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JOE CASEY: COMICS, DRUGS & CORN FLAKES Introduction  Let's talk about your music for a minute, with so much to do, how does that factor in and do you see it more as a side project or something you'd like to pursue to the point of touring and a contract? Those things would be cool but it's not the reason for doing it. For me, it's always been about writing and playing music, and just enjoying those experiences for what they are. I personally think fame kills, so if that's a given, then obviously I'm in it for something more. It's not a "side project". I don't marginalize it at all, because it's just part of who I am. I've been doing it most of my life. To write good songs, to be able to play them and perform in front of an audience... these are hard-won skills for me and with Best Of Seven, I feel like I'm reaping the rewards of years of hard work on my own. We just released an EP that you can go to any online retail store and order. We just taped a Music On Demand live music performance show that'll air in November. These are all just experiences to me. And, on a good day, these experiences can be transcendent in some way. Better than sitting around at home, watching your ass spread... When it comes to musical influences, I sensed a bit of The Ramones in your former band, who else made an impact? I think my old band, the Sellouts, had more of a basic punk rock influence in some of the music we did. But that was probably because I was writing the majority of the songs and that's just a component of how I write. In this new band, Best Of Seven, it's more radio-friendly power pop in the Cheap Trick-mode. To be honest, everything I've ever listened to has had an impact.  Since you're a musician, do you often envision the works you write as having a soundtrack? No, I actually spend more time trying to imagine real people saying the dialogue. It's a writer's trick to make dialogue sound as interesting as possible. We're not writing realistic dialogue. We're writing dialogue that communicates in an interesting and energetic manner. People talking... that's the soundtrack. You've also returned to column writing with Matt Fraction for Basement Tapes on CBR, which seemed to stem out of your interview with Tom Spurgeon for The Comics Journal. What do you view as the purpose behind Basement Tapes, what drove you to get involved as a columnist? Christ, I have no idea. What would possess anyone to think that their opinions are worth sharing with the world? Seems pretty pretentious to me. But Fraction's a really smart guy, the kind of writer we need in this business, and when he and I start talking about the industry, it's some of the more interesting conversations I've had in years. And, I think with something like the comics blogosphere evolving every week on the non-pro level, I guess we figured we could at least add to the discourse from our side of the fence. I've always loved to read about comics as much as I've loved reading them. Things like AMAZING HEROES, COMICS INTERVIEW and THE COMICS JOURNAL were required reading for me as a kid. Y'know, I'm the kind of guy who can be as engrossed by a good documentary as I can by a fiction film. Those of us who do it may be the only ones who care but I'm going to ask anyway, how do you feel about the current state of comics journalism? I guess I don't think about it too much since the only ones I pay attention to are the ones I think are doing a good job and I generally don't expect anything less. I actually love reading well-written criticism and there's usually enough of it out there to keep me satisfied. I rarely find myself wanting in that regard. The thing about the blogs is that now legitimate journalists are seeing their value as a medium of expression and will be stepping in to do their own blogs. That should be interesting to see... Because the series was cut short, the people want to know, what plans did you have for where Wildcats was going to lead? Have their been talks about returning to the characters in a limited capacity? There's been minor squeaks here and there about it, but I've pretty much put that whole thing to rest in my own mind. I was in such a zone writing that book that I got knocked out of, it might be difficult to come back to it with the same passion. Plus, it wouldn't be worth it to do in any capacity without Dustin Nguyen drawing it. We had our final sixteen issues all plotted out, where all the characters were going to go, who lived and who died. It would've been great, but I suppose you can just chalk this up to another uncompleted work... just like BIG NUMBERS, heh. Okay, maybe not like BIG NUMBERS. Okay, maybe not even close to it... Especially recently, are comics catering more towards readers... or consumers? The Direct Market is a system that is designed to sell to the retailers first. That's where all the variants and order incentive programs come into play. It's a real hat trick sometimes... you have to successfully manoeuvre those waters to get to what I see as the real audience: the readers. That's what's most encouraging about the bookstore chains carrying graphic novels. I think it's a system that's less dependent on personal bias and more on practical business application. For instance, because I'm doing this big event at the Isotope, another Bay Area store has publicly declared THE INTIMATES to be a "flop" even before the first issue hits. It has nothing to do with the work itself, and everything to do with my endorsement of the competition. Now, a retailer can order however he likes, thanks to all of us living in a free society. I certainly wouldn't begrudge anyone's opinion of any work I've done. However, this prick showed his hand by talking shit in a public arena. The good retailers don't do that. The good retailers - and there are a ton of 'em out there - are a healthy mix of passionate fan and dedicated, professional businessman. As someone who looks more to the art of comics then the business of comics, regarding it as a business at all sometimes makes me cringe. When it comes to variants I can see why companies like Marvel are doing those again and what it quite simply comes down to is that people are buying them. So while I may not like the return to variants I understand that that the money made goes to things like keeping afloat other titles which may not be making as much in sales but also, putting food into the mouths of the numerous people involved in the business of whoring art. I'm not going to expend energy on keeping whores well-fed. They can fend for themselves and besides, they're not worried about whether or not I starve. Plus, unfortunately, publishers don't look at blockbuster series in the same way movie studios do. No one at DC thinks of IDENTITY CRISIS or Jim's SUPERMAN as a "tentpole" in order to keep things like the FOCUS line afloat. They just don't think that far and wide. I wish they did... it would prove that evolution is possible, no matter what the Religious Right thinks. We've clumsily tried to adopt Hollywood-like behaviour in so many other ways, why not a smart way...? While you're primarily concerned with your own creations now, are their any golden child comics out there you'd like to take a crack at, any other childhood or even current franchise loves you'd care to turn your laptop to? Sure, but I don't like to tip my hand. I'd rather put that effort into actually getting to write those characters. I do love the superheroes I grew up on and if I'm lucky, I'll always have an opportunity to write them. Believe me, there are worse ways to make a living...! We're nearing the end of this interview and you know what we haven't discussed? How you broke into the comics scene, care to take a jog down memory lane and share that story with your oh so luscious fans? Hell, I have no history at this point. When you've been so entrenched in this industry, consistently and so deeply for almost ten years, you tend to forget how you got here. It's nice, because you start living in the moment, which is how life should be. In other words, my personal "memory lane" is now many miles long and I'm much too busy writing to consider that kind of a run... With that, we come to a close with one last question, Joe... who ya voting for? My mother-in-law would definitely want me voting for Kerry and I wouldn't want to disappoint her. With that we conclude our big electric boogaloo of a Joe Casey Interview, thanks to Joe for taking the time to answer our questions and thanks to all of you for reading this far. Be sure to pre-order the titles we've mentioned here to ensure your retailer gets them in stock and at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, Cheers.  Introduction
 Jonathan Ellis is Co-Editor in Chief of PopImage  PopImage Forum - Discuss this message at the PopImage forum. E-Mail Us - Send us an e-mail commenting on this article. Man Of Action - Creative Collective of Joe Casey, Joe Kelley, Duncan Rouleau & Steve Seagle Marvel.com - Publishers of Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes Wildstorm.com - Publishers of The Intimates Aftermath.com - Publishers of Infantry AiT/PlanetLar.com - Publishers of forthcoming Joe Casey OGN's Comic Book Resources - Home to The Basements Tapes Industrial Archive - Read past Industrial articles |
