By Joe Schickman, Reporter

Caleb Goellner is no stranger to working on beloved intellectual properties with enthusiastic, sometimes avid fans, who don’t take kindly to mistreatment of their beloved heroes. Already a veteran handling cherished characters, Goellner has proven himself with readers and publishers alike, lending his talents to a wide gamut of titles, including Power Rangers, Sonic the Hedgehog, and of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. All of these efforts were met with wildly positive reactions, leading Goellner to this incredibly exciting cross-over event Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Naruto, a four part mini-series bringing your favorite butt-kicking turtles into Naruto’s world, nestled carefully within that iconic story. 

ComicsOnline had the opportunity to sit down for an interview with Goellner at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 to hear about how this all came together, starting with a casual text thread, and leading to one of the most explosive fan reactions to a cross-over in recent memory. Get an inside look at Goellner’s creative process, and find out how he navigated balancing nuanced brand guidelines, meeting publisher’s needs, and writing a fun and engaging story that, as a fan himself, he knew readers would be truly ecstatic about.

Special thanks to our friends at IDW Publishing for arranging this interview.

Creative Team: 
Author: Caleb Goellner 
Artist: Hendry Prasetya
Colors: Raúl Angulo 
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
Cover Artists: Jorge Jiménez, Hendry Prasetya

Official Synopsis:
It’s the coolest ninja matchup you could have ever dreamed of, had you dared! The Heroes in a Half-Shell meet the host of the Nine-Tailed Fox in the crossover everyone will be talking about. When teenage reporter April O’Neil has a clandestine meeting with Tsunade, the leader of the Hidden Leaf Village, it garners the attention of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. They aren’t the only ones who are wondering what the two women were discussing, though. The sinister Foot Clan have their own interest in April’s visit, as they think she might hold the valuable information on mutation research being conducted by the scientist Baxter Stockman. With April caught between the forces of the Hidden Leaf Village and the Foot Clan, it can’t be long before the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show up to lend her a hand!

IDW and VIZ Media present two of the greatest ninja teams of all time in this groundbreaking crossover by writer Caleb Goellner and artist Hendry Prasetya.

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