Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai will transport the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into feudal Japan in the five-issue crossover Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo: WhereWhen, to be published in March 2023 by IDW Publishing in partnership with Sakai’s Dogu imprint and Paramount Consumer Products.

Sakai will write and draw the comic, which will be colored by the Hi-Fi studio. Every issue will have a wraparound cover by Sakai and alternate covers by TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and Mouse Guard creator David Petersen.

The story follows the Turtles as they pursue evil genius Dr. WhereWhen through a time portal and are transported to the world of Usagi Yojimbo.

“I am so pleased with the story and art for WhereWhen,” Sakai said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “There is a lot of emotion and, of course, lots of action. I actually wrote this story about five years ago and had been anxious to get to it. In the past, the Turtles have met just a few of Usagi’s friends. This time, everyone is thrown in—Gen, Tomoe, Jotaro, Yukichi, Kitsune, Chizu, and more! This one is epic!”

This is not the first crossover for the two franchises, which were both first published in 1984; the Turtles have appeared in the world of rabbit ronin Miyamoto Usagi and vice versa in animated series and comics, and IDW published a collected edition of crossover comics in 2018 (see “Usagi Yojimbo and TMNT Come Together in New Collection”).

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