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WAITING
FOR TOMMY: JOHN CASSADAY
By Richard Johnston
RICHARD: Astonishing
X-Men looks like it will be the flagship, best-selling Marvel
comic book. Similar sales are expected to Jim Lee's Batman...
and his upcoming Superman. You'll be at the very top of the
tree as far as anglophonic comics go. Where do you see your
career progressing after you've reached the top? Europe?
JOHN: My plan in comics is to alternate between working
with established characters and creating my own original body
of work. I've got projects of my own waiting for me to clear
time to shock them into life. Part of the plan is to make
more of a name for myself in European markets. PLANETARY,
DESPERADOES and even CAPTAIN AMERICA have been published there,
but this summer, Humanoids Publishing will release "I AM LEGION."
It's the first of three 54-page hardcover books I'm doing
with a fantastic French screenwriter named Fabien Nury. It's
a supernatural story of espionage and horror that takes place
all over Europe during WW2. It'll be subsequently released
here in the states through Humanoids/DC. After Astonishing
X-Men, Planetary and I Am Legion are done, I'm cleaning my
slate. I want to start over in a way. I'll be a drooling old
man by then, but it'll be nice, won't it? Cue laugh track.
RICHARD:
The European model is very attractive to a US/UK tourist like
myself. Is it too late for us to adopt a similar publishing
model - and make it as much a mainstream success? Has our
moment passed us by?
JOHN: I think it's still heading that way. But in the
meantime, things work well as is. The pamphlets come out on
their respective schedules, then it's collected six months
later. And personally, I like the pamphlets. Reminds me comics
are fun. There's a youthful sentimentality attached, I suppose.
RICHARD:
There's a lot of it about it seems. Mark Millar recently wrote
that as a writer, he's tries not to "f*ck outside the circle"
- the circle being a group of artists, yourself included,
who act as peers. If he keeps doing work with some of you,
then all of you will also want to "f*ck" him. Engaging imagery
aside, do you think that's true? Would you be more willing,
nay, keen to work with a writer who's associated with doing
work with Hitch, Charest, Ross, Quitely and Hughes?
JOHN: Well, I suppose that says something to the quality
of comic he's wanting to put out, but I wouldn't work with
him because he works with someone else. I know many talented
writers, Mark included, who've been involved with some lousy
looking books, but it doesn't mean anything... Mark and I
plan to work together because we simply like what the other
does. We can see our work fitting together nicely and from
the conversations we've had I believe we have frighteningly
similar interests and tastes. Notice, not once did I say,
"f*ck?"
F*ck.
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