Back in 2023 IDW launched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures, a most radical ongoing comic series revisiting the world of the beloved 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Two years later, the series is still going strong and showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. During New York Comic Con, we had the chance to sit down with TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures writer Erik Burnham and artist Sarah Myer to discuss what’s to come for everyone’s favorite Heroes in a Half Shell.
Taimur Dar: For any creator that works in the TMNT franchise, I think the greatest joy is being able to create new characters, specifically mutants. You’ve had the opportunity to add new mutants to toybox through TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures such as Ptah. What goes into creating new characters for the TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures universe?
Erik Burnham: We come up with an idea for the story and we look if we have something that fits from the toys or cartoons. I just like creating new characters anyway because sometimes you can have a lot more fun bending the story with a character that doesn’t exist. It’s as easy as having a concept that fits with how Danny [Schoening] or Sarah draws it. A mummy and a crocodile with a weird brain were fun ideas that fit the Turtles. It’s a simple answer but it’s a true answer!
Sarah Myer: Ptah was such an interesting character to design because we already have a crococile-esque character. So I knew he had to look believable that he could exist as a reptilian character in the same universe but also not be mistaken for Leatherhead. There’s also a shape language you see in the different version of Turtles. ’87 Turtles for example, the way the fingers of various mutated characters are drawn is a certain way. I know that it’s not going to be realistically rendered in the way you’d see in the IDW or even the Mirage continuity. It’s about translating everything through that visual lens and thinking about how much detail I can put in without making it look like he doesn’t belong in that universe. The mummy, Bakari, I had such a blast with his power where he’s sort of like the Invisible Man made of bandages. I had a blast when the bandages are shooting forward. Also, at the end when he’s giving a presentation, I thought it would be fun if he had a little puppet on his hand that would be telling the story. That one hundred percent fits in with that universe.
Erik Burnham: When I was writing Ptah, I thought he was going to be very thin. Just a complete opposite of Leatherhead. And I saw the picture and said, “This is better.”
Sarah Myer: I drew him really jacked!
Taimur Dar: The upcoming issue of TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures features the return of Mutagen Man. I just rewatched the episode for the first time in decades and there’s so much I had forgotten. It’s quite inspired to change his original admittedly somewhat boring ability to alter his appearance to being able to mutate others. What did revisiting the episode and putting a new twist on the Mutagen Man entail?
Erik Burnham: I do go back and watch the episodes when they need to tie-in. I plumb into the Wikis to make sure I don’t do anything truly boneheaded. If I still make a mistake, Sarah will make sure I don’t screw up too badly and embarrass us all! It seemed like an obvious difference to have the Mutagen Man be able to mutate people instead of being able to change himself. It was fun and a way to bring in new things for Sarah to play with.
Sarah Myer: One of the things that stood out to me about Mutagen Man in the cartoon was Rob Paulsen doing his voice. “I’m so ugly!” This poor guy! I thought about that every time I drew his facial expressions. I think there’s a tendency to think he was an evil villain. But he’s this sad little dude. There’s this body horror element that I’m sure a lot of people think about. Of course there have been darker iterations of Mutagen Man that delved into that sad body horror aspect. I did have a lot of fun with his facial expressions because it’s hard to make bulging eyes and a skeletal face emote. I said to Erik, “You have written the single most realistic sequence in the history of comic books. Somebody trips over a cat!” That’s something to look forward to.
Taimur Dar: Speaking of cats, it was revealed that Ice Cream Kitty will be debuting in TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures. Is this a one-time appearance or can we expect more Ice Cream Kitty?
Erik Burnham: Ice Cream Kitty will show up again briefly. If it’s long term or not, we can’t say.
Taimur Dar: The upcoming TMNT: Battle Nexus miniseries that sees multiversal versions of the Heroes in the Half Shell fighting each other will feature one page backup stories by both of you. I assume this isn’t some Mister Ogg shenanigans fake out like before?
Erik Burnham: Correct. There’s only one page so they will lean more towards comedy. It is actually “these” Turtles meeting “these” Turtles. There is no dodge or “fool you” on the reader. It is exactly what it says on the package. Sarah has crushed the panels again and gotten a lot of stuff into one page. I hope people will have fun.
Taimur Dar: The comics market is fairly precarious in terms of the longevity of comic titles. The fact that TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures has been around for almost three years is no small feat. Anything you can tease in terms of long-term plans for what’s to come?
Erik Burnham: I just turned in issue #40! It’s a little tricky because I don’t remember where we’re at! We’ve got some fun stuff clicking together. We’re going to going to bring back the evil geese and Ace Duck from the April Special. They’re coming up in issue #41.
Sarah Myer: I’m just as excited as anyone else, honestly! Panda Khan has been revealed because of the artwork for Cover A issue #37. All I can say about that is that is a historic moment and I am currently, as soon as I return from the convention, going to get back to inking those pages on issue #37.
Erik Burnham: We did an inventory issue with Dan Schoening that has some of the funniest things I think I’ve written. It’s either the issue before or after Panda Khan. It takes inspiration from a famous source that people will recognize when they read it. It’s not subtle and I can’t wait for people to get to that one.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
