I can’t believe that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around for 30 already. That’s three followed by a zero folks. Sure, many of the fans of the franchise came from later iterations from the cartoon but the darker comics that it was all based off of is about to be 30 years old. To celebrate the original creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are getting the band back together and thanks to IDW Publishing are going to be able to release a ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 30th Anniversary Special’. May can’t come soon enough to be able to read this one!

The comic itself is planned to include a treasure trove of fun for long term fans of the series. It will be 48 pages of brand new material by the pair that created it all, a few short stories from Eastman, and a ton of new artwork for fans to enjoy. As a long time fan of the original comics and even though I’ve enjoyed the cartoons and the movies (the first one at any rate), it was always the darker stories that the pair originally came up with that properly set the tone for the Turtles’ universe.

If the cover that both Eastman and Laird worked together to create for the issue is any indication, we’re also going to be seeing their most classic villain battling against them as well.

Recently when talking about the history of the series Eastman chimed in with:

“I guess it would be equally important to say, creativity breeds more creativity — and although Peter and I tried to keep as true to our original creation as possible over the variety of different mediums that the TMNT have been explored in — the incredibly talented folks we’ve had the good fortune to work with over the years have brought a freshness to build on, so in theory, keeps it fresh for us and the fans that choose to follow… and that is what it comes down to in the end, the fans, who have given us the chance to have, and keep, the BEST job ever.”

No news if the story that they are planning will be taking the darker tone of the original books or if it’ll be set in the modern day world that IGN has created.

While we wait until the book’s release, which set of turtles do you hope to see them writing if you’ve been following what is currently being created?

Source: Blastr