It’s that school – the one you go to in the Wildstorm Universe if you’ve got the powers, and you want to be the hero. It’s The Seminary, and it’s the central location of the November-debuting The Intimates by Joe Casey, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Sandra Hope, and Jim Lee.
Starring young heroes going by code names of: Punchy, Destra, the Duke, Empty Vee and Sykes as heroes-in training, the series, co-created by Casey and Camuncoli will show just what it takes to be a hero in the WSU. In addition to the ongoing storyline, Lee will draw a “comic within a comic” in The Intimates as well as provide character designs and the covers for the series.
Jim Lee first told Newsarama readers about The Intimates back in January during Newsarama's Lee-a-Rama week, but now, with the release a couple of months away, we caught up with Casey and Lee for some more, as well as some sneak peeks at art by Lee and Camuncoli.
desks and classroomsNewsarama: First off, let’s go back to the kernel what would become The Intimates - young super-heroes, and superhero schools aren’t entirely unique, but where did this variation of those themes come from?
Joe Casey: I guess I'm the guilty one there. After the weirdness of Automatic Kafka and the hard-edged, semi-complex "adultness" of Wildcats Version 3.0, I kind of wanted to tackle something aimed at what's probably this medium's ideal readership... teenagers. When I was a young teenager, a book like New Teen Titans meant everything to me, because I was the perfect age to relate to those specific characters. This is our chance to try and do a book like that. Now, if we only knew there were teenagers out there to read it...!
dorm roomsJim Lee: I’ve been a big fan of Joe’s work since his tour of duty at Marvel. It seemed that he had all these great ideas and I had been meaning to hit him up to work on some project together. Only problem was that I was knee-deep in Batman: Hush deadlines, but we kept talking about it and as we shared stories about what books we liked as fans, we started talking about a teen group book and behold…The Intimates!
NRAMA: So what does The Intimates have to be to set it apart from the rest of the pack or teenage heroes and heroes in training?
JL: Joe did all the heavy lifting on that. The Intimates is probably the most mainstream of the projects he has created from scratch—we certainly talked about the book’s tone, the feel of it but I had no idea what to expect when I got his original treatment.
KefongWhat makes this teen book different is that it is one of the first that has the characters acting like teens rather than adults acting juvenile. Joe came up with the idea of keeping them in school and having the tension, the drama come from their interaction with one another…as it was for most of us when we were teenagers. The fact they have superpowers just supercharges the angst and sturm and drang of it all. And most of all, this book is funny, in a strange way, and I think anyone who likes Joe’s work will love the Intimates. And those who like teen superpower books will find the Intimates refreshingly vibrant and honest. The Intimates are some of the most unique and creative characters I have seen conjured up in some time.
NRAMA: In that regard, how easy was it to come up with the looks for a new collection of characters whole cloth like this?
JL: Well, Joe and I disagreed initially over the look for the book. Oddly, I wanted to go with a cartoonier, Gorillaz inspired look…cutesy characters mixed with really realistic backgrounds and Joe wanted to head in an ultra realistic direction which in retrospect looking at how the characters have come alive was probably the right direction. The interesting thing is that I think Cammo’s work bridges the two worlds and lets us have something very realistic yet playful and fun to look at too.
The kidsThere was a lot of push and pull in the early development of the characters and I think it helped battle-test the ideas and the concepts for the final version. Joe really knew these characters inside out and it was really cool being able to add to the personas he had already crafted. That’s the fun part of this business…getting to work with talent who push you in directions you may not necessarily have gone alone. Joe has always been one of the most imaginative writers out there and getting to tap into that well of creativity has been a real treat.
NRAMA: When did Cammo come in to all of this, then?
JL: I first met Cammo at a comic book convention in Naples in 93 and I thought his work was really strong…not just the figurework but the storytelling. In the past year, it has really come up a notch…it reminds me a lot of Frank Quitely’s work…even Paul Smith. I like how it looks cartoony but very real at the same time. He does things with body language and expressions which are very subtle and really makes his characters seem alive and real. And those were the qualities Joe and I were looking for for The Intimates. I sent Vertigo Pop Bangkok, the most recent work of Cammo at the time, to Joe and he loved it just as much and that got the ball rolling.
Miss MSince then, I moved to Italy for a year and Cammo and I started up Studio Gioco Duro and worked in the same office overlooking a bar and a lingerie shop so it’s been a great year…and very cool to see the adventures of The Intimates brought to life just 10 feet away.
NRAMA: Back over to you Joe - what was the concept between the five initial characters? Were you trying to hit five distinct personality types, five socioeconomic levels…what?
JC: Oh, nothing that scientific. We just wanted to come up with some cool, new characters that readers could hopefully get invested in. These days, new comic book series are more often than not all about the high concept. The movie pitch. ‘It's (fill-in-the-blank) meets (fill-in-the-blank).’ C'mon, folks... that's not why I started reading comic books. For me, as a kid, it was all about the characters. I had my favorites and I was loyal to them. Iron Man. Hawkeye. Nexus. The Avengers. The New Teen Titans. The Rocketeer. Being attached to a character is one of the great things about comic books and we wanted to try and bring that back, to some degree.
NRAMA: So Jim – taking Joe’s character descriptions and then turning them into visual ideas. How did that work?
Mr. DashettJL: Joe was incredibly helpful in this regard…he really made it easy to conjure up these guys…the descriptions were full of little nuanced details down to the type of jewelry, body art, etc. I tried to come up with costumes that looked very different from your usual spandex fare while still looking superheroic. The hardest part is trying to make them look contemporary…I fully realize my limitations as a now middle aged man in trying to capture the look of today’s youth. Wow, never thought those words would come out of my mouth [laughs].
Anyway, you can see what they wear, listen to their music, read the same magazines but in the end, you are still an outsider and I realize that. But that point of view, that perspective allows me to introduce a bit of irony into the mix and I think Cammo, being closer to that demographic, was vital in translating my designs into something that didn’t look too spandexy and making it look believable. He also designed the school and all the secondary characters and really fleshed out the world of The Intimates so much we brought him in after the fact as a co-creator.
NRAMA: And back to Joe – big picture, what’s the story about? Is it mainly a teen drama with superheroes, an overarching baddie, missions?
Mr. HydeJC: This is an all-ages book, so I'd say it's radically different in tone to the Mature Readers material. As for the story... we're basically following these teenagers through their school experience. They just happen to be superheroes with codenames and superpowers and costumes. It's not about "missions" or "saving the world" as much as it's about these kids just trying to survive adolescence. That's enough of a struggle, as far as I'm concerned. It was for me, anyway. I even think "teen drama" might sell it a bit short. I hope it's larger in scope than that.
NRAMA: Looking at the school – what are these kids learning, anyway?
JC: Pretty much what you'd expect. Secret I.D. 101, Morality Class, NuPhysics. Phys. Ed. Homeroom. Lunch. There are guest lectures, as well. In issue #5 they even get a bit of Sex Ed. And of course, along with the Seminary curriculum, these kids are interacting with each other... which is where the real drama always occurs.
NRAMA: Why’s the school called The Seminary in the first place?
JC: You mean, besides the fact that it sounds kinda cool?
NRAMA: Yeah, besides that.
The SeminaryJC: I actually took it from the definition of the word "seminal", which is "capable of originating or stimulating growth and development". Sounds like the primary goal of a school to me. The faculty consists mainly of either retired or failed superheroes.
NRAMA: As long as they’re not nuns… From the outside, and coming from Wildstorm with Jim attached probably has helped the view that this is the “next” Gen13 in that it has new heroes that are reflecting popular culture. How do you keep something like this feeling current without feeling dated and forced?
JC: I think, as far as the designs of the characters are concerned, Jim and I worked hard to come up with things that will hopefully be timeless while, at the same time, give the sense that these are 21st Century characters and not some complete throwback to a bygone "Age". The fact is, you can never really predict what's going to stand the test of time and what's going to be ultimately associated with a specific moment in time. The readers will be the judge.
Sgt. StompJL: I think because Gen13 was so successful when it hit and became so synonymous with the feel and vibe of WildStorm that it really limited us for some time in doing ‘teen’ books. Thankfully, Joe pitched us a concept which can in no way be mistaken for Gen13. I think they both serve as nice bookends to the same genre but the Intimates is all about world of teenagers seen filtered through the clichés and traditions of superhero teen books. Gen13 was about teenagers on the run, a sexier, funnier version of X-Men light. Gen13 was a Saturday morning cartoon show all grown up with a lighthearted sexy, sometimes edgy, ribald, often ridiculous tone.
UniformsThe Intimates is more multilayered and offbeat and in some ways, a more personal examination of the superhero teen experience we have all come accustomed to. In that sense, both Gen13 and The Intimates are similar…in their desire and focus in upending traditional superteen conventions.
NRAMA: Finally then – Joe – get the ball rolling. What kicks things off in the first arc?
JC: The way we've structured this series breaks away from the notion of "arcs". Instead, we're jamming as much stuff as we can into every issue. In a way, we want The Intimates to have the feel of a great sitcom, where every "episode" is fairly self-contained. If readers come back every month, I want them to come back for the characters. It may be a bit naive, but we actually want readers to care about these characters. What a concept, huh? We want them to pick favorites and stay loyal to them, no matter where those characters take them.
slyfox: I was curious how would I get a copy of the the spiderverse banner. I bought it a while ago but had an ex steal it when she moved out. IS there anyway for me to purchase it or does anyone know of anywhere or anyone that is selling it?
Mar 1, 2016 21:34:08 GMT 1