Update, January 22, 2024:
Via IGN, IDW revealed Joëlle Jones, Rafael Albuquerque, Cliff Chiang, and Chris Burnham will respectively render the art on the first four issues of Aaron’s run. Each issue will spotlight Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Donatello, who are the respective artists’ favorite turtles, and why they were chosen to illustrate them. Albuquerque will then pencil the second story arc, kicking off in November.
Original story is as follows:
Via ComicBook.com, IDW Publishing have announced Jason Aaron will be writing the relaunch of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” comic this summer. Aaron’s run will receive a 10-page prelude in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Alpha,” a one-shot releasing in June, and begin properly with a new issue #1 in July. No artists were announced for the series at the time of writing.
Aaron states, “Launching a new TMNT comic series in the midst of the characters’ 40th anniversary is clearly one of those dream jobs of all comic book dream jobs. Especially for me, a kid who first fell in love with the Turtles all those years ago because of that original Mirage Studios series, buying those groundbreaking issues fresh off the rack, comics that kicked you in the face with their action-packed grit and gloriously raw attitude. I couldn’t be more honored and thrilled to get to add to that esteemed legacy of comic book face-kicking, especially as part of an amazing IDW run that has expanded the world and timeline of the Turtles in such daring and exciting ways.”
As Aaron implies, the new series will follow the continuity TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman established with writer Tom Waltz and artist Dan Duncan for IDW in 2011. Nothing was shared about what to expect when we pick up with the characters, but Aaron says “the kid in me wants you to know that you can expect some good old-fashioned grit, a sprinkle of dark, new attitude and all the bone-cracking action that four mutated ninja brothers can possibly handle.” For more from IDW co-publisher Mark Doyle and editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich in the meantime, head to ComicBook.com.
Sophie Campbell’s current run as writer on the title will also wrap up beforehand with issue #150, due out on April 10. She stated last week, “The fact that this chapter is ending, and I’m leaving the series is bittersweet. I’ll miss it for sure, but it’s time to move on and let somebody else have a shot at the Turtles, and I’ll be back for more before you know it, whatever form that might take.” The finale will feature art by Campbell, Duncan, Vincenzo Federico, and Fero Pe, as well as covers by her, Eastman, Duncan, and Jesse Lonergan, and see Donatello in a race against time to prevent Armaggon from erasing the Turtles from history.
