SDCC | Gene Yang + Freddie Williams II take on ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’

The 12th issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be the final issue by Jason Aaron and Juan Ferrerya, who kicked off the new series last year. But December will bring a new creative team as Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and Freddie Williams II (Batman/TMNT) take over the title.

The creative team change was one of several TMNT-related announcements IDW made this week at the San Diego Comic-Con.

According to publisher IDW, “this all-new story arc will provide fans with a fresh jumping on point as the Heroes in a Half-Shell are back together and hopeful about the future of the city, but there’s a dark and personal danger lurking in the shadows as a deadly new assassin makes their debut.” Yang and Williams will be joined by Jake Thomas, who take over editing the title.

“I’ve been a fan of the TMNT since I was young. I remember watching the ‘80s cartoon with my brother and then reenacting the Turtles’ adventures with our action figures,” Yang said. “I read my first issue of TMNT at a friend’s house, and I was blown away by the melding of gritty martial arts action and wild, out-of-left-field ideas. Many years later, I began my cartooning career in American independent comics. All of us from that corner of comics owe a huge debt to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Their talent and creativity, both as comics creators and as businessmen, carved out a path for the rest of us to follow. In fact, the very first comic I ever self-published was funded by a grant from Peter Laird’s Xeric Foundation. I’ve admired the Turtles for a long, long time. I’m absolutely thrilled to get to tell their stories at IDW.”

For TMNT #13, IDW will release blind bag variant for collectors, featuring covers by Daniel Warren Johnson, David Nakayama, Clayton Crain and more.

”Finally I’m getting to REALLY scratch my TMNT itch! I’ve been so lucky to draw the Turtles on covers and crossovers, but it’s not enough, never enough.” Williams continued, “I LOVE the Turtles! The original Mirage comics were instrumental in making me fall in love with the comic book medium, and of course I am SUPER inspired by the POWER and TEXTURE in that early Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird art! Now, after begging Editor-in-Chief Bobby Curnow for over a decade, I am so happy to draw my first FULL ON TMNT series! My goal is to draw at least 450 Turtles per page in each issue! Can’t wait for everyone to see what we’re working on, I’m having a BLAST!”

To bridge the gap between issues #12 and #13, IDW will release a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Annual in October. Writer Kenny Porter and artists Michael Shelfer and Maria Keane are the creative team, along with cover artist Mateus Santolouco. The annual will also kick off a TMNT holiday-themed variant line, with covers by Jared Cullum across various TMNT titles, including this first one celebrating Halloween.

IDW also announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle Nexus, which will feature stories by a slew of creators, including writers Tom Waltz, Paul Allor, Sophie Campbell, Caleb Goellner and Erik Burnham with art from the Escorza brothers, Ben Bishop, Vitor Cafaggi, Omar Francia and Hendry Prasetya.

Think of the comic as a Secret Wars or MultiVersus, but with the Turtles, pulling in various versions of characters from different media, like Metalhead from the 2012 animated series or the original Shredder from Eastman and Laird’s classic series. One obscure character making her IDW debut will be Ninjara, also known as Umeko, the female fox who appeared in Archie’s animated series adaptation, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. She was the Turtles’ ally and Raphael’s girlfriend during that series. Sophie Campbell shared her designs for Ninjara:

Battle Nexus will debut in November as a five-week, five-issue series.

Also coming in November is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Godzilla by Godzilla writer Tim Seeley and artist Fero Pe. This one seemed inevitable, given that Godzilla teams up, battles or destroys everyone these days, from the Power Rangers to the Justice League to the whole Marvel Universe. The series will reveal that the Foot Clan was originally formed to battle kaiju, but Shredder had different plans for them.