IDW Publishing has announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—Lost Years. The upcoming five-issue prequel to the New York Times best-selling The Last Ronin, will further expand its epic tale with a tie-in one-shot by writers Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz, illustrator Ben Bishop, and colorist Luis Antonio Delgado. The 40-page special issue, available in May, is called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—Lost Day Special and will straddle both the past and the future of the Last Ronin universe, setting the stage for thrilling new tales to come.

In Lost Day, longtime resistance leader April O’Neil finds herself and her loved ones—including the four young mutant turtles she and her daughter, Casey Marie Jones, are raising and training together—once again caught up in the battle for the soul of New York City. When April takes the turtles with her on a supply run into the city, they get lost and risk becoming collateral damage in the newest power struggle overtaking the streets. Old memories mix with new realities as April and her four small charges race to get back home before it’s too late.

With the highly anticipated debut of TMNT: The Last Ronin—Lost Years slated for January 25th, IDW has also announced an expanded Director’s Cut edition of the miniseries’ first issue, which will be available in April. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—Lost Years #1 Director’s Cut will feature never-before-seen supplemental materials from legendary TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, as well as series artists Ben Bishop and SL Gallant.

For fans hungry for more insight into the creative process behind Last Ronin’s runaway success, Lost Years, Director’s Cut offers an exclusive look at the concept’s evolution from a speculative draft composed by Eastman and Laird in the nascent days of TMNT’s indie comics era to a New York Times best-selling, internationally beloved phenomenon, as well as the new, expansive universe that has emerged as a result.

Springing from a lost 1987 storyline by TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, The Last Ronin tells the heartrending revenge story of a sole, shrouded Turtle in a dark, possible future, undertaking a seemingly hopeless mission to obtain justice for his fallen family and friends. The kinetic layouts from Eastman, atmospheric illustrations from Isaac & Esau Escorza and Ben Bishop, thrilling script full of surprises from longtime TMNT scribe Tom Waltz, and bold hues from colorist Luis Antonio Delgado instantly resonated with fans and critics alike. Debuting in October 2020 as a quarterly periodical in a prestige oversized format, The Last Ronin took the comic world by storm, eventually leading to over 840,000 units of the individual comic books in print and New York Times best seller status for its hardcover collection with more than 125,000 copies sold.