The Heroes in a Half-Shell Celebrate 40TH Anniversary with New One-Shot from IDW

By Dustin Gebel

on April 13, 2024

IDW revealed a new one-shot celebrating 40 years of ninja turtles with a variety of creators in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: 40th Anniversary Comics Celebration. The single issue, which launches in July, will be made up of 70 pages featuring seminal creators revisiting their original eras.

The roster of creators includes names like Jim Lawson, Ciro Nieli, Tristan Jones, Paul Harmon, Steve Lavigne, Andy Suriano, Ronda Pattison, Pablo Tunica, Freddie E. Williams II, Sophie Campbell, Tom Waltz, Lloyd Goldfine, Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez, Dan Duncan, Erik Burnham, Sarah Myer, Luis Antonio Delgado, Chris Allan and more. TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman is also contributing a story in the one-shot.

In the press release, Eastman spoke about the enduring legacy of the Turtles, stating:

“Having a childhood dream – in my case to write and draw comics for a living, is one thing – to then actually spending every minute of the next 40 years doing it, is a whole other matter altogether – humbling is the first word that comes to mind. My co-creation of TMNT with the amazing Peter Laird has been the driving force of living that dream, and working with a number of really talented writers and artists along the way has made, and still makes, the journey the greatest shared experience I never imaged and could not be more grateful for. From the raw beginnings of a 40-page self-published black and white ‘origin of’ comic, to the 200-page full color ‘final tale’ of the original TMNT’s graphic novel, THE LAST RONIN, I want to thank the people directly responsible – our fans. Without them, I would not have had the chance to live that childhood dream.”

Alongside the creative team and announcement, IDW also shared a set of covers for the issue.

Cover A by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird