It's a great time to be a TMNT fan (Kevin Eastman/Last Ronin appreciation post)

[Pirelli913]

I've been a TMNT fan since I was 5 when I sat down to watch the 5-part mini-series that aired December 1987 that would turn into a cartoon series the following year.

 

Throughout the late 80s and 90s, it was all about TMNT for me. I loved Thundercats, Ghostbusters and G.I. Joe too (in that order) but TMNT took primary.

 

And yeah, during the latter half of the 90s, the craze died down. But it returned in 2003 with a new series that would become my favorite series because it so closely resembled the original 1984 graphic novels. What's funny is I initially didn't give this new series a shot because it wasn't MY childhood. However, I caught a few episodes one day and then fished out an old TMNT comic I had and was blown away when I realized the episodes I had just watched were directly from the comic.

 

That's when I started watching that series. And there's a reason many fans (including myself) consider the season 3 episode "Same As It Never Was" as one of the best (if not the best) episodes of the series. And you could almost say it was foreshadowing to what would eventually become The Last Ronin. The Last Ronin even references it by saying "Same as it ALWAYS was."

 

See, the reason The Last Ronin is so well loved is because it was a story over 30 years in the making thought up in the early 90s by co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as they were throwing around the idea of "What if?" The idea never went anywhere until a few years ago, however.

 

Kevin Eastman was still involved with TMNT and had been working on the rebooted IDW Collection (which is really good btw) before revisiting the idea of "What if?"

 

Let me just say that Kevin Eastman outdid himself with this story. The story itself was pretty much a love letter to long time fans and its ending was the only time reading a comic I actually cried. The fact we are getting both a video game (hopefully M-rated) and a live-action film (confirmed to be R-rated) is proof to just how incredibly written this story was.

 

I've met Kevin Eastman twice. The first time I had him sign my TMNT 25th Anniversary Collected Book Volume One. I thanked him for creating my childhood. He seemed genuinely touched by that and thanked me for giving him a job. After he signed TMNT 25th Anniversary Collected Book Volume One, he said he hadn't seen one of those in a while. I nearly fell over because apparently it must be pretty rare at this point. The second time I had him sign both my copy of The Last Ronin and the NECA character. Told him I actually bought two NECA characters, one to have him sign and one to open up and play with because I'm a child. And he was like, "Well yeah, you have to do that!"

 

Anyway, I cannot wait for further news on either the game or the film. Can. Not. Wait.

 

 

 

 

Difficult to see, but he both signed and drew a Ninja Turtle head when signing TMNT 25th Anniversary Collected Book Volume One.