The Legend Who Helped Inspire the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Is Officially Part of Their Jam-Packed Anniversary Celebration

The man who inspired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is finally joining them for a landmark issue. IDW is publishing the tremendous 300th issue of the reptilian quartet, which will feature a number of characters by noted creators. J. Scott Campbell, Stan Sakai, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are all providing covers, as is one creator who will be contributing to the series he helped inspire for the very first time. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #300 has a lot more going for it than its covers, of course. The main story, by regular creative team Gene Luen Yang and Freddie Williams III, sees the Turtles fighting for their lives against the evil machinations of mad scientist Baxter Stockman. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #300 also features a back-up story from writers Tom Waltz and Eastman, and artists Ben Bates, Eric Talbot, Chris Allan, Frank Fosco, Jim Lawon, and Dan Duncan that reintroduces Renet, a teenage "Timestress" who first graced the pages of the book in issue #8, all the way back in 1986. She's taking a look at the extensive comics history of the Turtles, from their black-and-white early days to the modern day, with plenty of stops along the way (including that time Raphael punched Adolf Hitler). Legendary Daredevil, Batman, and Sin City writer-artist Frank Miller is contributing a cover to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #300, which is on store shelves today. Miller's gritty, noir-infused comics were a key inspiration to Eastman and Laird, who first intended the Turtles as a send-up of then-current comics tropes. The unspoken conceit of the Turtles was that the toxic waste that robbed young Matt Murdock of his sight and granted him the super-senses of Daredevil had gone on to ooze into the sewers, where it made four abandoned pet turtles into Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. Daredevil was mentored by Stick, so the Turtles were taught by Splinter; he fights the Hand Ninjas, so they fight the Foot Ninjas. Of course, the parody elements of the series soon ended as the book proved to be immensely popular, not only launching a multimedia empire of cartoons, movies, and action figures, but also causing an explosion of black-and-white books in the indie comics scene. Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose. You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast. You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world's beauty is worth protecting even at great cost. You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what's right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise. You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it. You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has not been continuously published for 300 issues; #300 is the 20th issue of the current volume. The 300 is derived from "legacy numbering," which adds up the numbers of previous volumes of a series. The same process will see The Amazing Spider-Man, which is now in its seventh volume, celebrate its 1000th issue later this year.