Tom Waltz

Tom Waltz is the quiet force behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ modern renaissance—the writer who scripted the first 100 issues of IDW Publishing’s relaunched TMNT ongoing series and, alongside co-creator Kevin Eastman, co-wrote the franchise’s biggest critical and commercial triumph, TMNT: The Last Ronin. Perfect for fans of long-form superhero sagas, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and turtle stories that swing between gut-busting humor and gut-wrenching drama.

A Decade of Heroes in a Half Shell

When IDW relaunched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2011, Waltz was handed the keys to one of comics’ most beloved properties—and he proceeded to steer it for a decade, scripting every one of the first 100 issues alongside co-plotter Kevin Eastman and editor Bobby Curnow. The run rewired the franchise’s mythology, rebuilding the turtles’ origin, knitting the Shredder and Splinter into a single tangled family history, and modernizing the characters for a generation raised on the ‘87 cartoon and the ’90s movies. In a Screen Rant interview, Waltz summed up the ethos that carried the book to triple digits: never pander, never compromise, and only publish TMNT stories “authentic and true to the core concepts Kevin and Peter Laird established 40 years ago.”

The Ronin, Reborn

The crowning achievement came in 2020, when Eastman dusted off a 1987 outline he’d written with Peter Laird—a dark, R-rated vision of a future where only one turtle remains—and asked Waltz to bring it to life with him. The result, TMNT: The Last Ronin, aged the heroes into grown men in a broken New York, turned an older, wiser Michelangelo into the last warrior of his family, and became the most acclaimed TMNT story in decades. Waltz told GamesRadar that the book’s explosive success stunned even him—and that finding the tone meant pulling back from an even harder-R first draft on Kevin’s wise counsel. The miniseries became a New York Times bestseller, spawned a “Ronin-verse” of sequels including The Last Ronin II—Re-Evolution and The Last Ronin—Lost Years, and is headed for both a video game and a live-action film. Read it for free on Global Comix.

Service, Horror, and the Long Game

Waltz’s road to the turtles ran through the military and the horror genre. A former active-duty U.S. Marine and Desert Storm veteran who later served as a California National Guard military policeman, he channeled that experience into creator-owned books like The Last Fall and Children of the Grave (both drawn by his longtime partner Casey Maloney) and Finding Peace with Nathan St John. He’s also one of IDW’s senior editors, a key editorial voice behind the publisher’s Ghostbusters and Transformers lines, and the writer of acclaimed Silent Hill tales including Sinner’s Reward, Past Life, and Downpour: Anne’s Story. Lately he’s branched out to Marvel, writing Wolverine: Blood Hunt, Knull, and more.

Follow the Cowabunga

Follow Tom Waltz on X/Twitter and Bluesky for behind-the-scenes looks at IDW’s turtle machine, and keep an eye on IDW Publishing for his next move. Whether he’s plotting the next arc of the Ronin-verse or scaring readers in Silent Hill, one thing is certain: the Heroes in a Half Shell are in very good hands.