Announced last July, the creative team of writer Gene Luen Yang, and artist Freddie E. Williams II will be taking over IDW’s ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ongoing title with issue #13 in December. It’s no exaggeration that the relaunched title was a huge success for the publisher with the first issue selling over 300,00 copies. However, I would not be surprised if the first issue of exceeds previous sales. In fact, IDW has announced that the pre-order deadline is moving up a week to October 13 due to order projections being higher than expected necessitating the extra time for printers to produce more copies to meet the increased demand.
Ahead of the new pre-order deadline next week, The Beat had the pleasure of interviewing via email writer Gene Luen Yang about working on the TMNT ongoing title. Though Yang and IDW are keeping quite a number of things close to the vest, the prolific writer was able to reveal some secrets including the introduction of a new mutant to the franchise.
Taimur Dar: It’s a bit surreal to me that TMNT has now become a generational franchise. You’ve said you grew up with the original TMNT comics and cartoons. I’m curious if your own kids got into TMNT or if you’ve been keeping up with the various adaptations and interpretations of the Heroes in a Half Shell in comics/animation/etc. over the past decade?
Gene Luen Yang: My kids were not TMNT fans until the 2023 Mutant Mayhem movie. They were actually reluctant to watch it, but I was able to convince them. They told me it was one of their favorite movies in a long time. And I get why. That movie was both beautifully written and beautifully animated. It also captured the heart of the Turtles. It really leaned into the “teenage” part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In my opinion, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have such lasting power because they perfectly embody archetypes. I used to teach writing at Hamline University in Saint Paul and we talked about how the Turtles map onto the Four Humors from Greek Philosophy. We know these characters, right? We run into them in our everyday lives. Everyone has a friend who is well-meaning but a little bit bossy, a Leonardo. We all know someone who has a short fuse like Raphael. We’ve partied with a party dude like Michelangelo, and we’ve been in a study group with an introspective gadget guy like Donatello. The Turtles are familiar to us.
Beyond this, they’re flexible. You can throw them in practically any genre– fantasy, science fiction, martial arts action, horror– it doesn’t matter. They can still work. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are deeply weird characters, and that’s why they’ve been so loved for so long.
Taimur Dar: The challenge for working in a shared universe is being accessible to both old and potentially new fans. Your first issue features an appearance by Xiang Fei Tong, leader of the Ghost Boys. I can’t help but wonder if this means the Dog Star Clan will be playing a role or if readers can expect events and characters from IDW’s other TMNT books to come into play doing your run?
Gene Luen Yang: Over the last several years, IDW has built up a rich continuity around the Turtles. Our run is a part of that continuity, for sure, so what’s happened in previous IDW TMNT comics affects what happens in our book.
That said, we’ve created a book that’s accessible to new readers. You don’t have to know the backstory of Xiang Fei Tong or the Ghost Boys to enjoy our story. If you haven’t picked up a Turtles comic in years, #13 is the perfect jumping on point. I do love the Dog Star Clan. We’ll see if they make an appearance soon.
Taimur Dar: Batman has the Batcave. Superman has the Fortress of Solitude. The Turtles have always had a lair of some kind whether it’s the sewers, a subway station, or even an abandoned church. What will be the living situation for the TMNT during your run?
Gene Luen Yang: We’re going classic, at least at the start. After being apart for a long while, the four brothers are back together. They’re back home in New York, too, so it felt natural to have them head back to where they began, back down to the sewers.
Taimur Dar: Apparently your favorite Ninja Turtle is Donatello. I think it’s fair to say Donnie went through quite a dramatic change in the previous run, but it looks like he’s back to his traditional self. What can fans expect from Donatello during your run? Is he still the Turtle who “does machines?”
Gene Luen Yang: I loved what Jason Aaron and Juan Ferreyra did with Donatello during their run. It was definitely a different take, but it still fit with Donnie’s character. He got so introspective that he nearly lost his mind.
In our run, Donatello returns to his baseline. He still loves machines. He’s still the most thoughtful of the four. But the neurotic side of him that we saw during Jason and Juan’s story arc will peek out from time to time.
Taimur Dar: You probably can’t say too much about the mysterious new villain Ujigami. But hopefully you can discuss Papa Beng, a mutant yak. How did the development of this character come about? It looks like artist Ben Bates designed him.
Gene Luen Yang: Freddie and I are very excited about Ujigami. TMNT #13 is going to be a blast. Papa Beng is a member of the Ghost Boy Triad. It took a few iterations to get to his final form. I had a few exchanges with my editors Bobby Curnow and Jake Thomas before we landed on him being a mutant yak. I love the way Freddie draws him. Papa Beng is scary and imposing but still has a lot of character.
Taimur Dar: Finally, will this TMNT run with Freddie E. Williams be a finite project with a planned number of issues, or will you be staying on the book indefinitely for the foreseeable future?
Gene Luen Yang: We have twelve issues of story planned. We’re gonna put the Turtles through the ringer and hopefully show just how important family is to them. We’ll see what happens after that.
Freddie and I can’t wait for fans to see what we’ve got in store!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #13 arrives in stores Wednesday, December 10, 2025
English (US) · 