CRANSTON, R.I. – An ink and watercolor original artwork by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brought $13,800 at Bruneau & Co’s March 27 sale. The work was featured in the 1985 issue 23 of the comic launched by Mirage Studios only one year earlier. The comic would go on to have a 30-year run until its last issue in 2014, inspiring five television series, six feature films, video games and toys along the way. The firm described the image: “The page features Splinter awakening in a hospital bed after a battle in the sewers, unaware of how he arrived. He leaves his room to discover he had been saved by Utroms on the next page. Utroms are the alien being which influenced the iconic villain Krang.”

“TMNT is hotter than ever before,” Bruneau’s pop culture specialist Travis Landry said, as a generation of young collectors turns their attention to the things they grew up with.

Watch for a full review in a future issue.