The second Turtles comic had an advanced order of 15,000 copies. The duo was invited to the Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1984. Due to the huge success of the comic and increased pressures Laird encouraged an artist’s block of about a year. Laird bought out Eastman’s rights in 2008 and then sold the franchise to Viacom/Nickelodeon in 2009. Laird retained the rights to publish up to 18 black and white comics a year. Laird is credit with writing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series which aired from 1988 to 1996, 2003 to 2006, and 2012 to 2013, as well as the TMNT movies and video games. He founded the nonprofit Xeric Foundation to provide grants to self-publishers.