Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

Joe Casey's The Intimates

00:39 / 09.11.04

Just picked up #1 at the store today and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. Anyone else read it?

It's really condensed (substantial reading for your dollar) and full of wacky, fun ideas. Punchy's power is pretty unique and a great visual. I also really liked the "crawl" at the bottom of every page supplying you with random facts, teasers for upcoming storylines, and the tongue-in-cheek rebellion of the "Teen Empowerment Tips" ("Have sex early so you can get better at it sooner." "Challenge authority figures because they're not always right....your parents are flawed human beings." "When frustrated by life, feel free to act out your aggressions.")

However, I'm not sure I'm getting enough from the story. I know it's only a first issue, and on a team book (or at least a book with a lot of characters like this one) it takes a while for us to get to know everyone. Still, it seemed like I was getting more character out of the crawls than from the dialogue. And the title is "The Intimates"--but the crawls only give us a superficial intimacy with the characters, like a People Magazine. Joe Casey playing with irony or is it storytelling deficiency? I'd like to think the former.

Regardless, the format intrigues me, and I'm interested to see where they're going with it, moreso than I'm interested in the characters. I'll be picking up issue #2 and we'll see how that goes. Anyone else have any thoughts on this project?

02:38 / 09.11.04

I have to say that the most succinct way to put my thoughts is an echo of what you wrote, Octave. I'm more interested in where it's going than I am in any of its cast or particulars.

I enjoy the intimations of the Duke character, even if more time is spent stereotyping his father than is spent with Duke himself. Punchy will get very old, very quick. I like the bubblehead kid, and the fat invisible goth girl (though Brad Bird's The Incredibles caught this notion a bit sooner and a bit better).

I'm interested enough to want to pick up #2.

05:43 / 09.11.04

For all the ace design, the book left me a little cold too. Maybe it's Casey. I liked the recent majestic mini-series so much (Supreme fix several times removed) that I splurged for a trade containing six of his Wildstorm Madge issues (plus one by Alan Moore, which was nice). But I found it hard to concentrate on the stories. I kept having to reread pages and sequences. The story elements were all great fun, real old school superhero stuff (moving the solar system to hide it from aliens and other Silver Age nuttiness) but there was little in the way of cumulative impact, at least on me.

05:44 / 09.11.04

Forgot to mention that Casey did not write the new Madge mini, Lanning (or was it Abnett?) did. I believe he is a brit, yes? If so, how is his UK work?

19:39 / 09.11.04

Poor.

I like Casey's interviews and chats with Matt Fraction a deal more than his comics. This was okay; but really it made me think of nothing so much as NXM's Special Class starring in JLA #1,000,000.

With less happening.

20:10 / 09.11.04

Ha.

That's actually the perfect way to describe this book.

22:25 / 09.11.04

Earth's Mightiest is one of the good things he's written in god knows how long.

Check it out, it's a cure for the mess Bendis made with the original book.

Haus of Mystery

10:35 / 11.11.04

Casey's never really delivered the goods IMHO. Seems like a nice guy, with the right ideas, but sadly no product to back him up.

13:24 / 11.11.04

I agree, The Intimates just seems bleh to me.

I also agree that Casey has never really delivered the goods, apart from maybe 1 or 2 scattered pretty good issues of Superman he wrote (there was a one-issue story about Supes visiting a former Russian nuclear sub captain that was pretty decent). Remember when Joe Casey bragged about how he and Grant Morrison were going to reinvent the X-Men and blow peoples' minds? Well, um, Grant Morrison did, but Casey's issues sucked and he was rightly fired after about 5 issues...

Haus of Mystery

14:33 / 11.11.04

Sweet jumping fuck, did it suck... with some of the ugliest artwork ever. Remember that shitty villain who took down the X-Menge with a fucking FLAMETHROWER?

Yeesh.

17:24 / 11.11.04

Woooh, Mr. Clean (iirc.)

Terrible stuff.

I'm giving this 2 more issues, 'cos I do like Casey talking the talk. But if he can't walk the walk, then he'd do well to remember Inspectah Deck's rejoinder that 'phony niggas is outlined in chalk.'

rabideyemovement

01:20 / 12.11.04

I thought it was pretty bad, and if they want me to read that crap at the bottom of the page, they should make it easier on my eyes...

06:16 / 12.11.04

Yeah, Casey's interesting when he talks theory. His putting it into practise is less compelling. I"m digging out a few of his older works lately for a look. Issue 1 of Majestic was pretty good, and some parts of Automatic Kafka weren't terrible, but there's something vaguely unconvincing about his work - that I've seen. That said, I liked Intimates #1 - felt like there was a good amount of bang for your buck. Though some of the injokes were irritating. Though they would only be irritating to those who were in on it, which puts me in an odd "I wish you hadn't said that and I hadn't understood what you were getting at" frame of mind. Being able to recognise a panel that references a panel from the dark knight returns makes me feel all dirty-nerdy.

m.

15:26 / 12.11.04

>> I thought it was pretty bad, and if they want me to read that crap at the bottom of the page, they should make it easier on my eyes...

I second that emotion.

18:35 / 16.11.04

Yeah, I agree that Casey comes off better in theory (interviews, etc.) than in execution. I always want to read his stuff but am always disappointed when I do. I guess that makes him a good salesman. Is his ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN run any good? It sounded like he was willing to loosen up and do some Pre-Crisis-y stuff with a modern twist, but I've heard mixed reviews.

As much as I like Casey's persona, however, there is this picture, and it makes him look like a total tool:

I get what he's trying to say: "Look, comic creators can be like rockstars...we can be cool too!" but it comes off in such a pandering, desperate way.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:08 / 17.11.04

Oh my GOD.

When I get home, I'm going to root out every Joe Casey comic I own, and burn them in the street.

08:44 / 17.11.04

It is a truism that anyone or anything trying to appear cool generally isn't.

09:34 / 17.11.04

good lord, what on earth was he thinking? anyone want a complete run of xmen: children of the atom (a comic i liked until i saw that picture)?

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:42 / 17.11.04

I don't see what's extraordinary. Comic book writer at comic book convention dressing badly and being thronged by the entire contingent of women at comic book convention, who are wearing revealing costumes. This is surely every picture ever taken of comic book writer at comic book convention?

10:09 / 17.11.04

looks like a signing to me

Nicklas and context be damned

18:01 / 19.11.04

Not sure what I thought about this but I'll probably give it one more issue until I decide if I shouldn't bother. I liked how it looked for most parts. The art, colour, and layout was quite good and fun with all the infodumps that hels establish the characters.

But I really hated the white text on yellow background in the info-pods and the text when they spoke were too narrow. Superficial nitpicking yes, but quite important as it is rather talky and not much happened in the issue.

17:14 / 22.11.04

On Casey as a rockstar... actually, if I remember well, he's also a musician.
Now, Intimates was pretty dull.
I don't think I will buy the second issue...

XXII:X:II = XXX

04:42 / 23.11.04

I was less than enamored of the artwork, but I love the concept, and the teen rebellion "hints" went straight to the heart of what I've always wanted to see put in a comic marketed at actual teens (though I also would want a certain amount of balance to explain why things are as they are or at least are represented a certain way, rather than just "it's all bullshit, do whatever"). I think given a chance it could turn into something special, provided the art improves and the characters get some depth in a hurry.

/+,

23:26 / 08.03.05

anyone still picking this up? I haven't lost faith yet, starting to like the characters a bit, enjoying the self-contained nature of each issue, loving the teen stuff being given priority over the superhero stuff...

m.

07:03 / 09.03.05

I thought Casey's work on Wildcats Vol 2 was ace (the one with Sean Phillips). Also his work on CABLE with the amazing Ladronn on art. But his Superman sucked.

08:45 / 09.03.05

I kind of liked Wildcats - even version 3.0. I say kind of, there always seems to be some grander idea behind Casey's stuff, that he seems to be struggling to get across. The first three issues of ClaSSwar seemed to manage to get across what it took him a long time to say in both WildCATS runs.

But yeah, I kind of liked it...

Haven't bothered with this though.

10:20 / 09.03.05

i have mixed feelings about this. it´s kind of like a Baz Luhrman (sp?) movie for me: i see where they´re trying to go and what they´re trying to do, and i think it´s a brilliant idea and i applaud the fact that they really seem to just be going balls-out and doing it. however, i´m not sure i actually like the product itself.

i love the aggressively pop, blurby, Pop-Up Video approach, and i think we need more comics that do exactly what The Intimates is trying to do, but i´m not sure Casey et al are actually succeeding. points for innovation, though.

14:49 / 09.03.05

The Pop-Up video format just annoys me and makes me not want to read it even more than I normally feel about Casey's stuff.