The Best Books You're Not Reading: Ghost Rider #31

Ghost Rider #31
Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: Roland Boschi & Tan Eng Huat

Guys and girls (there are girls who listen to our podcast, they admitted it to Rob's very hairy face) ... it's time for you guys to start listening to some of the very sound advice that we dish out. When I tell you all that a book is fantastic you should give it some credence. I mean we've been at this whole podcast thing for right at a year now. I can't even begin to tell you how big a rush that is for me and while we've never had more than 40 people download a single episode I think that we do our very best to give a good overview of each and every book we talk about and that we only talk about books that we really and truly enjoy. We wouldn't talk about a book just because it wasn't selling well and we had a bunch of copies in the store, that's not our job. So when I come here and tell you guys that there are really great books that you aren't reading I'm doing it to try and give you all a more satisfying experience with your comics every week. I mean there are times when I have over 20 books in a week and I hear someone say, "Well, nothing for me this week." ... and that hurts my soul. I mean I understand that the number of people who are going to have 15+ books each and every week are going to be small and are going to be even fewer and further between during these times of economic strain, but every single week there is something on the shelf of your local comic store that is worth your $2.99 ... and too many of you are so stuck in this rut of buying your same old titles month in and month out that you've become blind to the rest of the variety on the shelves. I've talked here before that there are titles out there for every man, woman, and child out there who enjoy fiction ... regardless of what kind of fiction you enjoy. Seriously, just look at the books, ask a few questions and the weeks that you thought you could just write off and wander out of the store will be far less often and you'll always have something enjoyable to read.
Taking all of that into account I will now tell you that one of those books that you're missing out on is Ghost Rider. Jason Aaron is without question the most exciting new creator to grace the world of comics in the last 5 years. He takes more chances in a single issue than most writers take in an entire run on a title. And it's becoming more and more clear that he's being recognized by the higher ups at Marvel as he's being given more and more product to work on (when a writer is given the reigns on a new ongoing Wolverine title you know that their writing is loved by someone at Marvel). And it's (as I've said before) certainly a strange position for me to be in when I can honestly say that I am enjoying a Ghost Rider book. There is just something on each and every level of this book that excites the hell out of me from the art to the plot to the dialog to the production quality. I really think that if you aren't reading this book that you are missing out on something special from a book that has largely been known as The Punisher with powers for far too long.