Earlier this year Dark Horse Comics announced that Stan Sakai and Usagi Yojimbo would return to the publisher as part of the Dogu Publishing imprint after spending a few years at IDW, but it looks like Sakai’s time at IDW isn’t quite up. IDW announced today that Sakai is writing and drawing a team-up between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo, titled WhereWhen.
“I am so pleased with the story and art for WhereWhen,” Sakai said. “There is a lot of emotion and, of course, lots of action. I actually wrote this story about five years ago and had been anxious to get to it. In the past, the Turtles have met just a few of Usagi’s friends. This time, everyone is thrown in—Gen, Tomoe, Jotaro, Yukichi, Kitsune, Chizu, and more! This one is epic!”
WhereWhen is not just the title — it’s also the name of the comic’s villain:
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pursue the evil cyborg genius Dr. WhereWhen through a time portal…and emerge in feudal Japan! There, they encounter Miyamoto Usagi, 20 years into the samurai’s future but decades after the arrival of Dr. WhereWhen—who has already carved himself a fiefdom using mechanized clockwork samurai robots, with the intention of conquering both the past and current timelines!
This isn’t the first time Usagi and the Turtles have met — they’ve encountered each other multiple times, not only in comics, but also in animation and in the TMNT toyline.
“Usagi Yojimbo arrived in the world of comics the very same year as TMNT, and our lifelong personal and creative relationships with the characters and each other were built on mutual love and respect for the medium. Anytime Stan Sakai wants to bring them together for a tale, I’m one-hundred-percent front row center,” said TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman.
Look for the first of five issues next March.