Casanova (comics)

Infobox comic book title
title =Casanova


imagesize = 200
caption ="Casanova" #1 (June 2006). Art by Gabriel Bá.
schedule =Varied
format =16pg comic
limited =
ongoing = Y
1shot =
genre = "see below"
publisher =Image Comics
date =June 2006 - now
issues =14+
main_char_team =
writers =Matt Fraction
artists =Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon
pencillers =
inkers =
letterers =
colorists =
editors =
creative_team_month =
creative_team_year =
creators =
TPB =Luxuria "HC (May 2007)"
ISBN =1582406893
TPB2 =Luxuria "SC (Jan. 2008)
ISBN2 =1582406972
subcat =
altcat =
sort = PAGENAME
addpubcat# =
nonUS =

"Casanova" is an American creator-owned comic book series by writer Matt Fraction and artists Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon. It is published by Image Comics and premiered in July 2006 in the Slimline format of 16 pages of story per issue, sold at the reduced price of $1.99.

The series centers upon renowned thief Casanova Quinn, who gets "blackmailed into being a pawn and double agent in a global game of super-espionage". It borrows heavily from Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius Fact|date=September 2007 stories with a cascade of alternate universes and polymorphic sexuality.

A collection of the first seven issues is titled "Casanova Volume 1: Luxuria". Fraction has stated that he hopes for seven collections, each subtitled with the Latin word for one of the seven deadly sins, in the following order: Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia and Superbia [ [http://www.imagecomics.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?p=396943#396943 Fraction's post on message board] January 23, 2007] .

Plot

Album 1: Luxuria #1-7

At the beginning of the first issue, Casanova "Cass" Quinn works as a freelance thief and espionage artist who has turned his back on the rest of the Quinn family. His father, Cornelius, runs the world-spanning spy organization E.M.P.I.R.E. of which Casanova's twin sister Zephyr is a top agent, while his mother Anna has been hidden away in a vegetative state for unknown reasons. Casanova is the black sheep in the family and only makes contact with his father when his sister is killed during a mission - they meet again and fight at her funeral.

The funeral is actually a turning point for Casanova's life as a mystery device is planted on him without his knowledge, a device which thrusts him bodily into the inner sanctum of Newman Xeno -- a bandaged super-genius hedonist running an evil organization called W.A.S.T.E. (a reference to Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" [Cite comic | Cartoonist=Fraction, Matt, Bá, Gabriel | Story =Pretty Little Policeman | Title = Casanova | Volume =1 | Issue =2 | Date = July 2006 | Publisher = Image Comics | Page =1 |Panel="Previously in Casanova"] ). This Xeno, however, reveals that Casanova's actually been transplanted into a parallel timeline - moving from Timeline 909 to Timeline 919 - where Casanova was the dead E.M.P.I.R.E. agent and the very much alive Zephyr is the bad girl thief working for W.A.S.T.E. The morally ambivalent Casanova is drawn into a deceitful game where he appears as his own dead counterpart to work both sides of the W.A.S.T.E./E.M.P.I.R.E. coin.

Casanova is forced to undertake various missions and counter-missions, such as removing a former E.M.P.I.R.E. Agent who is the ruler of a Sex Island, or killing David X, a Magician whose stunts could lead to his being seen as a messiah. At the end of the volume, Cass manages to break free of Newman Xeno's control and with his newly acquired team, decides to begin to genuinely work for E.M.P.I.R.E., operating out of a giant Japanese WWII era robot.

Album 2: Gula #8-14

Also subtitled as 'When Is Casanova Quinn?'. Casanova's team have a new mission, to stop a revolutionary new aircraft powered by the mysterious 'H-Element'. The book then skips forward 2 years, with a masked E.M.P.I.R.E. agent fighting the plane, now a reality. The plane is piloted by a blue-skinned multi-armed woman called Sasa Lisi, who asks the agent, Kaito (Casanova's 'Intern') 'When is Casanova Quinn?'

Sasa Lisi is from the future, and an agent of M.O.T.T. who claims not only to be a lover of Casanova's from the future, but also that finding him is essential to the survival of the 'Multiquintessence'.

Elsewhere, Zephyr has returned, and is working with Kubark Benday, son of the head of X.S.M. and 'potential future love interest'. She and Kubark are hired by her former lover, Newman Xeno, who offers here 10 billion dollars to return to him, she refuses, but agrees to do the contract job, hits on all the people who know about H-Element, including Cornelius Quinn.

peculation

On October 15, 2006, Fraction was interviewed on the comic podcast Around Comics. During the interview, the subject of the 2006 World Series of Baseball was brought up; Fraction stated that, "If, in fact, God is dead, and the Cardinals make it to the World Series, and God remains dead, and the Cardinals WIN the World Series, I am going to level St. Louis." Fraction goes on to say that St. Louis could become something like a "Kenny" in Casanova, referring to the famed cartoon character from the Comedy Central show South Park who is traditionally "killed off" every episode.

Considering that the St. Louis Cardinals did in fact win the World Series, it could be a possibility that a "destruction of St. Louis storyline/storylines" is on the horizon for Casanova.

Hiatus

Matt Fraction has stated, as recently as April 2008, that the third volume of Casanova is 'over a year away.'

References

External links

* [http://www.mattfraction.com Fraction's site]
* [http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=9663 "Casanova" or "How I Learned to Stay Cool and Love the Multiverse"] , Comic Book Resources, February 14, 2007 interview with Matt Fraction
* [http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/Casanova/01full/CNV01_full.html The Full First Issue available online] , Newsarama