Back in the 2000s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird sold the rights to their smash hit franchise, and now, the two are joining forces once more to work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin. They will be joined by writer Tom Waltz and artist Andy Kuhn, and it will be published by IDW Publishing in the summer of 2020.
TMNT is one of my favorite comic book series, and just series in general. As a New Yorker, it was something I was already familiar with, and as a kid, my father accidentally got me one of the original Eastman and Laird comics. It wasn’t as soft as the cartoon I’d grown up watching. I loved the gritty art and also getting to see the city I love as the backdrop to a story about four teen turtles and their rat father.
The original series was written to parody Daredevil, New Mutants, and Ronin and Cerberus, the “It Girl” comics of the 1980s. This is why the evil ninja organization is called the Foot, mocking the Hand from Marvel. So, it just looked and felt different from the animated series. I remember feeling very grown up, being able to tell my friends that this was the “real” turtles.
Despite that, the series has grown and lasted so long because it did evolve to meet a younger audience that could bond with “their turtle,” and a lot of the marketing for the series, while very 80s, worked to make TMNT a franchise that ensured kids from the ’80s and kids today are familiar with Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and the best character, Raphael.
This is a great piece of news as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100 arrives, which will mark the end of writer Tom Waltz’s vision for the longest-running incarnation of the Turtles in comics ever. If you haven’t been reading, it’s one of the most fun series, and it has been a slow burn with a lot of character arcs and a real Chris Claremont vibe, in terms of a tightly interwoven character drama with great action sequences. I am super excited that this series has gotten to exist for eight years, and its ability to do so is just a reminder that the Turtles have an appeal now just as much as they did when Eastman and Laird created the series with a loan and a tax refund check.
What is your favorite incarnation of the turtle gang? And who is your second-favorite turtle? (Raphael is the best turtle, soooo …)
(via ComicBook.com, image: Mirage Studio)
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