Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird reunite for Ninja Turtles No. 100

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the original creators of the Ninja Turtles, will reteam for the 100th issue of the current comic book series.

As IDW Publishing gears up for their 100th issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, many new developments have emerged within the series. The biggest has been the addition of a fifth Ninja Turtle, Jennika, who was a human ninja mutated into a turtle. Now, with official solicitations for November being reported, ICv2 has released some details about the upcoming centennial issue.

The biggest is the reunion of the original creators of the Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The pair may have created the franchise in 1984 with an iconic 40-page debut issue, which was reprinted a staggering eight times but, over time, Eastman and Laird parted ways. Their collaboration on the comics mostly ended by 1993, and they went over a decade without seeing each other. Eastman sold his share of the franchise to Laird at the turn of century, and Laird sold it whole hog to Viacom in 2009 for $40 million, just in time for the Turtles’ 25th anniversary.

More from Comics

• X-Men: 6 reasons why Marvel’s mutants are the best superhero team
• Harley Quinn renewed for a fifth season on Max (and it’s well-deserved)
• Marvel Comics announces seven important X-Men comic books
• The X-Men were betrayed by Captain America in Uncanny Avengers
• Spider-Man: Miles and Peter team-up for their first ongoing series

However, for IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles No. 100, a one-for-fifty variant cover will be drawn by both Eastman and Laird. While Kevin Eastman has been involved with writing and drawing new Ninja Turtles comics for IDW since 2011, Laird’s involvement with the shell-backs has been rarer since the end of the 2003 animated TV show. The last TMNT comic Laird wrote was a 32nd issue of the 4th volume released by Mirage Studios in 2014, which was limited to 1,000 copies. And it could be argued the last TMNT comic that both Eastman and Laird collaborated on art-wise in any capacity was 1987’s TMNT No. 11. They would each individually draw issues after that, or work on the story while Jim Lawson drew, into the early 1990s.

The 100th issue will be 48 pages and retail for $7.99, and feature at least five covers. Artists drawing the other covers will include Eastman, Freddie Williams II (Batman/TMNT, TMNT Universe) and regular artists Dave Wachter and Mateus Santolouco. It will also be released alongside a 16-page recap issue titled TMNT: Road to 100.

IDW’s licensed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is officially the longest-running single volume the franchise has ever seen in comic book form. It surpassed Archie Comics’ 72-issue run of TMNT Adventures (1989-1995) two years ago. The third longest was Mirage Studios’ second volume of Tales of the TMNT, which produced 70 issues from 2004-2010. As if that weren’t historic enough, issue 100 will also end the “City At War” story, as well as the uninterrupted run of Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman, and Bobby Curnow as regular writers. No matter what it will be historic.