First ever Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drawing being auctioned

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, collectors, and __ should know what the first ever drawn image of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks like. It has been spread all over the comic community and reprinted many times over. However, these same fans may now be interested to know that the actual image that was drawn by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird is being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The bid currently stands at $5,500 and will end on May 10, 2012 at 10pm CT.  If you think you have the deep pockets it'll take to own this piece of comic history, jump over to Heritage Auctions (linked below) and give it your best shot. Best of luck to those bidding!

"Late in November 1983, Peter Laird and I were sharing a studio (our living room) in Dover, New Hampshire . One work night , in an effort to make Peter laugh, I drew a sketch of this character I called a "Ninja Turtle" and threw it onto Peter's desk. He did laugh, and did a version of his own -- to which I needed to take it one step further, and did a pencil sketch of four different Turtles, each holding a different weapon -- and gave it to Peter, who wanted to ink it in -- and when he did, he added "Teenage Mutant" to the "Ninja Turtle" part of the logo, and we both fell off our chairs!"
"The next day, we both looked at the drawing, and decided that we really needed to come up with a story about how these characters came to be -- and began to hammer out the story details. Deciding to make it an homage/parody to some of our heroes and inspirations -- (and dedicating it to them) -- we worked through the winter of 1983-84, and after finding a local New England printer, we borrowed money from my Uncle Quentin, and we printed the first 3 ,000 copies -- premiering the book at a local Portsmouth comic convention May 5th, 1984.
From that day forward, and for the next thirty years, the TMNTs became a world wide phenomenon (cartoons, toys, and movies) that even to this day we still try to completely understand -- and it all started with this drawing... " 

Source: Heritage Auctions