
[It's been a big month for artist John Cassaday. The final issue of PLANETARY shipped after a years long delay, marking the end of a 10-year-long chapter of his career. Even more importantly, he's currently in Los Angeles prepping to direct an episode of Dollhouse, the Joss Whedon-created show about Echo, an unwilling spy who is forced to use a technology of shifting personalities.
While Cassaday is on the short list of premier comics artists for his work on PLANETARY, ASTONISHING X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, and hs recent covers for Dynamite, his directing roots go back as far as his career as a professional cartoonist, as told in this interview; it's something he has always had in the back of his mind. (At one point he was announced as the director on an adaptation of his own GN I AM LEGION, a project that is now on indefinite hold.) However, the Dollhouse gig is one that fulfills lots of dreams for Cassaday.
What does it take to direct dramatic TV? What's it like to work with Joss Whedon? Is Cassaday leaving comics? Read on for the answers!]
The Beat: Directing? Why directing? How long has this been going on? Was this your childhood goal?
John Cassaday: Directing has always been half the dream for me, the other half being comics. Friends I had growing up would tell you exactly that. I always knew what I wanted, which was to be a visual storyteller…to tell those stories the way that I saw them… I believe there’s a tangible cross-section of thought here. When I read a comic script, I often see the scenes behind a camera—the shots, the movements and sound, the actors… At times, I’ve read screenplays and see the comic page. These things blend in my mind, so I do my best to shape them into what is needed. I believe in cinematic storytelling, whether it’s on a comic page or on film.
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