Slade Slaymaker is a kid from the backwoods of Alabama who stumbles upon a vicious world beyond his imagining, a world of marauding ant armies, spell-casting spider witches, and beetle-riding barbarians. A civilization of tiny but deadly warriors hidden in the grass, the brush piles and the weeds of his own backyard. This is same world that saw his father eaten alive by insects and now plunges young Slade into the middle of a brutal Bug War to decide the fate of his entire family.

When I was a kid, our backyard was a wondrous place, where I spent hours imagining epic adventures, action figures scattered all through the grass. In a lot of ways, I still feel like that kid, running around the yard, making up stories. Only the stories have gotten a bit darker over the years. For Slade Slaymaker, the backyard of his home in Alabama turns out to be a place of terror and brutality, where sects of tiny sword-wielding Mytes and their armies of flesh-eating beetles and acid-spraying ants have declared war on his family.

Think Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets Game of Thrones.

BUG WARS reunites artist Mahmud Asrar and colorist Matthew Wilson, the celebrated art team of CONAN THE BARBARIAN and KING CONAN. And they’re joined by letterer and designer Becca Carey and editor Heather Antos.

The first issue features variant covers by Peach Momoko, Pepe Larraz, Matías Bergara, and Tony Daniel.

Mahmud says, “BUG WARS is the culmination of what I wanted to do in comics: A fantasy epic told with no holds barred. A tale where our imaginations run wild. A place where we reach the heights of escapism, all while keeping everything grounded with pure human emotion straight from the heart."

The double-sized BUG WARS issue #1 launches in February 2025 from Image Comics. And that’s just Book One of what Mahmud and I plan on being a long fantasy saga, exploring all the many characters, kingdoms and stories within this massive world we’ve been working to build for years now.

For more info, look to the Image Comics Pressent: Breaking Ground Panel this Saturday at New York Comic Con, where both Mahmud and I will be appearing to talk BUG WARS.

But you actually don’t have to wait that long to get your first look at the series, because this weekend at NYCC we’re also debuting a limited edition, full-sized, full-color ashcan edition of issue #1.

The ashcan features its own unique cover by Mahmud and Matt, the first 19 pages of story from issue #1, Mahmud’s designs for the various sects of Mytes, preview pages from issues #2, #3 and #4, and a special prose story I wrote as a prequel to the series. It’s the first prose I’ve written in probably 20 years, and it’s something that won’t be included in the actual first issue or even the first trade, so you can only get it in this ashcan.

Mahmud and I will both have copies on hand this weekend at New York Comic Con, for as long as supplies last. You can find Mahmud at table D-24 in Artist Alley, and I’m at H-42.

For my NYCC signing schedule, check out my previous newsletter.

But if you can’t make it to New York this weekend, you can also try to grab one of a very limited number of unsigned copies of the BUG WARS ashcan that are currently for sale on my online store.

I’m so excited to finally be able to talk about this new series. Look for more info soon.

Jason Aaron

New York City, October 17, 2024