Kevin Eastman's Top AMA Questions and Answers

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Last Thursday, TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit.

You can read the entire question and answer session here.

Quoted below are three highlights of the session.

Q: What do you think of the new TMNT movie?

Kevin Eastman: Quite simply, I love it. Worked on various parts of it's development for 4 years. We had the right director for the project and you can clearly see Michael Bay's hand in it. I'm so proud of it and am glad the fans have responded so favorably.

Q: How did you figure out the personalities of the four Turtles? When did you know Leo would be the leader or Donatello would be the smartest one?
Kevin Eastman: The personalities were developed early on. When you have a group of superheroes or kids playing on a playground it feels like the personalities pop up quickly. You always need a smart one (Donatello), one you want to have on your side in a fight (Raphael). Pretty much from the first issue we knew who they were.

Q: I think April O'Neil was (originally, anyway) a great character to have in a comic book story as weird as the TMNT one. She's ambitious, driven, intrepid and cunning. And the Turtles never sexualized her as many other comic characters might have done with such a figure. Was there a conscious effort to make a female character that was basically a 5th (but human) Turtle? One to which women and young girls could relate and admire?
Kevin Eastman: Absolutely. I've always been personally very fond of strong, independent, female characters. With April we wanted her to be the big sister and considered more like a family member than anything else. Very strong personality and awesome character on her own.