Hey, welcome to the show. I'm Sal, Jason Aaron's here, everybody. And we're going to be talking about turtles and Batman and more. I'm excited.
Jason, welcome to the show. How's it going? It's going good, man. How about you?
I'm doing well. I hope you to be here. Yeah. I'm really thrilled to hear that you'll be resuming.
You'll be taking over for the turtles in the coming months. I understand in June, we're going to get the alpha issue. And then the series rolls forward in July. I wanted to know a lot about your personal history with the turtles, but just off the top of my head, like how you feeling about this experience?
Like, are you very excited? Yeah. I mean, of course, I'm very excited. It's been a cool year and a half for me really career-wise.
It's kind of transitioned away from Marvel. Not that I'm still doing stuff for Marvel, but basically became a free agent and able to take any phone call that came my way. And turtles was really not one of those things. Those are my radar in terms of thinking that was really an option.
But once it kind of came along, I was absolutely, I feel like those have been kind of the best moments of my career for me as the things that sort of popped up out of the blue. And I realized, yes, this is the right time. It's the 40th anniversary. What better time to be launching a brand new Turtles book?
Yeah, I completely agree. And with this relaunch, we're going to get a number one. We saw previews for the creative groups that you're working with for the first four issues. You're going to be working with four different artists to introduce the first four issues, and kind of introduce the audience, reintroduce the audience to each individual turtle.
How much fun was it working on? Like knowing, oh man, the first four issues of my run are going to have completely different visual tones associated with them. Yeah. That part was really put together by Jamie Rich, the main editor on the book, as we were going along.
I knew it sort of figured out the grand plan for my run. I knew I wanted to start that way and kind of focus on the four brothers as we pick up with them. The region in kind of very different circumstances, very different surprising situations for some of them when we pick up with them. A bit of time has passed between the new series and the end of the previous volume of Sophie's run.
So we sort of catch up with the guys and see what exactly what they've gotten themselves into and made perfect sense to use different artists for each of those and the fact that Jamie and IDW were able to line up such a murderers row of artists was really, really exciting. Yeah. No, I know. You worked a look at people like Rafi Albuquerque, Joel Jones, man.
Cliff Chang. And John who's great. And Chris Burnham, which I'm. There's no one I'm like, oh man, I'm really like that one.
I'm really, no, they're all those names, all those issues. And it manages to isolate each turtle in kind of a fun, unique way, where I'm like, I can't wait to see how that presentation goes. And we're getting an alpha issue, which is going to be like a 10 page kind of prelude. Into this run?
Is that the idea? Yep. And that one's also drawn by Chris Burnham. So it gives you a peak of sort of where we're going to pick up with these guys.
But the main thing, the most important part of that story, for me, was really kind of setting the tone. Like, how is the tone of this new series going to be different? And I think you get that feeling right off the bat with the story we pluck you into and with what Chris is doing. I've seen some of those pages and they're absolutely perfect, absolutely exactly what I was trying, what I wanted it to look like.
And I think he's knocking it out of the park. So I think pick up that. It's like a little mooj-boosh, but it gives you an idea of, this is what the full course is going to taste like. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
You mentioned that it's the 40th anniversary of the turtles. Obviously, you know, turtle mania kicked off primarily in like the late 80s and then took over in the beginning of the 90s. I was wondering, what was your role during turtle mania, during the height of turtle's popularity? Like, did you have a favorite movie?
Did you watch any of the shows? And more importantly, of course, what was your favorite toy from that era? I mean, I was definitely excited to when they did the Usagi Ojimbo toy. Yeah.
That was so huge. I mean, to me, really, again, just like referencing Usagi, it all goes back to the comics for me. I mean, I watched the cartoon. I saw the original movies in the theater as my comic book application.
I saw everything, every comic book movie that came out. But turtles really, for me, was about that original mirage series. Like, I was just kind of coming of age, just sort of becoming a comic book fan in the 80s. And when you had turtles kind of leading that explosion of black and white books, I was all over all that.
So I picked up the mirage book pretty early on and was sort of blown away by this. Nothing else on the stands that really looked like that book or felt like it. It was quintessentially 80s, right? And I was absolutely 80s kid.
And then I loved every 80s action movie you can think of is on my favorite movie list. I loved the comics that turtles was sort of springing from and referencing. So everything was a perfect storm for me. And then just the rawness of the book, the grittiness of the book stuck with me, like through everything I've been reading since then.
So that really, my turtle fandom, my turtles reference point, all goes back to that original series. And I think with this volume, I'm very much trying to bring some of that same grit and grungeness and run us to the book while also sprinkling in a little bit of the flavor of what kind of stuff I usually do. Gotcha. I love the Eastman Laird Run from the first mirage books.
There's nothing like it. I just recently revisited the first, I want to say, 10 issues. And people's expectations, understanding, including my own, were completely turn on its ear. Because when I was growing up, I had no access to those.
There was a knot in like reprints back in the day. And so I just had to like glimmers of what the original run was. I was going to get a chance to actually sit down and look at an oversized edition and look at the pencil work and how apparently Laird and Eastman worked together. There's no way to know who actually drew what, because they were in tandem on each page.
And I loved those, but seeing where it goes from, like, OK, yeah, I get it. Turtles in the sewer fighting three crown, issue three word space. Like, we're dealing with dinosaur man. It's like, this is not expected.
But yeah, I love that the comics are kind of like your reference point for the turtles and bring it back. You mentioned that you wanted to put your flair on it. One of the most recent things of yours that I had read that has now concluded, and I just wanted to say, like, your Punisher run was fire, dude, man. I love your Punisher book.
And did not see it going in the direction it did. But I guess I should have given your interest in this journey of a broken man and kind of going in that. In a kind of like, I don't want to say redemptive, but more of an a kind of, it lives up to its name. There's a punishment in that series that I was like, nice.
Thanks. I mean, I think to me, I think there's both punishment and redemption in there. Depending on how you want to look at it. Yeah, I remain deeply proud of that book.
Again, I think sort of like I'm talking about what's taken over Turtles at this point in time. Like, do in that Punisher book, which I lobbied for, pitched for, that was 120%. My idea, every single piece of it, felt like this is the perfect time to do this book, right? Like to say, to make this statement everything I wanted to say about Frank and the Punisher I put into that book, our teams came together perfectly.
So I'm really, really proud of that entire package. You know, when those books kind of come along at the right moment in time, and the talent involved all lines up perfectly, and the stars are all in the right position in the sky, and that's definitely one of those. A lot of the Thor stuff I did was like that. Turtles, I think, feels like we're just at the beginning of it, but feels like it's on that list as well.
And it's also nice to go from, you know, like I've just been writing this huge story about the hand. Now I get to transition and write to the floor. That's true. It's funny, the inspiration of course for Turtles comes from inspiration like Frank Miller, particularly on his Daredevil Run, is, did you besides obviously being inspired by the Mirage Run?
Did you go to other sources of inspiration from Eastman and Laird, I'm thinking like Ronin, and like the old Daredevil Run, or did you seek to kind of re-inspire yourself through their lens, or did you kind of go, now this is the Iron Show? No, I mean, I didn't pull out all my old Frank Miller books to re-inspire myself, but I would say, in particular, Frank Miller stuff you're talking about, or even, you know, Sin City and Dark Knight Returns, and the whole long list, I think our books that imprinted on me in, you know, like a foundational period of my life as a comic book fan, is ultimately the guy who becomes a comic book writer. So I think those are some of the books that are always, they're always there, right? Like I do revisit them from time to time, but also I don't need to remind myself that they exist.
They are always there on the, there's a very, you know, there's a select bookshelf in my head that I think influences pretty much everything I do in one way or another. Sometimes you'll see it more in one project than the next one, but it's always there. And I think Frank Miller's biggest books were a definite part of that. And I, again, those were just like with that original Turtles series.
You know, Frank's stuff was one of the creators who imparted on me that made me a comic book fan in the first place. Yeah. I wanted to talk about current books that you're working on right now because they're really exciting and they're demonstrably different from what had come before and what you've been working on for the last couple of years, particularly Batman Offworld is a favorite of mine that I've been enjoying the heck out of. Thanks.
Can you know this? I think there's some Frank in that too. I feel that. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it is so unexpected. And yet it is so indicative of what I come to expect from your work, which is if Jason Aaron's on a book, it's gonna, it's gonna be different from what you expect. It's gonna be different from what has come to it.
I appreciate that. I like hearing that. So good. But when you pitched it, were you just like, like, how was the pitch process for Allworld?
Like Batman Space? Or were they kind of like, I don't know, man, it's big? I mean, that was kind of it. I mean, I, you know, I've known Ben Abernathy and Ben Prince with him for a long time.
The only time we'd previously worked together was a Friday the 13th comic I did for Wildstorm. You know, I don't know, 12 years ago, 15 year long time ago. So we'd just stayed in touch and, you know, he was the editor on Batman. So kind of once my, his Marvel exclusive was up.
He was the first person I reached out to. I think I sent him that pitch, you know, for Batman Allworld the day after my exclusive expired. So I kind of always, you know, had it in my head for a new, new, I wanted to do a Batman thing but my first DC thing kind of pretty quickly figured out. You know, I think I wanted to be this one.
I could have gone the, you know, the more traditional street level, Grim and Gritty kind of path. And I definitely think I've got one of those in me. But I liked the idea of, like you said, doing something that hopefully feels consistent in some way with a lot of the big books I've done over the years and feels like it's by that same guy, but something that also seems surprising and different. And especially with Batman where we've seen, you know, more Batman stories than pretty much anybody else.
So how do you do something that feels like it's got, you know, something different to say or take him to a different kind of challenge. So having him experience, you know, his first time going into space, first time facing all these different alien races, you know, plucking him into a world where he's completely a novice again and has no idea what he's doing. I thought that would be really fun. And then getting to work with Doug Monkey for the first time, also a huge joy.
So I feel like, you know, this feels like the proper way to kind of make my debut as a Tassie writer. Is this really the first time you and Doug have worked together? Is Batman all far? Yeah, I mean, he's always been in DC and I've always been at Marvel.
So I guess that's fair. Yeah, I've tried. I think even back when I was first doing Wolverine stuff, you know, I was always trying to get Doug. And like, come on.
I think I've mentioned him for countless books over the years. It's the collaboration between the two of you is palpable. Like every scene you can tell, like there's joy and fun and delight in delivering some really harsh punishments to both Batman and his captors. And to me, it's like the, that's really my job, right?
Like you could look at it like my job is seen or the readers, but really all I can do is just write it. I mean, the thing I write is really only read and intended for one person that's whoever's drawing it. So if I'm writing a script and Doug's excited to go draw it or, you know, Joel and Cliff and Chris and Rafa, hurdles everybody I'm getting to work, like my job is really to get them excited to go do what they do. Yeah.
If I do that, I feel like in some sense, mission accomplished, right? And definitely still a lot to do. And you want to put a good product out for people to find and enjoy, but it all starts with that, that part of the equation. And if you screw that up, then you know, you got nothing.
Right, right. There's like a great moment in the, I believe it's the first issue when he talks to, when he's talking to the Tim Rainey and about how, where she says, that must be some girl at home. Like what's her name? And it just, that cut to Gotham City.
Where I was like, oh my God. Like realizing the turn where it's like, oh my God, this whole thing is about him just training to fight aliens and Gotham, like that's such a funny moment where it's, it's like, oh, Bruce, what are you doing? Yeah. This is, you know, this is a bad man who's at the point in his career where there's nobody back home except Alfred, right?
Like, there's no Robin yet, there's no Nightwing, there's no Bat family. It's really just him, Alfred and Gotham. That's it. And so yeah, that's, it's all about the links he will go to in order to protect his home turf.
Yeah. Since you are working as a free agent, more or less, with both IW and DC, and you have a love for the indie comic scene, I was wondering, is there any, this is just very much from a 90s kid, any desire to revisit the, or to visit rather, the Wild Storm universe now that, you know, a lot of storms over there? I mean, you know, never say never. I mean, I think, I definitely pitched some Wild Storm stuff back and came back in the back.
Yeah. I could, geez, I'd have to like dig them out to even remember before. Yeah. Probably would want to start over then go with this, but.
Yeah, yeah. Sure. I mean, I think, I mean, I think in terms of the books from the past that imprinted on me and stuck with me, I think probably more stuff, I think I'm more an 80s guy than a 90s guy. Right.
I mean, certainly I was, I'd never stopped reading comics, right? I never, oh, I went to college and quit for a few years. That was never me. Like I've had a playlist.
No blind spots for you. No, no zero blind spots in my collection. I feel like that's a real, that's a trait we kind of all share, where we all have like this one period where we were like, I wasn't reading it before though. I wasn't, I wasn't interested anymore.
But no, you have a straight line from like when you were hooked. I mean, yeah, thankfully, you know, my mom spent a lot of money on those when I was a kid. And then I did over the years. So I remember when I, you know, kind of first moving out on my own, first when I first came to Kansas City.
So like I'd, so little stuff I could pack it in my little Geo Metro car and drive it to Kansas City. So I had, you know, I didn't have forks. I didn't have a couch. But by God, I had a crapload of comic books, uninterrupted runs of countless different characters.
So yeah, I never had that point when I drifted away, but I think 80 stuff imprinted on me in a bigger way than even the 90s. But I was still buying all that stuff. So the, again, like I said, the good thing about my career right now is I'm taking any phone call that comes my way. I'm working for a lot of different comic book companies right now.
Most of them with kind of smaller commitments, turtles, you know, I mean, I'd said, you know, when I stepped away from doing ongoing books at Marvel, I wasn't looking to jump into another big ongoing long term commitment. Then I got the call for turtles and I was like, well, okay, like, like turns out I was just sort of waiting for the right offer. So, but so I'm spreading myself around to a lot of the companies and comics and enjoying being able to do a lot of wildly different books. Yeah.
I was wondering, upper, both turtles, obviously everybody has a favorite turtle. More specifically, I was wondering, do you have a favorite turtle villain? That's a good question. Nobody's asked me that.
Everyone wants to ask me what my favorite turtle is, which is a deeply personal question. I don't know if I want to cross that barrier with you. It's like, I don't think I have a favorite. And even if I did, I'm not going to tell anybody at this point, when I'm writing all of them.
Exactly. You don't want to show favoritism. I, in terms of a favorite villain, I don't know. That's a good question.
I don't, I mean, maybe craying is an easy answer. Sure. But, you know, I mean, in terms of what we're doing in this new book, I mean, again, part of, part of the spirit of going back to kind of the tone and grit of the original black and white mirage series is, right, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel in some regard. So you're going to see turtles fighting ninjas, you know, you're going to see turtles fighting the foot clan.
But there will still be things, situations and characters in that who will be completely new. So again, I think just like everything I do, whether it's Thor, Punisher, whatever, it's like, how do you take what is tried and true about these characters, what people respond to, what I respond to, what I want to see in a book with these characters. But bring something that's that we haven't seen before, right? Get them in situations that they haven't faced before.
See how they respond. So I think it's a, it's always got to be a good mix of old and new. Right. Do you have a favorite turtle video game?
Oh, man, I got nothing on that one. Really? You didn't play the arcade back in the day or an indie game? You know, I was never a huge video game guy.
I never had a Nintendo. I was like a Sega Genesis guy. Oh, wow. Yeah.
So I was played a lot of, you know, Sonic and Shinobi. Yeah. Yeah. So I can't help you on that one.
That's fair. But with the rise of, you know, arcade cameras used to be the dinosaurs. They still are, but like back when they were invented, it was big frickin' honking machines, but it would. And nowadays you can fit a thousand of those games on like a disc, you know, the size of your right now.
Yeah. Like all the arcades in the world fit on one little. Yeah, you can play on your own phone. And so now they're selling these like smaller arcades, you know, little like recreations of the arcade cabin.
So like for collectors or for old school fans, like a couple of us have, you know, the old turtles arcade game in our house. And so we can have a group of them. And I was curious if you had, if you spent any of your summers, like, you know, just put the quarters on the thing. No, but I'll come over to your house whenever you want to come by.
I don't come. Yeah, I think we'll have to have like a rager some summer have you and chips and RSK and a couple other creators just come on by and play video games and just beat up the turtles. It'd be great. So you just invited me and chips to your house.
Like I don't think your real life really is what you've just done. And that's the thing is I like to see matchups that I've never seen before. So what's the matchup me versus Chip? I mean, I mean, you know, I only mentioned that because Chip actually did make a, he was on the show recently and he was like, well, I'm gonna come over.
We're gonna talk about that. So I'm like, well, Chip actually put a new open invitation out there. I'm just gonna go to the other ones with a rager. Yeah.
Cool. Yeah, man. I am really hyped. Turtles, the relaunch is coming in July.
The prelude for the Alpha issue is in June. So we still have to wait quite a bit. Is there any T's that you are legally allowed to share? Like what people's appetite is about what's coming from you in the turtles.
Well, I think we can say that, you know, it's like I've talked about, it's that original series is important to me kind of getting back to some of the flavor and grit of that. As part of that, I think we can say that this opening storyline is called Return to New York. Which we should ring a bell for some old original Turtles fans. So yeah, I think we can give that away.
If not, you know, then I'm sure we'll find out quickly. Yeah. That's fair. Jason, think about social media here.
Is there any official website people or something like that? People can go to check out more Jason air goodness. Yeah, I got to sub stack newsletters by the easiest way to keep up with all the new books I've got coming out a bit and they'll be more being announced soon to go, you know, some other surprising announcements coming up. So if you just look for Jason here and on sub stack, you'll find me.
We'll do. That tees is amazing because when I heard that Jason Aaron was doing Ninja Turtles, I was like, Oh my God, okay. I want a great idea and something I never really would have like crossed the lines to get. So I'm really here.
I'm hyped to hear that you're like, Oh, well, there's some surprises. I'm like, Well, I've already been surprised. I'm looking forward to seeing what that might be. Thanks.
That's the same way I'm feeling everything I'm working on. Good. That's great, man. It keeps you keeps you sharp, makes you want to keep doing more and, you know, not to not get burned out of this industry because it's a tough one.
I know. But folks, thanks so much for being here. Thanks to Jason for being here. It's coming out the off-lation June and the relaunch begins in July.
So check out Jason's sub stack. We'll see you guys next time here at Compop return. So everybody.