American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer and artist Kevin Eastman.
Toward the end of 1983, Laird was earning just ten dollars an illustration from a local newspaper in Dover, New Hampshire. He was also doing illustrations for fanzines like The Oracle.
In May 1984, Laird and Eastman self-published the first black & white issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, at an initial print run of 3000 copies for the forty-page oversized comic. It was largely funded by a loan from Eastman’s uncle. That first issue received a number of subsequent printings over the next few years, as the Turtles phenomenon began to take off.
With the solicitation of their second issue, Eastman and Laird’s Turtles comic began a meteoric rise to success, bringing in advance orders of 15,000 copies.
With their (November 1985) fifth issue, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles downsized to the more common American comics format and size, and the previous four issues were also reprinted in this size and format with new color covers.
Laird and Eastman’s creations went on to become a popular cultural phenomenon, forcing both of them to take regular sabbaticals from the comic to deal with the day to day pressures of running what had become a multimedia franchise. Eastman sold his share of the franchise, with the exception of a small continuing income participation, to Laird and the Mirage Group on 1 June 2000. On 1 March 2008, Laird and Mirage bought out Eastman’s remaining rights and interest and the two went their separate ways. On 19 October 2009, Laird sold the franchise to Viacom, the parent company of Nickelodeon, but still retains the rights to create and publish up to eighteen black-and-white comics based on the franchise per year.
Link to Wikipedia biography