The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has gone from cult classic comics to mainstream children’s cartoons, and fans of all types filled the room for the Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego. The panel included TMNT creator Kevin Eastman, plus much of the voice cast of the Nickelodeon show.
Also on the panel was Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo; Sakai was on hand to help discuss the upcoming special, which will have the turtles joining forces with Usagi to take down a common enemy. There have been plenty of crossovers between Usagi Yojimbo and TMNT in the past, but fans at the panel seemed excited to get a look at the animated special - and they had the chance to do so, as a clip of it was shown off.
The panel also discussed an upcoming film, Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady, which will feature the Turtles of the ’80s and reunite the voice cast from that era of the cartoons. It arrives in September 2017 and is available to preorder.
Also shown at the panel was an entire upcoming episode, notably written by Eastman himself. The episode, titled “Lone Rat and Cubs,” was greatly inspired by the Lone Wolf and Cub series, according to Eastman. It focused on Splinter’s difficulties in raising the four young turtles and finding a safe place to do so while being pursued by Krang’s forces, and was well-received by the audience in attendance.
Besides that, it was mentioned at the panel that an Usagi Yojimbo 11-inch figure will be introduced to the TMNT line and will be available exclusively at Wal-Mart.