Also thinking of my late cousin Gustav Hasford today, author of THE SHORT-TIMERS which was the basis for Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET.  Here's a sampling of my favorite Gus quotes: 

"Shut your scuzzy mouth, fat body, and listen up.  I am going to give you the straight skinny, because you are the biggest shitbird on the planet…   In Viet Nam nice guys do not finish at all and monsters live forever.  You got to bring ass to get ass.  A few weeks ago you were the hot-rod king of some hillbilly high school, stumbling around in front of all the girls and stepping on your dick, but be advised that Viet Nam will be the education you never got in school.  You ain’t been born yet, sweet pea.  Your job is to stand around and stop the bullet that might hit someone of importance.  Before the sun comes up, prive, you could be just one more tagged and bagged pile of nonviewable remains.  If you're lucky, you'll only get killed…We are teenaged Quasimodos for the bells of hell and we are as happy as pigs in shit because killing is our business and business is good.  The Commandant of the Marine Corps has ordered you to Khe Sanh to get yourself some trigger time and pick up a few sea stories.  But you are not even here to win the D-F-M, the Dumb Fucker’s Award.  The only virtue of the stupid is that they don't live long.  The Lord giveth and the M-79 taketh away.  There it is.  Welcome to the world of zero slack.”
--THE PHANTOM BLOOPER

The very first thing that I have learned about Vietnam as a writer is that I am no longer talking to two-thirds of you.  The word "Vietnam" in the first sentence of this article triggered a negative response somewhere, and most of you are about to turn the page.  To those stalwart few who remain:  Welcome to the world of the disenchanted.

The second thing that I have learned after 12 years as an unreconstructed Vietnam veteran is that, while I deeply respect, and would fight to preserve, the Constitution of the United States, I am now and must remain a devoted enemy of the federal government of the United States.
--“Still Gagging on the Bitterness of Vietnam,” L.A. Times, April 1980

America invented Communism when they ran out of Indians . . . Communism is boring and does not work.  But if the federal government of the United States died, I'd dance on its grave.  I've joined the side of people against the side of governments.  I've gone back to the land.  When Americans lost touch with the land, we lost touch with reality.  We became television.  I don't want to be television.  I'd rather kill or be killed . . .

Being young is the art of survival without weapons, but we had weapons, and we used them to burn Viet Nam alive.  I'm ashamed of that.  It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but it was the wrong thing.  In an unnecessary war, patriotism is just racism made to sound noble.
--THE PHANTOM BLOOPER

That's the popular one--how many people did you kill?  I slaughtered millions of people, all helpless, innocent civilians.  I threw them up and cut them down like dogs.  Actually, I try to give people an honest answer.  They have a conception that war is like John Wayne movies.  You walk along, some Japanese soldiers walk out, you say, "hello Japs, eat lead," and shoot them down.  In real war, you rarely see the enemy.  It's more a question of walking along, somebody starts shooting at you.  They shoot over here, you shoot over there.  You can't see anything.  Later you go over and there are some shot people. You don't know who shot them.  Very few people in Vietnam saw someone and shot them.  You're holding your rifle, firing over your head, thinking "I hope I don't get shot."  You're not really going around taking score.  I was under fire about 50 times, but I only saw the enemy once.  At Hue, we could see for about 500 yards, and what you saw was these little teeny-tiny ants.  You couldn't even tell they were people
--Interview in CIRCUIT, August 1986

Rambo has "59 confirmed kills," first tour, and scores another 90 during the film, for a total of 149, not counting blood trails, civilians, and water buffalo.  My own score was perhaps more typical.  In Vietnam I fired more rounds than the Stonewall Brigade fired at the Battle of Gettysburg.  I was highly motivated, but my body count was a standing joke:  I killed as many of them as they did of me.  Looking back with flawless hindsight, I hope I hit nothing but trees, and I hope the trees lived.  If I did kill a human being in Vietnam, it was a tragic accident or self-defense; I regret it, but I do not apologize.
--“Vietnam Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry,” Penthouse, 1987

Sitting on my rack, I type out my story about Hill 327, the serviceman's oasis, about how all of us fine young American boys are assured our daily ration of pogey bait and about how those of us who are lucky enough to visit the rear areas get to see Mr. John Wayne karate-chop Victor Charlie to death in a Technicolor cartoon about some other Viet Nam.  The article I actually write is a masterpiece.  It takes talent to convince people that war is a beautiful experience.  Come one, come all to exotic Viet Nam, the jewel of Southeast Asia, meet interesting, stimulating people of an ancient culture...and kill them.  Be the first kid on your block to get a confirmed kill.
--THE SHORT-TIMERS

From The Green Berets to Rambo, from Apocalypse Now to The Deer Hunter, Hollywood films have been manufactured like cheese to accommodate the most irrational prejudices of a civilian audience, films featuring heroes 12m high on the screen, white American godzillas trampling on wicked Orientals.  No one objected that John Wayne had never heard a shot fired in anger or that Sylvester Stallone (we're the same age, Sly) dodged the draft by working in a private girls' school in Switzerland.  Gracious enough not to bore us with any facts, Hollywood has been content to go on trivializing the war as recreational gore as long as it sells popcorn to UCLA co-eds.

But stand by for a sweeping revision in how the world views the Vietnam war.  Oliver Stone's relentlessly unpleasant and mercilessly honest Platoon is breaking the ground for a stream of war films by Vietnam veterans due to be released this year, films which will continue to mangle frail civilian sensibilities.  Truth has no author and the truth hurts.

Before Platoon, the Vietnam veteran had not been forgotten by history but had been left out on purpose.  Finally we exist, warts and all.  To a brother in darkness and in light, I say:  Get some, Oliver Stone.  In Vietnam we were barbarian outriders for the Skull King of San Clemente, but we're all point men now, and we're all outside the wire.
--“Veterans fight for audiences’ hearts, minds,” The West Australian, March 1987

Stanley (Kubrick) and I, after about a dozen long talks, are lobbing frags.  I told Stanley he didn’t know shit from Shinola about Viet Nam.  And he’s so sensitive, he got mad… Stanley thinks I’m an asshole because I am a vocal and adamant supporter of the National Liberation Front, or at least of the Vietnamese people in it…

Stanley and I still do not agree on several points, particularly on how to portray the Viet Cong.  I think they are heroic and humane people and I’m glad they won.  Stanley sees them as buck-toothed Japs left over from old John Wayne movies, who were out to spread the red blob of monolithic Communism across the face of the earth, in the name of Marx & Lenin.  Not exactly a situation that results in a satisfying compromise.  Meanwhile, Stanley has hired Michael Herr to help him, temporarily, which is pretty dumb, I think.  Michael Herr hung out with the Marines, but hanging out with an organization and being part of it are far from the same thing.  I have “hung out” with Zulus, but that hardly qualifies me to explain them to others.  Anyway, we’ll see.  And yes, I’ve already been advised, many, many times, that I should just shut up and do anything Stanley wants and make as much money as I can.  In fact, everybody I know says that.  With good intentions.  But when you think about it, it’s a very insulting idea.  I wonder exactly what it was that I did that gave people the idea I’m just some kind of silly Hollywood slut & opportunist.  I just keep remembering all of the previous Viet Nam films and what incredible bullshit they were—Marlon Brando as a fat Hari Krisna quoting T.S. Eliot.  Give me a break.  And the great scene in The Deer Hunter when the NVA drops a grenade in on some women and children, on purpose.  What racist bullshit.  I’m sick of films that depict Viet Nam veterans as “Viet Nam violence freaks” (a phrase they tried to use as a blurb on SHORTY, before I politely suggested that the use of a such a phrase could possibly result in the instantaneous rotation of somebody’s fucking kneecaps) and I’m sick of us trying to pretend against all existing evidence, that the Vietnamese were not simply trying to free themselves from dominance by the United States and its appointed flunkies and collaborators.  The key point of view to all of these films is that the viewer, a white liberal, can sit and watch, smug, pure, uninvolved, while those bad boys who didn’t find some way to weasel out of the war wipe out those evil Communist people (I suppose if you happen to live in a Communist country and are attacked by the United States your only honorable option is to allow yourself to be wiped off the face of the earth).  Well, movie makers can stroke the whitebread fucking liberals and make them feel superior and above it all, but they’ll do it without me.
--Excerpts from private letters, January 1983-February 1984

I spent a year in London writing the screenplay for the upcoming Stanley Kubrick film, FULL METAL JACKET (see article attached) and I needed this ton of books and papers (600 pounds?) so that I might steal my ideas from the widest possible range of sources, the secret of good writing.
--Letter to U.S. Customs Office, January 1987

Of course there are stories of how the "name" author finds a young writer with talent, takes him under his literary wing, and guides him to fame and publication.  There are no such literary giants in this neck of the woods.  Maybe one will turn up.  Until then I struggle on, with even a victory now and then.  Though I enter the jungle alone, at the mercy of publishers and farsighted critics with broken glasses, I am confident of great reward.  The writer's world is a challenge, and hard at times, but it attracts the finest people on this earth.  These are the people that really live, and the only people that are really alive.  Artists, writers, publishers, I love them all.
--Letter to Writer’s Digest, 1963, when Gus was 15 years old

Lao-Tze pointed out that nothing worth saying can be said with words.  Words are crude and clumsy things, objects of ink, ultimately imprecise.  And writing is as much fun as giving birth to a Howard Johnson’s.  Writers learn to live with that fact the way a soldier learns to live with fear or the  way a doctor learns to live with death.  When the battle is lost, the soldier attacks.  When the case is hopeless, the doctor operates.  So writers write.  And whereas soldiers and doctors are allowed to bury their mistakes a writer is expected to publish his.

Being a writer was not my first choice for a profession.  I would much prefer to be an archaeologist, a sculptor, or a country-western singer.  But then I had all these ideas for books which came to me in a vision.  Since then, I have been convinced that there is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I say.  Yet my work remains a personal statement--I speak for no groups or social factions.  I have no goals beyond the completion of my next story.  The praise I seek from my readers is that they finish my books.  After being alternately damned and praised for equally invalid reasons, I am content to trade fame for accuracy of interpretation.  Fame, for a writer, is like being a dancing bear with a little hat on your head.
--Contemporary Authors, 1987

"As the machine gun bucked against me, the horror of what I was doing receded. The 60 became a warm, friendly thing. That feeling will haunt me until the day I die."



Recommended in honor of Memorial Day: Don Lomax's amazing VIETNAM JOURNAL series which is now coming back into print.  Here's what I wrote about VIETNAM JOURNAL for CBR back in 2006:

VIETNAM JOURNAL #1 was unleashed upon an unsuspecting populace in November 1987, courtesy of little-known Apple Comics. Borrowing a phrase from Full Metal Jacket screenwriter Gustav Hasford, Don Lomax’s vision of Vietnam had come to “mangle frail civilian sensibilities.” Comic-wise, I’ve still never seen anything so horrific as the horribly burned chopper pilot from Vietnam Journal #7, whose leg comes off in a medic’s hands; the meticulously-pockmarked landscape and the bullet-riddled bodies of Viet Cong in issue #4; the tangled mass of soldiers clinging desperately to a chopper’s rope ladder in #5; the poor grunt who’s been shot in the face on the opening page of #6; the bayoneted baby in #13; or the last three issues, #14-16, which are, without a doubt, the most brutal and disturbing comics I’ve ever read. Even today, VIETNAM JOURNAL is one of the most gritty and brutally honest war stories ever published.

Looks like the first three volumes are out and volume 4 is on the way, all courtesy of Transfuzion. These are must-own books, especially for any fan of war comics.

Don Lomax's VIETNAM JOURNAL from Transfuzion Publishing
Lomax's online continuation of the story

"Momma got killed by her damn crack pipe." ♫ http://blip.fm/~r8xe1

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia / country
The documentary, directed by Julien Nitzberg, follows the legacy of the White family of Boone County, West Virginia. Their most famous living member is Jesco White, star of the 1991 cult documentary hit "Dancing Outlaw" (on which Nitzberg was associate producer). The Appalachian clan is notorious for criminal activity and reckless, larger-than-life characters. They tap-dance, shoot and stab people (including each other), and sell (and do) a lot of drugs. Think "Sopranos" meets "Coal Miner's Daughter."

In Battered Haiti, Cockfighting A Fierce Diversion / fodder
One of the most popular sports in Haiti happens to be one that is illegal in the United States. Cockfighting rivals soccer as the most watched sport in Haiti.

StreetMuseum: Looking into the Past With an IPhone App! / future-shit
The Museum of London has just launched an iPhone app that makes use of its extensive art and photographic collections as well as geo tagging and Google Maps to guide users around London where, via the iPhone screen, you can look into the past! By overlaying old photos, The Museum of London gives you a unique experience, making you want to explore the hidden history of London that surrounds you.

After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all / writers
The great American writer left instructions not to publish his autobiography until 100 years after his death, which is now

Native Two Spirit films premiere at festival / Indian-Country
The 6th Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival will be held June 11 – 13 at San Francisco’s Brava Theater, and admission is free. On June 12, the festival will have its featured screening, “Reclaiming Remembrance,” which showcases films made by Native Two Spirit (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) filmmakers, including “Two Embrace,” a film by Diné Navajo/Oneida Iroquois activist Carrie House. This animated short illustrates the border tribes and Two Spirit peoples’ first contact with European Christians.

The NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct / cops
Two years ago, a police officer in a Brooklyn precinct became gravely concerned about how the public was being served. To document his concerns, he began carrying around a digital sound recorder, secretly recording his colleagues and superiors.

Ala. preacher gets life for killing mother of his six children and hiding her dead body in freezer / sweet-home-alabama
People who heard traveling evangelist Anthony Hopkins deliver sermons in the rural Southern towns where he preached sometimes called him a psychic or even a prophet. But prosecutors say the former soldier kept dark secrets while spreading God’s word. They accuse him of killing his wife, storing her body in a freezer for years and raping and molesting a young female relative.

New Tattoo, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

Thanks to the always amazing Jessie Hopeless from Exile Tattoo in Kansas City.

Jessie Hopeless
Exile Tattoo

ZIP POP NOIR, originally uploaded by jaslatour.

From Jason Latour: "A little POP NOIR remix for the HEROES CON 2010 program book."

Latour and I have talked about working together several times over the last few years and looks like this year it'll finally happen, in the pages of SCALPED.

"They're on the move!  I repeat: Gangsta Rap Posse is on the move!"


1991. South Central, LA, is a world of crushing beats, hard rhymes, murderous days and police-chased nights. The kings of South Central, the most notorious rap group in the world, Gangsta Rap Posse, is on the loose, eliminating rivals, dealing stolen dope and getting rich! They're wanted by corrupt cops and hot women equally. In between gun battles and getting paid, they're dominating the mics and working on their much-anticipated upcoming album! It's sure to be a wrecking ball on the charts! Witness the first chapter in their story, Californiapocalypse.

I love Benjamin Marra's comics.  They're outrageous and profane and pure fucking fun.  I think he described this new series as "What if N.W.A. were really as badass as you thought they were when you were 14."  What more do you need to know?

Benjamin Marra blog

Beard -- May 26, 2010, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

SCALPED #38 and WOLVERINE WEAPON X #13 both out today. SCALPED is a Vietnam War flashback issue while WEAPON X continues the time-bending Deathlok saga. Go read them, won't you?

New Hank III out today! ♫ http://blip.fm/~r0u15

VIA

One on One.  Me and David Lapham, acclaimed writer/artist of STRAY BULLETS and YOUNG LIARS and countless other cool things. We're squaring off all week at the Standard Attrition forums, interviewing each other, shooting the shit, fighting to the death.  Think of it as Comic Creator Thunderdome.  You can play the part of Master Blaster if you come join us.

http://jasonaaron.org/viewtopic.php?t=2562

EXILE ON MAIN ST. is raw and ragged and frayed.  It is gravelly and out of tune.  It is thundering and reckless.  It is as perfect a rock album as you will ever hear, yet all along the way it seems to barely be holding itself together, like a train threatening to jump the track at every turn.  In other words, it is the Rolling Stones in their purest form.

The Stones were not the Beatles.  The Stones didn't craft meticulously refined studio symphonies.  Instead they stumbled over themselves and played until their fingers bled and sometimes it worked and sometimes it was shit.

As recounted by engineer Andy Johns in THE ROLLING STONES: IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL: "They were the worst bloody band on the planet, the worst bunch of musicians in the world, they could be for days at a time. Really fucking horrible. And you sit there wondering how on earth are we going to get anything out of this. They would play very badly, and that's how they played most of the time, very poorly, and out of tune... They were the worst band in the planet, BUT, when it happened, they were transformed almost instantly from this dreadful band into the Rolling Stones, and they'd blow you away. It was almost magical."

That's the Stones of EXILE, recklessly stumbling their way to rock and roll perfection.

Don Was and Mick Jagger going into the studio in 2010 to re-record vocals for new bonus tracks?  That's not EXILE.

Like a lot of folks, I was all excited for the new EXILE ON MAIN ST. Deluxe Edition that was released last week.  It's newly remastered and features ten new songs, all relics from the original EXILE sessions at Keith's rented palace in the south of France.  Unfortunately, some have newly recorded vocals courtesy of Jagger and producer Was (one song, "Following the River," didn't even have lyrics until now).  The best thing I can say about these bonus tracks is that they're not an utter waste of time.  Anything that features previously unheard piano tracks by the late great Nicky Hopkins can't be all bad. But hearing modern Mick's voice laid over tracks from that era just doesn't sound right.  And it certainly doesn't FEEL right.  If those songs didn't work in the moment, then they're certainly not going to be made to work 40 years later, because those Stones don't exist anymore.  They barely existed back then.  Since EXILE was released in 1972, the Stones have made one almost-great album (SOME GIRLS) and several more that haven't even come close.  EXILE was not only their career high-point but really the beginning of the end.  A long, sad end.  One that's still lumbering along in its protracted death throws.

So anyway, this is my long-winded way of saying: buy EXILE ON MAIN ST. but skip the second disc of bonus tracks, especially if this is your first time hearing the album.  Like much of what the Stones do these days, the new Deluxe Edition feels like little more than a cash grab.  For my part, I spent a few bucks more for a physical CD instead of just downloading the songs because the CD came with a 12 page booklet which I assumed would be filled with all sorts of liner notes offering fascinating insights into my all-time favorite album.  Instead I got 10 pages of photos and two pages of song listings.  Thanks, Mick.  I love you too.

At least we'll always have EXILE.  Disc One, at least.

SCALPED nominated for two Eagle Awards:

Favourite American Colour Comicbook
B.P.R.D.
Batman & Robin
Captain Britain and MI13
Chew
Doctor Who
Phonogram – The Singles Club
Scalped

Favourite Continued Story Published During 2009
Doctor Who: The Forgotten
Judge Dredd: Tour of Duty
Phonogram: The Singles Club
Scalped #19-24: The Gravel in your Gut
Walking Dead #61 – 65: Fear The Hunters

VIA

Via

Via

Rock on, Muscle Shoals. Rock on. ♫ http://blip.fm/~qv0u5

And on the eighth day, God made gravy, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

This was full a few minutes ago.

Sketch Cards: Comics For Cures from Tony Moore on Vimeo.

Still time to bid on these cards and contribute to a noble cause.  Go here.

UPDATE: Bidding closed.  Tried to snag one for myself but lost out. Congrats to the proud new owners of bullet-riddled zombie goodness.

In 2022 World Cup Bid, Japan Offers to Broadcast Live, Full-Scale 3-D Holographic Games on Fields Worldwide / future-shit
When Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup, people flocked to public parks, arenas, and sporting stadiums worldwide to watch the games on massive screens at public viewing events. If Japan lands its bid for the 2022 Cup, you may be able to go to your local soccer stadium and view real-time 3-D hologram displays of tournament games projected full-size on the pitch.

Researchers Create the World's First Fully Synthetic, Self-Replicating Living Cell / meet-your-new-masters future-shit
If figuring out how to quickly sequence genomes was but the first small step for genetics, Craig Venter has gone ahead and made a giant leap for the discipline. The J. Craig Venter Institute announced today that it has created the world’s first synthetic cell, boasting a completely synthetic chromosome produced by a machine. “This is the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer,” Venter said in a press conference.

'Exile on Main St.': A new reflection on the classic Rolling Stones' disc / music
Cut off from civilization. An absentee singer. A guitarist so strung out, everyone must wait as he sleeps off his latest buzz. Drugs, procurers and hangers-on everywhere. No record-company feedback. No game plan. Is this the way to record the greatest album of your career?

The VVA Veteran: REMF Diary of Dying and Bureaucratic Complexity / friends vietnam
When David Willson, a VVA member battling Agent Orange-induced bone cancer, applied to the VA for his veterans benefits last September, he found out that the vast government agency had his name spelled wrong and his address all screwed up. But that was the least of the Seattle resident’s VA-related problems.

Bacon Explosion KFC Double Down / fuck-you-diet
Around my house pork reigns supreme and never takes a backseat to chicken. So I did what any true BBQ Addict would do, and added a hot slice of Bacon Explosion to the middle of my Double Down sandwich to give it the true bacon kick that it was missing.

On The Trail Of Mexico's Vicious Sinaloa Cartel : NPR / fodder
An NPR News investigation suggests Mexico's brutal fight against drug mafias may be rigged. Based on analysis of arrest records and interviews with law enforcement and organized crime experts, federal forces in Ciudad Juarez — ground zero of the cartel war — appear to be favoring the Sinaloa cartel, which the U.S. Department of Justice says is one of the largest organized crime syndicates in the world.

Indian reservation works to save Lakota language / scalped
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a 3,500-square-mile plot of land home to the largest concentration of Lakota people, is also home to the effort to save the indigenous Lakota language from extinction. The odds are stacked against them.


Your RBR Word of the Day: frog-march - Roll 'Bama Roll / football

My current workload:

SCALPED -- 37 issues on the shelves and still plenty more story left to tell.  The first big arc this year is "Unwanted," drawn by Guera.

PUNISHER MAX -- Second arc, titled "Bullseye," is coming out right now.  Third arc will be titled "Frank." And that ain't the end of the story.
 
WOLVERINE -- WOLVERINE: WEAPON X is winding down and in its place comes WOLVERINE. First arc is "Wolverine Goes to Hell" which is exactly what it sounds like.  Looking forward to a nice long run on this book.

ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE -- Having loads of fun with this.  A big, batshit-crazy six-issue story with the chance for more to follow.  Already know how I wanna follow it up.

PROJECT TO BE NAMED LATER -- Just recently wrote the first issue of a secret new mini-series featuring a character I've never written before.  Have no idea when this'll be announced.  Sorry to be a tease.

No screenplays or teleplays in the works for me right now.  I'm all comics, all the time.  And loving every second of it.  Thanks for reading.

Vampyroteuthis infernalis, which literally means "The Vampire Squid From Hell"

One of many great movie posters drawn by Robert McGinnis

A cut from the official Unofficial SCALPED Soundtrack. "He got barbered, violent." Yes indeed. ♫ http://blip.fm/~qo3h2

The sixth trade paperback collection of SCALPED is in stores today, collecting "The Gnawing," a pivotal arc that wraps up many of the plot threads from the book's first couple years and sets the stage for virtually everything to come for the duration of the series. It features an introduction by the great Matt Fraction that is heartwarming in its seriousness and does not make fun of me in any way whatsoever.

But hey, what if you're never read SCALPED?  Well there's something in stores for you as well, my friend.  You can pick up a reprint of SCALPED #1 for just $1 today and see what all the fuss is about. (There is fuss, isn't there?)  If you're already a SCALPED fan, then buy some copies for your non-SCALPED reading friends and tell them you won't be seen publicly with them again until they've read it.  Buy copies for your enemies.  Buy copies for random people on the street.  Buy a copy for that man/woman at your work you're dying to sleep with but who so far hasn't given you the time of day and I guarantee you'll get the best fuck of your life.  No need to thank me.  Adventure is my reward.

If that title alone doesn't make you want these, then you are definitely not me.

They're for an auction to benefit the American Cancer Society.  More info here.

I will be posting here every day until further notice.  Or at least that's the plan.  I will also continue to occasionally babble about random shit on both twitter and my message board, Standard Attrition. Join me, won't you.

deskshot 5-18-10, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

SCALPED #41
Written by JASON AARON
Art by R.M. GUERA
Cover by JOCK
Dash Bad Horse and his ex-girlfriend have both worked hard to get their lives in order, but now they may be torn apart again by the one thing that’s a bane for them both: Family.
On sale AUGUST 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS




PUNISHERMAX #10
Written by JASON AARON
Penciled by STEVE DILLON
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON
“BULLSEYE,” PART 5
It's Kingpin vs. Bullseye, with the Punisher waiting in the wings. Oh, and the entire NYPD ready to kill them all. Does anybody make it out of this one alive?
32 PGS./Explicit Content ...$3.99




WOLVERINE WEAPON X #16
Written by JASON AARON
Penciled by TBD
Cover by RON GARNEY
During the shocking events of SECOND COMING, Logan lost one of his dearest friends: Nightcrawler. Now with the reading of Nightcrawler's will, Logan learns that his friend had one last request, something Logan can not refuse, no matter how much it might pain him. Don't miss this stirring series finale that helps pave the way for next month's WOLVERINE #1.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory ...$3.99

"The High Price of Necromancy"... a cautionary tale. ♫ http://blip.fm/~qlkc6

Adam Kubert / Jason Aaron @ Elite Comics, originally uploaded by kevin mellon.

Not sure what sort of hand gesture I'm making there. Just go buy ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE #1!

OK,
we go conquer the rest of the world, but first we have lots of loose women. Sex & we eat like old Romans - lying on a bed... (I always wondered)...deal?

Granny is page away...

Oh, how I love that man.

SCALPED Vol. 6 intro by Matt Fraction

Preview of ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE #1

Marvel Hotline interview with me, talking SPIDEY/WOLVIE:

COMICS

DC
JOKER'S ASYLUM: THE PENGUIN -- One-Shot, art by Jason Pearson

DC/VERTIGO
HELLBLAZER #245-246 -- "Newcastle Calling," art by Sean Murphy
THE OTHER SIDE #1-5 -- Art by Cameron Stewart
SCALPED #1-ongoing -- Art by R.M. Guera, Davide Furno and others

DC/WILDSTORM
FRIDAY THE 13TH: HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION #1-2 -- Art by Adam Archer

IMAGE COMICS
LIBERTY COMICS #2 -- 4 page story, "The First Censor," art by Moritat
RIPCLAW: PILOT SEASON #1 -- One-Shot, art by Jorge Lucas
24/7 Vol. 2 -- 7 page story, "This Mortal Coil," art by Miguel Alves

MARVEL COMICS
ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #1-6 -- Art by Adam Kubert
AVENGERS VS. ATLAS #4 -- 8 page story, "My Dinner with Gorilla Man," art by Giancarlo Caracuzzo
BLACK PANTHER #39-41 -- "See Wakanda and Die," art by Jefte Paolo
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHO WON'T WIELD THE SHIELD -- One Shot, 10 page story, "Forbush Man: Forbush Kills," art by Mirco Pierfederici
DARK REIGN: THE LIST -- WOLVERINE #1 -- One Shot, art by Esad Ribic
DARK X-MEN: THE BEGINNING #3 -- "Get Mystique (Slight Return)", art by Jock
DEADPOOL #900 -- 10 page story, "Close Encounters of the @*#$ed-Up Kind," art by Chris Staggs
GHOST RIDER #20-35 -- Art by Roland Boschi, Tan Eng Huat, Tony Moore
GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE #1-6 -- Art by Roland Boschi
IMMORTAL WEAPONS #1 -- Art by Mico Suayan and others
MARVEL ASSISTANT SIZED SPECTACULAR #1 -- 8 page story, "Just A Little Old Fashioned Justice," art by Richard Isanove
PUNISHER MAX #1-ongoing -- Art by Steve Dillon
PUNISHER MAX X-MAS SPECIAL #1 -- Art by Roland Boschi
WOLVERINE #175 -- 8 page story, "A Good Man," Art by Udon Studios
WOLVERINE #56 -- "The Man in the Pit," Art by Howard Chaykin
WOLVERINE #62-65 -- "Get Mystique!", Art by Ron Garney
WOLVERINE #73-74 -- "A Mile In My Moccasins," Art by Adam Kubert
WOLVERINE: MANIFEST DESTINY #1-4 -- Art by Stephen Segovia
WOLVERINE: WEAPON X #1-ongoing -- Art by Ron Garney, Yanick Paquette, C.P. Smith
X-FORCE: AIN'T NO DOG -- One-Shot, 10 page story, "Hunters & Killers," art by Werther Dell’edera

MARVEL/ICON
CRIMINAL Vol. 2 #2 -- Text piece, "My Favorite TV Cops and Movie Tough Guys, Flaws and All."

COLLECTIONS
AVENGERS/X-MEN: UTOPIA (Collects DARK X-MEN: THE BEGINNING #3)
BATMAN: JOKER'S ASYLUM (Collects JOKER'S ASYLUM: THE PENGUIN)
DARK REIGN: THE LIST (Collects DARK REIGN: THE LIST -- WOLVERINE)
FRIDAY THE 13TH Vol. 2 (Collects FRIDAY THE 13TH: HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION #1-2)
GHOST RIDER: HELL-BENT AND HEAVEN BOUND (Collects GHOST RIDER #20-25)
GHOST RIDER: THE LAST STAND (Collects GHOST RIDER #26-32)
GHOST RIDER: TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS (Collects GHOST RIDER #33-35)
GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE (Collects GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE #1-6)
IMMORTAL WEAPONS (Collects IMMORTAL WEAPONS #1)
THE OTHER SIDE (Collects THE OTHER SIDE #1-5, plus extras)
PILOT SEASON 2007 (Collects RIPCLAW #1)
SCALPED Vol. 1: INDIAN COUNTRY (Collects SCALPED #1-5)
SCALPED Vol. 2: CASINO BOOGIE (Collects SCALPED #6-11)
SCALPED Vol. 3: DEAD MOTHERS (Collects SCALPED #12-18)
SCALPED Vol. 4: THE GRAVEL IN YOUR GUTS (Collects SCALPED #19-24)
SCALPED Vol. 5: HIGH LONESOME (Collects SCALPED #25-29)
SECRET INVASION: BLACK PANTHER (Collects BLACK PANTHER #39-41)
VERTIGO: FIRST CUT (Collects SCALPED #1)
WOLVERINE: THE DEATH OF WOLVERINE (Collects WOLVERINE #56)
WOLVERINE: GET MYSTIQUE (Collects WOLVERINE #62-65)
WOLVERINE WEAPON X Vol. 1: ADAMANTIUM MEN (Collects WOLVERINE WEAPON X #1-5 and "A Mile In My Moccasins" from WOLVERINE #73-74)
WOLVERINE WEAPON X Vol. 2: INSANE IN THE BRAIN (Collects WOLVERINE WEAPON X #6-10)
X-MEN: MANIFEST DESTINY (Collects WOLVERINE: MANIFEST DESTINY #1-4)

SCALPED: THE GNAWING, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

The new trade is out May 19.