And calls it "a must read," among other things. Blair actually gave me one of the very first rave reviews I ever got, way back when THE OTHER SIDE #1 first came out, so she's held a special place in my heart ever since. And by that I mean she now has a restraining order against me. But at least she still reads my comics.

Video Games - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

There may be better comic books on your shelf each week, but there is no better graphic novel, unfolding in monthly installments, than Jason Aaron's Scalped.

I understand the aversion to the term "graphic novel," the suspicion that comics fans are trying a little too hard to label the sequential storytelling that has overflowed its normal boundaries. But Aaron has approached the first 23 issues of Scalped with the novelist's sensibility, slowly developing a storyline -- and a cast of characters Cormac McCarthy would love -- which requires that readers used to the immediate and insipid gratifications of mainstream titles recognize they are in it for the long haul.

Full text here

WOLVERINE: MANIFEST DESTINY #1, originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

"You read a Wolverine comic for stoicism, snikt!, mystery, grudge-holding former lovers, and beer. This book has all that, and may be doing it better than any ongoing book with the big guy's name on the cover."

From Newsarama.com

So the third trade paperback of SCALPED is out now, collecting the five part "Dead Mothers" arc drawn by R.M. Guera, as well as a couple of stand-alone issues drawn by John Paul Leon and Davide Furno. Here's what folks are saying:

"SCALPED is consistently one of the best books on the racks. With the third trade available now, it’s an excellent time to pick it up and immerse yourself in a thrillingly complex crime drama, one that dishes up equal parts action and violence, psychological drama, and supernatural elements and Native spirituality."
--Newsarama.com

"Jason Aaron is comics fastest-rising star, and this is his magnum opus (so far). If you haven't yet, go pick up all three volumes of this killer noir comic and get hooked on the adventures of FBI agent Dashiell Shaw, working undercover on his home reservation. Really, really great!"
--Washington Times

Thanks for the kind words, Washington Times, but Dashiell SHAW? Where'd that come from?

About my first issues of GHOST RIDER and WOLVERINE:


So I expected (Jason Aaron's) take on Ghost Rider to be worth reading. But I was wrong. It's far more than just "worth reading." With Ghost Rider #20, Jason Aaron has planted his flag in the Marvel Universe and said, "I will kick your ass with greatness."
Jason Aaron has recast Ghost Rider into what it always promised to be: a badass southern grindhouse rock opera with a demonic angel on a flaming chopper. He's thrown in switchblade nurses and ghouls on the road. He's escalating the comic into something great. And you should start reading it, now.
– Timothy Callahan, author of GRANT MORRISON: THE EARLY YEARS

This isn’t so much a review as it is a public service announcement: for everyone, like me, that thinks Jason Aaron’s The Other Side and Scalped have identified him as one of the best new writers in comics today… and who were just appalled by the idea of him wasting his time on Ghost Rider… well, the plain and simple fact is that we didn’t know what the #@$! we were talking about...(The) plotting is intriguing, the dialog is whip-smart, the supporting cast expertly drawn, and the humor ghoulishly funny... Whether you like Ghost Rider or not is irrelevant here: if you like black-hued supernatural adventure, or if you love Scalped, or if you just want to read the best new voice in mainstream comics today, you’ve got to check out Ghost Rider.
– Rack Raids

Until a few minutes ago, I had never, in my entire life, read a good Ghost Rider comics... (Jason Aaron's Blaze is) basically Howard Beale by way of Sonny Barger. If that doesn't sound like a pretty amazing subject for a story, well I can't do nothing for you... It's just a great read and look, it got me all pumped up. About friggin' Ghost Rider.
– Matt Singer, Termite Art

"An overwrought exercise in pomp and pyrotechnics..."
-- Entertainment Weekly

My editor pointed out that I shouldn't be bummed about the Entertainment Weekly review, since "pomp and pyrotechnics" were pretty much exactly what we were going for.

Scalped creator Jason Aaron returns to Wolverine with issue #62, and it really, really caught me off guard. I absolutely did not expect to like this issue as much as I did... If there's a tinge of the negative in Wolverine #62, it's only that Jason Aaron isn't the new regular writer for the book. He displays a fundamental understanding of the characters and really tells a great opening part to his arc.
--IGN


Aaron writes the crap out of Wolverine and his Mystique isn’t just an off-again, on-again X-Man, but a viable threat and a crafty killer that can get the better of a guy who can smell her a mile off! The issue has a great self-contained mystery written for smart readers and a cliffhanger that’ll guarantee your purchase of the next, and still features the amazing visuals that the clawed X-Man is known for with Ron Garney doing his best work to date.
– Wizard Universe

Add Jason Aaron to the list of X-writers returning these characters to what they do best as individuals and ensembles. Garney's artwork serves the story well depicting world hopping action and stark violence in clean story-telling style.
-- Comics Bulletin

SCALPED #12 is out today and people seem to be liking it. Wizard calls it "one of the strongest issues to date" and says, "Shocking imagery, magnetic narrative and wicked dialogue help this Western noir stand tall in the saddle."

Also, THE OTHER SIDE popped up on another "Best of 2007" list, courtesy of DRAWN!

And if you want an idea of where things will be headed when I take over GHOST RIDER, you should check out this week's issue #18, which features a big revelation about the character. It's the issue with the kick-ass Tony Moore cover.

And over at iFanboy, Josh offers an apology:

Oh Jason Aaron, I'm sorry we got off to a bad start. I said it on the video show, and I'm saying it here. Jason Aaron... are we OK? You know, are we cool? Because I want to be cool with me. I didn't mean what I said, and it's out there on the internet now, and I can't take it back, because that's how the internet works. You make a mistake, and it lays out there forever, waiting for just the right moment when you cram your foot back into your big stupid mouth. I feel bad, because you gave me one of my favorite current comic book series, and something I can keep reading and enjoying and recommending for a long time, and I didn't even give you a fair shake. Well, here I am, making it up to you.

I guess I had to get that out of the way.

Here's a thing about comics. If you're 10 issues into a new series and you can do a fill-in issue that doesn't have anything to do with the plot, and it's not because the art team needs a break, and it is actually good, and adds something to the world, even without directly moving the story forward, you've got something good. We're in the middle of the second big arc of this story, and here, Aaron decided to focus on a completely unknown character that gives us a view of the world of the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in a depth we haven't had before. I really want to know what's happening next to Dashiell Bad Horse, yet I didn't mind this diversion one bit.

Click here for the full review

Don't worry, Josh. We're cool. Thanks for giving the book another shot.

Courtesy of Leave Your Spandex @t the Door:

An honest-to-Gawd good Wolvie story? No, excuse me, a GREAT Wolvie story! One that doesn't involve an umpteenth battle with his stereotypical nemesis, doesn't rewrite his origin, doesn't involve hidden or resurfaced memories! A story that's self-contained, new-reader friendly and doesn't tie in to the X-titles but features Wolvie as a character on his own strength?

Please, pinch me!

Click here for the full review.

Decibel picks SCALPED as one of the best comics of the last six months:

"SCALPED blends straight-up noir with an epic tale of ’70s Native American radicals-turned-criminals, nasty backstabbing and the lure of casino cash. Killer in every way."

Click here for the full text

Talk about nailing the zeitgeist: Vertigo Comics brings the horrors of war home to disconnected America with two different works, THE OTHER SIDE and DMZ. While neither one is specifically about Iraq, it's nearly impossible to read them without considering our country's neo-con New World Order...

Peering into another senseless quagmire, the self-contained OTHER SIDE is a stunner of a comic. In fact, few war stories in any medium blend such horror with such a poetic humanization of the enemy. Newcomer Jason Aaron weaves a gripping Vietnam tale with two leads, Billy Everette and Vo Binh Dai, both rural boys swept into an incomprehensible conflict. As their paths inexorably cross in a war-ravaged hell, each experiences his own increasingly bizarre reality: Billy sees ghosts of dead American G.I.s, while his gun goads him toward violence; Vo Dai believes gods and dragons cross his path, spurring him to action.

As grippingly tragic as Aaron's tale is, artist Cameron Stewart elevates it to a higher level. Stewart and colorist Dave McCaig give us a comic both beautiful and dreadful to gaze upon. There's excellent material in the appendices, including photos and diary excerpts from Stewart's research trip to 21st century Vietnam. This book's so good, it deserves a hardcover edition on top-notch paper, but you won't go wrong with this paperback.

Click here for the full text, including a great review of Brian Wood's DMZ. Also, check out Wizard Magazine this month for an interview I did about RIPCLAW and SCALPED.

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

From Best Shots at Newsarama, review by Sarah Jaffe:

THE OTHER SIDE is not fun to read. It isn’t high-gloss fantasy or allegory or anything less than full-on brutal reality. But the work of Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart has created a larger-than-life entrée into the horrors of war, and into the psyche of soldiers from both sides of the Vietnam conflict...

“War is hell,” we hear it said over and over again, often with a knowing shake of the head that says, “You’ll never know, you weren’t there.” We weren’t, that’s true. Neither were the creators of this comic. But it feels real, visceral, gut-wrenching, and every other cliché that of course will never do the reality justice. The ghosts that haunt Private Everette do not speak, perhaps because there is nothing more to say, perhaps because to begin with, they had nothing to say about the war. Dai is different, committed, a volunteer, determined to reach the battle and glory through all obstacles. The narration from his side is beautiful, poetic, speaking of the beauty of war at the same time as its horrors envelope him. The horrors are dictated simply, as if Dai simply accepts them as necessary, while Everette cannot accept even his own rifle, which talks to him in riddles, taunts, and Sex Pistols quotes. Death surrounds these two young men, and there is no pretty life-affirming moral here.

Click here for the full review

And Semper Gus.

From Very Short List:

On a weekend when the box office is about to be dominated by the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300, it’s worth asking: Can an adult still read a contemporary comic book and feel like an adult afterward?

In the case of SCALPED, the answer is a resounding, bloodcurdling yes. Written by Jason Aaron and illustrated with mordant relish by R. M. Guéra, the monthly serial takes the familiar noir formula of babes, bullets, and bad language to a place it’s never gone before: a dilapidated Native American reservation. As a story of corruption and redemption unfolds (and the bodies pile up), Aaron and Guéra pay tribute to genre masters from Mickey Spillane to Quentin Tarantino — they even have the good sense to name their protagonist Dashiell Bad Horse.

No cultural stereotypes and no pulled punches — just an unflinching look at what one character calls “a third world nation in the heart of America.”

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!

Finally, I was able to actually buy an issue of Playboy Magazine just for the articles. But only because I get a nice plug in the newest issue, which also features a nude drill instructor and Number Six from "Battlestar Galactica." In an article titled "Graphic Content: The Best of Today's Smart Comics," both THE OTHER SIDE and SCALPED are mentioned alongside Grant Morrison's SEVEN SOLDIERS and fellow Vertigo series THE EXTERMINATORS and TESTAMENT. I particularly liked this passage:

"January sees the debut of Aaron's new long-run series, SCALPED, which takes place on a present-day Indian reservation ("a third-world nation in the heart of America") replete with rough road houses and meth labs, ornery Indians and undercover FBI agents. Aaron's talent for dialogue is complemented spectacularly by R.M. Guéra's vivid pencil work."

Thanks, Hef. Now when do I get my invite to the mansion?

There's a great review of SCALPED #1 by Sean Fahey at Rack Raids. He sums the book up better than I could:

"Some of the solicitations for Scalped, and a few of the reviews, have nutshelled this book by referring to it as “The Sopranos” on a modern day Indian reservation, a description which I think sells this book short. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on a “Sopranos” rant). Yes, Scalped is – among other things – a crime (though not strictly criminal) book. But it’s also a book about history, heritage, family and the social issues facing what is, essentially, a third world nation sitting smack dab in the middle of our country. The number of diverse (and diverging) points of views and perspectives in this book is astounding. If anything, with the interaction between the criminal and social narrative and thematic elements, Scalped is “The Wire” on a modern day Indian reservation."

For the full review, click here.

Me and my SCALPED poker chip
Originally uploaded by Jason Aaron.

"Overwhelming is the right word to use for this book. It's a must buy."
Silver Bullet Comics

"I have absolutely no idea where the story will go from where it leaves off… and I love it."
Newsarama

"Must Have."
IGN

"Aaron takes us into a violent world where brutality trumps reason and corruption reigns supreme."
Eye On Comics

According to the Blog at Newsarama, this is Jason Aaron Week, since both SCALPED #1 and THE OTHER SIDE #4 hit shelves yesterday. So celebrate accordingly. Meaning you need to move to Kansas City, shave your head, drink Dr. Pepper for breakfast and learn how to say "Roll Tide."

It has been a busy week for me. I did a two-part interview with Scryptic Studios, a site that's a great resource for writers. Thanks to Elton and Caleb for the terrific questions.

Scryptic Studios Interview Part One
Scryptic Studios Interview Part Two

I also did an interview with Frederik Hautain at Broken Frontier, Brian Warmoth at Wizard and Jon Niccum at the Lawrence Journal-World. My editor, Will Dennis, wrote this month's Vertigo On the Ledge column for SCALPED (I've said it before but I'll say it again: he's the best editor in comics, folks). And there are reviews of SCALPED #1 already online at the excellent review site Eye On Comics and in the Thursday Morning Quarterback segment at Wizard.

Also, in the recent 2007 Preview issue of Wizard Magazine, I was listed among the "Seven in '07," their list of writers on the rise, which also included Andy Diggle, Chris Gage, Adam Beechen, Jeff Parker, Brian Reed and Arvid Nelson. But just to make sure I didn't get a big head or anything, Wizard decided to spell my name wrong: I'm now Jason Aron, I guess.

Thanks to everyone who picked up SCALPED this week. Be sure and let me know what you think.

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

"The Other Side" is a terrifying war comic
By Burl Burlingame

Make no mistake: Even though "The Other Side" is ostensibly about the Vietnam War, it's not your average war comic. It's more of a horror show, with some distinctly unsettling themes and superbly horrific images...

War comics have always either sanitized conflict into banality or gone over the top in demonizing it. Rarely, the arena gives creators like Joe Kubert an excuse to explore characterization in the midst of excessive circumstance, but in this case the story is about people, not the nature of conflict itself. "The Other Side" succeeds in doing both, and in a more personal manner that eclipses Marvel's 1980s stab at the same subject, "The 'Nam."

For the full review, click here