IDW’s The Last Ronin, a sort-of “Old Man Logan” take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, proved to be a huge success for the publisher, with a reported 840,000 copies in print, not to mention a hardcover collection that just came out. So naturally it’s getting a sequel — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin–The Lost Years.
Kevin Eastman will once again work with Tom Waltz on the story, with SL Gallant and Ben Bishop illustrating it.
“Continuing to expand on an idea Peter Laird and I had 35 years ago with this incredible creative team has been the adventure of a lifetime,” said Eastman. “To continue exploring and telling stories within the Last Ronin universe couldn’t possibly be more exciting for me. I’m so thrilled we get to stay and play here for a while and I can’t wait to share everything we have planned. Buckle up, TMNT fans! We’ve got two turtle universes that are both about to get seriously awesome!”
According to IDW, Lost Years will dig deeper into the world of the Ronin-verse, adding “breadth and scope to one of TMNT’s most ravenously devoured, widely beloved, and critically acclaimed entries of all time.”
“When Kevin Eastman and I first began collaborating on TMNT: The Last Ronin, we were building on a very solid foundation,” said Waltz. “We had the basic outline for the story that Kevin and Peter Laird had written back in 1987, which provided a fantastic roadmap for the story we wanted to tell. But as time passed, we began to realize that Last Ronin’s story was so much bigger than we had originally anticipated–past, present, and future. There’s so much more about this world that we still want to share with our fans. TMNT: The Last Ronin–The Lost Years represents the first expansion of what we now fondly call the ‘Ronin-verse.’ It offers our many loyal readers a much more detailed look at the Ronin’s past, as well as sharing a glimpse of an exciting future for the many allies he’s been forced to leave behind.”
The first issue will feature three covers — the first by Kevin Eastman and Ben Bishop, the second by SL Gallant and a retailer incentive edition by Mike Deodato.
“It’s all very top secret at the moment,” Bishop said, “but I will say this—believe it or not, even more so than in the original Last Ronin series, the stuff I get to draw in Lost Years is an old-school TMNT kid’s wildest dream come true! I’m so excited to get the gang back together again so we can expand even more on this world we’ve been building—not only in Last Ronin, but in the TMNT universe as a whole.”
The first issue of five wanders into stores in November.