First teased in December, the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are reuniting for their first collaboration in 25 years. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird come together to tell the story of a dark future they first imagined in 1987. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin by Eastman, Laird, Tom Waltz, and Andy Kuhn will span five oversized issues and kicks off this summer from IDW Publishing. The series takes place a future New York City where a lone surviving Turtle goes on a seemingly hopeless mission to obtain justice for his fallen family and friends. The series features layouts from Eastman, inks from Kuhn, and a script by Tom Waltz.
"About ten years ago, I re-discovered a twenty-page outline for a TMNT story that Peter and I wrote together back in 1987," Eastman says in a press release. "The story was set thirty years in the future, which (as written then) was set in 2017. Reading through it again, I drifted back to a very different time in TMNT history — back when it was all about the comics, mostly just Peter and I writing and drawing the issues, pre-everything the world would soon come to know about these characters that we'd created and called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
"It has been an INCREDIBLE 36-year journey, thanks to the brilliant talents of so many that brought new visions and TMNT stories to life, and especially the fans who supported all of them. Nine years ago, I was invited back into the TMNT comic universe, via my friends at IDW Publishing. Aside from the original run with my friend and co-creator Peter Laird, working on the IDW TMNT universe has been the best time I have had with the Turtles for a very, VERY long time.
"A little over a year ago, as the ongoing series headed towards issue 100, I showed a rough revised and updated version of the story outline (now set in the year 2040) to Tom Waltz, who equally fell in love with the possibilities of it. The Last Ronin is a heartfelt love poem to all the TMNT universes of the past, and offers up an intense look at one possible future — firmly based on and adapted from an original 33-year-old idea, from the original creators. Trust me — Tom, Andy, and I have just started on a 200-page journey... and it IS going to be one HELL of a ride..."
Waltz adds, "When Kevin first showed me the outline that he and Peter had created back in the '80s, I was gobsmacked. Beyond Peter Laird's eerily prescient technological and sociological predictions, the story idea itself was exciting and versatile, designed in a way that it could be easily modified to fit into the many different TMNT iterations that have existed over the years, without losing any of the core elements injected into it by both Kevin and Peter. I have the absolute honor to join these legendary creators to craft a TMNT story set in a chaotic future, rife with revenge, honor, tragedy, hope, and over-the-top ninja-action sequences that'll blow any Turtles fan's mind, no matter what version of the beloved franchise is their favorite."
"After hitting TMNT #100 last year, we were interested in doing something even larger in scope and also something that really plays to everyone's strengths," says editor Bobby Curnow. "The Last Ronin is that project: the future New York we're building is a perfect place for Tom's immersive world-building and characterization, and Andy's art is more innovative and engaging than we've ever seen. This is Kevin and Peter's vision, but the entire team is making it their own and that's really exciting to see."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 will launch with three covers, including Cover A by Kevin Eastman and two Retailer Incentive editions by Eastman and Mateus Santolouco respectively. Each issue is 48 pages and 7.5x11 trim size. Keep reading to see preview pages from the first issue.
