Donatello Is Back in Action in a Preview of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4

Get a sneak peek at Chris Burnham’s inked artwork for TMNT #4, which focuses on Donatello.

October 3, 2024, 12:00pm

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 preview.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ new era at IDW Publishing is now in full swing. The first two issues of the relaunched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ongoing series, written by Jason Aaron, have already hit stores with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3 arriving on October 23rd. Each issue focuses on a different Turtle and is drawn by a different artist. Joelle Jones spotlighted Raphael in the debut, Rafael Albuquerque on Michelangelo in the second issue, and Cliff Chiang will take on Donatello in TMNT #3. For Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4, releasing on November 27th, artist Chris Burnham — who drew the 10-page prelude story in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Alpha #1 — returns to helm the Donatello-centered issue. IDW Publishing has provided ComicBook with a preview of Burnham’s inked artwork from (which will be colored by Brian Reber in the finished comic).

ComicBook previously spoke to Burnham about his TMNT work ahead of the Alpha issue’s release. He talked about the influence of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s original Ninja Turtles comics at Mirage Studios on his approach to TMNT, and influence that’s abundantly clear when looking at the uncolored pages, still black-and-white as those original Mirage comics were.

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“I was pretty intentionally not drawing smooth lines,” Burnham said. “I was trying to draw angular and chunky. I did not look at the old stuff at all. I didn’t want to get caught up in trying to replicate the Eastman and Laird style. So, it was just like channeling my memory of that stuff. Hopefully, I’m shooting for the vicinity of Eastman and Laird, plus the Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot stuff. So, that nasty, chunky-looking style is what I’m looking for. Everything is halfway gross and halfway cartoony and sketchy and shaded and stuff. That is what I’m searching for. So, hopefully, it does not look slick at all. If it looks like s—, then it’s on purpose.”

To imagine Donatello’s fighting style, Burnham told to classic martial arts movies. “I was looking at what does it look like when a person is using a bow staff,” Burnham says. “And most of the guys you see are real skinny dudes, but a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, just by their nature, has a big giant shell on their back. So, when they’re spinning the bow around, it’s not going to work the way it works on a skinny dude. Sammo Hung is amazing with a bow staff, and he’s a pretty portly dude. If you squint, you can shift his mass from the front to the back, and it is easy to turn him into a turtle. That was part of me getting my head around how a bow staff works when you’ve got a giant shell on your back. Sammo Hung helped me out with that.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 goes on sale on November 27th. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 and #2 are on sale now. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3 goes on sale on October 23rd.