TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #29
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTMNT Volume 4 #29 marks a pivotal structural turning point in the Mirage era: it was the first issue of the series sold directly to fans through Peter Laird's website and occasional convention appearances, bypassing the traditional direct-market retailer channel entirely — a stark sign of how the economics and distribution of late-era Mirage publishing had shifted. The print run of only 1,000 copies made it among the most physically scarce issues in the entire Volume 4 run, underscoring how far the series had moved from conventional comics publishing by 2008–2009. Within the story itself, the issue introduces two new Battle Nexus characters — Seven Monkey Paw and Twelve Ocelot — while simultaneously advancing three separate plot threads across Earth, the Battle Nexus, and the Triceraton Homeworlds, exemplifying Volume 4's sprawling, multi-strand narrative ambition. As one of the final issues Laird and Lawson produced before the franchise was sold to Viacom, it also stands as a document of the creative team's commitment to finishing their story on their own terms, however slowly.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
TMNT Volume 4 launched in December 2001 as a collaboration between franchise co-creator Peter Laird (writer and inker/toner) and longtime Mirage artist Jim Lawson (penciler), deliberately ignoring the Image Comics Volume 3 continuity in favor of the original Mirage canon. The series ran on a roughly bimonthly schedule through issue #28 across approximately five years, but Laird then severely slowed the pace — delivering issue #29 in 2008 (cover-dated April 2009 per TurtlePedia) after a roughly two-year gap, driven in part by Laird's frustration with direct-market sales figures, which prompted the shift to a direct-to-fan sales model at a new cover price. Eric Talbot joined Laird on inking and toning duties for this issue, with a cover credited to both Jim Lawson and Michael Dooney.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Published by Mirage Studios as part of TMNT Volume 4; cover-dated April 2009 per TurtlePedia, though commonly cited as a 2008 release in collector databases.
- Written by Peter Laird; penciled by Jim Lawson; inked and toned by Eric Talbot and Peter Laird; cover by Jim Lawson and Michael Dooney.
- First appearances of Seven Monkey Paw and Twelve Ocelot, two new Battle Nexus warriors introduced in this issue.
- Print run was limited to approximately 1,000 copies — the result of Laird's decision to abandon direct-market distribution and sell the issue directly to fans via his website and convention appearances.
- The issue runs three concurrent storylines: Casey Jones and the Fugitoid encountering trouble at the Galaxies Bar with Utrom companions; Leonardo navigating the Battle Nexus and meeting new fighters; and Michelangelo learning more about his Triceraton allies.
- Volume 4 as a whole had never been collected or reprinted until IDW Publishing announced TMNT: Journeys in 2025 — making #29 and its fellow late-era issues among the longest out-of-print chapters in TMNT comics history.
- The issue is part of the final stretch of original Mirage TMNT comics before Peter Laird sold the franchise to Viacom; Volume 4 ultimately ended unresolved with issue #31 in 2010, with the story marked 'To Be Continued.'
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