Aztec Ace

I read a lot of comic books back in the '80s, but I didn't read everything. One of the titles I did not read was Aztec Ace, and I don't really know why. It was written by Doug Moench, a writer whose work always struck me as somehow more "sophisticated" than some of his peers'. About 20 years ago, I was looking through the comics bin at my local Half Price Books. Someone must have just sold his collection because, instead of the usual mish-mash of random '90s fare, it contained runs of several series, good ones, too. The only one I was really interested in, however, was Aztec Ace.

But someone else had already gone through the bin and snatched all the number ones. Either that or the seller held them back, but I suspect someone cherry-picked them. The series ran for only 15 issues, but I didn't want #2-15 if I didn't have #1, so I gave the others a pass. Then I scored a copy of #1 and went back to HPB, but guess what? Yep, they were all gone (which is actually less frustrating than someone buying all the number ones). But I've nevertheless regretted not buying the other 14 when I had the chance.

This week, however, Dark Horse released a hardcover collection of the entire series. So far I've read only the foreword (by Cat Yronwode) and the introduction (by Doug Moench), but I look forward to putting my other "reading projects" on temporary hold while I read my way through it (which may take a while because it looks pretty dense... in a good way). I'll report back here after I've finished but, in the meantime, what are your thoughts and memories about Aztec Ace, those of you who read it "back in the day"?

Well, that took a lot longer to read than I had anticipated. I thought it looked dense ("in a good way"), but each issue took me at least 30 minutes to read, some closer to an hour. What's more, I found it difficult to read more than one at a time; I had to take a break after each issue and let it sink in. Even Doug Moench described Aztec Ace as "a dense, self-indulgent non-commercial, intelligence-testing, and uninformatively titled endeavor." In retrospect, it's just as well I didn't try this title back in the '80s because I likely wouldn't have cared for it ("too much work"), and I certainly would have "lost the story" with a month between issues. As someone who often rails against "decompressed storytelling" I certainly don't have any complaints along those lines in this case. Moench took the opportunity afforded to him by Cat Yronwode and Dean Mullaney to toss basically everything he was interested in into a single title: music, Hollywood, history, you name it. I only hope that this new collection from Dark Horse spark new interest in the series because Moench has many Aztec Ace stories left to tell.

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Jeff of Earth-J September 12, 2022 at 12:28pm

Well, that took a lot longer to read than I had anticipated. I thought it looked dense ("in a good way"), but each issue took me at least 30 minutes to read, some closer to an hour. What's more, I found it difficult to read more than one at a time; I had to take a break after each issue and let it sink in. Even Doug Moench described Aztec Ace as "a dense, self-indulgent non-commercial, intelligence-testing, and uninformatively titled endeavor." In retrospect, it's just as well I didn't try this title back in the '80s because I likely wouldn't have cared for it ("too much work"), and I certainly would have "lost the story" with a month between issues. As someone who often rails against "decompressed storytelling" I certainly don't have any complaints along those lines in this case. Moench took the opportunity afforded to him by Cat Yronwode and Dean Mullaney to toss basically everything he was interested in into a single title: music, Hollywood, history, you name it. I only hope that this new collection from Dark Horse spark new interest in the series because Moench has many Aztec Ace stories left to tell.

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