Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (IDW, August 2011) holds a unique place in franchise history as the first new comic incarnation of the Turtles to appear after Nickelodeon's acquisition of the property in 2009, marking the fifth distinct comic book series in TMNT publication history and a full reboot of the characters' continuity. It brought TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman back to regular creative duties on the franchise for the first time in over a decade, giving the IDW run an authentic lineage that no previous publisher relaunch could claim. The issue launched a series that would eventually surpass every prior TMNT comic run in longevity — reaching 150 issues before its 2024 relaunch — and introduced a bold new mythology tying the Turtles' origins to feudal Japanese reincarnation, a departure dramatic enough to redefine what a TMNT story could be. It also marks the first appearance of Old Hob, the one-eyed mutant alley cat who became the first major original villain created specifically for the IDW continuity.
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IDW Publishing announced its acquisition of the TMNT license at WonderCon on April 1, 2011, with the creative team — Kevin Eastman (plot and page layouts), Tom Waltz (script), and artist Dan Duncan — formally announced on May 19, 2011; the first issue was released on August 24 of that year. The project grew out of IDW Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier inviting Eastman to see what the publisher envisioned for the newly licensed property, after which Eastman connected with Waltz, who had independently drafted a relaunch proposal rooted in the spirit of the original Mirage run but with new mythological twists. Dan Duncan was brought aboard after Waltz, then serving as an IDW editor, recognized his style as a natural complement to the early Eastman/Laird visual language; Nickelodeon, as the new rights-holder, approved Duncan's sample pages. The series was deliberately designed to stand apart from Nickelodeon's concurrent animated relaunch rather than tie into it, establishing its own self-contained continuity from the first page.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published August 24, 2011 by IDW Publishing; the fifth comic book series in TMNT history and the first since the franchise's sale to Nickelodeon in October 2009.
- Creative team: Kevin Eastman (plot and page layouts), Tom Waltz (script), Dan Duncan (interior art), and editor Bobby Curnow.
- First appearance of Old Hob, a one-eyed mutant alley cat who becomes the first major villain original to IDW continuity.
- The issue introduces the IDW reincarnation origin: the Turtles and Splinter are depicted as the reincarnated souls of Hamato Yoshi and his four sons, murdered by Oroku Saki in feudal Japan and reborn as lab animals in Baxter Stockman's research facility.
- Characters appearing in the issue include all four Turtles, Master Splinter, April O'Neil, Casey Jones, Dr. Baxter Stockman, General Krang, and Old Hob — establishing the full core cast from the opening chapter.
- The issue launched with an unusually large variant cover program: four interconnected regular Dan Duncan character covers (one per Turtle), a 1:10 retailer incentive gatefold Duncan cover, a 1:25 Sam Kieth cover, a Kevin Eastman cover, and a hand-drawn Kevin Eastman sketch variant of approximately 400–500 unique copies (no two identical), among other exclusives.
- Issue #1 sold out quickly enough that a second printing was issued, with a new Kevin Eastman variant cover.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in the IDW Collection hardcover Vol. 1 (2015), the IDW Collection Vol. 1 revised edition (2021/2022), the Hundred Penny Press reprint (August 2013), and the Ongoing Compendium Vol. 1 (Penguin Random House, 2023), among others.
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↩ Reprints Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles SDCC Ashcan #[nn] (2011)
Reprinted in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 - Halloween Edition #[nn] (2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (2013), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1: Hundred Penny Press #[nn] (2013), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection #1 (2015), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Deluxe Edition #1 (2016), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection #1 (2021)
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