lived together and created the popular ninja turtles. The home was demolished earlier this decade, and the property is now owned by the Dover Housing Authority.

“We called it Mirage Studios because it wasn’t actually a studio, it was our living room,” Kevin Eastman said in a CBC interview commemorating the 30th anniversary of the comic characters.

Lane’s hope is to get Eastman and Laird on board with the idea and donate original art work for the cover. All necessary trademark permission would have to be obtained as well for the project to be completed as envisioned. “In a worst-case, most restrictive scenario, a text-only marker can be used,” Lane wrote.

Lane estimated the cost to have a custom-made and locking maintenance hole cover would be about $5,000, a cost to be covered by TMNT fans and supportive locals.