The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon returns in new IDW series
The spirit of the beloved '80s animated series returns in new comic book adventures
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have seen quite a few iterations, but none have been as popular or beloved as the iconic '80s cartoon that introduced the characters to the world at large. Now, IDW will publish Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures, a four-issue limited series by Erik Burnham and Tim Lattie that adapts the animated series for comics.
Saturday Morning Adventures will try to capture the aesthetic of the series that debuted in 1987 featuring "awesomely absurd" concepts like the Turtles getting trapped in a VR simulator, or "one of General Krang's stalwart stone soldiers abandoning their post in pursuit of hair-metal superstardom."
The new series comes on the heels of the recent completion of IDW's TMNT: The Last Ronin limited series on the opposite end of the "aesthetic" spectrum. That was a Mature Readers look at the last Turtles story featuring the deaths of all four brothers.
"I'm no stranger to writing the TMNT for IDW, but this is different," says Burnham in the announcement. "The version of the Turtles that exploded onto TV screens in 1987 was the version that I first met, and it brought me a lot of joy...and getting to play in this particular corner of the sandbox has built upon that joy! Humor, action, and plenty of high concepts were packed into each episode, and we’re following that path. I'm not sure if anyone in comics is having as much fun as Tim Lattie and I are with these done-in-one stories!"
Lattie adds, "Growing up in the late '80s, nothing was like the experience of discovering TMNT: playing with the toys, watching the show, or waiting in a crowd with the hopes of getting a chance to try your luck at the arcade game. It's rare enough in life to be able to do what you love for work, but to work on something you grew up loving is hard to comprehend. What else is there to say... Go ninja, go ninja, go!"
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1 will hit shelves in September, with main cover art and an additional variant by Lattie, as well as variants by TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and Tony Gregori.
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Samantha Puc (she/they) is an editor at Newsarama and an avid comics fan. Their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., The Beat, The Mary Sue, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School.