A Man of Many Starsharks
Thoughts on the final issue of SEA OF STARS & the first issues of new things
SEA OF STARS wraps up today with the release of issue #11, our final stop on a super fun ride through the weirdest depths of space. Fun for the kid, Kadyn, at least. Not so much for his space-trucker dad, Gil, who’s been desperately trying to find his missing son, while lost in the wild heavens surrounded by quark sharks and man-eating space monkeys and moon-eating gods of darkness. It features utterly gorgeous art from Stephen Green and colorist Rico Renzi, letters and designs by Jared Fletcher, edits by Will Dennis and words by me and Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum.
Dennis and I co-wrote the series in an interesting way, something I’ve never really seen done before. The story is about a father and son who get separated in space and go on wildly different sorts of adventures. One fun and freewheeling, the other terrifying. In the early days of us plotting it out, Dennis responded more to the father’s part of the story, and I was partial to the kid’s. So that’s how we divided the writing duties. Dennis wrote all the Gil-centric scenes, I wrote all the Kadyn ones. With the two stories finally crashing together in this last issue, we ended up each writing five or so page chunks and passing the script back and forth. Hopefully it all helped sell the dichotomy between the two main characters’ different experiences: one where you’re swimming with space dolphins and having a lovely time, the other where everything you meet wants to eat you and drive you batshit insane.
SEA OF STARS #11 should be available at your local comic shop today, barring any Diamond-related delays. If you can’t procure it in the wild, it’s also available right now in my online store, along with all other issues of SEA OF STARS, the first trade paperback and an exclusive enamel pin. (Second trade just went to print and should be out next month). If you’re looking to check out the series for the first time because maybe you’re like me and enjoy sharks that swim through space, then use the coupon code BABY I’M A STAR upon check-out to get 20% off any and all things SEA OF STARS.
As One Series Ends, Others Begin
The first issues of two new series I’ve got debuting for Marvel also just went to print this past week. AVENGERS FOREVER #1 and KING CONAN #1 should both be coming your way in December. But, you know, if you read the news, you know there are paper shortages and printer issues that are throwing kinks into a lot of publishing plans. AVENGERS #50/750, originally scheduled for this month, will now be released December 1. Maybe that has a cascading effect, pushing back other books too, I don’t know. If so, you’ll hear about it here first. Or at least like fourth or fifth probably.
In terms of what else I’ve got coming out imminently, the solicitations for all books by me that’ll be coming your way in January 2022 are collected in what we’re now calling the Jason Aaron News Feed over at my official website. Those solicits even include the first time my name’s been mentioned in the DC solicits in quite a long while. Wait, what? Who? Why?
That site of mine’s been spruced up a bit lately, including the online store, where new books have been added for all your Christmas shopping needs for the whole family. Assuming you’ve got a weird fucking family.
As for other new things I’ve got coming up, here is your requisite tease for the week. This week I’ve been busy writing something that’s not a comic script. In the next couple weeks I should be doing an interview to announce a big new comic series before the end of the year. And come January, I should be starting to write the first issue of an all-new creator-owned project. Here endeth the tease.
New Interviews & Sightings
I had so much fun talking with the crew from Meanwhile Back On the Podcast that they had to break it into two parts, sort of like Dune, only you can devour both parts right now.
What’s that? A big juicy two-part podcast isn’t enough? You want even more of me talking? Yeah, you do. This one’s in print so I’m afraid you’ll have to imagine my dulcet tones as I whisper each word sweetly into your ear holes with a mouth full of Twizzler bites.
You may have also seen me on your television sets last week, looking suave, fiddling with my mask during the big Cody Rhodes/Andrade El Idolo showdown on AEW’s Dynamte, live from Kansas City. The show was an absolute fucking blast. Most fun I’ve ever had at a wrestling event. I was marking the fuck out, as they say, all night. If you’re even mildly interested in wrestling, I hope you’ve already hopped onboard the AEW train. Their shows were one of the few bright spots during the year long existential curb stomp that was 2020, and they’ve only gotten better this year.
Speaking of AEW, even if you give zero fucks about pro wrestling, if you’re someone who enjoys great stories where a guy pours his fucking guts onto the page, about his struggles with mental health and his lifelong fight to achieve his dream, I highly recommend this new piece written by wrestler Eddie Kingston. Eddie’s a guy who’s been struggling for twenty years to make it in the wrestling biz, and only in the last year has he finally exploded into a star. He’ll be wrestling sometime Thor writer and all-the-time wrestling legend CM Punk at this weekend’s All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view, Full Gear.
This has been Beard Missives, direct from the All Elite face of Jason Aaron.
This week’s newsletter has been brought to you by Monster Mash cereal, Popcorners Sea Salt popped-corn snacks, repeated viewings of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and candy corn. Yes, still candy corn. The season never ends.
Be loved while the leaves are turning.
Jason Aaron
KC, November 10, 2021
“On Fridays, if I made it through the week without trying to choke anybody out in my elementary school, my reward was Chinese food and a wrestling tape.”
—Eddie Kingston
Choo choo! I've been on the AEW train since day one and I love it. And while I do love some of the former WWE wrestlers they signed recently (and may sign in the near future), I'm a little bummed that some of the AEW charter wrestlers are getting pushed aside.
I never noticed you in the crowd. Any time the hard camera was on, all my attention went to the six people behind you in the CM Punk t-shirts.
I never heard of Eddie Kingston before AEW, but I love that guy. That fight with CM Punk in the ring was so great. That was as real as anything I've seen in wrestling in a while. A genuine "it's real to me" moment.