Turtle Power! An Interview with Jason Aaron About TMNT and Creative Freedom

Highly acclaimed comic writer, Jason Aaron, joins Badr and Cesar for Ep. 428 to talk about his upcoming and highly anticipated run on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! (which begins in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Alpha #1, on sale June 5). Jason provides an insightful retrospective on his career, and also talks about the new creative freedom he's enjoying after being Marvel-exclusive, the incredible artists he's working with on the new TMNT run, the comics he's reading, and he answers one of the weirdest TMNT questions he's ever been asked before!

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Transcript

Turtle Power! An Interview with Jason Aaron About TMNT and Creative Freedom - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 428

00:01
Intro music plays

01:21
Yo, ShortBikes Nation, welcome back for another episode. Thanks for being here. If you're new, welcome to the show. This is the ShortBikes Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comic books with the people that put their blood, sweat and tears into making them. My name is Bodder and I've got my right hand man, Cesar Cordero. Hello, hello. You're very good at this, by the way. Oh, I mean, I've been doing it for a couple of years. You got it, boy. You got it. A little light work. And, you know, the guest we have with us today.

01:46
You know, I say this is the show where we talk comics with the people that put their blood sweat and tears and making them true Our guest today is probably like the living embodiment of that He's been putting blood sweat and tears into writing award-winning comic books for over two decades now His name is Jason Aaron and he's the highly respected writer of some of the most recognizable characters in the comics such as Ghost Rider Wolverine the Avengers an award-winning creator owned series like scalped and southern bastards His landmark seven-year run on Thor featured the headlining

02:17
the headline grabbing adventures of Jane Foster as the mighty Thor, and his 2015 Star Wars series became the best selling American comic book in more than 20 years. And not so surprisingly, the list doesn't stop there. When you've got over 20 years of comic writing under your belt, that list I shared is just a mere warmup to the rest. How about instead of talking about everything, how about we just talk about what he's doing currently? Let's do it. At the time of this recording, he's no longer a Marvel exclusive, and he's spreading his wings so much.

02:46
You could probably find his feathers and beard hair in your local comic shops right now. Love it. Because at the time of this recording, he's currently writing not one, not two, not even three, four, or fifth. I knew you'd appreciate that. That tequila's real good, isn't it? I knew you'd appreciate it. Jason is responsible for writing and contributing to seven different titles and series across multiple publishers. We're talking Batman Offworld with DC Comics.

03:13
He just wrapped up a three-issue story arc in Action Comics. He's writing his own creator-owned series, Once Upon a Time at the End of the World for Boom Studios. He'll be writing an Uncle Scrooge one-shot for Marvel Comics. Yo, sign me up. A new Berserker spinoff for Boom Studios. And he's also among the list of creators contributing to the new EC Comics relaunch for Oni Press in July. Take my money. All that. And I still haven't even mentioned the reason he's here today.

03:40
See, if you don't mind, do you mind sharing what else Jason Aaron is writing? Yeah, dude. The freaking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, man. Come on now. His run begins June 5, 2024, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Alpha number one. So please, please freaking jump on it as quickly as possible. Lord knows we will. Man, look at me doing your heavy work, man. Freaking. Yeah, yeah. I insert two sentences and of course. You're sweating. You're sweating, buddy. Oh my god. And of course, save the day as I usually do.

04:10
Where would I be? Short Mike Nation, without further ado, let's give it up for Jason Aaron. Whoa. How's it going? Hey man. Welcome to the show, man. How are you doing today? That was quite an intro, quite a mouthful. Did you feel uncomfortable the whole time? No, not at all. I don't know. The only thing I'm gonna correct you on is I don't know that I've put blood, sweat, and tears. I definitely blood and tears, but I keep the air conditioner cranking in my house. Well done.

04:39
I try to avoid the sweat part of it, but certainly plenty of blood and tears. There we go. Just no sweat. I guess in this point in your career, I guess just to bluntly ask, are comics hard for you? Does it come easy for you at this point? I imagine when you've been doing it for 20 years, you've already achieved the 10,000 hours of perfection, like they say. Does it just come easy to you now?

05:05
Yes and no. I mean, it should never come too easy, right? I think if it comes too easy, you need to stop and ask yourself, like, you know, should I be pushing a little bit harder? So, I don't think you ever want to take it for granted and feel like, okay, you know, I got this. I know what I'm doing. I mean, a level of confidence is good, right? And I feel like I've developed some of that over the course of, like you said, about 20 years. So yeah, it's, I mean, the...

05:35
I never struggled to sit down and, you know, feel passion and love for what I do every week, right? But every job is different, every character is different, every company is different, different books present different challenges. So yeah, I mean, there's, the times are still hard to figure out the voice, you know, for characters like the turtles who have, I've read for years, but I've never actually written before. So that part of it still takes work.

06:04
And I'm just going to keep going with that. So you mentioned the voice, right? What is it like when it comes to the ratio of projects that you seek out versus the projects that you accept, maybe more or less, to put food on the table? Is there a difference? Does the voice come into play like you're like, oh, man, love to write in that character's voice? Or, ooh, I feel like this would be a challenge to write in that character's voice. What does that all come into play?

06:35
I mean, just in terms of projects I sign up for, yeah, it's a mix of things I seek out or things that sort of fall in my lap. Especially these days, I think, since I came out from under my Marvel exclusive, there's been a lot more of those projects that just sort of pop up, you know, the phone calls I get out of the blue. Turtles was one of those. You know, Uncle Scrooge was one of those. Like a lot of the stuff I'm doing now.

07:04
Batman was something I actively pitched and sought after, but most everything else has just kind of come along. In terms of the voice, I don't know, I never think of it. That's never a deciding factor in whether I want to do something or not. I think it's just a part of the process of even getting asked to write Superman. I've been reading Superman for as long as I've been reading comics.

07:33
pretty much literally as long as I've been capable of reading, right? Because comics are how I kind of first learned to read and Superman has been a part of that from the very beginning. So I've been reading Superman my entire life. But still, when you sit down to write Superman for the first time, it's still a process of, okay, like, well, what is, you know, my version of Superman sound like? Like, how do I capture the voice I know that I've read for?

08:02
you know, for decades, but still do it in the way that, you know, it's being processed through me. So that's still, you know, a process you got to go through each time, like writing Star Wars. I'd seen everything I needed to see in order to know what those characters sound like, but you still got to process it in your own way. I've got two questions based on things that you just brought up. For starters, quickly on Star Wars, because I was working...

08:31
in the comic shop when your first issue, when that first issue dropped. And you know, I was telling C like it was the first time I had experienced more, a comic book that had more than, you know, 10, 20 covers. I think that the covers for Star Wars number one, I think it had a hundred covers, right? I think it might have. Yeah, I don't even think that's an exaggeration. I think it was like close to a hundred covers. He's like, I bought them all.

08:55
And then on top of that, I think it sold like a million copies like that first month or something exorbitant. Like where were you? He's like, no, stop, please. He's like 1.2 million, but he was counting. Yeah, right. What do you remember from that moment? Is it safe to say that is like a defining moment in your career to like, just from numbers wise, it still boggles in my mind that a comic book can.

09:22
If it was an album, that would be considered a platinum album. Look at you, bring it back to music. When you look back at that, is it as impressive to you as it is for me and other fans? Yeah, I think yes. I look back on that fondly in a lot of ways, right? Just the experience of getting that offer in the first place, getting to go out. We got to go to the Skywalker Ranch and tour the archives.

09:49
getting, I remember vividly sitting down to write that first issue script and putting on the John Williams score. Oh my gosh. And then, yeah, then the book coming out, I remember when I got the email of like, yeah, we think this is going to sell a million copies. And I was like, holy crap, crap. I was like, I'm going to go give that another reread, you know, and see if I need to.

10:15
tweak that because I'm going to be clearly I'll be signing copies of this for the rest of my life. Is that still the case? I want to make sure it's as good as we could make it. Oh yeah, sure. I still sign. I think it's going to take me forever to possibly sign them all. Well, I don't think this is hyperbole and I don't think that you will take offense to this, but your stuff on Star Wars is right up there with the Archie Goodwin and Al Williams and stuff, man. Oh, thanks.

10:44
You brought up signing comics and I was curious, have you ever had someone bring a comic book that you've written or even your surprise, like, oh, someone read that? Nice. Or maybe like a deep cut that most people don't know about that has caught you by surprise? I mean, I'm always happy to see, like the first comic I ever wrote was a story in Wolverine, which I won a Marvel Comics Talent Search Contest back in 2002.

11:12
So that was my first ever published work. It's like Wolverine 175. So I'm always happy to sign some of those. You know, the other one that always makes me happy is one of the first work for hire gigs I ever did was a couple issues of Friday the 13th for when Wildstorm, when Wildstorm was doing, they did that in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a bunch of horror comics. So yeah, I wrote two issues of that.

11:42
which I would go back and reread in forever. But I remember, you know, feeling good about feeling proud of it. It's another gig I felt like, I don't really have to research this. I watched all those movies when I was 14. So I think I'm good. But yeah, so those always make me smile. And I do sign a surprising number of those. Both of those. Do you still feel that same sort of goodness after doing a project like you're like, man, like, yeah, proud of that, man. Like, do you not that you like?

12:12
break your arm, patting yourself on the back. But that same sort of like, sort of self-awareness and that perspective of like, man, I'm writing comics. This is cool, you know? Yeah, I mean, to me, that's the thing I feel while I'm doing the thing, right? Like, to me, that's the best part of it. It's just the, like, I get joy and fulfillment from the act of writing, right? When, even when it's difficult, when it's challenging, when I'm struggling with something and when I'm...

12:39
It feels like I'm banging my head against the wall and I can't figure out this scene or this character or whatever. That part is still, it's just sort of a fundamental part of my being, which I don't feel like is too lofty of a way to describe it because there was a time years ago when I hurt my back and I was kind of laid up and high on pain meds for a while and I just couldn't write anything for.

13:08
for a couple months and I just felt really just deeply, deeply broken. And then it was the first time again in my, you know, in probably four decades when I went a whole month without writing anything, right? So I just felt like I'd forgotten how to breathe. So that is just a thing that gives me joy and happiness in life is the act of writing. Regardless of even if nothing, even if it just went in a shelf and nobody else ever read it, right?

13:39
I felt good making the thing, reading the thing, put it away, move on to the next thing. I am lucky in that it doesn't go on a shelf that it gets sent off to some of the most amazing artists in the world and becomes these gorgeous comics. So I love that part of it too, the collaboration. I love it when it comes out and fans react to it and I get to travel and go to conventions. All that stuff is great. But to me, really, and truly, the deepest, most rewarding part of it is just the actual act of...

14:09
of writing. I gotta say, you can tell that you have that mindset in your work. You can tell that it's not just a job for you, right? Like, you get fulfillment from it. So it's cool. And I guess my question would be, because of that, I know that The Turtles initially started off as sort of a tribute to Frank Miller. And essentially, there's Easter eggs within that very first issue that straight up reference

14:38
Is it possible that we'll see something like that? We're like, not necessarily an Easter egg, but more or less that same sort of appreciation of the source material. And maybe that's sort of like, yeah, guys, I did my homework. I know what I'm talking about sort of ideas. Are we going to see some of that stuff? Yes. Without spoilers, without spoilers. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've kind of made no secret of the fact that my relationship with the turtles

15:05
started in those early days with that original series. I was kind of the perfect age for it, the perfect mindset. I first got into comics in like early mid-80s and was still a fan of the action movies of the 80s. So much of the good, it was a great time to get into comics, right? Because of stuff like Frank Miller's Daredevil and Dark Knight Returns and

15:34
you know, all the explosion of indie comics, which I bought up all that stuff, first comics, Eclipse, Eternity, like any of those sort of stuff I was all over. So I was very much, you know, all the stuff that was going into Eastman and Laird, you know, into their brains to create the turtles, I was into all of it, right? I was eating up all of it. So that to me is still like the defining time for me in regards to those characters.

16:04
Certainly with what we're doing in this new book, we're taking into account a lot of what's come in the 40 years since then, right? And particularly the last 150 issues of the IDW series. This is not a reboot. It's just a relaunch. We're taking all that stuff and moving it forward. But to me, really moving it forward is in some way going back to the very, very beginning and trying to capture.

16:31
some of that grit and flavor and tone of that original series. So yeah, I think you'll see my take on some of that same stuff that went into that, you know, original stew back in the day. Jason, if you don't mind taking just a quick step back, do you mind telling us how you arrived at the opportunity to write TMNT? Can you talk about how the opportunity presented itself and what about?

16:57
this opportunity really piqued your interest, like outside of just being a fan of TMNT. Was there anything in particular that you wanted to explore or a story that you wanted to convey with the Turtles? In short, I got asked to do it. I was kind of right away intrigued. And again, it was one of those gigs. I wasn't walking around with a bag full of Turtles pitches. I was

17:26
of what hadn't crossed my mind of like, oh yeah, that's a gig I could vie for. But then it popped up and it was a possibility. And sort of like with a lot of the things I've done over the years, like Star Wars, like Thor, those weren't jobs I was chasing, they're opportunities that came along. And I realized, yeah, I think, you know what, like I think I see what I could do with this. I see, I'm excited about the...

17:54
chance to make my mark on this. Again, with Turtles, I had been a fan a long time. I think the fact that this was the 40th anniversary made it more special, made me more excited of like, yeah, that's a pretty, just story-wise aside, just the opportunity seemed really exciting. So you put all that together and the chance again to do a new book, kind of

18:24
my take on the characters, working with people at IDW who I knew from other places. Just kind of a whole thing made me feel comfortable and made me feel like, you know what, I think I can do something cool with this. So I guess it shouldn't come as any surprise that we are huge Turtle fans over here at the Short Box. And we've done several episodes about, you know, from the Turtles, but we've always had conversations around

18:53
you know, just how important they are to comic books. I think when you consider, you know, they've been in the mainstream and the pop culture of Zeitgeist for the last 40 years in every form possible from TV shows, cartoons, you know, movies, video games, toys, et cetera. I think it can oftentimes be overlooked. They're very humble origins, you know, like.

19:14
the DIY comics, black and white comic books. And paying love to people like Jack Kirby too, you know, like on the slide, right? So I guess what I'm trying to get at is that we have talked about how important Eastman and Lair are to comic books and being examples of taking fate into your own hands and creating, owning your property and things like that. I think I've described them as like,

19:41
the quintessential American dream. You know, like they had this idea, they ran with it, you know, now they get to enjoy it and they've still got, you know, in a respectful way. And that is my long-winded way of saying, when you think of Eastman and Laird, like how have they influenced you? Like when you look at their careers and their professions and the respect they get in the comic industry, how has that, I guess, motivated you or informed your career and how you're approaching this book or just like holistically?

20:10
Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I mean, a few different things, I think. I mean, one, I think business-wise, you have two young creators who had this idea who kind of got turned down by a lot of places and said, we're just going to do this completely on our own in a very kind of punk rock way, right? And then not only did that become a success, that became a tremendous, mind-blowing success, right?

20:40
success and that it continues to be reinvented over the course of decades. So 40 years later, we're still talking about those characters. That's one of those things where it would look like I, you know, I feel like as a creator in the present day, we have to look back and learn from kind of the lessons and lives of creators from the past in good and bad ways, right? And then I certainly love the work I do, work for Hirewise for...

21:10
every, again, at this point, every major company in comic books, you know, am I working with at this point in time? But also, you know, I feel like you're crazy if you're not doing stuff that's yours that you control and own. And those guys are great examples of, you know, they did that and benefited greatly from it. Just creatively, again, that book struck me at the perfect time. I was the perfect age for it.

21:40
It was one of the things that helped open my mind to the world of smaller publishers, which there was this explosion of kind of in the mid-80s and you got books of just every kind of genre you could imagine. So some of my favorite stuff is still from what exploded there at that point in the 80s and Turtles was a big part of turning me on to that. And again, their book, just the attitude of that, the joy. You could tell that those were dudes who loved comics.

22:10
They had this idea, they realized they went to every crazy direction with it they could go, right? Not just that these are ninja turtles, like you said, something that started with roots and sort of a Frank Miller homage, not just where they're fighting ninjas on the streets of New York, but where they start to, you know, you bring in aliens, you go to other dimensions, like you go everywhere they could go, they went with those characters.

22:40
that was gritty, felt grungy, was very action driven, had big double page splashes of fight scenes. All that stuff. I think all those are great lessons to have, not just for me as somebody sitting down to write the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I think good career lessons overall. You are coming in after, to carry on the torch, to grab the baton.

23:10
from Sophia Campbell, and I believe Tom Walts has been the writer for a majority of the 150 issues of TMNT so far, which is an incredible feat, right? Like 150 issues of ongoing and the amount of work they put in and the name that they've helped build. Like I know people that swear by this current run of TMNT. How did you approach taking the baton and ensuring, like your Thor run?

23:38
Like you were on it, that span seven years. I can imagine. He's like, yeah, I know. And maybe this is a separate question, but I imagine that when it was time for you to hand off the character, there might have been like, like you were handing off your baby. I guess, how did you approach that with TMNT and Walton and Campbell? How was that transition? I mean, that's the, yeah, that's a good question. I mean, like you said, clearly it's not my first rodeo, right, that I've been.

24:07
I've written a lot of characters by this point. I've been the custodian for a lot of different big important characters. Yeah, you know, I was the Thor guy for seven years. So I think part of that is always being very aware of whatever character we're talking about that you are one of several names that you're getting to stand on the shoulders of a lot of giants who've come before you. You know, when it comes to Thor, that, you know, goes back to...

24:36
Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and Jack Herbig and through Walt Simonson and so many great names, right? So you get to, you're still just the guy for that period of time and you do what you can and you say what you want to say with these characters and maybe you break them a little bit but you try to leave them in relatively the same shape they were when you found them and then you pass it off to whoever the next person is and that'll be the end.

25:05
case for longer than any of us are still alive, right? These characters continue to be featured in stories in one form or another. So I think it's one, realizing like taking ownership as much as you can, but also remembering that you don't own any of this and you're just a drop in the bucket in terms of the overall life of these characters and you just got to pay homage to what's come before.

25:34
Part of paying homage to what's been done with these characters before is bringing something of yourself to it and saying something that hasn't been said a thousand times before, right? Not just picking the bones of those great stories from the past. So I think Turtles is the same way. Like yeah, I'm coming in, you know, again, the Turtles have such a rich history just in 40 years. There's so much stuff, right? From comics and films and cartoons and so many different reinventions of those characters, which...

26:03
continues to happen now. And then with the IDW stuff, not just 150 issues of the ongoing book, but so many other minis that have been a part of that. And Tom Walz, who's written, like you said, most of that IDW run is still a big part of things. So Tom's a great resource, been super nice, super helpful to me, and a guy who knows way more about the turtles than I probably ever will.

26:33
Some of it's everybody at IDW and everybody involved has been super great, super easy to work with. So I mean, I come in, I approach this just like I do everything else, where I just try to do my homework and come in and kind of know who these characters are, who they have been. But again, I'm not coming in to just, on the one hand, not to just do the same stuff over and over again that we've seen a million times.

27:01
but you're also not trying to reinvent the wheel. So it's like, how do I take what's there, pay respect to it, but let's do something a little bit different. And I think that's what I try to do no matter what character I'm writing. I guess to add to that question, I'll drill down just a little more. I guess what can people expect from a Jason Aaron TMNT story? Like what are we gonna explore? What are we gonna be introduced to? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of themes that we'll run through.

27:29
Um, the course of the story, some of them, I don't want to nail too specifically because it might kind of give stuff away. But I mean, I've, I've kind of talked a little bit just about character wise, like trying to put these guys in a, in a place where I think of it, you know, at least metaphorically, like they've hit 18 and 19, 18 or 19, not saying they're literally that age, but just character wise terms of life journey wise, they've hit that point where

27:58
They've been through a lot in life, you know, like we all did when we were that age, you start to feel like you know who you are to some degree. And maybe you do. Maybe in some ways you'll be that same person you were when you were 18 forever. In some ways, I'm that exact same guy. In other ways, I couldn't possibly be further removed from that guy, right? So you're still so much of yourself you're trying to figure out.

28:25
and you may think you know, maybe you don't have any idea. So that's such a pivotal point in all of our lives. I think you only realize that more and more, like the further you get away from that point. So some have to put these characters in that position where they've kind of, you know, this book picks up a year after the end of the previous volume, a year after Sophie's issue 150.

28:52
which has, you know, all some amazing stuff in it. We won't spoil, but we do the typical thing with this kind of new volume where the guys have gone their separate ways. They're split up, so when we pick them up, they're each in a different location, involved in a very different kind of story, and helps us drill down into kind of who each of these guys are at this point in the time. Before we do the thing of bringing them back together and then seeing, you know,

29:21
since these guys have sort of pulled in four different directions, how easy is it to come back together and be the sort of one fighting unit they need to be in order to face this new challenge that comes along? So a lot of it, again, is kind of going back to, it's called return to New York, which has a lot of different connotations to it, right? It's not just a return geographically, but it's also in a sense a story about can you go home again and have it be the

29:51
What does that mean for you going forward? Do you have to figure out a new way to do this? Are you looking forward to some of the levity that comes to writing for the Turtles? There's gotta be a sort of like, oh man, they're teenagers. I get to tap into a part of my brain that lets me play in that world of, oh, what was it like to be immature and maybe fight with my brother over some silly things, or have this sort of like, I don't know what it's like, I don't know how to be a.

30:19
an actual guy that protects his family, you know? And what does that look like? So I don't know, I feel like there's a lot of, there's room for comedy, there's room for lightheartedness.

30:32
Well, you know, I feel like I've written different books over the years that have been very lighthearted. Wolverine and the X-Men was kind of the first one of those in the big way, right? Like that book tonally was very different from anything I had done at the time. So I think some of it just comes from me. I think as a consumer of stories and pop culture, I have always, my entire life, I've never been a guy who is a nerd about one thing.

31:00
I was never a fantasy nerd or horror nerd or a sci-fi nerd or just a comic nerd. I never just loved Star Trek or Star Wars. I've kind of dabbled in everything, right? I just sort of consumed all the things. And beyond that, you know, I love Westerns. I love Godzilla movies. So I think it's the same for me as a creator where I want to do different things. I don't want to just, very quickly.

31:30
new and career-wise. My initial successes were writing a lot of dark, gritty, stabby, shooty sort of books. I still love that stuff and I think I still have plenty of stabby, shooty books in me left to do. But I knew I didn't want to do that, just that, even though that's what helped gave me my career. Wolverine and Scalpt and The Other Side was a war book. That's how I got to that.

31:59
kind of got into the party. I never thought like, okay, well, I've had success doing this stuff. Let me just keep doing more of that stuff forever. I think I would go crazy that way or I'd just hit, you know, that's an easy way to like burn myself out as I just have to do different things because, again, that's just sort of the way it has the way the machine functions. I think the way it's the how I intake stuff and that's how it

32:28
comes back out in the writing process. And I think a lot of what you were saying makes sense for people who are close to our age, where it was like, we came up in a time where you really didn't have your pick of the litter when it came to the pop culture you were influenced by. It was like, oh, well, what's playing on the radio right now? Or what's on TV right now? It's like, looks like it's Planet of the Apes, or it looks like it's Star Wars, or it looks like it's whatever the ABC special movie of that time is going to be.

32:58
And you end up getting sort of a melting pot of pop culture where everything influences you. And you end up being a sci-fi nerd, or not just a sci-fi nerd, but like a horror nerd about all that stuff. It's like, you can watch, you know, Clash of the Titans a million times on TBS in the 80s, you know, like we all did. And then at the same time, feel like, oh, I guess a Disney movie's coming on. So you're like, oh, okay, cool. I guess we're watching this. So yeah, I totally get that, man. Like it's...

33:27
kind of in your favor that you get that experience, where it's like everything influenced you. So you can put all of that into the story and into the characters, which is making me more jazzed about the stuff that you're writing now.

33:44
Yeah, I think that's how I've always looked at my career, how I've always wanted it to be. I think if anything, that's only gone up to 11 in the last year. And then one side kind of stepped away from Marvel, or at least was no longer exclusive to Marvel, and I've still been doing stuff for Marvel, that I was able to spread my wings, not just in terms of the number of companies I was working for, but again, except all these different exciting opportunities that have come along. So that led to me.

34:14
you know, a few months especially, jumping from a ridiculous array of characters, right, from one to the other. Most of which you know about, some of which you still don't. But there was multiple times I would stop myself in the last few months and be like, I can't believe I'm getting to go from, you know, writing Uncle Scrooge to writing Batman to writing Superman to writing, you know, this next guy I can't tell you about yet, to writing the turtles.

34:45
It was just kind of this staggering assortment of characters that made me infinitely happy. Made me very, very busy, but also filled with constant joy. And then getting to do every one of those characters. They were so different. The stories that I was doing with them were so very different. That's kind of what I want to continue to do all the time, right? Is that just being able to switch gears from week to week.

35:15
like that and check so many different boxes of characters I'd love to write, different kind of stories I'd like to do, different cool opportunities. This has been, to me, sort of a gluttonous version of that, even being 20 years deep in my career, it feels like I've never had the wealth of toys to play with that I do right now at this moment in time.

35:45
you know, on that kind of level of same level as turtles, we can't even talk about yet. But later this year, later this year, you'll be like, you'll be like, Oh, okay, now I know what he was talking about then. Man, it sounds like you have an embarrassment of riches, man. Like, and I don't mean like in the tangible materialistic sense, like in a sort of fulfillment sort of way, like you've sort of like, man, here I am, like, I've made it, man.

36:16
I'm able to be that guy. I'm the Swiss Army knife of writers where it's like, you want me to write Scrooge? I got you. You want me to write Batman? I got you. So the idea of you achieving sort of like a contentness when it comes to like, yeah, I'm not feeling myself, but I'm enjoying where I'm at in my career where people look at my name on a book and they say, ah, okay, that's a name that's synonymous with

36:45
Quality he can he can he can throw the ball. He's he can freakin throw that kind of ball. So I guess I would say When it comes to Artists, do you still feel that way? Like when you're like, yes, I got this like how does that work? Like do you like hey, can I suggest a specific artist for this story? I'm telling or I don't know how the process works

37:14
Like, is it to the point where you're like, oh wow, yeah, it'd be great if I could work with this person. And they're like, Jason, done, don't worry, we got you. You know, like, I don't know, like, what is it like? I mean, you know, it really depends. It depends on the company, the book, the situation. I mean, yeah, I mean, I work with so many amazing artists who I don't know, who I've never met.

37:39
live overseas and sometimes I'll go to a convention in Italy or wherever and I'll meet four artists that I've worked with before. We've never met face to face. Other people like Cliff Chang who's drawing issue three of Turtles. I've known about as long as I've been in comics. I've been friends with Cliff for probably almost 20 years at this point. This is the first time we've ever worked together. We've talked about doing it many times over the years of like, you know...

38:09
oh yeah, we'd love to work together. What about this? What about that? It just never worked out. Now finally, we get the chance to do something together. So it kind of depends. There's so many different amazing artists and comics and so many people you see at conventions. I try not to be shy about saying, oh yeah, I love your work, love what you did here, love what you did there, love to work together if you ever want to.

38:38
tell Daniel Warren Johnson, I tell that all the time. I'm also like, look, I understand he has no incentive whatsoever to ever want to work with me, right? He's doing quite well on his own. He should probably continue to do that, but also make it clear, oh, hey, man, you ever want to do something together? Would love to. So it just depends. It depends. I've never been one of those people where I just kind of want to work with the same

39:08
they're definitely artists that I've maintained relationships with. They would become friends and we always want to go back and do other stuff together. But I also just like, I like for them to work with other people. I want to work with other people. It's to me, that's part of the fun of the process of, of, of figuring out like, what is this book going to look like if, you know, if I do it with this person versus that person. So I,

39:36
Yeah, I mean that's part of the fun. Yeah, it's sort of like you're almost like a curator. On the topic of artists, you brought up Cliff Chang and working with different artists. When the news of you taking over TMNT dropped earlier this year, they dropped the news, Jason Aaron, he's doing TMNT, big relaunch, Alpha number one, oh, did we also mention, he's got a murderer's row of amazing artists.

40:05
That's a good, nice sports reference, because I know you don't sports, which is beautiful. Thank you for that. But the other shoe drops, and it's like, oh, wow, he's got some of the best artists in the game doing one shots and doing stories for these. And I want to hear what words come to mind when I share the names of some of these artists that are doing these first issues. And just a level set with everyone, TMNT Alpha number one is on sale June 5. It'll feature a 10-page prelude story drawn by Chris Burnham.

40:34
that'll start on Nutello and then the actual relaunch begins in July with TMNT number one. So if you are interested, I mean, you know what, not even if you're interested, you are interested in picking up TMNT. Thank you, my man. So go ahead and go to your local comic shops right now to get that pre-order in now. Oh, that boy good. Because more than likely, this will be one of those things you don't want to miss out on. You don't want to be the guy that's like...

40:56
I couldn't make it to the shop. I don't know what's happened. I don't know. Why is it always that voice? It's always that voice where it's like, I don't know what happened. Yeah, I don't know. Don't be that guy. Please don't be that guy. It's OK. So the first four issues, you're putting a spotlight on a different turtle, and each one is drawn by a different artist. You're coming out the gate with issue one with Joelle Jones, drawing the Raphael issue. What are some words that come to mind when you hear Joelle Jones based on what you've seen from her and with the art and things like that?

41:26
I mean, Joelle's incredible. She's one of the best artists working today. Again, somebody I have wanted to work with on multiple different projects, have tried to make it happen, it almost happened, didn't happen. So again, someone I was super excited the first time her name was mentioned and she's been perfect for this issue. Chris Burnham does the alpha story, which gives you a sort of tease and kind of helps set the tone, but then.

41:54
You know, Joel's doing the heavy lifting in that first issue or the, the, that first issue in particular definitely sets the tone and won't say too much about what that story is. But the, the, the, to me, I knew once I kind of figured out where I wanted the, the four brothers to wind up and what those stories would be, I knew I wanted the Raphael story to be the first one out of the gate because it kind of helps.

42:23
tell you where this book is going to go and what the journey is going to be like. I think Joelle has been killing it on that. It's been an absolutely perfect choice for that first issue. It makes sense considering RAF is very conflicted and with a lot of conflict, there's a lot of drama. So, I could see that. For sure. All right. Then following up, so you got Joelle Jones. Well, technically you got Chris Burnham setting that bar, but Joelle Jones coming in hot out the gate with issue one of RAF.

42:52
Issue two, you've got someone that I'm a huge fan of, and that's Rafael Albuquerque, following up issue two doing a Mikey focus issue. What has come to mind based on what you've seen from Rafael Albuquerque? Yeah, Rafa's another guy that I've known a long time. I think I first met at a convention in Spain many, many years ago. We've only, he's the only one of these artists that I have worked with before, but it was for a 10 page story, so a short story.

43:22
So again, another guy I've known a long time, wanted to work with and been a fan of, you know, known personally, wanted to work with. Finally we make it happen. The issue he's doing, the Mikey story, in some sense, very, very different than issue one, right? Very, very different kind of story, very different situation that Mikey finds himself in. I don't know.

43:50
I think each one of these four issues are different kinds of stories that play into how these brothers are different from each other, right? Mikey's got a very different personality than Raph and Leo. So those issues, story-wise, tonally are very, very different, but all still head in the same direction in some sense. And yeah, Raph has been doing really, really awesome stuff with the action and that issue in particular.

44:17
All right. And then for issue three, you've got Cliff Chang jumping in with my, on my favorite turtle, Leonardo. What can you say about Cliff? Again, Cliff, another guy I've known for a long time from his days when he was doing stuff at Vertigo. Um, I mean, another one of the people who's one of the best artists in comics, like Cliff has been on my list of people I most want to work with for a long, long time. He's also one of the nicest dudes in comics. Um,

44:47
And he's a perfect fit for the Leo issue where I think, you know, in the same way that Leo was very different from his brothers, this is a different kind of story, a little bit darker, much more spiritual a story than the other issues. And you know, I'm really excited to see what Cliff's going to do with that. Hell yeah. And then last but not least, just focusing on these first four.

45:13
Chris Burnham is coming back to draw issue four, which will focus specifically on Donnie. What do you got to say about him?

45:22
Chris is another guy I've been friends with a while. He lives here in Kansas City. He's a maniac, I think, in the best way possible. His work looks like it's the work of a crazy person, which makes him a perfect fit for these Donnie stories because Donnie has been

45:52
place when we catch up to him in the Alpha issue and then we more fully explore in issue four. So, it's, I think what Donnie is going through is, I think, even more challenging than any of the other brothers' stories to this point in the new series and that Donnie's is being really pushed to its limits. And I...

46:18
Chris, again, the first pages you'll see of this new series will be Chris's in that alpha story. As soon as I saw them, as soon as I saw the first page, which he just texted to me at some point, I was like, yes. Because the first part of that script was really about the tone I wanted to set with that story. And he nailed it in every possible way. It was exactly, exactly what I wanted.

46:47
that clarity, right? I felt like I had clarity. He understood that, bought into it, had the same sort of clarity. And so I feel I'm really, really excited for people to see what Chris is doing on both those two stories, the alpha and the issue four. That's gotta feel good. Do you feel that, do you know that when you feel it, like it's like, okay, we're cooking now? Absolutely, yeah. I mean, yes. I mean,

47:15
But what does that mean? What does that mean in terms of a bigger picture? Does that mean the book will be successful? Does that mean everybody will love it? Does that mean everybody else will connect with it in that same way? I think you never know exactly. I just know that I have clarity about this. I feel like we're all hitting to the full extent. Everybody's buying in. Everybody's doing their best work. This is becoming the best version of itself.

47:44
it can possibly be. I feel like in my experience, generally, when I have that feeling and that happens, good things happen after that, right? Like the book finds its audience and connects with it and people respond to it. But all I can ultimately control is, do I feel that way? Do I have that level of investment and connection to it? And yeah, I think you generally know when that's hitting on all cylinders and when it's not. And this definitely feels like one of those cases where it is.

48:13
Good sign, folks. Good sign. Can I go and go on a limb here and give a prediction about you mentioned, you know, what does it mean? Will the book be successful? I think- Oh my God, his arms are crossed. Here we go. Yeah. Here we go. Got the Stanley arm crossed. You know what water crosses his arms. The Stanley arm crossed. I'm gonna go on a limb here and say, I think TMNC issue one is gonna blow that Star Wars record out the water. That's not successful. Yo. I think you're looking at it, all right? Nothing.

48:38
Sure, nothing but a million copies to help the shoot for. All right. We don't have loot grade anymore to help with the... We'll bring it back, folks. Yeah, we're bringing it back for now. Not us, but it's... Actually, I love that you said that. So if you guys would just order like 400,000 copies, that would really help us out. Oh, so one for every listener of the short box. Easy work. There you go. Christmas gift. I wish. But...

49:06
Jason, I was given a strict instruction that if I was to ask who your favorite turtle is, it would go nowhere, you love them all equally. So I devised a different question. You sneaky son of a gun. I didn't know you were going to do this. You're talking to me in a millions boy, all right? I love it, man. Who's your favorite TMNT supporting character or villain? How about that? Okay, that's not bad. Is that thinking outside the box? No, that's pretty good. That's a good question.

49:36
Yeah, I mean, I, you know, again, going back to somebody who first fell in love with those characters from that original book, Casey Jones, I think. My boy, my boy. I've always had a soft spot for Casey and I can tell you, you will for sure see him at some point in this new series. Hell yeah. I mean, I want to say it's a toss up one because I love David Cronenberg so much. So back to Stockman for sure.

50:06
But I like Savanti Romero also, cause he's just a weird bonkers character to look at. Like it's like, oh, what are you dude? Like you're like a demon slash futuristic time traveler guy. Like that's kind of cool. All right. I'm gonna go on a, I'm gonna share mine and I don't know if it's like the best answer but I'll never forget when I seen, I think the first time I ever seen Yosagi Ujimbo was the toy, was the, it was the action figure. Oh yeah? And I remember thinking a bunny sim.

50:36
Yeah, that's the coolest shit ever. This slaps, bro. You know what that word meant, but you still said it. But you still said it. That's what kids say these days, right? I don't know. Slap. Yeah, I don't think I'm allowed to say it with this mustache. I don't think that's possible. I love Yusagi. I feel like Yusagi, Ojimbo, and Gru are books that make me so happy I can still read them. I still read both of them. Every time there's a new issue of either one of those, I am all, and that's been the case for.

51:05
almost the entire time I've been reading comics, right? Like those characters began around the time I first started getting into it. Grew as Sergio Aragonis, right? Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. Those books still today, like reading a new issue of either one of those today makes me as happy as it did, you know, reading it 40 years ago. What comic books are you reading now that you enjoy? Like, cause it sounds like you're on the up and up, you're still reading comics, like, is it more...

51:33
older stuff, things that you grew up with, or are you reading like current comic books and monthly titles? What's on your reading list? Some of both, plus things I need to read for work, right? But in terms of stuff I read just for pleasure, I would say I'd give another shout out to Daniel that I've loved the Transformers book. He's been doing it. I don't really have a connection to Transformers. That was on my jam when I was a kid.

52:03
I didn't hate them or anything, but I just didn't. I didn't come to that book with a pre-existing love of Transformers. That always makes me happy when I can come into a property like that where I'm not in love with it already. Whoever that creator is gets me to be connected and invested. Transformers has been a great example of that. The Josh Williamson, G.I. Joe stuff has been really good too. Now, that what I do.

52:31
That one I do have more of a pre-existing connection to, and I do always love G.I. Joe, but those books have been really good. I would say a couple other Image books I picked up recently that I've really liked is, and I can't remember the creator's name for Image, but Blood Rick. Oh man, that, yeah.

53:00
a really, really gorgeous, like a pace almost like a manga, a very different kind of slow pace to it. Really, really gorgeous art. I think it's Andrew Crunky. I'm probably butchering it and I apologize, but I echo exactly what you're saying. It is a gorgeous, simple, like kind of like deceivingly simple book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if like I loved Jindy Tartakovsky's

53:29
What's it called? Primal. Oh, Primal. So good. Oh, everything Jenny Genny Karakowski does is so fantastic. Yes. But yes, I mean, I love Samurai Jack, but this to me felt like, okay, this dude's getting to do whatever the fuck he wants to do at this point. Hell yeah. He doesn't have to worry about restrictions in a way I'm sure he did with Samurai Jack. Sure.

53:54
I mean, that show goes hard at times. That show slaps. Right, Cesar? Sir, sir. Sir, I'm over 40. I'm not allowed to use those terms. I've been informed that I can't use them. But also, I'm going to say, Gendi Tartakovsky is bringing it in with the kid stuff, too. My wife and I, we watch Hotel Transylvania with our daughter. And that's also a Gendi Tartakovsky joint. And you look at the character design, and you look at the humor, it's the same type of humor and character design you would see from like Dexter's lab.

54:24
She says, welcome to the old guy hour, where we talk about Cartoon Network from the 90s. It's stretch around here. Jason, can I say how happy I am that you brought up the Energon universe and how good it is? Because I started to feel like I was saying the obvious or picking the low hanging fruit. Saying how good Transformers is and Duke and Cobra Commander. Cobra! Jason Aaron is also enjoying these books, only she's elitifies how awesome those are.

54:53
And I want to ask you a question that I've been dying to ask you. We had posed this question on most of our interviews. And we recently posed this question to Tom King, and really threw him for a loop. And where can you find a Serpentor cosplay costume? Not that. I'm curious to hear, if you had to create a Mount Rushmore of comic book writers.

55:16
who would be on your Mount Rushmore? And just a friendly reminder that a Mount Rushmore has four spots. But. Yeah, so funny is that Tom was like, yeah, but this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy. It's like, yo, you got like six dudes, my man. But I do remember us saying that going forward, we rephrased this question as, if you had your Zod Mount Rushmore where you added a fifth head.

55:39
Oh yeah, yeah, that's true. So you can have five in this Mount Rushmore, but who is on your comic book Mount Rushmore? So who are the writers that you think are the best in the genre, or maybe just like you personally feel like? 1979 Superman reference kids. That's a great question. I've never thought of it that way. I mean, the easy first answer for me is Grant Morrison. And Grant, I've been a huge fan of Grant his entire career.

56:09
And like Doom Patrol and Animal Man were very foundational books for me the first time I read. I think I found Doom Patrol before Animal Man and that book just blew my mind in the way, you know, it's like the Beatles to take an LSD for the first time. Like it was that level of experience for me where I was like, what is this? You know, what planet did this come from? Let's get weird chaos magic, baby. Right. And Grant, Grant.

56:38
is a guy who I respect in that he has done so much different kinds of stuff, right? Like a guy who's done some of those mind-blowing, just straightforward superhero stuff, and then his crater on work has been just all over the map in terms of tone and genre and guy who can do kind of anything he sets his mind to. So Grant for sure has a spot there. I think probably the easy number two for me is Garth Ennis.

57:07
And then Garce, another guy whose work I've been following for his entire career, Preacher, was sort of my lifeblood for so much of that series. Grant's guy still has not lost a step, right? That dude, every new book he does feels as good as the last one. His...

57:35
Punisher, I mean, Punisher, his Punisher Max runs one of my favorite runs by anybody. Um, and don't any Marvel comic ever, but the Nick Fury stuff he's done, um, you know, and there's a new one about to come out. It's just been so phenomenal. Um, and Garth's like one of the sweetest for a guy who wrote the most fucked up shit you could possibly imagine just always been the nicest guy to me, but I always

58:04
I feel like, oh, this guy's like a proper, this guy's a proper writer, whatever that means. And I'm, I'm a poser around, around Garth. That's that statement dates us by the way. I'll say that. I'm Garth somehow manages to capture the American experience while not like typically being plugged into it. You know what I mean? Like, how does he, you know what I mean? Like, how does he get John Wayne and Bill Hicks?

58:32
in the same comic, you know what I mean? Like I'm sitting here like, Bill Hicks, dude? Like, wow, like kudos, like awesome. Like one of my favorite comedians. And also kind of has that same sort of like Southern fried attitude mixed with a sort of strange drug addled progression, you know? Like it's beautiful, it's really beautiful. And I'm there with you, man. Garth Ennis is freaking tops, man. Yeah, don't let me interrupt, sorry, keep going.

59:02
Uh, okay. So it gets harder now. We got two. Yeah. Um.

59:11
I'll go back to the 70s and say the person whose work I think resonates with me most from then is Steve Gerber. I mean, the 70s, there were so many guys doing such weird stuff, right? Steve was the king of that tour, but not just weird for the sake of being weird and that there was always still heart and pathos to what he was doing in a way that I think continues to hold up.

59:40
So I think Steve, I mean, as respected as he is, I think he's still sort of underappreciated and a guy who was very ahead of his time, right? And then the fourth one, I think I got to give respect to the guy who the first comic book writer I ever knew by name, ever followed from one book to another was Marv Wolfman, who I discovered on New Teen Titans.

01:00:10
was that book was pretty much one of my gateway drugs. And I discovered that right before crisis. And then crisis blew my mind. And that was for me having kind of just stumbled into comics and just starting to figure out some of the extent of the universe of characters. Crisis hit you with that on overdrive, right? As a lot of them were being killed and wiped out of existence, it still just hit me with so much.

01:00:40
And then Marv became, again, he and George were kind of the first creators that I followed them to other books, right? So when Marv started doing Adventures of Superman, you know, right after Crisis. And so yeah, I think Marv gets my fourth spot. Nice. Man. You said too that I don't think we've ever heard mentioned on the show. Steve Gerber and Marv Wolf.

01:01:06
You know what's funny though about Marv Wolfman is that he is one of those guys that you're like, oh yeah, Teen Titans. And then all of a sudden, like head explosion, crisis on infinite earths leads to George Perez leads to that. Like you're like, oh my gosh. They're like such staples you kind of like accidentally overlook them because they're like so ingrained in the culture. You're like, oh yeah, Marv Wolfman, of course he's one of the best. Well, Marv, you also got to go back and look at.

01:01:32
to my Dracula, which I think is amazing. Oh, God, absolutely. Yeah. And yeah, with Steve, not just Howard the Duck, but I love Damon Hellstrom, son of Satan, one of my favorite Marvel characters. Do you want to add a fifth slot in our General Zod version of this Mount Rushmore? Was there one name that you wanted to bring on there? Sure, the fifth slot. Very high fidelity.

01:02:02
I will say, I will put Mark Wade up there. I think Mark is another guy who's, I mean, in terms of a career, you can stack that up against anybody, right? Yep. Probably above and beyond anybody in the number of different roles he's had over the course of his career and the list of characters he's had defining runs on. And again, I think a guy who, on the one hand, Mark is, he is so in the,

01:02:32
so in tune with comics, so in tune with these characters that he's been consuming them to such a huge degree his entire life, almost like it's second nature to him. But you can tell he continues to do the work, right? He's a guy who's never hit the point where he checked out and hit cruise control. That he continues to, I think, every time you think you know what Mark can do, he surprises you again with this next book.

01:03:02
You know, what he's been doing on World's Finest has been, you know, probably my favorite DC comic these last few years. Same. Just the, I mean, you can tell every page of like, this guy knows these characters better than anybody alive, right? And is able to translate that onto the page, even when you don't. Even when you don't, if you don't love the Doom Patrol or whoever, like all the different characters he's used in that book, he is able to get you to understand them. And I think...

01:03:31
fall in love with them just from the pages he gives you, which is an easy thing to say, but a hard thing to do. Especially in a world where some people might think they're not relevant, he still keeps it universally approachable to where you're like, yeah, that's Supes. That's definitely Batman. And not in a sort of like, oh, well, I need to update the character or I need to do this. Like you said, he knows them so well that it's like, yeah, I know what small sort of

01:04:01
directions and slash movements to make it like it's a piece of music that people when they hear it, they're like, ah, yep, that's definitely this, you know, or that's definitely that. Yeah. And also to do a book that is, you know, looking back, looking back into the past, but it's not just reliant on nostalgia. You know, it is not just, hey, remember these cool stories from the past with these characters? It's still, it's got a heavy sense of nostalgia, but it's still doing new stories.

01:04:29
with those characters that we haven't seen before and still feels both nostalgic and fresh at the same time. Paul Dini's cool like that too. Also really hard to do, right? Well said. Jason, I've got two rapid fire questions from our patrons. I mean, dude, if it's only two, that doesn't sound that rapid fire. It's just, it's not even semi-automatic. It's like, we've got two very spaced out bullets to fire. Bop.

01:04:57
So I reached out to our patrons and told them the deal. Hey, Jason Aaron is gonna be on the show. I know you guys love him as much as we do. Who's got some questions? And we got two really solid ones that I wanna toss up to you. This first one is from a long time listener, the Short Box. You might as well be Short Box family. His name is Mac Jacobson and he writes, Jason, since you have written pretty much everything under the sun at this point, is there a project you have worked on that you would like to return to someday? Don't get yourself in trouble if you can't answer that. Wow.

01:05:26
Um, uh, that's a good question. Like I, I mean, a character that I would want to return to. I guess character or choice. Yeah. Um, hmm. You know, I don't.

01:05:41
Nothing jumps to mind. I mean, you know, certainly like creator-owned stuff that I've done, there's, of those, there are more things to come. But in terms of work for hire stuff, I mean, I don't, as much as I loved writing Thor, much as I loved writing Wolverine, I don't look back and be like, oh, you know, I really want to tell this Thor story or this Wolverine story. Maybe someday that'll happen. But right now it feels, especially at this moment in time where I'm doing so much stuff.

01:06:11
where all of it is new. I'm kind of just looking ahead to more of that. So there's nothing right now from the past that's calling to me. Okay, always forward. I like it. All right, this next question come, you know, see, I'm gonna let you read this one because this one's a special one, a special case. I mean, this fucking controversial ass question, let me do it. All right, it's from our boy T-Mix. He says, and I've not screened this question. Uh.

01:06:41
Yeah, thanks, man. You're welcome buddy. This doesn't feel very rapid fire so far. Yeah, this is so far. Although, this is not my question, although Thor Love and Thunder had problems as a movie, it led a lot of casuals like myself and Bodder to discover your legendary Thor run. JK, it's Marvel, of course Bodder read it because Bodder has a tendency to be a Marvel stan. Of all your other work.

01:07:09
Which do you think would be the most fun to watch on the big or small screen? And why is the answer Southern Bastards? Definitely a fan. Okay. I love seeing makes for that. Uh, that's a good question. Yeah. I mean, Southern Bastards would be great. Um, uh, I mean, beyond that, um, you know, it'd be, I mean, I would love to see something happen with the goddamn. I think.

01:07:37
Hell yeah, dude. That's some dark adult animation probably. Say Sorry would be there on opening night. IMAX 3D 4K. With all of my Joseph Campbell books and all of my mythology. Yes, of course. But I would also say, in terms of work for hire stuff, especially recent stuff, I am still deeply, deeply proud of the last Punisher book I did, which was Contra.

01:08:07
controversial in and of itself. But again, going back to what I was talking about of projects that I could see clearly that came together in the perfect way, the amazing team of artists, all the pieces fitting together in exactly the right way, that was another book that to me hit the nail on the head. And that was everything that I wanted it to be. And I still feel very, very happy with what I was able to say about the character.

01:08:36
in that story. Also just doing a story that was Frank Castle having some of the crittiest, bloodiest fights he's ever had in the character's history. I think it was a book that rejoiced in the action of that character while also having a lot of dark, serious things to say about who he is and what his life has been like. That would also be exciting to see turn into something.

01:09:06
I forgot about the quote unquote controversy around Punisher during your run. And I think it only goes to further like get our point across that, you know, you have, you have had such an epic, for lack of a better term, like an epic career that has spanned all these different characters, these different companies. Like we're getting to see you in like a, what seems like a new chapter and getting to spread your wings and

01:09:33
What's your advice for new and aspiring comic creators that want to have a career like yours? Do you have any advice that you wish you would have received when you first started that maybe would have made life a lot easier for you? I think just do the stuff you're passionate about. I think anybody when they're trying to break in, and I did the same thing where you start just trying to chase whatever lead you have, like, well, this editor replies to me.

01:10:01
What do they edit? Let me pitch that. And you just kind of chase any opportunity to try to get your foot in the door. And maybe that works for some people depending on the situation or whatever, but to me it led to a whole lot of nothing. And I kind of just had to be a little bit smarter and pitch specifically to people who I felt like I would have similar sensibilities to and just do the

01:10:28
pitch the kind of books and chase the kind of things that spoke to me personally, right? I couldn't say. I mean, my first book, The Other Side, was a Vietnam War book with horror elements. Still the lowest selling book I've ever done probably my entire career. But that gave me the next thing. It really gave me everything that's come after that. It's a book I felt strongly about, meant a lot to me. Again, that I had that sense of clarity, had done a whole lot of work.

01:10:55
Hardest I've ever worked in my life on a script was that script, the first script I ever wrote. So I think you put all of that into it, you will get rewards from it, right? Like again, it may not sell a million copies, but if you respond to it, if you're invested to it, you're passionate about it, other people will feel that, you know, and that's how you open doors for yourself, not just pitching, you know, whatever comes along, whoever's taken pitches.

01:11:25
I wasn't sure if I was going to pose this question, but Jason, would you like to hear maybe the most unique question that I guarantee you will get during your entire time talking to EMT? Wow, sure. I mean, this is a lot of buildup. Here we go. Okay. So obviously it is very important for people that's listening that are somewhat interested or absolutely interested in your run that they go to their local comic shop.

01:11:52
let their local comic shop know, hey, put me down for the Jason Aaron team and see relaunch. Highly advise you guys do that before alpha number one comes out in June 5th. So with that in mind, one thing that I like to do is to actually reach out to my local comic shop guy and ask him to, you know, being involved with these interviews. Cause I think it's safe to say, no, it's not even just safe to say it is, it is a fact that local comic shops are the lifeline. There's a blood of the whole industry.

01:12:19
So I reached out to my guy, Ben Kingsbury, the owner of Gotham City Limit Comic Shop, who's also sponsored this show, told them what you're having you on and if you had any questions to submit them. He's such a character. Yeah, and I guess I should- Where's this shop at? Here in Jacksonville, Florida. And to say this point, he's a character, he's one of the best salesmen you'll ever meet in comic books. He's super charismatic. Like we need more people like him. So I'm excited for you to hear his question. Here it is from Ben Kingsbury. Hey Jason.

01:12:47
Ben K. from Gotham City Limit, Jacksonville, Florida here. Thanks so much for taking time to answer my question. Well, we all know the turtles were created as a sort of spoof of Daredevil Marvel's product. Here's a question for you. Which of the four turtles do you think would be best suited to be blind? Well, I'll leave you to answer. Best of luck on the new TMNT run. We can't wait for it down here in Jacksonville, Florida. And remember, short box nation, always take it to the limit.

01:13:17
What? I have nothing to say on behalf of our friend, Brian Kingsbury. I'll just say that. I've been asked this question so many times, every podcast I do. Nobody's ever asked this question. That's a good question. Well, I mean, I told Ben, I was like, man, hey, you can't ask him what's your favorite turtle. He's just going to say all of them. He was like, okay, I got something for you. And not in a million years, what I would have thought, this was going to be the question.

01:13:46
It's the kind of professionalism you can expect from the short box podcast guys. Let's work through this. I feel like it can't be Mikey, right? I feel like you can't be blind and wield Nudden chucks. You're going to beat, beat the shit out of yourself. Probably the same goes for Leo. I feel like you, I mean, I know there's side of the side of Weechie, the blind swordsman, so there is a history of that, but this guy's good. Oh, that's good. See? Yeah, that's true. I worked at a video store. I know what he's talking about.

01:14:15
But it still feels like that's a, you know, that's tall order. Um, even, you know, the, even Rafael with the, the, the side, you know, um, I feel like that's going to be more challenging. I think it's got to be Donnie, even though I think Donnie being blind is going to take a lot of, uh, he's going to lose a lot, right? Cause like, he's not going to be able to be the sort of, um,

01:14:43
a smart tech guy that he's been in the past, but he'd probably figure out a way to work around that, could compensate for his blindness. And also he's less likely to kill himself with his bowstaff. He's being blind. So I think I'm going to go with Donnie. We're going to cut this out. No, no, unedited, raw, filtered interview. Now, thank you for entertaining that idea. Big shout outs to Ben, who is, you know, who is extremely excited for your relaunch. I know he's going to be.

01:15:12
selling those books like hotcakes when Alpha and the number one drops. And I guess with that said, Jason, this has been a fantastic, a bucket list interview for me and Cia, I think, safe to say. I'm going to have links to your socials. I have links to your website. I have some links to some of the previews that they've put out so far about TMNT. Just a reminder to everyone listening that TMNT Alpha number one hit shops on June 5th. It'll feature 10 page prelude story drawn by Chris Burnham.

01:15:41
starring Donatello and then the big relaunch, the real relaunch happens in July of TMNT number one. Jason, do you have any, anything? It's the summer of Jason. Yeah, for real. Do you have anything to say that maybe we didn't get around to talking to, any parting words, upcoming projects? I mean, you've got them by the dozen apparently. Do you have anything to say? I've got it.

01:16:05
I mean, I've got a Substack newsletter. It's kind of the easiest way to keep up with what I've got going on. Cause yeah, I've got, you know, Batman Offworlds coming out right now. I think the new issue of that's about to come out. I got Uncle Scrooge also coming out in June, a Berserker one shot, or Berserker in the Wild West, and other new stuff that'll be announced soon. So yeah, I got a lot going on. So yeah, Substack's the easiest way to keep up.

01:16:33
with me and also be doing a lot more shows this year. Maybe too many shows, we'll see. But there's a chance you'll be seeing me at your local convention sometime this year. So come say hi. The convention schedule's got to match the release schedules at this point. I mean, you got so many books coming out, I can see that happening. Now, Butter, this guy, Batman, is he an indie character? I think IDW is publishing. Oh, OK. I understand. Actually, Jason, I got one.

01:17:03
bonus question because you brought up Scrooge. I just noticed that you're wearing a Disney World shirt and our mutual friend Chris Hacker over at the Oblivion Bar podcast had told me that in his interview, he could tell that you wanted to talk more about Scrooge and he advised, hey, try to work in some Dan Rosa questions if you can. I'm going to completely ignore that advice and ask, what's your favorite ride at Disney?

01:17:30
Go ahead and how about. And why is it star tours from the, from the eighties? Well, look, I'll say, I'll say my favorite ride at Disneyland, it's pirates. I love, I love the version of pirates that land, which is, you know, a thousand times better, I think, than the one at world is nice too. But, you know, if you haven't ridden pirates that land, you haven't really ridden pirates to the Caribbean.

01:17:58
I mean, if I had to pick one for just all of Disney World, all four parks, you know, Splash Mountain was my favorite as a kid, you know, so I'm excited to read the, to write the new version of that, the Tiana's Bayou Adventure when that opens this summer. But of like current rides, I'd say, I'll give you two, Flight of Passage, the Avatar ride has been my favorite for the last few years.

01:18:29
still love that ride. And I got to ride it opening weekend when I had no idea what it was, right? Like I sat down on that thing and you're just in this room with this wall in front of you and I didn't even understand like, what is about to happen? And there was that moment when it went dark and then this, you know, suddenly I'm flying. And I didn't know, it's the moment where I didn't understand what is physically happening right now. I don't understand. And then I could look around and sort of, okay, now I get it. But there was that.

01:18:57
moment of magic where I was just, okay, like I'm flying now. I don't understand what just happened. And you ride like, I love the Tron ride, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty short, you know, and there's not a whole lot in the way of story. It starts fast, goes fast. It's like you're riding a, you know, one of the Tron bikes, but man, it's, it makes me happy. I fancy myself a captain EO, man. Oh my God. Don't ever go.

01:19:24
You haven't been to Disney World in a while, have you? No. Like he said, he's our resident old ass guy. I enjoy Captain E. It's been relevant in the last two years, I doubt it. But Jason, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much. I extend this to all of our great guests, but I definitely say this with confidence. You are more than welcome back to the show any time. I feel like I've still got 10 more pages of questions.

01:19:51
about everything, but I'm excited for what you're going to be doing with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yeah, man, we both are. And yeah, best of luck to you. Everything you got going on, man. This has been fantastic. Cool. Thanks guys. Yeah. Yeah, man. Appreciate your time. Talk again.

01:20:05
There you have it, ShortBikes Nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you made it this far. If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you wanna share with us, write us at theshortbikesjaxx at gmail.com. And if you really liked this episode, help us spread the word. Share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do. And don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:20:35
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01:21:05
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01:21:34
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