Buy Me Cheap!

Notes on a Summer Sale, long-fated trip to Boston & new BUG WARS variant

Hey! Support your local comic shop! My LCS is Elite Comics in Overland Park, KS, where I’ve maintained a pull-list for the past 25 years. But if you’re looking for signed copies of any books I wrote, did you know I have an online store that’s run by the fine folks at Third Eye Comics in Annapolis, MD, one of the best comic shops on this or any other planet?

JASONAARONSHOP.COM is your one-stop-shopping destination for all my creator-owned works and many of my Marvel and DC titles, including several editions that are currently out of print (like this guy).

We have a big restock of trades and BUG WARS floppies on the way soon, so before then, we’re looking to clear out some of our back inventory of signed single issue comics by offering a special 25% off Summer Sale on select issues, including all TMNT, BATMAN:OFF-WORLD and my first ever Superman story from ACTION COMICS.

Purchase any of these comics and use the code CHEERS26 at check-out. All comics have been signed by me, probably while drinking a Diet Sunkist and watching wrestling.

Sale is only good for the next week, now extended to run through Wednesday, the 24th. And like I said, look for a big new stock update soon. Cheers.

Upcoming Appearance

Or if you wanna get your books signed the old fashioned way, you can find me next at Fan Expo Boston, August 7-9, my first ever visit to Boston.

Once upon a time, I had my heart set on going to school at Emerson College in Boston, but at the last minute, it didn’t work out. And by that I mean I just flat-out couldn’t afford it.

I’d dropped out of college after majoring in journalism for a few semesters at the University of Alabama, feeling like all my bright, young plans for my life had somehow turned to shit overnight. After Emerson didn’t happen, I spent the next few years working at a barbecue joint, just trying to aimlessly find my way, survive my early 20s depression, and figure out who the fuck I wanted to be. I was always writing. Writing hundreds of pages of novels that never quite got finished and that I hope to God no one will ever have the misfortune to read. Everything kinda came to a head in 1994, when I hit rock bottom, then clawed my way back out, shaving my head along the way. Which wasn’t really a thing people were doing just yet, so I definitely looked like an Alabama skinhead. But at the time it truly felt like an important part of me struggling to crack my way out of whatever fucking cocoon I’d been writhing around in.

Portrait of the artist in line at Woodstock ‘94.

Ultimately I went back to school, taking a lot of literature and fiction writing courses and eventually getting an English degree from UAB. After I graduated, I moved to Kansas City, kind of on a whim, and soon after entered the Marvel Comics Talent Search contest that would give me my first big break as a writer. So much of what happened to ultimately help me become the person I wanted to be wasn’t even remotely on my roadmap when I was 19 years old. And some of those changes and disappointments along the way were really crushing and difficult to get through. But all I knew to do was write my through it and keep chasing my childhood dream of being a professional writer, even if it didn’t always look to anyone on the outside like I was doing much of anything at all. Plants bloom at different speeds, you know? And I eventually got there, somehow chugging my way along to some form of success.

Going to Boston will be a full-circle moment for me. It’ll be 30 years later than I first wanted to go, but I’ll show up as a bonafide funny book writer, which is all I’ve wanted to be since I was 12. Which is to say, if you keep persistently chasing that thing that seems impossible, even as your best laid plans go up in flames around you, you may someday find yourself signing comics for the good people of Boston. And you’ll look back over the trials and tribulations of those last 30 years…and say it was all fucking worth it, every last goddamn second.

Hope to see you there.

BUG WARS BALDARI VARIANT

As we talked about last time, BUG WARS is coming back this August, in the form of Book Two of our Slaymaker Chronicles, THE COMING OF THE WARDOOM. I’ll be rolling out the various variant covers for issue #1 as we count down to FOC. First up, here’s our B cover, which is open-order, brought to you by the incomparable Nicoletta Baldari, who you probably know from her many eye-grabbing covers or her recent interiors on LOBO. Be sure to pre-order a copy of BUG WARS: THE COMING OF THE WARDOOM #1 from your aforementioned LCS. And get ready for a lotta bug-infested summer shenanigans.

THUNDARR IN STORES TODAY

And speaking of comic shops, you can run to one right now and pick up a copy of THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN #5, the penultimate installment of Thundarr the Barbarian’s greatest adventure across the ruined landscape of the future. This issue, as drawn by the kicker of much ass, Kewber Baal, Thundarr and friends have to undertake an arduous journey through time, back to the year of the great cataclysm, the year that my favorite 1980s Saturday morning cartoon told us would wind up being the worst year in all of human history…1994.

1994? Wait a second… Maybe the clues to my life were there all along.

This has been Beard Missives, direct from the post-apocalyptic face of Jason Aaron.

This week’s newsletter has been brought to you by Boulevard Quirks (always Quirks) and jellybeans from the Chelsea Hotel.

Cheers. Be well. Be loved. Stay worthy.

Jason Aaron

KC, June 17, 2026

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Things To Come

THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN #5 — June 17, 2026

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #20 — June 24, 2026

THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN #6 — July 17, 2026

STAR WARS MODERN ERA EPIC COLLECTION: THE SCREAMING CITADEL — July 21, 2026

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #21 — July 22, 2026

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #22 — August 5, 2026

THOR BY JASON AARON OMNIBUS Vol. 1 (New Printing) — August 11, 2026

BUG WARS: THE COMING OF THE WARDOOM #1 — August 19, 2026

THE EC COMICS TREASURY OF TERROR Vol. 1 — September 8, 2026

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES BY JASON AARON Deluxe Edition — October 13, 2026

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN Vol. 3: THE NEVERENDING BEGINS Trade Paperback & Hardcover — November 3, 2026

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Where I’ll Be

August 7-9, 2026 — Fan Expo Boston

September 25-27, 2026 — Baltimore Comic-Con

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