Sunday Morning Coming Down
Originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

It was a great trip from which I'm still recovering. Saw lots of people, mets lots of new ones. Thanks to everyone who let me know how much they liked THE OTHER SIDE and SCALPED. Apologies to all of the people I intended to see but missed. I'll definitely be back, if the city will have me. She's a tempermental mistress, that's for sure.

If you're heading to the New York Comic Con in a few days, here's where to find me.

Friday, Feb 23, 2007
"Vertigo: Looking Ahead" Panel: 6:30-7:30pm
Signing at the DC booth: 7:30-8:30pm

Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
Signing at the DC booth: 10:30-11:30am
Signing at the DC booth: 3-4pm

Sunday, Feb 25, 2007
Signing at the DC booth: 1-2pm

I'll also be signing at the Around Comics table at some point. Look for them at table #A152, located in the Podcasters Arena (between Artists Alley and the main autograph area) on the Galleria level of the convention center.

See ya there.

SCALPED #5, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

Written by Jason Aaron; Art by R.M. Guera; Cover by Jock

"Hoka Hey," part 2 of 2. Tension is at a fever pitch on the eve of the grand opening of the Crazy Horse Casino, as Chief Red Crow ushers in a new era of prosperity for the impoverished Rez. Meanwhile, we learn the "origin" of Dash Bad Horse, from misguided youth to insubordinate FBI agent.

Vertigo 32pg. Color $2.99 US Mature Readers

On Sale May 2, 2007

About THE OTHER SIDE #5, Don MacPherson of Eye on Comics says:
"Writer Jason Aaron brings this war story to a satisfying and fitting conclusion... The power of this storytelling sets up Jason Aaron as the heir apparent to the legacy that Garth Ennis established at DC/Vertigo in the 1990s."

Dalton Walker at Reznet News writes about SCALPED:
"Jason Aaron’s new creation hits the mark. His latest work might start an avalanche unlike Indian Country has ever seen... If SCALPED doesn’t leave shivers down your back, read it again."

Newsarama's Best Shots praises SCALPED:
"First things first: the new SCALPED has the best-looking cover on this week’s rack. Now, on to the reviewing, right? Like LOVELESS, DMZ, and several other books these days, SCALPED reads like an action movie or a TV show. It bounces backward and forward in time, punctuated by dollops of violence, splashes of sexuality, and seeds of future storylines planted everywhere you look. It could be a film directed by Scorsese, or a Sopranos spinoff, but it’s got one unexpected element for a tale of corruption and organized crime: it’s set on an Indian reservation."

Matt Fraction, amazing writer of THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST and CASANOVA, tells Silver Bullet Comics:
QUESTION: When you say "I think the art of writing the single issue has been lost." It's clear that you're trying to resurrect that lost "art" in some of your work... What contemporary storytellers do you think are attempting to practice this done-in-one "lost art"?
MATT FRACTION: Jason Aaron, whose SCALPED and THE OTHER SIDE both function to me as self-contained experiences that connect to a larger whole, absolutely knocks me out.

Thanks to Matt and all of the reviewers. The checks are in the mail.

New interviews and reviews and whatnot this week, as the second issue of SCALPED and final issue of THE OTHER SIDE both hit stores.

Interview with Publishers Weekly:
Jason Aaron, your average 33-year-old American, turns the axiom "write what you know" on its head, instead crafting stories about North Vietnamese soldiers and life on a corrupt Indian reservation.

Interview with Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota):
While its plot is a mafia-like conspiracy story complete with an undercover FBI agent returning to his homeland to spread justice, the story feels too real. It reads like a bloodier version of the reservation corruption stories I heard while growing up next to the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. That's what makes this comic so good.

Reviews of both books from WizardUniverse.com:
THE OTHER SIDE #5
"You won’t find a horror comic on the racks that will jar your bone marrow the way Jason Aaron can in The Other Side. The way he and artist Cameron Stewart delicately balance the typhoon of carnage and shaded morality that warfare renders irrelevant for this series’ characters is absolutely masterful. Don’t pick this issue up without preparing yourself for a sobering experience that offers no answers and a splattered mess of questions about demands and sacrifices imposed on Vietnamese and American soldiers. The puddle of vomit at the end of issue #5 speaks volumes for the horrors of war Aaron grapples with."

SCALPED #2
"If anything, you’ll find all sorts of new ways to use cuss words from this book, but fans of crime fiction are in for a nice follow-up to the debut issue. There’s an engaging use of flashbacks, counting down the days of Chief Red Crow’s growing suspicion of Bad Horse toward a big ambush/gunfight that will probably take place in the next issue. The art is still in the ever-capable Vertigo style, with a little dirtier 100 Bullets feel, but it definitely doesn’t feel like a rip-off, story- or art-wise. The use of the Native American element is a fresh twist on the crime concept, filling up the book with colorful, intriguing characters."

A review of THE OTHER SIDE from last month at The Wire:
"With the war in Iraq escalating and the specter of other wars looming on the horizon, we may be seeing more war comics—and war movies and war books, not to mention actual war footage—than we’d care for. If we’re lucky, a scant few might be as good as THE OTHER SIDE."

From comedian Patton Oswalt's blog on MySpace:
I JUST GOT COMICS
How can I un-break my habit -- having to plunk down and blaze through my pile in front of coffee, eggs and bacon before I do anything else today? I actually have shit to finish. I should focus on...oh shit, a new issue of SCALPED!

An interview I did with Bryan Sandala for Silver Bullet Comics is now online:

BS: There’s been respectable amount of coverage for both of your series and several publications have touted your work as gritty, realistic—all sorts of adjectives. Has the response to your work been what you expected?

JA: Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve been happy that a lot of the other Vertigo creators have embraced my work and have pimped it out. There’s no blueprint with what to follow for building a comic career for a new writer. These are just the stories that I’m attracted to, and if I saw these books on the shelf, I’d be attracted to them in a second. I didn’t really know what to do; there was no grand plan. When you’re working on stuff, you really can’t worry about how it’ll be received by people and how people will think of these as my first two books. You just want to focus on creating interesting characters and tell good stories.

Thanks to Bryan for all of his kind words regarding my books, and for being patient with me during the interview when my son was screaming in the background.

For the full interview, click here.


Other things I'm excited about:

--The first trade for SCALPED is apprently already scheduled to ship sometime in August, and it'll only be $9.99.

--This month's New York Comic Con has released its programming schedule, and I'll be on stage for the Vertigo panel, Friday, February 23, at 6:30 pm. Come by and ask me about SCALPED and THE OTHER SIDE.

--Prince is playing the halftime show of the Super Bowl! He also played a few songs on NFL Network the other day and sounded amazing.