Posted in: Comics | Tagged: idw, Last Ronin, tmnt

TMNT: The Last Ronin Sequel on the Way in November: The Lost Years

Published Sat, 23 Jul 2022 14:50:11 -0500

Following the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, both at selling comics and at pissing off retailers, IDW is going back to the well for a follow-up. Unfortunately, the finality of The Last Ronin makes it difficult to The Last Ronin 2: The Lastest Ronin, so IDW is getting creative and going with The Last Ronin: The Lost Years instead. Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz will write, with art by SL Gallant and Ben Bishop, for the new series that "digs 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," and more money into IDW's coffers.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, IDW gathered as many people as possible to deliver word-count-padding press release quotes. Here's what Kevin Eastman had to say about TMNT: The Last Ronin – The Lost Years:

Continuing to expand on an idea Peter Laird and I had thirty-five years ago with this incredible creative team has been the adventure of a lifetime. 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!

And from Tom Waltz:

When Kevin Eastman and I first began collaborating on TMNT: The Last Ronin, we were building on a very solid foundation. 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.

And Ben Bishop:

It's all very top secret at the moment, 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.

And from Bleeding Cool Rumourmonger-in-Chief Rich Johnston:

Blimey! It was a bleedin' pleasure to work with the blokes at IDW to produce scores o' clickbait articles about The Last Ronin, it was, and oi can't wait to produce even more about the sequel. Pip Pip!

The press release also features a quote by editor Charles Beachum, but you know our policy on that by now. If Bleeding Cool can't cough up the dough to hire an editor to proofread and fact-check Rich's articles, we're certainly not going to give them free space by printing their quotes all over the place. Bleeding Cool has a strict "no editors" policy. Sorry, Chuck.

TMNT: The Last Ronin – The Lost Years #1 will hit stores in November with three covers: Cover A by Kevin Eastman and Ben Bishop, Cover B by SL Gallant, and a retailer incentive edition by Mike Deodato.