Comics Can Take You Places
Back from Greece with a breakdown of everything I'm currently writing
When I was growing up in Alabama, we never went anywhere you couldn’t get to in a car. I didn’t set foot on a plane until I was a grown man. And that was to fly to Kansas City, where I’ve been living for the last 20 years.
Since then, I’ve gotten to see a whole lot more of the world, thanks in large part to comic books. My job in comics has taken me across the country, from coast to coast, through some of the most beautiful corners of Europe and all the way to the southern tip of Africa.
Most of those trips have come about because of comic conventions inviting me to attend. Lovely shows like the one in Aviles, Spain where you sit at cafes all day or Lucca, Italy where the convention spreads throughout the winding streets of the walled city center or Thought Bubble in northern England where you can take a quick train ride to York and get lost in its maze of medieval alleyways.
I just recently got back from a comic con in Thessaloniki, Greece, along the coast of the Aegean Sea, in the shadow of Mount Olympus. Another international comic book festival that has earned a spot at top of my list. It was a week of marathon meals where you might have half a dozen different countries represented at the dinner table, fascinating historical tours around the region (the highlight being the unspoiled 2400 year old tomb of Macedonian King Philip II) and the convention itself which was packed with so many super passionate Greek fans.
Thanks so much to everybody who came out and made my Greece trip such a joyful experience by helping celebrate our mutual love of comics. It’s still so surreal and powerful to get to travel to a far corner of the globe and instantly feel a connection with the people there, regardless of any language barrier, because of comics. Never gets old. And it always fires me up to get back to writing as soon as I’m home.
So that’s what I’m doing this week, while most of the rest of the world’s comic folk are headed to New York Comic Con. (Sigh. I do miss you, New York. Hope to see you soon, old friend.)
So What’s On The Docket?
In terms of that work, here’s a breakdown of everything I’m currently working on, in one form or another, including a number of projects that haven’t yet been announced:
—This week I did the lettering draft for AVENGERS ASSEMBLE ALPHA, the oversized slugfest that serves as the kickoff for my final AVENGERS arc, as drawn by the legendary Bryan Hitch. Bryan absolutely killed it on this one. Going through the art again, every page gave me the world’s biggest grin.
—After the ALPHA issue, “Avengers Assemble” bounces back and forth between the two ongoing titles, AVENGERS and AVENGERS FOREVER. Art for those is so far being handled by each book’s regular artist: Javier Garrón on AVENGERS and Aaron Kuder on AVENGERS FOREVER. Have you seen what these two guys have been delivering lately? Look no further than Javier’s Ghost Ronin issue of AVENGERS and Aaron’s Thor God of Fists story in FOREVER, both of them some of my favorite issues of anything I’ve worked on the last few years. And with “Avengers Assemble,” when we slam together the storylines and casts of both books, along with the Prehistoric Avengers who’ve been a part of my run going back to the MARVEL LEGACY one shot, well, let’s just say you can expect to see a whole lot of characters and some jaw-dropping scenes of epic combat. This week I’m working on AVENGERS #65 for Javier, which’ll reveal all the secrets of the mysterious Avenger Prime.
—Letters and colors are all wrapped up for ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD #1. The bulk of this 30 page issue is drawn by recent Eisner winner Alexandre Tefenkgi and colored by Lee Loughridge, but you also get a few pages from Nick Dragotta and Rico Renzi who’ll be handling the majority of the book’s third arc. It’s an absurdly gorgeous issue that I have poured a fuckton of my heart into, and you can expect to hear me crowing a lot more about it now that we’re closing in on FOC (the last day for retailers to revise their orders). If you haven’t already, please tell your local comic shop to hold you a copy, so you can be there for the end of the world as you’ve never seen it before.
—I got an exciting email while in Greece that a new work-for-hire pitch of mine had just been greenlit. Nothing more I can say about it right now, except… nah, I can’t even say that. I’ll just say, holy fuck, I can’t wait to write this.
—And just before I left, I had a phone call about a different work-for-hire pitch that seems like it’ll be going forward. If it does and I wind up bringing both of these two stories to life at the same time, getting to go from writing one of these characters to the other, well, I’ll sure be smiling a whole fuck of a lot come 2023.
—With my AVENGERS run wrapping up next year, capping off 15 years of non-stop work on various ongoing series for Marvel, I find I’m looking to take a break from the ongoing grind for at least a bit. So that means my life is suddenly filled with pitches for brand new projects. In addition to the two pitches mentioned above that have already been sent out and approved, I’ve started working on the story outline for another new work-for-hire idea. Right now, I’m at that stage where I’m reading a lot of old comics, working my way through all of this character’s earliest appearances, taking lots of notes and building the story and the world a bit at a time. I always use a notebook for that, so I can jot things down as I’m reading. Usually every new project gets its own fresh notebook, and when the project is done that notebook gets filed away in my basement, for my kids to have sort through and throw away someday when I’m dead. But this time, I decided to reuse one of my old notebooks that still had some blank pages in it. So my ideas for this mysterious new book are going into the same notebook that spawned my entire THOR run. The notebook where I jotted down my first inklings of the God Butcher and the War of the Realms and the entire Jane Foster saga. This new story I’m building isn’t directly connected to Thor’s mythology. But I want the ideas to share space and mojo because I see this new story as similar in feel and tone and world-building to my THOR GOD OF THUNDER run. In addition to THOR, I think there’s also a lot of what I’m doing on PUNISHER right now that’s influencing this other new thing. All in all, I think it’ll prove to be an exciting cocktail of dark and fun ideas. So stay tuned on that.
—Speaking of PUNISHER, every week my email is filled with face-meltingly incredible pages from Jesús Saíz and Paul Azaceta, all packed with so much power and emotion and raw violence. And I reply the same way to most all of those emails: I will be so very fucking sad the day this series is finished (a day that’s coming soon, as I’ve currently two more issues to write). This is exactly the book I want to be doing at this moment in time. In exactly this way. God, it feels so good.
—In terms of other creator-owned projects, in addition to ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD, I currently have two different upcoming series in different stages of production. Just finished an updated draft on a script for one and tweaked a story outline for the second. Both should be roaring your way sometime next year. My goal is to get to the point where I’ve got at least one creator-owned book on the shelves each and every month. I’ve always been so grateful for the support my creator-owned work has been shown over the years. And I’m incredibly excited to renew that cherished relationship with you all.
In Stores Now
Only thing I’ve got new in stores this week is a story in MIRACLEMAN #0, an anthology issue featuring contributions from an awesome roster of creators. When I got asked to be a part of it, I went deep into the vaults here at headquarters, AKA my basement racks of longboxes, and dug out all the old MIRACLEMAN comics and WARRIOR magazines I read as a kid. Re-reading them for the first time in years, I was struck by how deeply those Alan Moore stories imprinted on me as a kid. So I tried to pour as much as I could into this one ten page Miracleman story, about the power of the comics we love and the lives of the people who make them. I’m rather proud of how it all turned out.
Notes & Links & Things & Stuff
—On December 3, I’ll be headed back to one of the best comic book stores in the country, Third Eye Comics in Annapolis, Maryland, for a signing to celebrate the release of ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD #1. I haven’t done a store signing in… I don’t know, like 50 years it feels like? And whenever it’s Third Eye, it’s always gonna be big. So come say hi.
—I’m still working out my convention schedule for next year, but no matter what I’m not expecting it to be that substantial. Despite how great a time I just had in Greece, I’m still mostly looking to stay home and focus on work and family for the foreseeable future. So if you’re looking to get your hands on books that are signed by me and you can’t make it to Annapolis in December, your only other option at the moment is to pick something up from my online store. All of my creator-owned works are available there, along with a selection of THOR and other Marvel trades and comics, and all of them come with a free signature.
—Hasbro recently revealed an upcoming Marvel Legends figure of the Orb. And I think we can all agree that he… that he is… I’m sorry… he’s just… the most beautiful thing anyone has ever seen, isn’t he? So beautiful that I’m almost regretting having murdered him back in AVENGERS #50. Why do we always hurt the ones we love? (By the way, that should have been one of the first signs that I was headed toward the end of something big at Marvel. I mean, if I can kill the Orb, who I’ve wedged into most every Marvel series I’ve ever written, then no one is fucking safe.)
This has been Beard Missives, direct from the Orb-murdering face of Jason Aaron.
This week’s newsletter has been brought to you by Greek tsipouro (a surprisingly pleasant drinking experience for something that’s 45% alcohol, at least as long as you remember to sip it) and Nerds candy corn, because life is to be lived.
Be well. Be loved. Stay worthy.
Jason Aaron
KC, October 6, 2022
Things To Come
AVENGERS BY JASON AARON Hardcover Vol. 3 — October 18, 2022
AVENGERS #61 — October 19, 2022
AVENGERS FOREVER #10 — October 26, 2022
HEROES REBORN Omnibus — November 1, 2022
PUNISHER #7 — November 2, 2022
AVENGERS #62 — November 9, 2022
AVENGERS FOREVER #11 — November 23, 2022
ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD #1 — November 23, 2022
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE ALPHA — November 30, 2022
BATMAN: JOKER’S ASYLUM trade — December 6, 2022
PUNISHER: THE KING OF KILLERS BOOK ONE trade — December 6, 2022
AVENGERS #63 — December 7, 2022
PUNISHER #8 — December 7, 2022
AVENGERS FOREVER #12 — December 21, 2022
ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD #2 — December 28, 2022
AVENGERS: HISTORY’S MIGHTIEST HEROES trade — February 7, 2023
Stoked for Avengers and ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD! Can't wait to hear more about your upcoming creator-owned projects!
As soon as we saw that Orb figure we immediately thought of you. haha He's gorgeous!
I’ve said it on Twitter before but I absolutely adore your punisher run, I don’t want that or your Avengers to end. I know they have to but I’ve loved everything. Once upon a time at the end of the world has just been added to my subs, and any of your top secret projects will be too! Thank you for all the wonderful stories you’ve given me as a life long marvel fan but also hooking me for things like Men of Wraith and Sea of Stars