Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to reunite at Tucson Comic Con

2025 marks 16 years of Tucson Comic Con, and Shelbie Turnbeaugh, the media marketing and public relations manager for Tucson Comic-Con, said they are going big for their “sweet 16.” 

The three day event takes place over Labor Day weekend, Aug 29-31, and will be packed with  vendors, fan events, and of course celebrity and industry guests.

“This year's Tucson Comic Con aligns with the 35th anniversary of the Ninja Turtles live action movie,” Turnbeaugh said. “Of course, that was the big deal 80s leading into the 90s, everyone's got their childhood connected to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

To celebrate more than three decades of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Co-Creator Kevin Eastman, as well as the cast of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie are reuniting at Tucson Comic Con.

"We have Leif Tilden, we have Michelan Sisti, Josh Pais and Dave Forman. So all four of these guys are getting together for a reunion at Tucson Comic Con. They're all definitely accredited actors,” Turnbeaugh said. “Dave Forman is actually a stunt performer that's been doing coordination for James Bond films like Skyfall, Batman Begins, Bourne Ultimatum. So all these guys are just amazing actors on their own too.”

The TMNT actors are just a few of the talented celebrity guests expected at this weekend’s event.

“We have Ken Foree, a major horror actor. He was in Dawn of the Dead, Devil's Rejects, Lords of Salem. Anyone you have in your life that's been a horror fan definitely has heard of Ken,” Turnbeaugh said. “We also have Christine Elise. She's known for the Chucky movies. She's been in Child's Play, the Chucky TV run, She's also been in Beverly Hills 90210.” 

The celebrity appearances will also include puppeteer Dave Barclay, voice actress Amber Lee Connors, and actor Eric Estrada.

“Everyone knows him from CHiPs, of course, and he's also been in a number of other TV shows,” Turnbeaugh said. “And then on the WWE side, we have Sergeant slaughter. He's been in the Hall of Fame. He's also known for being one of the first characters to be run in the GI Joe comic books, action figures, and the GI Joe cartoons.”

Comic Con visitors can also expect nearly 30 industry guests, including artist Bill Morrison, who is best known for his work with The Simpsons, Futurama, and his iconic posters for Walt Disney Pictures films.

“Once you see his art, you know. It's iconic. It's the Simpsons, it’s Futurama, Disenchantment. He's been involved in any Simpsons merchandise you've ever seen, any poster, anything, he's got a hand in it,” Turnbeaugh said.

The weekend’s line up also includes Tony Fleecs-  who has worked on everything from Star Wars, Rick & Morty, Avengers and Spider-Man, to TMNT, Transformers, My Little Pony, and more; Eric Powell, an award-winning comic creator who helped create Superman: Bizarro World, Big Trouble in Little China, Marvel Monsters, and Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters; and Whilce Portacio, a long time artist in the industry who is known for his work on the X-Men comics.

“Another big name is Chris Bachalo,” Turnbeaugh said. “He's known iconically for his X-Men runs, for the Amazing Spider Man, Doctor Strange. He's another one of those iconic artists that's been involved in any kind of current age runs.”

This year, with more vendors and high profile guests, Tucson Comic Con will be taking over the Tucson Convention Center arena for the festivities.

“That is giving us significantly more for space, for our exhibit hall, for extra entertainment, along with just the extra celebrations with the Ninja Turtle events, and of course, we're gonna have some amazing photo ops this year,” Turnbeaugh said.

Fans can pose for photos with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costumes, and the totally awesome van., which will also be making an appearance at Tucson Comic Con.

Whether this is your first Comic Con, or you’re a seasoned fan, there are a few must-see things to do to make the most of your Comic Con experience.

“I'd say the top things to visit would be starting with our cosplay groups,” Turnbeaugh said. “One of the things that we're known for is our large collection of professional cosplay groups. We have pretty much the whole upstairs hallway taken up for either the Arizona Avengers, or AZ Hive- which does more Resident Evil stuff. We have the New Arizona Republic, and they do fall out stuff for the video games. So all these are just like professionally gathered cosplay groups.”

On top of amazing photo ops, one of the popular weekend events are the costume contests.

“Everybody loves to get in on that, whether you're competing or just watching. It's amazing the costumes that people put together,” Turnbeaugh said. “We're taking over the Leo Rich Theater, which is right next to the convention center, for both the adult costume contest and the youth costume contest.”

Turnbeaugh said that she expects there to be many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes in the contests this year.

“I can almost guarantee we'll see a lot of those there,” she said.

If you’re into console or role-playing games, or just want to try something new, the large ballroom in the upstairs of the convention center will be dedicated just to gaming. 

“We're gonna have an entire bank of PCs with pre-loaded video games for people to play. We'll have tabletop RPGs, literally any kind of gaming that anyone can think of, we'll have it there,” Turnbeaugh said. “But on top of that, we do have some awesome panels going on with a lot of our guests, so all those celebrities I mentioned- the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sergeant slaughter, Christine Elise-  they're all going to have their own spotlight panels.”

At the spotlight panels, fans can learn more about their favorite artists and comic creators, hear stories about their work, and even participate in Q and A's to ask them those burning questions about their careers. Fans can also purchase photo-ops with their favorite celebrity guest online ahead of the event. Prices range from $55-$155.

“All these celebrities will also have their own tables down in our exhibit hall, so if you see them at their table, walk up, say hi, get an autograph, get a photo. They'll have all kinds of prints for sale.” Turnbeaugh said.

And if you are new to the Comic Con scene, don’t worry, Turnbeaugh said there’s no better place to start.

“We are known to be one of America's most friendliest conventions. I've been hearing that from everybody who attends. Everyone feels like it's a good convention to just get out of your comfort zone.” she said. “We have anything and everything, whether your pop culture thing is comic books or film or cartoons or arts and sculptures, whatever it might be, we got pop culture for all.”

We asked two of the long-time industry guests their favorite things about Tucson Comic Con, their best memory of the convention, and what they are looking forward to the most, and here’s what they said:

Danny Marianino is a Phoenix based writer and comic creator, known for his books “Don’t Ever Punch a Rockstar,” and “It Blows My Mind.” This year, he will be promoting his new book, “Night of the Gabaghoul.”

He is a long-time fan, and guest at Tucson Comic Con, and Marianino said he has been to the convention at least 10 other times. It’s the people and the community that keep him coming back year after year.

“The people that run the Comic Con are all incredible, I love Tucson. It's a fun town, every time we come, we have a good time,” Marianino said.

He said his favorite memory of Comic Con is moderating a panel for the bass player from Megadeth.

“I did a lot of homework on that already, because I recorded with him once. It was a lot of footwork to get it going right, but when it all was said and done, it was a really fun experience,” Marianino said.

Marianino’s Comic Con must-see highlights include the guest panels and the fan costumes.

“Number one, the panels are always awesome. Really good entertainment, different guests and people speaking, really interesting stuff,” he said. “ If you're, if you're into dressing up, the kids in Tucson, they go hard.There's always some cool costumes.”

This year, Marianino said he is most looking forward to meeting the other special guests. 

“I'm really looking forward to just nerding out. Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead is one of the guests,” Marianino said. “And then Kevin Eastman is going to be there from Ninja Turtles and Sergeant Slaughter, too.”

Jay Fotos is another Arizona-based artist and industry guest at this year’s convention. 

Fotos is a mulit-award-winning comic creator, as been in the comic book industry for over 25 years, and has worked on the likes of Godzilla, TMNT, Transformers, and more. He has also been with the Tucson Comic Con since the beginning.

Just like Marianino, Fotos said the people are his favorite part of the convention.

“The people that started the show, and just all the people in attendance that show up, are just very enthusiastic and friendly and supportive,” Fotos said.

The must-see activities at Tucson Comic Con, according to Fotos, are the vendors, artists, and the gaming and cosplay events.

“You have all your guest artists, guest celebrities, vendors that are selling, either comic books or pop culture toys or shirts, basically everything,” Fotos said. “And then upstairs, there's different rooms that showcase game playing and cosplay.”

Returning for another year, Fotos said he is looking forward to reconnecting with the community he has grown over the years.

“Being that I've been there for 16 years, we have a lot of people that come back every year. So it's like my yearly visit to all my friends, and they come in and say hi and catch up on all my newest stuff, and, nerdy, cool stuff,” Fotos said. “Tucson has always been great to me and I’m excited to come down and see you guys again.”