For We Are Many
Notes on the New Year, including the return of BUG WARS
This past year, there were a couple different times at conventions where I had a fan point out a specific passage from a comic I’d written that had deeply affected them, and it was something from years before that I’d completely forgotten.
A few months back, during a visit to my parents’ house in Alabama, I dug through the contents of my old bedroom from when I was in college and discovered an entire novella that I had absolutely no memory of writing, one that read like it sprung from the mind of an entirely different person.
I’ve been a full-time comic book writer for more than 20 years, and at last count, I’ve written around 650 comics, so maybe it’s no surprise that I can’t recall the bits and pieces of every last one. I wonder sometimes what it’s like to be a musician who spends so much of their career playing the same songs over and over again in concert, forced to constantly revisit the work you first brought to life at a much different age. I rarely go back and re-read my old work. I prefer to try and stay focused on whatever the next thing is, on whatever I’m working on now, and hopefully trying something that feels new and different.
But if you do this long enough, you can’t help but develop tropes. And I certainly have themes I’ve revisited and explored across multiple works. One of those is the idea of how we can seem to be such different people at the different points of our lives.
See my work on THOR, CONAN and my most recent UNCLE SCROOGE series, along with ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD.
I think about that idea a lot, I guess. The older I get, the more I consider the different stages of life that have brought me here, the ways I’m still so very much the same as that kid playing with Star Wars toys in his backyard, and the ways I’ve grown so far apart from that lonely college kid cranking out diatribes. I recently watched an old video of a high school project (no, you cannot see it), and it was like getting a glimpse into another world, another life, one where I had hair and no beard to speak of and a much-thicker-than-I-ever-remembered Southern accent.
What would those old versions of me think of the work I’m doing now? Would they see themselves reflected in it? Would they find it as unrecognizable as I do much of their writing? And how will I feel in another twenty years, if I look back at the things I wrote in 2025? Will there be bits I think turned out halfway decent, some of which I’ll have forgotten having written? And other parts I’d go back and do differently if I could? Or maybe I’ll be too focused on whatever’s next to bother looking back at all?
I suppose we’ll have to find out together.
If you read anything of mine in 2025, you have my utmost gratitude.
And Speaking of What Comes Next…
Monday, January 5 is FOC for BUG WARS: THE SPYDER WYTCH SPECIAL, which means it’s your last chance to pre-order a copy of this bug-infested beauty with the good folks at your local comic shop.
BUG WARS Book One: LOST IN THE YARD was just hailed by Comixology and the Hollywood Reporter as one of the Top Comics of 2025, and this SPYDER WYTCH SPECIAL marks our return to the wild world of the Yard, helping set the stage for Book Two, which’ll be coming later this year. (But be warned, the SPYDER WYTCH SPECIAL, the first of multiple planned sect specials, won’t be included in the eventual collection of Book Two, so best grab a copy at your comic shop while you can.)
BUG WARS: THE SPYDER WYTCH SPECIAL is an over-sized one-shot packed with tales of the Yard’s most mystical and venomous Mytes, the Spider Sect, including Wysta the Wayward Wytch and the rest of the deadly denizens of the Hanging Gardens of Wyrdweb. It features interior art by Mahmud Asrar, Baldemar Rivas (Godzilla vs. Kansas City), and David Messina (Ultimate Spider-Man), colors by Matt Wilson and David Messina, letters and design by Becca Carey, and stories written by both me and Mahmud. Plus more world-building backmatter, including journal pages from Professor James Slaymaker, an updated version of the map of The Yard, and an all-new BUG WARS prose story. All coming your way January 28 from Image Comics.
The main cover is by the usual team of Mahmud and Matt, and we’re also rolling out some awesome variant covers, as seen above, including the work of the inimitable Tula Lotay (Somna) and the great Michael Avon Oeming (Powers 25 in stores now).
But one variant cover you won’t find anywhere online ahead of release will be our XXX Spider Sex variant by Mahmud and Matt. You’ll have to rip one of those creepy crawlers from its polybagged cocoon in order to get a load of the cover in all of its eye-melting, bug-fucking-crazy lasciviousness. But here’s a sneak peak of the bag’s insert.
See you in the Yard in January, you sick bug-loving bastards.
Notes & Links & Things & Stuff
—BUG WARS isn’t the only new book I’ve got coming to stores in early 2026. Don’t miss the debut of THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN from Dynamite, featuring the first ever comic book appearance of one of the greatest Saturday Morning cartoon heroes of the 1980s, a barbarian whose post-apocalyptic world of savagery, super-science and sorcery was first imagined by comic book greats like Steve Gerber, Alex Toth and Jack Kirby. I’m working with artist Kewber Baal to craft a story that continues the same continuity as the cartoon series, while pushing things further in terms of action, violence and emotional weight, and launching Thundarr into his biggest adventure yet, while also remaining accessible to people who’ve never seen a single episode of the show. Really happy with how this one is coming together.
—I’ll see you in Portugal this April, my first ever visit.
—Sorry if Rafa Sandoval and I made you cry over Christmas, with the release of ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #14, the grand, emotional finale of the book’s first overall mega-arc. I was really and truly blown away by last year’s response to the Absolute line. And I don’t just mean the staggering sales. I’ve been at this for a while now, as we established earlier, and I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of multiple well-received launches and initiatives over the years, but what’s happening with DC’s Absolute line right now feels special and completely unparalleled from my time in comics. I met so many fans at cons in 2025 who started reading comics because of the Absolute line, more than I could’ve ever dreamed actually existed. Those long sought after New Readers. They’re real. And they’re here. They’ve wandered into our party. So in 2026, it’s up to us to give them the comics that’ll make them want to stick around.
Here’s a tease of ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #15, Chapter One of “The Neverending Begins,” with art by Juan Ferreyra, coming next week.
This has been Beard Missives, direct from the still sobbing face of beleaguered Crimson Tide fan, Jason Aaron.
This week’s newsletter has been brought to you by rum balls, Baked By Melissa mini-cupcakes, and more Topsy’s caramel popcorn than any one man should ever eat.
Happy New Year to you and yours. Be kind, read comics, stay worthy.
Jason Aaron
KC, January 3, 2026
Things I Wrote in 2025
DC Comics
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #3–#14
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN Vol. 1: Last Dust of Krypton (collection)
BATMAN OFF-WORLD #6
BATMAN OFF-WORLD (collection)
Marvel Comics
GODZILLA VS. THOR #1
NAMOR #6-8
STAR WARS: A NEW LEGACY #1 (co-writer)
UNCLE SCROOGE: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST DUCK #1–#4
NAMOR: LAST KING OF ATLANTIS (collection)
Image Comics
BUG WARS #1–#6
BUG WARS Book One (collection)
IDW Publishing
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #6-12
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: RETURN TO NEW YORK (collection)
Oni Press
EC COMICS EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS Vol. 1 (co-writer, collection)
For signed copies of these comics and more, visit my Online Store.
Things To Come
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #15 — January 7, 2026
BUG WARS: THE SPYDER WYTCH SPECIAL — January 28, 2026
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #16 — February 4, 2026
THUNDARR #1 — February 4, 2026
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN Vol. 2: SON OF THE DEMON Trade Paperback & Hardcover — March 4, 2026
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #17 — March 4, 2026
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: NYC VS. TMNT Trade Paperback — March 11, 2026
PUNISHER: KING OF KILLERS Trade Paperback — March 24, 2026
UNCLE SCROOGE: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST DUCK Trade Paperback — April 28, 2026
Where I’ll Be
March 5-8, 2026 — Emerald City Comic Con
April 23-26, 2026 — Comic Con Portgual
Pumped for Thundarr (and everything else too!)
Bug Wars is fantastic and I can’t wait for Thundarr!