@’s by OFFICER DOWNE’s Joe Casey!

Hi folks, Matt Adler here with an important question for you. Do you miss the good old days when police could beat suspects to a pulp with impunity? Are you tired of waiting months for crooks and scumbags to get their justice in a courtroom? Is Miranda just a character in that crappy new chick flick? Well, there’s good news. On July 14th, writer Joe Casey, artist Chris Burnham, and Image Comics are bringing you OFFICER DOWNE, the next generation of law enforcement; a cop who plays by the rules… the ones he makes. I spoke with Casey to get the scoop on what exactly is going Downe with this new book.
MATT ADLER (MA): Joe, what gave you the idea for OFFICER DOWNE?

JOE CASEY (JC): Who can really say where ideas come from? They sort of exist out there in the ether, don't they? Although, in this case, there is an actual "secret origin" for Officer Downe. I was on a ride-along with an L.A. cop, a friend of mine named Dirk Thompkins. I was doing research on another project I'm working on about NoHo prostitutes and late one night, I watched Dirk give this neighborhood burglar a beat-down that was so viscerally titillating to me, so bloody and beautiful, that the notion of an immortal super cop that takes no prisoners seemed to spring almost fully formed from my brain. It was a situation where, literally, Dirk is pounding this poor soul with his lead-lined nightstick and I'm furiously scribbling notes in his ticket book in the front seat of the squad car. Good times, I'm tellin' ya.

MA: Alright. We’ll just keep that little bit between us. But who is Officer Downe as a character? What drives him?

JC: What drives Officer Downe is what drives *any* dedicated cop... serving legal street justice with no compromise. Not even being killed in action keeps Officer Downe from his beat. He's basically a secret weapon/ultimate solution periodically unleashed by the LAPD.

MA: What's the environment he operates in? Is it anything close to the real world?

JC: I guess that depends entirely on which "real world" you happen to live in. Here in LA, I would say a character like Officer Downe doesn't take an enormous suspension of disbelief. I mean, we've all seen a mustache like that, haven't we?

MA: What kinds of threats does he face?

JC: Well, we could go down the list... there's Headcase Harry, the Fortune 500, Zen Master Flash and the student body of his specialized school for aggro-assassination, not to mention the entire population of the fabled Rats' Nest. Explaining exactly who and what these threats are might spoil the fun of reading the book. And, trust me, there's a lot of fun to be had.

MA: Crazy question, but something makes me wonder… are you going for somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek tone here?

JC: I'm not sure how tongue-in-cheek it actually is. But there is a vibe to this book that represents something that DC or Marvel wouldn't dare do... an untamed quality that you can only get from a creator-owned comic book. Here's the thing: we're out to corrupt young minds with this one. When a kid gets a gander at OFFICER DOWNE, he won't be able to go back to GREEN ARROW or IRON MAN or whatever other censored-for-good-taste superhero comic book he happened to con his parents into buying. Nor should he. These kinds of comics -- pure brain-blasts straight out of the minds of their creators -- really are the future of everything.

MA: How did artist Chris Burnham become involved with the project?

JC: We first collaborated on NIXON'S PALS and that experience was enough of a motherfucker that I figured he'd be good for this one, too. Luckily, he wholeheartedly agreed. Little did I know how much of his A-game he'd be bringing to this book. Have you seen some of these pages? They'll burn the eyes out of your sockets. They'll peel the paint off your living room walls.

MA: I understand you're collaborating "Marvel-style" with him; why choose that method?

JC: With someone like Burnham, who's written his own strips in the past, it's much more interesting to work this way. I work the same way with Tom Scioli on GØDLAND. It's a uni-mind situation, where a writer and artist are trying to get in each other's heads, while at the same time, challenging each other in some fundamental way. It is, as Keith Richards so eloquently puts it, the "ancient form of weaving". You can't tell where the writing begins and the art ends. When things are really cooking, it's a very pure way of making comics, and the end product can be that much more satisfying.
But for OFFICER DOWNE, we took it one step further. First, we hunkered down in a Chicago basement in the middle of winter and just broke the back of the story, we hashed out character designs, all the preliminary stuff. Then we hopped in the MOA jet and hit the beaches of Baja Cali for a week and that's where the real work happened. We were sweating it out in the dirty back room of a local burrito stand -- a space we rented for, like, 5 cents per day -- and did a 24-hour comic version of the thing. All scribbles and thumbnails and scrawled dialogue on the walls. Frankly, I don't remember half of what went on down there, but we came back with the bones of the book. Back home at our respective studios, our craft and experience took over and we brought this sucker home. As a method of creating comic books, I highly recommend it. Except for the Chicago-in-winter part...

MA: Do you have plans for more OFFICER DOWNE stories after this initial one-shot? And if so, have you thought of any awesome story title puns? (maybe "Downe With O.P.P."?)

JC: There's a time for puns... but this ain't one of them. The story title for this one shot is "TOUGH SHIT", so maybe that gives you some idea what kind of comic book we're dealing with here. And, yeah, the door is always open to do more with the character. After all, we own it. And that makes all the difference when it comes to these kinds of creative decisions. We don't need anyone's permission to continue... we don't have to wait to tie into some weird, company-wide event to indulge in our ideas... it's the beauty of creator-ownership. So, when the book comes out, get your funky ass Downe to your local comic shop and buy it already!

MA: The second GØDLAND CELESTIAL EDITION hardcover is due out the same day as OFFICER DOWNE, July 14th. What kinds of extras are in it?

JC: Since the first Celestial Edition was nominated for an Eisner, we took that as an indication that the bar had been set pretty high. But, I think with this second one, we've cleared that fucker with room to spare. First of all, like its predecessor, this book is beautiful. Drew Gill (Image production guru) has been working with us -- and working his ass off -- to not only make it look good, but to evolve things way past the first book, design-wise. Not to mention, this thing is packed to the gills with stuff beyond the actual stories that appeared in issues 13-24. There's critical essays, there's a massive creator commentary with Scioli and myself brutally reassessing what we did in these comics, there's interview material, sketchbook material... hell, there's even the GØDLAND X-Mas card that Scioli did for Image Comics' official holiday card from a few years ago. We didn't miss a trick with this one. People seemed to really go nuts for the first hardcover and, since it came out, I've been continually hounded for the next one. So, here it is. It's a big, hard book for those readers who like to explore the big, hard questions. We know they're out there.

MA: What else are you working on these days?

JC: Well, the day job of shepherding the GENERATOR REX animated series and godfathering the next worldwide wave of BEN 10 merch (both of which sprung from the Man Of Action idea collective) affords us the unique opportunity to roll out a ton of creator-owned material over the next year or two, so that's mainly what I've been working on lately. Next on deck is a balls-out, full-speed series I'm doing with artist Mike Huddleston called BUTCHER BAKER, THE RIGHTEOUS MAKER. It's an eighteen-wheeled bastard of an epic with the most potent sex drive ever seen in a superhero comic. Seriously, the pure sexual energy of this series seems to leap off the page and land right in your hair. Another Image Comics extravaganza and hopefully, it'll see the light of day before the year's up. Beyond that, more creator-owned stuff from both myself and Man of Action in general. We cannot be stopped.

MA: Thanks for answering these questions! Look for Joe Casey’s OFFICER DOWNE One Shot in stores July 14th from Image Comics!

In most places, Matt Adler goes by the name his mother gave him, but occasionally uses the handle "CylverSaber", based on a character he created for the old DARK FORCES II: JEDI KNIGHT game (one hint of his overweening nerddom). He currently does IT and networking support for the government of Nassau County, NY, but his dream is to write for a living, and is in the process of figuring out how to get publishers to give his stuff a look. In the meantime, he passes the time by writing for AICN, CBR, and a few other places. He has also written for MARVEL SPOTLIGHT magazine.

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AICN COMICS Q&@: Matt Adler talks with Joe Casey about OFFICER DOWNE!!!

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Q’s by Matt Adler!