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Author	Topic: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
Excellence Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 12/3/06 11:35pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Where's the drama, suspense, the edge of tension? England's queen, Erikson will kill even the most popular and untouchable characters, any time, no warning. They're worlds apart, true, but is that what Buffy book only are: generic, fast food, not designed for substance? -----signature----- The Brits gave the world Doctor Who We owe them
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/4/06 11:57am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion - Date Edited: 12/4/06 10:47pm (1 edits total) Edited By: darth-sinister
	These books are companion pieces to the show. They're not meant to carry on like the Star Wars books. They're there to entertain with stories that can stand on their own, in the greater context of the series. So, in a way, it is not "designed for substance". There is no edge of tension with the Buffy and Angel characters, because the stories are set during the series. And you cannot kill a main character, who is alive on the show. Not to mention that Joss Whedon has no involvement in the books, where such decisions could take place. The only edge of tension will come in Whedon's own comic stories such as "Fray" and the upcoming Buffy series. And that's because they're both set after the series, which frees up continuity. And because he approves over what happens. -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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Sniper_Wolf Registered: Nov '02	Date Posted: 12/4/06 9:23pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Excellence posted: Don't mean to throw an elf in the pond and all, but how does one read a Buffy book knowing she'll always make it alive? I, like darth-sinister, consider them to be supplimental material to the shows. The non-canon status is probably part of the reason- only a handful of comics are considered canon when the rest of the comics, all the books, and the games are not canon. The shows themselves have quite a few character deaths. Angel season five for example killed three characters that were or used to be main cast members. Only bad thing is Whedon is a major resurrectionists. It isn't limited to just Buffyverse has Whedon has resurrected characters in the Alien verse and on his run for Astonishing X-Men. -----signature----- Winner of a Super Golden Ewok™ award. I name you Sword of the Jedi. Always you shall be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends.
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/4/06 10:51pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Fox was the one who wanted Ripley back and it was Marvel that wanted Colossus back. Though, he jokenly said that he'd bring back Gert when he takes over "Runaways". -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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Excellence Registered: Jul '02	Date Posted: 12/4/06 10:52pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Yeah, Alien Resurrection kinda made Rippley's bath a mere soak in the water. Probbaly just followed the movie cue, that nothing is really dead. Hey, it's sci fi, right? -----signature----- The Brits gave the world Doctor Who We owe them
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/5/06 11:02am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Fox wanted Ripley and Whedon was faced with two choices. Doing a dream like in the show "Dallas", where the third film was just Ripley in her cryotube dreaming the whole thing. The other was cloning her, using the EEV scans and DNA from Fury 161. He felt that the dream was a copout and that a clone would present an interesting perspective. -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/8/06 12:22am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Preview pages of the new Buffy comic. From TV Guide. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Is Back: The Complete Joss Whedon Q&A by Ileane Rudolph Buffy: Season 8 Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan alert — the Scooby Gang lives! If you've been waiting since 2003 for the answer to little sister Dawn's series-ending question ("What are we gonna do now?"), it's finally on its way. Creator Joss Whedon is preparing Buffy: Season 8, but this time around the adventures are in comic-book form, arriving in March 2007 from Dark Horse Comics. We talked to Whedon about Buffy, today's TV and his many other projects. TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to do an entire eighth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a comic-book series? Joss Whedon: Well, I'm not that bright. I keep thinking that I have all this free time that I don't have. It started going in my brain — "Wouldn't it be fun if... " and, "You could... " while the other voice was saying, "It's death. I'm out of control. I'm already writing." So I basically said, "We could do something and for once we could make it canon. We could make it officially what happened after the end of the show." Let Buffy not only address certain themes that slipped between the cracks of the show, but also really be a comic book. Take the template of the show, but not so religiously that they're all standing in the Magic Box, talking, for 10 pages. TVGuide.com: Did you have a concept for the eighth season already mapped out in your head after the sort of sudden cancellation of the series? Or did it come about after the nixing of the much talked-about spin-off movies? Whedon: The show was not canceled suddenly — I knew that the show would not go past seven years, that I could not go past seven years. I had originally intended to go only five, but once it was clear that we were going to do more than five, both Sarah [Michelle Gellar] and I, and all the other actors, knew that seven was it. But the idea of doing movies about some of the ancillary characters got me really excited, because I love those actors and I love that world. That kind of fell through, but when I started working on the comic... I sketched out this sort of broad arc that would connect everything. Now it will probably only appear on the comic-book pages, but it will be really well drawn. George Jeanty (The American Way) is the artist. TVGuide.com: How many issues will there be? And how many are you writing? Whedon: The season should run between 20 and 30 issues, I'm guessing. It has, like the [TV] seasons did, an overriding story with an ending point. I'll be writing the beginning, the first four, the last four, and I'll definitely be doing some others. I have a bunch of other writers — comic-book heavies and former writers from the show — who are going to write the other issues. I'll be overseeing the whole thing, and they've all got my giant mission statement about what the giant arc is about. TVGuide.com: What is the giant arc about? Whedon: I'm not going to tell you that. But I can tell you that it's about the ramifications of everything that happened in Season 7. At the end of the show, Buffy made every girl who might be a potential vampire slayer into a fully realized slayer with all the remembered history and powers, so she's made a big change in the way the world works. The comic will be dealing with that when we pick up the story several months later. TVGuide.com: So there's an army of slayers... going up against whom? Who or what are the main bad guys? Whedon: There are, not surprisingly, monsters, because that's what they generally fight, but what we found out early on in the show is that the scariest thing in the world is other people. But at the same time, it is a comic book and it has to step up in terms of kind of being epic. TVGuide.com: What's the main thing you can do with a comic that you couldn't do on a network TV show? Whedon: Well, the thing we couldn't do on my network TV show — you can do a lot on a show these days, if you have money — is really go anywhere, and let the visuals complement the storytelling in a very specific way. [In comic books] you have the whole world, the whole universe, at your disposal. We really didn't have a lot of money to make Buffy. TVGuide.com: You couldn't tell. Whedon: Well, bless you. We worked really hard to make it look like we did. But there were a few times when she'd walk into a cave, and it'd have a perfectly flat concrete floor. I'd just go, "Oh, if only this were a comic book." [Laughs] You still want to have people identify with the characters, but with a comic, you have a mandate that you have to do it a little bit bigger. Buffy's just living on a bigger scale. She's not the everyman that she was, but she's still cute and quippy. TVGuide.com: Does she get comic-book superheroine breast implants? Whedon: She really doesn't. I've been fortunate that I've never worked with a T&A artist. I'm very specific about that. TVGuide.com: Isn't that the raison d'etre of lots of comics? Whedon: That's part of why I stopped reading comics for a while. All the people I work with draw actual women. TVGuide.com: Are most of the TV characters featured in the comic? Whedon: I bring them in slowly. The first one features Buffy and a couple of other characters. In the first four, we basically get the layout of where most of them are. I'm bringing them as a fugue, one by one, to play their part. I'm also leaving some people out deliberately, or mentioning them without focusing on them, so that the other writers who come in can have something new to play with. Instead of just picking up my story, they get to pick up whatever aspect of it interests them. TVGuide.com: Is Anya still dead? Whedon: Anya, still dead. That doesn't mean she won't show up, and it doesn't mean she will. Dead in the Buffyverse is a very singular concept. TVGuide.com: And Spike? Everyone wants Spike. Whedon: I do have plans for Spike, but the Angel franchise to which Spike defected is in fact owned by another comic-book company, so all that has to be worked out.... And is indeed being worked out. TVGuide.com: Does that mean there will or won't be Angel crossovers? Whedon: There will be a certain amount. The Angel characters were in the Buffyverse and could appear. I'm not going to feature them heavily because that other company is working on them, and I just don't want to be a schmo to them. TVGuide.com: Isn't that a little weird? Whedon: It's a little weird. It's not an ideal situation, but I would not heavily use those characters. There's a reason you have Angel do his own show, because you can only play out the variations of "What if Romeo and Juliet lived?" for so long. He's in her heart, but he will be used sparingly. TVGuide.com: Will you introduce new characters? Whedon: Oh, there'll be a bunch. There'll be some old faces, 'cause that's always fun, and we'll have a whole bunch of these slayers. And there will be new villains. New faces are easier for the artists to draw. TVGuide.com: How frequently will the issues arrive, because some comics aren't very punctual in their delivery, let's say. Whedon: I'm trying very hard to keep to a monthly schedule. I've got a lot of different writers who are going to be coming in and I don't know how many artists and writers we'll be using, and that will determine it. But the idea is to keep it monthly and not to do what's being done so often — and has been done by my very own self. TVGuide.com: With your much-delayed comic, Fray? Whedon: There was an issue of Fray that was about a year late. I'm never going to live that one down. TVGuide.com: This Buffy series could run for more than two years, couldn't it? Whedon: Yes, I figure it [can] be between 25 and 30 issues for this season, as it were. And that could run for a couple of years. TVGuide.com: What's happening with Astonishing X-Men? Whedon: I have one more run of Astonishing X-Men, about 10 more issues. I'm already writing it because Marvel keeps changing the schedule. I don't know when it's coming out, but I keep writing them and Johnny keeps drawing them, so it should be coming out regularly even if it's bimonthly, which I hope it's not. I hope we get to go a little faster than that. TVGuide.com: You've talked a little about the X-Men content to reporters. Why not Buffy? Whedon: Well, the thing is, X-Men is continuing right where everybody knows we are, whereas Buffy, we sort of closed it down, and are now picking it up several months later, so it's been a while since anyone saw her. We want to get that feeling of reintroducing ourselves. "Where is everybody? How do they feel? What are they doing? What the hell happened to Dawn?" TVGuide.com: Isn't it "Buffy and her gang saving the world"? Whedon: Generally speaking, we hope they save it instead of doing the other thing. Because otherwise, we're fired. TVGuide.com: What's happening with the eagerly anticipated Wonder Woman movie? Whedon: Rewriting, nothing else. Writing, writing, writing. TVGuide.com: No time period to start casting yet? Whedon: There is not. TVGuide.com: Any other TV plans? Or did the shabby treatment of Firefly do it for you? Whedon: Firefly wounded me really badly, but I love, love, love TV. It's just a question of freeing up time. I have a few commitments, Wonder Woman being the biggest. I can't let any of them slide, so I've got to get through the things I already agreed to do before I can start agreeing to do other things. But I miss TV. I'm not going to lie: I love it. TVGuide.com: Is the idea of sequels to Serenity completely dead? Whedon: Nobody's asked me for anything more. They all know that I'm there, and that it's not something I would ever turn my back on. But they do have to ask. I don't have all that money. TVGuide.com: Have you seen the Battlestar Galactica comic? Whedon: No, I don't think I can do it. I love Battlestar too hard. I couldn't look at any ancillary work. TVGuide.com: I love Buffy "hard," so are you saying we fans shouldn't read the comic? Whedon: No, because if they stopped doing Battlestar Galactica, and then two or three years later Ron Moore and David Eick said, "We ourselves are going to continue the story in comic-book form — as opposed to something ancillary to the show done by other people," then I would be all over it. People used to say, "Will you make a Buffy movie like The X-Files did?" I was like never, because while the show is going on, the show is my only priority. That's not to say the Battlestar comic isn't great, but I love that show the way other people love Buffy. I love it unreasonably. [Laughs] It feels wrong. TVGuide.com: Is Battlestar your favorite current TV show? Whedon: Yes, that is my favorite show. Maybe ever. TVGuide.com: That's saying something. Do David and Ron know that? Whedon: I think I drooled on Ron at a dinner party once. I don't think he was thrilled. TVGuide.com: What is your favorite comic right now? Whedon: There are a lot of comics I like a lot. I'm a huge fan of Planetary. I love the Luna Brothers' Girls. It's like watching a movie. I haven't read a comic like that since I can remember. It's really intense. I love Next Wave, The Ultimates. I'm pretty straightforward. Mostly it's guys in suits. TVGuide.com: Did you know that there's a new Sci Fi channel series based on the Painkiller Jane comic? Whedon: Oh, I'm not surprised she showed up. TVGuide.com: Any last word on the Buffy comic? Whedon: I should probably say that it's the awesomest thing ever. I'm having so much fun. -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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Healer_Leona Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 12/8/06 2:10am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion - Date Edited: 12/8/06 2:16am (1 edits total) Edited By: Healer_Leona
	Don't mean to throw an elf in the pond and all, but how does one read a Buffy book knowing she'll always make it alive? To me it's no different than re-reading a book or re-watching a movie. While I'm involved, it's the journey that I'm focused on, not the outcome. Plus, it's the characters I want to see mor of anyway. Main reason I love fanfic the way I do. Thanks for the intreview Sinister. Great to hear what's going on. -----signature----- To me, you're strange and you're beautiful, You'd be so perfect with me but you just can't see, You turn every head but you don't see me.
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Sniper_Wolf Registered: Nov '02	Date Posted: 12/11/06 11:54am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	I got the second and third Wicked Willow books from the library (for some reason they didn't have the first). I've finished the second one, and it isn't half bad. Just started the third, but I heard the ending is a major copout. -----signature----- Winner of a Super Golden Ewok™ award. I name you Sword of the Jedi. Always you shall be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends.
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/11/06 10:35pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	That's due to the editors wanting the ending to go a different way than what Yvonne Navarro wanted to go. -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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Mastadge Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '99	Date Posted: 12/20/06 12:06pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	It seems Brian K. Vaughan will be doing a 4-issue stint on Season 8 as well. -----signature----- "This will be our reply to violence: To make music more intensely, More beautifully, More devotedly than ever before." - Leonard Bernstein
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/21/06 10:47am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Not surprising. Since both work at Marvel and have interacted. -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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darth-sinister Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 12/22/06 11:57am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion - Date Edited: 12/25/06 11:36pm (2 edits total) Edited By: darth-sinister
	We're doing a couple here. "The Origin" by Christopher Golden, Dan Breneton & Joe Bennett. Based on the screenplay by Joss Whedon. As we all know, Joss Whedon had made Buffy for a feature film. And we all know that Whedon was not happy about how it turned out. He expressed dismay on more than one occassion. In 1999, Dark Horse agreed to let Golden and Breneton tell their version of the origin. Whedon did read it and while he took issue with a few things inside, he did enjoy and sees it as canonical. Here now is the story. In 1996, Buffy Summers finds herself confronted by Merrick Jamieson-Smythe of the Watchers Council. She learns of her destiny as the Slayer. Reluctantly, she accepts her destiny to fight the vampires and other forces of darkness. When the self proclaimed Vampire King Lothos shows up, Buffy finds herself face-to-fang face with a man who has killed more Slayers than Angelus and Spike. With Merrick dead, Buffy must pair up with a guy named Pike to save everyone at the school dance. Golden and company made many changes to fit with the series timeline. -Vampires are now like they are in the series. Though, in the early Dark Horse comics they tended to turn into fully demonic looking vampire bat creatures. Kinda like in "From Dusk Til Dawn" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula". -Buffy, Merrick and Buffy's parents all look like the actors who portrayed them in the series. Everyone else, however, do not look like the actors from the film. Hank and Joyce are mentioned by name. Buffy is a freshman rather than a senior. -Buffy's first meeting with Merrick is a recreation of the flashback from "Becoming: Part One". There is no cameo by Angel watching her. -Merrick's discussions about the role of the Slayer and her Watcher were altered to fit those found in the show. References to the Council, demons, witches and other creatures that the Slayer must eliminate. -Merrick's death is as it was originally written by Whedon. He commits suicide to prevent being sired by Lothos, rather than being stabbed with a stake. -During the final battle, Buffy burns the school gym down to get the rest of the vampires. -The original ending Whedon had wrote is used here. After the dance, we flash forward to some time after graduation for the senior class. We see the survivors relate the story to those who were not there that night. And comments are made about Buffy's parents offering to send her to Hawaii. Unlike the original screenplay, Buffy turns it down. It's also mentioned that they know of her parents divorce. We see why Buffy turned it down as she and Pike headed to Las Vegas to track a nest of vampires. The final part features Buffy telling the story to Willow and Xander. This was added to tie the whole thing together. Buffy is asked what happens and she promises to tell them later. That story was covered in the subsequent stories, shown below. Unfortunately, I have not read them so I cannot review them. But I did read the book below. "Sins Of The Father" by Christopher Golden. Set after "Gingerbread", the story starts with Buffy, Willow and Xander on patrol together. They are attacked by vampires and just as it looks like Buffy is about to lose, she is rescued by the last person she ever thought to see; Pike. We learn that Pike and Buffy went to Vegas to take out a nest of vampires and wound up running afoul of a demon. This battle resulted in Pike deciding that he had enough of this life and left Buffy to return to L.A.. Now, however, he's in Sunnydale looking for help. Weeks earlier, Pike had discovered that some of his friends were conjuring up a rock demon. Only the demon turned on them. Pike managed to kill it, but not before it's mate Grayhewn showed up. Now it wants revenge on Pike and he needs Buffy's help. And Buffy doesn't know how to handle this, especially when Angel gets involved. Buffy is caught between two men that she cares for and doesn't know what to do. To complicate matters, Giles appears to be acting very strange and with good reason. New teacher Miss Blaisdell is a demon who is responsible for Giles behavior. But things take an interesting turn when it comes out that she is working for someone else. Someone who is in charge of the vampires and has a particular interest in Giles. This story is a good one. Buffy's film origin connects, ablet loosely to the series. We get to see Buffy confront her relationship with Angel and Pike, as well as see how Angel sizes up his competition. The Giles subplot is interesting and funny as it winds up reflecting a story that would later be told on Angel. Golden turns in another tale worthy of being part of the Slayerverse. -----signature----- Stewie: "Oh, this is an even bigger jackpot than when the Emperor came up with the formula for great Star Wars dialouge." Palpatine: "Something, something, something. Dark side. Something, something, something complete."
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Mastadge Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '99	Date Posted: 12/25/06 6:55am Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	News from Scott Allie, vie newsarama: "Of course, one of our biggest events of the year is the new launch of Buffy in March, overseen by Joss Whedon, who's writing the first, middle, and last arc. The second series, after Joss's initial four, is going to feature Faith, and it'll be written by Brian K. Vaughan. We're real jazzed about that. Brian's the most exciting your writer on the scene for me -- Ex Machina's my favorite book right now, which led us to using Tony [Harris] on covers for Conan for a while. So having Brian follow Joss really cuts the pain of not having Joss write the whole thing himself. After that, Jeph Loeb will be on the book, and some writers from the show -- so we're getting the best possible people to run this series. Working with Joss opens doors." -----signature----- "This will be our reply to violence: To make music more intensely, More beautifully, More devotedly than ever before." - Leonard Bernstein
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Healer_Leona Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 12/25/06 4:20pm Subject: RE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion
	Comics looks awesome. I swear, someday... Oooh , haven't seen Sins Of the Father around. have to admit liking Golden's books best when it comes to Buffy. Thanks Sinister. Very cool news Mastadge. -----signature----- To me, you're strange and you're beautiful, You'd be so perfect with me but you just can't see, You turn every head but you don't see me.
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