IPOD
RADIO
Joe Casey
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Oct 21, 2005
Image Comics has become the go to publisher for many creators to do their passion projects and therefore has become a great place for readers to go to find great comic books. Godland created by writer Joe Casey and artist Tom Scioli is a great to satisfy that cosmic Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko vibe. It’s wild book that has more imagination packed on each page than many books have in their entire run. I could go on and on about how much fun Godland is but best to let Casey tell you.
Check out the official site for Joe Casey
Daniel Robert Epstein: How would you describe Godland?
Joe Casey: It is just a big, fun, cosmic superhero epic where anything goes and no one is going to be able to predict what’s going to happen. It’s a platform for me and Tom Scioli to go nuts. We own it so there’s no editor telling us what we can and can’t do. We’re guided by our own aesthetic and because he and I connect on this material it has been really good. The response has been way better than I ever expected. People really seem to like what we’re doing.
DRE:
Of course you’d love newer readers to get into the book but the retro styles may throw them off. Who has been reading the book?
JC:
The Jack Kirby look is just the artistic style that Tom draws in because he’s such a Kirby fanatic. I think people have responded to it because it seems fresh to them. I’m really pleased that people have gotten over the Kirby-ism of it all pretty quickly and realized that it wasn’t necessarily an homage but that we’re working in a style. That art style is a tool for telling a story, just like any other storytelling tool. The style of writing I’m using also mitigates any sort of retro-vibe that the art might invoke in people. I still write the way I write. I’m not trying to ape Stan Lee or even Kirby when he wrote his own stuff. I’m still going to be a little subversive in the writing, a little postmodern in places. Most of the time I write full scripts, but in this case we’re doing it through the old Marvel method where I write a page by page plot with almost no dialogue. Then I give it to Tom. Tom lays it out, draws the pages, sends them back to me and then I do the dialogue and script the whole comic.
What that’s done for me is that it had become very jazz-like in the way that I approach it. I’m really improvising on the page and when you do that it’s going to have an of the moment feel. Readers catch onto that and they’re able to understand it.
DRE:
How has this jazz-like process freed you up?
JC:
Oh it’s insane. Whatever I’m thinking or whatever mood I’m in when I’m scripting the pages comes out on the page. Even it’s just some weird non sequitur. Also I’ll write a plot in let’s say in January and then I might not get the art for six months. So things that I imagined when I was writing the plot I might have forgotten so I’m coming into it fresh.
DRE:
How did you decide to do the book?
JC:
When Eric Larsen got the publisher gig at Image, I called him up and congratulated him because he and I have been friends for quite a few years. Then I said “I’d really like to do something for Image now that you’re steering the ship.” I thought there was a lot less red tape at Image than there had been in the past. But I didn’t really have much of an idea of what I wanted to do or what kind of book I wanted to do. I didn’t even have an artist that I really wanted to work with at the time. God bless him, Eric was like “Well now that I’m in this position, I can do things differently than maybe other people in this position have done.” He was willing to put creators together and see if he could make some sort of love connection.
Eric suggested that I hook up with Tom Scioli. I knew Tom’s stuff because I was aware of this graphic novel series that he’d been doing called The Myth of 8-Opus. Then when I talked to Tom I was able to tap into my love of Jack Kirby’s stuff from the 70’s like The Eternals and the stuff he did at Pacific Comics called Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. They’re so individualistic. That’s the vibe that we wanted. Then I wanted to bring other influences to it like the drug influenced cosmic stuff that guys like Jim Starlin, Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart were doing with Captain Marvel, Warlock, Dr. Strange and Man-Thing.
DRE:
They were trying to do everything at the time. It was great.
JC:
Exactly. So from there, I told Tom to just go nuts. He came up with some wild sketches and we picked out villains, supporting characters and I built the story around what Tom had given me design wise. I love the character called Basil Cronus who appears on the last page of the first issue, the guy with the head floating in the fluid.
Now we’re just in this really great groove where I’m writing issue nine at the moment and Tom’s drawing issue seven. We’re way ahead of the schedule.
DRE:
So it’s an ongoing series?
JC:
As ongoing as you can get it in this market. It’s funny because it’s almost like the Francis Ford Coppola version of making comics where we’re almost willing this comic into existence. When you work at Image, you work for free because you work for no money up front now. The comic only exists because the creators are making it. That’s a neat way to make comics. It is definitely outside of the process that mainstream companies use. For them you pitch for a job, you get the job and you’re getting paid and you’re working with editors and you’re sort of towing the company line. This was really organic. We just decided to do this comic and now it’s being published.
DRE:
Have you met people that just don’t get the book?
JC:
Not yet. I mean there are people that are definitely turned off because they see the Kirby style artwork and they go, “Well I don’t like Kirby so I’m not going to like this” and that’s fine. My whole career is marked by doing books that are aimed for a specific audience. Some of my favorite comics over the years have been these cult favorites and if that’s my niche in the business then I’m happy to be there.
DRE:
Are you still writing for the other companies?
JC:
Sure, I’m writing a book at Wildstorm called The Intimates. Over at Marvel I’m writing a Fantastic Four miniseries and I just did an Avengers miniseries.
DRE:
Would you create original characters for Marvel?
JC:
I write for Marvel because I love those characters. So it doesn’t interest me much to go to Marvel and create some brand new thing. I figure if I’m going to go to Marvel I want to play with their toys and scratch that creative itch that goes back to when I was six years old and reading The Avengers, Iron Man or Captain America. Also I just don’t think it’s smart business to create new characters that you don’t own. Why would you do it if you’re not going to reap the benefits of it? I have done it before and I don’t regret it. When I go to Marvel and DC and work for them I have no problem just sticking to what they’ve got and enjoying that aspect of the job.
But in the Fantastic Four miniseries I did create a new adversary for the Fantastic Four. But when creating a new villain for a pre-existing superhero you tend to create based on what you know about the hero’s continuity. Even new villains, spring out of the pre-existing characters.
DRE:
Like Dr. Doom’s son.
JC:
Exactly, you’re kind of putting a new spin on something. I don’t know if I’ve actually called those kind of things brand new characters. But there is a line that I won’t cross in terms of how much of a wholly original idea I’ll give over to a company that I won’t have ownership in.
DRE:
Does Marvel suffer because of that reason?
JC:
I don’t think so. I think Marvel and DC are just fine with the characters that were created for them 60 and 40 years ago. If that’s all they ever do to contribute to the culture, boy that’s enough. They don’t have to prove themselves to me or anyone else. They’ve got Superman and Spider-Man so they’re doing pretty good.
DRE:
But it sounds like eventually they’re going to hit a tipping point.
JC:
That’s why Marvel puts out those Essential volumes. Marvel and DC are sort of competing with their past. But it’s all still Marvel and DC. I don’t know if they’re sweating too much about it.
DRE:
What Hollywood stuff are you working on?
JC:
I’m part of a company called Man of Action. We have a cartoon show called Ben 10 coming out on Cartoon Network next spring.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Image Comics has become the go to publisher for many creators to do their passion projects and therefore has become a great place for readers to go to find great comic books. Godland created by writer Joe Casey and artist Tom Scioli is a great to satisfy that cosmic Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko vibe. It’s wild book that has more imagination packed on each page than many books have in their entire run. I could go on and on about how much fun Godland is but best to let Casey tell you.
Check out the official site for Joe Casey
Daniel Robert Epstein: How would you describe Godland?
Joe Casey: It is just a big, fun, cosmic superhero epic where anything goes and no one is going to be able to predict what’s going to happen. It’s a platform for me and Tom Scioli to go nuts. We own it so there’s no editor telling us what we can and can’t do. We’re guided by our own aesthetic and because he and I connect on this material it has been really good. The response has been way better than I ever expected. People really seem to like what we’re doing.
DRE:
Of course you’d love newer readers to get into the book but the retro styles may throw them off. Who has been reading the book?
JC:
The Jack Kirby look is just the artistic style that Tom draws in because he’s such a Kirby fanatic. I think people have responded to it because it seems fresh to them. I’m really pleased that people have gotten over the Kirby-ism of it all pretty quickly and realized that it wasn’t necessarily an homage but that we’re working in a style. That art style is a tool for telling a story, just like any other storytelling tool. The style of writing I’m using also mitigates any sort of retro-vibe that the art might invoke in people. I still write the way I write. I’m not trying to ape Stan Lee or even Kirby when he wrote his own stuff. I’m still going to be a little subversive in the writing, a little postmodern in places. Most of the time I write full scripts, but in this case we’re doing it through the old Marvel method where I write a page by page plot with almost no dialogue. Then I give it to Tom. Tom lays it out, draws the pages, sends them back to me and then I do the dialogue and script the whole comic.
What that’s done for me is that it had become very jazz-like in the way that I approach it. I’m really improvising on the page and when you do that it’s going to have an of the moment feel. Readers catch onto that and they’re able to understand it.
What that’s done for me is that it had become very jazz-like in the way that I approach it. I’m really improvising on the page and when you do that it’s going to have an of the moment feel. Readers catch onto that and they’re able to understand it.
DRE:
How has this jazz-like process freed you up?
JC:
Oh it’s insane. Whatever I’m thinking or whatever mood I’m in when I’m scripting the pages comes out on the page. Even it’s just some weird non sequitur. Also I’ll write a plot in let’s say in January and then I might not get the art for six months. So things that I imagined when I was writing the plot I might have forgotten so I’m coming into it fresh.
DRE:
How did you decide to do the book?
JC:
When Eric Larsen got the publisher gig at Image, I called him up and congratulated him because he and I have been friends for quite a few years. Then I said “I’d really like to do something for Image now that you’re steering the ship.” I thought there was a lot less red tape at Image than there had been in the past. But I didn’t really have much of an idea of what I wanted to do or what kind of book I wanted to do. I didn’t even have an artist that I really wanted to work with at the time. God bless him, Eric was like “Well now that I’m in this position, I can do things differently than maybe other people in this position have done.” He was willing to put creators together and see if he could make some sort of love connection.
Eric suggested that I hook up with Tom Scioli. I knew Tom’s stuff because I was aware of this graphic novel series that he’d been doing called The Myth of 8-Opus. Then when I talked to Tom I was able to tap into my love of Jack Kirby’s stuff from the 70’s like The Eternals and the stuff he did at Pacific Comics called Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. They’re so individualistic. That’s the vibe that we wanted. Then I wanted to bring other influences to it like the drug influenced cosmic stuff that guys like Jim Starlin, Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart were doing with Captain Marvel, Warlock, Dr. Strange and Man-Thing.
Eric suggested that I hook up with Tom Scioli. I knew Tom’s stuff because I was aware of this graphic novel series that he’d been doing called The Myth of 8-Opus. Then when I talked to Tom I was able to tap into my love of Jack Kirby’s stuff from the 70’s like The Eternals and the stuff he did at Pacific Comics called Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. They’re so individualistic. That’s the vibe that we wanted. Then I wanted to bring other influences to it like the drug influenced cosmic stuff that guys like Jim Starlin, Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart were doing with Captain Marvel, Warlock, Dr. Strange and Man-Thing.
DRE:
They were trying to do everything at the time. It was great.
JC:
Exactly. So from there, I told Tom to just go nuts. He came up with some wild sketches and we picked out villains, supporting characters and I built the story around what Tom had given me design wise. I love the character called Basil Cronus who appears on the last page of the first issue, the guy with the head floating in the fluid.
Now we’re just in this really great groove where I’m writing issue nine at the moment and Tom’s drawing issue seven. We’re way ahead of the schedule.
Now we’re just in this really great groove where I’m writing issue nine at the moment and Tom’s drawing issue seven. We’re way ahead of the schedule.
DRE:
So it’s an ongoing series?
JC:
As ongoing as you can get it in this market. It’s funny because it’s almost like the Francis Ford Coppola version of making comics where we’re almost willing this comic into existence. When you work at Image, you work for free because you work for no money up front now. The comic only exists because the creators are making it. That’s a neat way to make comics. It is definitely outside of the process that mainstream companies use. For them you pitch for a job, you get the job and you’re getting paid and you’re working with editors and you’re sort of towing the company line. This was really organic. We just decided to do this comic and now it’s being published.
DRE:
Have you met people that just don’t get the book?
JC:
Not yet. I mean there are people that are definitely turned off because they see the Kirby style artwork and they go, “Well I don’t like Kirby so I’m not going to like this” and that’s fine. My whole career is marked by doing books that are aimed for a specific audience. Some of my favorite comics over the years have been these cult favorites and if that’s my niche in the business then I’m happy to be there.
DRE:
Are you still writing for the other companies?
JC:
Sure, I’m writing a book at Wildstorm called The Intimates. Over at Marvel I’m writing a Fantastic Four miniseries and I just did an Avengers miniseries.
DRE:
Would you create original characters for Marvel?
JC:
I write for Marvel because I love those characters. So it doesn’t interest me much to go to Marvel and create some brand new thing. I figure if I’m going to go to Marvel I want to play with their toys and scratch that creative itch that goes back to when I was six years old and reading The Avengers, Iron Man or Captain America. Also I just don’t think it’s smart business to create new characters that you don’t own. Why would you do it if you’re not going to reap the benefits of it? I have done it before and I don’t regret it. When I go to Marvel and DC and work for them I have no problem just sticking to what they’ve got and enjoying that aspect of the job.
But in the Fantastic Four miniseries I did create a new adversary for the Fantastic Four. But when creating a new villain for a pre-existing superhero you tend to create based on what you know about the hero’s continuity. Even new villains, spring out of the pre-existing characters.
But in the Fantastic Four miniseries I did create a new adversary for the Fantastic Four. But when creating a new villain for a pre-existing superhero you tend to create based on what you know about the hero’s continuity. Even new villains, spring out of the pre-existing characters.
DRE:
Like Dr. Doom’s son.
JC:
Exactly, you’re kind of putting a new spin on something. I don’t know if I’ve actually called those kind of things brand new characters. But there is a line that I won’t cross in terms of how much of a wholly original idea I’ll give over to a company that I won’t have ownership in.
DRE:
Does Marvel suffer because of that reason?
JC:
I don’t think so. I think Marvel and DC are just fine with the characters that were created for them 60 and 40 years ago. If that’s all they ever do to contribute to the culture, boy that’s enough. They don’t have to prove themselves to me or anyone else. They’ve got Superman and Spider-Man so they’re doing pretty good.
DRE:
But it sounds like eventually they’re going to hit a tipping point.
JC:
That’s why Marvel puts out those Essential volumes. Marvel and DC are sort of competing with their past. But it’s all still Marvel and DC. I don’t know if they’re sweating too much about it.
DRE:
What Hollywood stuff are you working on?
JC:
I’m part of a company called Man of Action. We have a cartoon show called Ben 10 coming out on Cartoon Network next spring.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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