A Product Of The 1960s — Chatting With ‘Space Ghost/Jonny Quest:Space Quest’ Writer Joe Casey

Coming on the heels of the standalone Jonny Quest: Time Flies series, writer Joe Casey is back with artist Sebastian Piriz on the Hanna-Barbera crossover Space Ghost/Jonny Quest: Space Quest. The limited series, which debuts in March, takes heroes Jonny, Race Bannon, Hadji, and Bandit to Area 51. In an interview with Comicon, Casey discusses why he wanted to write more with Team Quest and how these characters are part of his DNA.

Tom Smithyman: You had a lot of success writing the standalone Jonny Quest series. Why bring Space Ghost into this new one?

Joe Casey: As soon as I accepted the Jonny Quest gig, I knew this would be our second story. On a few basic levels, this team-up seems inevitable to me, especially in the way we get them together. Their character concepts have very interesting similarities that I can’t believe hasn’t been explored in the way this story does.

Smithyman: You have to be a huge Hanna-Barbera fan, right? What is your favorite character from that dynasty?

Casey: I don’t know if I would say “fan,” but they’re definitely a deep part of my DNA, considering how I watched so much of the studio’s output when I was a kid.

Smithyman: You have a crazy-long resume of characters you’ve created and written for. Why did you want to play in this specific sandbox?

Casey: Well, I was asked to write Jonny Quest, and I took it on because it’s not dissimilar to taking on any well-known characters, like Superman or Spider-Man. It takes the same kind of creative muscles to focus in on what’s essential about these characters, in this case the entire Jonny Quest concept.

Smithyman: You were a co-creator of Ben 10. Do you think any of your work there was influenced by these characters? And has Ben 10 informed your writing for this series?

Casey: That’s an interesting question. I haven’t thought too much about it, but if you take a good look, it becomes obvious that there’s at least some of Jonny’s DNA baked into the original Ben 10 concept. But, honestly, I think it’s a one-way influence.

Smithyman: How do you keep these characters fresh? Or is the intent to keep them of their time?

Casey: Well, those are two different questions, not necessarily related. These characters are certainly iconic but keeping them fresh is fundamentally what the gig is all about. That’s pretty much the first priority. Jonny Quest is more of its time than Space Ghost, but that has a lot to do with the milieu.

Jonny Quest and his family are definitely a product of the 1960s, but that has more to do with design aesthetics than anything else. Space Ghost, on the other hand, is a more transcendent figure (in the context of both his concept and in the larger, cultural zeitgeist), which makes him more automatically timeless to me.

Smithyman: I’m a big Sebastian Piriz fan. What’s it like working with him on this series?

Casey: When we originally found Sebastian for Jonny Quest, I knew we’d overcome the greatest challenge of doing the book. As readers have already seen, Sebastian’s style is perfect for this material. And as great as he is on the Jonny Quest characters, his depiction of Space Ghost is one of the best I’ve ever seen, outside of Alex Toth and Steve Rude.

Smithyman: The Hanna-Barbera well is a deep one. What’s your next team-up dream? Captain Caveman vs. Captain Planet? Muttley wreaking havoc in Dexter’s Laboratory? Grape Ape and the Flintstones? Fill us in!

Casey: All good ideas. And all worth considering. You may have a future as a comic book editor…

Smithyman: I’ll have my people call your people! Best of luck on the new series.