Aaron saddles up for “Ghost Rider”

Vaneta Rogers interviews newly Marvel-exclusive incoming “Ghost Rider” writer Jason Aaron at Newsarama.   Aaron  won a Marvel talent contest in 2002, and eventually went from a back-up tale in “Wolverine” to “Scalped” and “The Other Side” for Vertigo, now to “Ghost Rider” (and an arc of “Wolverine,” after writing a fill-in on issue #56.)

The Kansas City-based Aaron talks about his upcoming projects and his history, as well as this interesting bit about his influences:

 Yeah, I’ve been reading them for as long as I’ve been able to read (and no jokes about that, just because I’m from Alabama). Back when I was first getting into comics, buying them off the spinner rack at the local drugstore, my favorite books were New Teen Titans, Blue Devil, Atari Force, Swamp Thing and Fantastic Four. These days, my all-time favorites include Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, From Hell, EC’s Frontline Combat, Lone Wolf And Cub, Stray Bullets, Kirby’s Fourth World titles and virtually everything that Steve Gerber did for Marvel in the ‘70s. I also love Michael Fleisher, Timothy Truman, Garth Ennis, Azzarello, Brubaker, Bendis, Adrian Tomine, Rick Veitch… I could go on and on. My biggest influences as a writer would be James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Cormac McCarthy, David Simon, Stanley Kubrick and my late cousin Gustav Hasford. These days, I’m also heavily influenced and inspired by the amazing group of comic creators we have here in Kansas City – guys like Matt Fraction, Ande Parks, Tony Moore and B. Clay Moore.

So – someone influenced by “Blue Devil,” James Ellroy and 1970s  Steve Gerber on “Wolverine”? Sounds worth a shot.

– Matt Price