THE FIRST TIME

Fasten your seatbelts...

What the hell am I doing here?

After all, they say the whole Substack thing is over, right? The so-called salad days have come and gone. Seems like zillions upon squillions of dollars were flying around this platform just a few short years ago. It was like a twisted televised revolution occurring right in front of our eyes. Specifically, comicbook creators far and wide were getting that increasingly rare opportunity to milk the system in ways our ilk hadn’t seen since the early 1990’s. And no doubt some good things were ultimately produced.

Then the money ran out (the free money, anyway), the bloom was off the rose, and the great experiment seemed to me to be over and done with. But in the wake of the mania subsiding, quite a few folks seemed to have hung around, still taking advantage of the platform -- and what I think it was always meant to be -- in order to maintain an ongoing conversation with whoever was out there, still willing to engage on a level that, at least, feels somewhat civilized. Anyway, I acknowledge that there are many footsteps leading me here -- some made by folks I know and respect -- that I’m now following in.

Now for an even bigger question… who the hell do I think I am?

Well… I’ve been a professional comicbook writer for the past twenty-seven years. That’s a long-ass time. And, in those twenty-seven years, I’ve tried to keep myself pretty busy. I’ve done my share of work. Just Google me. It’s all out there. Along the way, I’ve also written movies, animated series television, video games… and much more. But, as I’ve always said, comicbooks are my first and deepest love. That love is a big part of what I’m doing here.

At the moment, I’m writing BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN (co-created with artist, Paul Fry) for Image Comics and JONNY QUEST (with artist, Sebastian Piriz) for Dynamite Comics. Both are good fun, albeit for completely different reasons. Next time you happen to be in your local comic store, check ‘em out. I’m sure I’ll be talking more about them here in this space, as well.

My most recent gig -- this one for Marvel Comics -- is going to be announced very soon, since the first issue hits stores in February 2025. Believe me when I tell you… it’s been a helluva long road to get here. So, there’s certainly a lot to talk about as we get closer to release. And this so-called “newsletter” is one place where I’m gonna talk about it. As in, you’ll see the first little tease here on Thursday. Stay tuned!

But this is about much more than just blatant promotion (he said, after listing his current workload). We’re gonna do a lot of other stuff on here, too. I’m not sure if I consider this kind of platform “new media” or what. Does it matter? It’s really just another way to communicate, right? It’s a way to disseminate information. It’s a way to reminisce and re-evaluate. It’s a way to excavate and examine history. So, on that tip, we’re definitely gonna spend some of our time here digging into the past. Both the distant past… and the recent past. I’ll get into some behind-the-scenes stuff. I’ll talk about projects that happened… and projects that didn’t happen. I’ll do my damnedest to provide both context and commentary. We’ll do the occasional Q&A. There will be times when I don’t hold back. I’m going to share things here I’ve never really discussed before. Could be a lot of fun. Maybe.

For instance, a select few of you might recall that I have some history with the X-Men franchise (going back more than twenty years), and I’m gonna talk about that here, too. In fact, here’s a brief excerpt from an upcoming newsletter, from what will be a semi-regular feature here, called (cleverly enough) “RecolleXtions”, that allows us to time travel back to the year 2000 AD…

“… So back to being scouted as the writer on UNCANNY X-MEN. I assume they finally hired me precisely because I had positioned myself as something of a budding comicbook iconoclast. That was the brand I was building then. Go figure. So, they didn’t need to push me to be provocative. And unlike my first Marvel go-round, there would be no editorial rewriting this time (as there had been during Bob Harras’ tenure, sometimes to a ridiculous degree). X-editor Mark Powers in particular was well aware of my gripes against the previous regime, so he was very hands off, in terms of any deep creative interaction. In other words, they gave me plenty of rope to hang myself with.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not on social media. That’s because… I’m just not big on social media, as a concept. But it has less to do with its merits (or lack thereof) and more to do with… well… laziness on my part. It just seemed like so much effort, and to what end? I just never really saw the point. And yet… here we are. This might be as close as I ever get. When everyone and their mother has a YouTube channel, a TikTok, a podcast, an X account, an Instagram, etc… it’s a new world out there, when it comes to individual self-expression. I never felt like I needed those particular platforms to express myself. My work was my platform to express myself. So, maybe if I look at this whole thing as another aspect of “my work”, I’ll be able to reconcile it and get over my own laziness (in this area).

So we’ll see how long I can keep it up. I can tell you I’ve been planning for this for at least a year, so I’ve got a lot of material in the queue, ready to roll out every Monday and Thursday for the foreseeable future. Or until I get sick of it.  

Because I realize that part of this whole endeavor is me hurling myself -- or, at least, a recklessly curated version of myself -- out into the digital void, arms flailing and with no direction home. I still can’t tell you for sure why I’m doing this, only that I am doing this. It may be free for all (or is that just a free-for-all?) right now, but still… who knows if anybody’s gonna be out there receiving/reading this shit…?

Having said all that, if you’re alive… you might as well subscribe! You don’t want to miss the hi-jinks… the madness… the weirdness… the sadness…

… so for whoever decides to give this thing a try, I’ll see you again on Thursday.

Joe Casey

USA