Just got back from vacation, and I'm still getting caught up with emails and such. Turned in SCALPED #9 right before I left, and Guéra says it's his favorite issue yet. While I was gone, the solicitations for September came out, and I have two books hitting the shelves that month.

SCALPED #9
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by R.M. Guera
Cover by Jock
“Casino Boogie” part 4 of 6. SCALPED gets spiritual in this issue when the focus turns to Catcher, the mysterious rider glimpsed in previous issues, who has foreseen the murder of someone on The Rez. Now he must saddle up one last time to try to save their life, and perhaps his own soul in the process.
On sale September 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS


FRIDAY THE 13th : HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION #1
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Adam Archer & Peter Guzman
Cover by Dustin Nguyen
Teenager Davie Falkner was born with a skull deformity that makes him the butt of nearly every joke. When his parents send him to camp, he learns that being different might just save your life at Camp Crystal Lake!
On sale September 12 • 1 of 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS

This FRIDAY THE 13TH issue was the first new thing I wrote after months spent working on THE OTHER SIDE and SCALPED, both serious, intense, research-heavy projects. And I must say I had a total blast with this thing. I'd been a fan of the films since I was a kid, so no research-required. I just ripped right into it. The story is sort of like FIRST BLOOD but with Jason as Rambo, and then you also mix in a drug-crazed sheriff, a deformed teenager and more references to 1970s pop culture than you can shake a stick at.

Other Side: moving, haunting Vietnam War comic

I found Other Side, Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart's gripping, savage, thoughtful Vietnam War comic, by going into Secret Headquarters (my favorite comic shop) and asking "What's good?" Dave, the co-owner, said, "I just sent this guy my first-ever fan letter" and passed me a copy.

It was a well-deserved fan-letter.

Click here for the full review

The story in SCALPED #6 is titled "The Man Who Fights the Bull." In my original script, I wanted a short quote to run on the final splash page, but DC's legal department wasn't comfortable with that idea. It's a poem that I've seen attributed to several different people, but I think was written by Spanish matador Domingo Ortega:

“Bullfight critics ranked in rows
Crowd the enormous Plaza full
But only one is there who knows
And he's the man who fights the bull.”

SCALPED #6 -- Final Version, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

SCALPED #6 is the first issue of a new six-part arc titled "Casino Boogie" which focuses on the night of our casino's grand opening, but each issue looks at the events from the perspective of a different character. First up, Dash Bad Horse. For Dash, it's a night of sex, shoot-outs, cryptic bathroom encounters, dead chickens and barbecue.

As usual, interiors are by R.M. Guéra and the cover's by Jock. On colors, we welcome aboard new recruit Giulia Brusco.

With Emmett Furey at Comic Book Resources:
“For the most part, (SCALPED) will take place exclusively on Prairie Rose,” Aaron continued. “But we will get flashes of other locations at times, including an Indian boarding school in issue #7, a West Texas Kickapoo rez in #8 and Leavenworth Penitentiary in #11.” Aaron has also pitched to Serbian artist R.M. Guéra the possibility of the artist writing and drawing an issue flashing back to Dash's military tour in Kosovo. “Guéra and I have had a great relationship from the get-go, even though we're very different people. He's very passionate and animated. I'm much more reserved and laid back. Still, we always seem to be on the same page when it comes to ‘Scalped.' I couldn't imagine doing the book with anybody else.”

With Tim O'Shea at Silver Bullet Comics:
Guéra and I first really bonded over westerns, especially the books of Elmore Leonard and the film versions of Hombre and Valdez is Coming. And also the films of Sam Peckinpah. I was initially approaching Scalped as a straight crime story, and Guéra was looking at it as a modern-day western, so I think the finished product is somewhere in the middle, which works out perfectly.

And with Daniel Gaddy from my hometown newspaper, the Daily Mountain Eagle:
After UA, Aaron said he worked a “bunch of crappy day jobs,” the longest of which was at Johnny Ray’s Barbecue in Pelham. “I still miss that coconut cream pie,” he said.