`Last Ronin' looks at future of `Ninja Turtles'

Anew comic-book series will explore a possible future of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In “The Last Ronin,” only one of the four Ninja Turtles remains — but for now, publisher IDW isn't revealing which turtle it is.

The story puts the lone remaining Ninja Turtle on the path for revenge, in a story first developed in the 1980s by TMNT cocreators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have appeared in comics, TV, live-action and animated movies. Their first home was in comic books, where they became an unexpected smash in 1984.

Eastman and Laird worked together on the first 11 issues of the comic book, as well as four one-shots featuring each of the turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello.

The proposal that eventually became “The Last Ronin” was developed around 1987.

“About 10 years ago, I re-discovered a 20-page outline for a TMNT story that Peter and I wrote

together back in 1987,” Eastman said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter about the new series. “The story was set 30 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, preeverything the world would soon come to know about these characters that we'd created and called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Eastman revised and updated the storyline before sharing it with Tom Waltz, who has been a writer on IDW's TMNT comics since 2011. Now set in 2040, the story explores a possible future of New York City in the Turtles universe.

Waltz scripted the story, based on Eastman and Laird's concept, and Eastman provided the layouts for the new series. Artists Esau Escorza and Isaac Escorza provide the pencils and inks.

“As much as The Last Ronin is a love letter to past TMNT iterations — from Mirage to IDW, and everything in between — it's also a love letter to the millions of folks who continue to cherish this ageless property in all its diverse forms and renditions,” Waltz said in a news release.

“At its core, TMNT is always about family first … both in the fictional stories being told and the real-life engagement between the creators and the amazing fans who support them. `The Last Ronin' is no exception.”

Each oversized issue will be 7” x 11” and 48 pages, with color art by Luis Antonio Delgado and letters by Shawn Lee. Issue #1 goes on sale Oct. 28.

Matthew Price is an award-winning journalist who has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the coowner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.