The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" first appeared in an American comic book published by Mirage Studios in 1984 in Dover, New Hampshire. The concept arose from a humorous drawing sketched out by Kevin Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming with friend Peter Laird. Using money from a tax refund, together with a loan from Eastman’s uncle, the young artists self-published a single-issue comic intended to parody four of the most popular comics of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics’ "Daredevil" and "New Mutants", Dave Sim’s "Cerebus", and Frank Miller’s "Ronin". The "TMNT" comic series has been published in various incarnations by various comic book companies since 1984.