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 Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming and bad television with 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 book series has been published in various incarnations by various comic book companies since 1984.