When Kevin/Peter became millionaires what did they do with their money
 

I know Kevin bought an army tank for some reason back in the 80's, lol.

But for two millionaires who created one of the most popular franchises of the 80's and 90's does it feel they lived rather modestly now that they're both seniors? PL only has 1 daughter and lived in a good house but nothing you'd expect a millionaire to live in. He ran mirage studios for most of his life but the company likely did not cost as much to manage as major companies since most comics sold out early and later ones had limited print runs.

I'm not sure how much Kevin lived it up but again it doesn't feel like what you would expect. What was he even doing in the early 2000's before he started working for IDW in 2011?

These lifestyles depend on the level of millionaire you are as well as mentality. I think the fact that they bought a tank speaks volumes..... :lol: Of course, "millionaire status" only gets you so far, and it's a different measurement now than it was back in '88.

And with that said, let's say they were each the kind of "millionaire" that had 2 million. 2 million isn't enough to go live like the ultra wealthy or Bill Gates or something like that. And so the life change you get from that level of millionaire is now you get to be hunker down where you are at, generally be free of the rat race (commonly known as "f you money") and try to create income from your millions.

On the other hand, maybe they made ten million each and bought a tank and then said to each other "oh $#!( that money goes fast, we shouldn't have bought this tank" and then they downsized to "Modest Millionaire Lives" after blowing 5 million.

And then I suppose the other paradigm is that they made 20 million or or more, bought a tank and a variety of other dumb things and were forced to remain in their "modest but comfortable lifestyles" without upgrading any further.

There are a lot of permutations.

He bought Heavy Metal when it was likely super expensive to do so and then bailed out when it wasn't really making much money anymore. Also, during all of that time he was tending to a supermodel wife which then... probably led to a very expensive divorce. And Kevin is hardly "working for IDW" beyond a glorified consulting capacity. He isn't even doing layouts anymore, like he did in IDW's earliest days.

My assumption is that Kevin spent all his Turtle money (in addition to Heavy Metal, there was Tundra). After his third divorce, he moved in with his mom in Arizona, which was when/where he met Courtney. And, honestly, she saved his butt.

Meanwhile, Peter built a nice house in Mass and invested the rest of the money, and his daughter has lived a comfortable life and she is now married to a husband who comes from a similarly comfortable family.

Not every person with money feels the need to live lavishly and choose to use their money in other ways.

Case in point... my neighborhood is mostly all smaller homes and over the years the older couple across the road had became quite well off, but you wouldn't have guessed if you didn't know them. (Only reason they did eventually build and move into a bigger house was because their lawyer was advising them to spend some of it. The husband said he would have rather stayed here. Not everyone needs that big of a place to be happy.)

According to the site Peter Laird's net worth is $20 million:

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/ri...ird-net-worth/

What I'm gathering from all this is Kevin had no idea how to save/invest his money and instead blew his fortune when he was in his 20's and early 30's. Of course going through 3 divorces after probably didn't help matters (1 of which was a porn star), and then tanked Heavy Metal. He then got millions more when Peter bought out his rights of ownership to the TMNT franchise back in the early 2000's, so that probably set him up good again for the next two decades.

Peter Laird seems the more responsible of the two, he is married to the same woman for over 40 years that he met back in college and has a now adult daughter who is well off herself. He was losing money printing Vol. 4/Tales all those years but it seemed he was able to keep going for quite a while yet before he decided to sell to Nick for another $60 million. No wonder why he has basically been retired since 2010 living off his laurels in his twilight years.

But man his daughter is going to get quite a lot of money when he eventually passes away. Just think of all that $20 million is crazy.

All because her dad and his friend drew some silly Turtles one day as a joke.

I'd say "you can't make this stuff up," but that's exactly how it happened. :tlol:

I don't think he tanked Heavy Metal. Now, I don't think Heavy Metal 2000 did anywhere near what he was hoping it would, nor did it do really anything for Julie's career. I just think Heavy Metal as a magazine dried up the same as many/most magazines did at the same time and, rather than go down with the ship, he sold Heavy Metal while there was still some dollar value attached to it at all.

That sounded more like Kevin needed money, so he offered them up to Peter to buy. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for Kevin to sell Peter his half of the rights unless he needed the money. It wasn't like he was done with TMNT or anything... as soon as the comic rights landed at IDW he was all over it.

Oh, this is in interesting. Apparently Heavy Metal finally ceased publishing last year but won't officially announce that they're done?

https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-uncer...etal-magazine/

So if Kevin hadn't blown most of his money, TMNT still could've been owned by Mirage? Since Kevin wouldn't have had to sell his share?

If Kevin hadn't have sold his half of the rights to Peter then, in theory, he absolutely could have said "No" to selling rights to Viacom/Nickelodeon in 2009. Even if Peter wanted to sell his half of the rights, half of the rights wouldn't do Viacom/Nickelodeon any good -- they'd want all or nothing. Of course, would Kevin have really turned away a big payday like that? I kind of doubt it.

Kevin is probably kicking himself for missing out on (part) of the $60 million that Peter got from Nick. I'm sure whatever Peter Laird paid him to buy out his rights of the franchise was like 10% of that back in 2001 or whenever that was.

Oh, without doubt.

Probably kicks himself if he’s a negative thinker or he can focus on the fact that he can still sign a book and throw it on eBay for a pretty penny and his artistic creations will outlive him. Missing out on money certainty stings but he won in the end. Everything else is nitpicking really.

This. Both of these men created a franchise that changed all of our lives (at least here on this forum) in one way or another. If it was up to me, they'd never have to worry financially again for the rest of their lives.

Eastman became rich too early in his life. He was 22 in 1984, Laird was 30 and married. That makes a big difference.

Very good point. 22 is where you get rich and buy tanks....

For sure. Or a ton of coke.

I always found the age gap between them funny. PL was basically an adult while Kevin was practically still a kid when they met. And back in the 80's when you were 30 that's like 45 by today's standards.

Kevin was an age of a college school boy when they met. It's like some kid working with a guy old enough to be his professor.

It seemed Kevin was not happy with the sale, but I don't think Laird bought the turtles thinking they were worth a lot more. Kevin just didn't have foresight and was bad at investments.
Laird sold the turtles for way too little, if he had held just a few more years and exploited the 87 cartoon nostalgia he could've easily sold for twice the price Viacom paid. So it's not like Laird is a financial genious either, he just wanted out of the turtles, like Kevin did when he sold his share.

That's not a reliable website, hell it says Eastman is worth 20 million too. I'd guess Laird is worth more than that.

He got a reasonable offer from Viacom. You never know when and if that happens again.