[comic fan]

CBR Interview withScott Allie, Christos Gage and Chris Samnee on Angel & Faith # 10.Plus new art.

Chris Samnee Rips Into "Angel & Faith" - Comic Book Resources

Chris Samnee Rips Into "Angel & Faith"

The creative team from crime OGN "Area 10" reteams on "Angel & Faith" as Christos Gage and Chris Samnee prepare a one-off story, equal parts funny and frightening, featuring ideas from Joss Whedon's "Ripper" TV show.

Kiel Phegley, News Editor

Artist Chris Samnee didn't realize it at the time, but he had a major impact on the creation of Dark Horse's ongoing "Angel & Faith" comic -- part of the publisher's expanded "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9" world.

Samnee had worked with writer Christos Gage on 2010's "Area 10" graphic novel from Vertigo, and, as Editor Scott Allie explained, "In a way, it's Samnee that led me to Gage. I've been a fan of Samnee's for a long time, and that got me reading 'Area 10.'"

The editor was so impressed by the OGN that he hired Gage to write "Angel & Faith," and the trio come full circle with May's issue #10 where artist rejoins writer for a special one-off story that plays with some up until now unknown parts of the "Buffy" universe -- including characters and ideas from the never produced "Ripper" spinoff show.

"I was already on Samnee to get him to do that 'Serenity' graphic novel last year, so the idea of pulling him on here was a real natural one. I'm a big believer in the idea that certain teams just work. The sum is greater than the parts," Allie said. "I think the two Chrises did incredible work together on that one graphic novel, so putting them back together here is personally exciting to me. When I like a book as much as I liked 'Area 10,' I do everything I can to work with the creators, and to work with both together is especially exciting."

Getting the band back together did, however, prove something of a challenge. Gage explained that he'd been hoping for the team-up from day one of the series. "From the first day, when I was talking to Scott about the book and how Rebekah [Isaacs] is doing both pencils and inks, we had the idea that every fifth issue would be a one-and-done story by a guest artist. And I think one of first names I brought up to work with was Chris. I had a fabulous time on 'Area 10,' and the chance to get even more out there with him and the supernatural stuff -- the demons and the monsters -- got me really excited. What I've seen of his work on this is just beautiful. I'm psyched to do this. Rebekah is a dream collaborator, but I get to have my cake and eat it, too, because every fifth issue, I get to work with another amazing artist."

As Samnee recalled, "I've been really busy. Marvel's been keeping me busy, and I've got ad work on the side -- it's always something. So I never really got a chance to do anything with Scott after 'Shepherd's Tale' except a short little thing for 'USA Today.' He asked me if I could do an issue of 'Angel & Faith' and get back together with Gage, and I thought, 'There's no way!' But at the same time, I couldn't say no. So he gave me a deadline that was really far out, because Chris and Rebekah were so far ahead, I had plenty of time to get this done. To get the chance to work with guys I love and characters I'm crazy about, I couldn't pass it up."

Allie noted, "The script for #10 is amazing. It's a great, dramatic beast, but it's also got parts that are laugh out loud. I got a hold of Samnee and said, 'You've got to do this.' We gave him the script, and that's when he committed. I imagined him doing it as I was reading. Of all the stories in this arc, this one is right up his alley."

The artist said that working on "Angel & Faith" specifically is an assignment tailor made for him since, "I actually kind of prefer 'Angel' to 'Buffy.' My wife got me watching 'Buffy' when we first started dating, and 'Angel' was on at the time. I watched the first episode, and I was like 'This is Batman! It's way better!' So I got into that show a whole lot faster."

Of the issue the two worked on together, Gage told CBR, "We've got a couple of new characters that are actually new characters given to us by Joss from the 'Ripper' TV show that he was trying to set up on the BBC for a time. That didn't work out for a variety of reasons, so Joss said, 'Let's take some elements of that, and you can feel free to us them with Angel and Faith.' These characters have been a tremendous amount of fun to write. They have a link to Giles."

"They're catty British gals from olden times," Samnee said of the new cast members. "Rebekah had drawn them in a portrait on one of the walls in the first few issues. It's from Giles' library, and the image is really small, but it gave me a jumping-off point. I went with that, and then the cover artist for my issue did his take on it. My take is a mish-mash of those two, and I wanted to give them each their own look. They play off each other in that they are so similar, but I wanted to differentiate between the two -- I don't think Joss had ever said, 'They look like such and such.' I just wanted to build on what Rebekah had done."

The franchises requisite monsters and demons will also be on full display under the artist's pen. "There's a whole lot of that in this issue," Samnee said. "Chris would just say, 'Draw a snot monster in this panel,' or, 'Here's a guy with a battle axe,' or, ' Here's a huge fat guy.' I got to stretch a lot of muscles that I don't get to use everyday with superhero comics. I draw a whole lot of guys in tights, but I don't get a lot of monsters or to create new things. There were some pages here where I took my brush out and started designing characters on the page as I went. It was really fun to see how far I could push things. It's still a little bit like the 'monster of the week' stories on 'Angel' and 'Buffy,' but there weren't any budget concerns."

Another hallmark of the TV show was its penchant for slightly off-kilter one-off stories, something Gage is very aware of when crafting his special fifth-issue tales. "I do like the idea that sometimes a change of tone -- like they'd do in the show with, say, Harmony in Season 5 of 'Angel' -- can make it very funny," Gage said. "But the flashback to Giles is also pretty poignant. It's a key moment in Giles' life as a boy. Hopefully, it'll be one of those issues that makes you laugh and cry at the same time."

"I get a kick out of being able to push emotions a bit and not just draw sad men in tights," Samnee laughed, as Allie added, "One of the things I love about Joss' work is the way that when he did an episode that felt like a lark or a little silly, it would feel goofy, but you'd realize that that goofy element was there specifically to do something that he couldn't have done in any other way. I think Harmony showing up in issue #5 the way that she did was a silly detour where she got the opportunity to say something to Angel that he really needed to hear. And nobody could have said that but her. But in a way, that issue could have fallen anywhere in Season 9, whereas #10 is something that has to happen at this moment. It's a bit of a turning point in Season 9. It pushes the big story along in a way that #5 didn't, and aside from these two characters from the 'Ripper' show, there are little game changers that it's nice for Chris to be able to do with Samnee."

Ultimately, Samnee is happy to have made the time to take on this one-off issue as the "Angel & Faith" experience is teaching him a lot. "I don't have one particular page or moment I love. It's the whole story," he said. "I've been having a great time working with Chris again, and I've actually loved working with Rebekah. She has a great sense of design, and her costumes are really 'real world.' I know it's silly to think of clothing as being real world, but a lot of comics artists today don't think about a character's personality and how that affects what they'd wear. Rebeka's issue come around mine, and I didn't just want to draw people in t-shirts and then have her issues look like they were in a different universe. We've been bouncing ideas back and forth, and that's been a really experience for me. I've never worked with another artist since I pencil and ink. I'm kind of a one man show until it gets sent to the colorist, so this has been a fun change of pace."


Artist Chris Samnee joins the party on the Christo Gage-scripted "Angel & Faith" #10


The series' off-kilter fifth-issue stories are a throwback to the TV show's lighter episodes

[comic fan]

Scott Allie talks Buffy # 6=7.

Interview With Buffy Editor and Writer Scott Allie: Part One | Persephone Magazine

Interview With Buffy Editor and Writer Scott Allie: Part One

March 14, 2012 in Pop Culture

Spoiler Warning: Major plot points from Season 9, issues 1-7 are discussed in this interview. If you are not up to date, do yourself a solid and hit the back arrow key on your browser. You’ve been warned!

If you’ve been following the comic book continuation of the much beloved television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you know that a lot has happened in Season 9 of the series. (Once again, major spoilers for issues 1-7 ahead!) Our favorite slayer is finally living a somewhat normal life as a waitress in San Francisco after the defeat of Twilight and the end of magic, the scoobies have disbanded, and vampires have gone public thanks to Harmony Kendall’s smash hit “reality show.” While Buffy has faced monsters, demons, vampires and more than one apocalypse, in the recently released issue, “Slayer Interrupted,” she faces something that she is enormously unprepared for—pregnancy. After weighing her options, Buffy chooses to get an abortion. On the eve of the release of issue #7, Persephone caught up with Dark Horse editor and Buffy writer, Scott Allie, to chat about what’s been going on in the Buffyverse and how fans have responded to several recent (and extremely startling) revelations.

Persephone Magazine: Obviously there is a major plot point in #7 that we want to discuss, but before we get to that, let’s go back and talk a bit about issue #6, and the events leading up to it. Has there been any backlash against the pregnancy/abortion storyline from the right? From fans in general?

Scott Allie: No more than we’d expect—I’m not put off by the backlash. We knew we’d upset people by even using the word. We knew that some people would think, because of their own feelings on the topic, that Buffy would never seriously consider the option. And we knew that some people would decide that this was the end between them and Buffy, them and Joss. We knew there’d be some sort of consequences. People avoid the subject generally in entertainment because it’s polarizing. But it’s something you need to talk about. The topic of abortion brings out really strong feelings, and it brings out so much venom from the right—even the idea of contraception is getting heated up in ways I didn’t think possible in this century. As our attention spans get shorter, we seem to want simpler, more extremist stances, things that will play great in sound bites, where there’s no room for nuance or respect for the other person. When you have such loud voices on that side of the argument, pushing the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” thing so far as to call a girl a prostitute for suggesting birth control be considered part of health care, it’s useful to remind people that these are viable and legal options, that these are within our rights. Abortion’s been legal for almost forty years. It’s strange that these people that want to push government out of every other part of our lives—certainly out of the business of helping people—want government involved in all these decisions about the most personal and private aspects of our lives. And obviously the experience of going through with an abortion isn’t something most people are going to want to celebrate or proclaim on a bumper sticker, but for some people, it is going to be the best option, and even the most responsible option, in some situations. And Buffy feels that right now it’s the right choice for her.

Buffy becomes pregnant after getting black-out drunk at her own party. Were there ever any misgivings concerning her ability to properly consent to sex?

I know this is something that bothered a lot of readers, and I’m not gonna say we’re right and they’re wrong. For Buffy, inside the story, dealing with the reality of it, from her perspective—she thought she had let herself get black-out drunk at a party in her own house. She remembered drinking, she remembered waking up hung over—not apparently hurt in any other way, when she woke up in her own bed in issue #1, but just extremely hung over. I don’t mean to diminish the reality of statutory rape when a woman’s under the influence, but when Buffy got the positive result on the pregnancy test, she assumed that whoever she’d had unprotected sex with was in a similar state, and that she needed to deal with the problem at hand—figuring out what to do about the pregnancy. We talked about how much energy should go into the search for the guy she had sex with, but we just did not think that that’s what the focus would be for her in the situation.

Why was it important for Joss and the writers to show Buffy visiting Robin Wood in issue #6, before deciding to have an abortion?

Fiction’s all about choice, right? Characters are defined by the choices they make, choices move plots forward. So it was important for us to show Buffy going through the process of making a choice—giving the choice a whole issue. We wanted to show that it’s not an easy choice, that it’s not a choice made lightly—it’s hard to imagine this choice is ever made lightly, but all I know is that it wouldn’t be made lightly by Buffy. And we didn’t want her decision making to be internal, because that doesn’t make for good comics. So when you’re wrestling with a big decision in real life, it’s good to talk to someone who has a useful perspective, one that you’re going to respect, and hopefully learn something from. Robin was the clear choice. Buffy doesn’t have a lot of examples to talk about pregnancy, or motherhood—and certainly no one in the Slayer community. Robin has the most useful perspective on the idea of a Slayer having a baby. Maybe Angel would have been a person to talk to, in light of Connor, but she’s not ready to talk to him yet. And I think she wanted to give someone the chance to talk her into going through with the pregnancy. That’s the most mature thing to do with such a huge decision—if you’re leaning one way, hear the other side out, see if you can be swayed. What she heard from Robin only made her more certain she wasn’t ready to go ahead with the pregnancy, even if Nikki Wood had been.

To expand a bit on the recent attacks on women’s reproductive rights and how that ties in with what Buffy is going through—it’s very encouraging that the comics show Buffy dealing with this choice, as you point out, in a clear-headed manner, especially when certain politicians imply that women are not capable of making that choice for themselves. Whether or not intended, Buffy has become something of a feminist icon. Would you say that the writers had these political issues in mind when writing the story, or does the story come first?

Well, Buffy became a sort of feminist icon because Joss had the radical notion to present strong female characters, not for political reasons, but because it’s truthful. It reflected his experience. And because of the world we live in, that’s considered a political statement, with so much of popular entertainment putting forth a different version of womanhood. The artist has something to say, and maybe that’s political, maybe it’s not. The world frames the argument for him. Abortion is a political issue because people politicize it. It’s actually a really personal issue. So the story is personal, and the story comes first, and the story can’t help but exist within a political context. Also, because Joss feels, as I feel, and Sierra and I think Andrew feel, that this reality deserves to be expressed in stories. A young woman makes a choice about her life and her body.

Although she does seek the advice of Robin, Buffy ultimately turns to Spike. Why do you think that is?

Well, Robin offered the most useful perspective for her, spoke with an experience no one else close to her could offer. But Spike was going to offer the most unflinching support. If things were solid with Willow, if Willow hadn’t left right before this came out, she might have gone to Willow. But Robin had made his opinion clear, and given her what she wanted, his perspective. Spike was in the forefront of her thinking for a number of reasons, but ultimately she needed a friend.

In #7, Spike more or less states that he’s in love with Buffy and believes that he could give her a normal, happy life. We don’t want to start a “shipper war,” but do you think we’ll ever see these two get together? And could they ever be normal? Is normal even what Buffy really wants anymore?

You clearly want to start a shipper war. Rather, you’re describing the shipper war. These are really good questions, best answered by the story … or never.

OK, OK. So, changing the subject—after learning Buffy is pregnant, Spike tries to keep her from slaying when Detective Dowling is attacked by zompires. Do you think this is a bit condescending?

Well, I can see what you’re saying, but I think it’s natural—until the moment that she’s no longer pregnant, it makes sense to want her to take it easy. Every pregnancy is different, each one affects the woman differently—this is not a small thing. Earlier in the issue Spike gives her a chance to change her mind. One can imagine a certain self-interest for Spike in the idea of her going through with the pregnancy, should Buffy change her mind. Maybe she’ll go through with the idea of running away with him. This pregnancy showed a glimmer of her seeing him as more than just her dark place. If she starts fighting vampires, it might get harder for her to change her mind. So I think Spike simply thought it made sense to not complicate matters further by throwing her in to the thick of it.

It just seems a little over-the-top perhaps, especially when one considers that Nikki Wood was pregnant with a baby while slaying, and also during her Cruciamentum. At any rate, Buffy didn’t seem too happy with this decision being made on her part.

Um, Spike probably doesn’t want to think about Nikki Wood.

Very true. All right, so let’s finally get to the real question that is on everyone’s minds right about now…Buffy is a robot!!!???

Well, yeah, it looks that way.

Is this what the First Slayer/Underground Pixie meant in “Slayer Interrupted,” when she said Buffy wasn’t the slayer?

She’s a robot!!!

Was there any symbolic meaning to cutting off Buffy’s (if in fact, it is Buffy) right arm? You know that people are going to yell “metaphorical castration!” People love yelling “metaphorical castration.”


Buffy’s body is the landscape of the story in this arc. Her body and her mind. So yeah, there is symbolic significant in the dismemberment, but not college-class symbolism, not, “The arm represents the child that might have something something.”


Considering that the image of Buffy’s arm being cut off was also spoiled in the teaser release of the cover art, has there already been a reaction?

Yeah, but the reaction’s great. I mean, it’s not all positive, but that part didn’t lead to people threatening to stop reading. I don’t think, anyway. We spoiled the arm thing in a fairly calculated move, I think it’s safe to say. And we cheated it a little bit, so as not to totally spoil the story point. But that cover took a long time to get right—we went back and forth about how best to portray the mechanical arm getting hacked off, and then we came up with the idea that it should be the bloody version people see in advance.


So, if Buffy is a robot, does this mean that she is definitely not pregnant?

We’ll want to wait till issue #8 is out to really get into that.

The name of this arc is “On Your Own,” but as Robin points out, Buffy isn’t alone. Although Willow has left for the time being, Dawn makes it clear that she and Xander will support Buffy, and even Buffy’s roommates want her to stay. Is there a deeper meaning to the arc title?

In one of my favorite bits from Season 8, Xander said something like, I think fearless leader needs some alone time. To which Buffy replies, Is there any other kind? Good stuff, Joss. I imagine even if Willow, Xander, and Giles were right there by her side, she’d be feeling a little alone through this. And, of course, they aren’t.

…
Stay tuned to Persephone Magazine for another Q&A with Scott Allie in April, on the release of Issue #8 of Buffy Season Nine!


ETA

Scott Allie talks Buffy # 6=7.

Interview With Buffy Editor and Writer Scott Allie: Part One | Persephone Magazine

Interview With Buffy Editor and Writer Scott Allie: Part One

March 14, 2012 in Pop Culture

Spoiler Warning: Major plot points from Season 9, issues 1-7 are discussed in this interview. If you are not up to date, do yourself a solid and hit the back arrow key on your browser. You’ve been warned!

If you’ve been following the comic book continuation of the much beloved television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you know that a lot has happened in Season 9 of the series. (Once again, major spoilers for issues 1-7 ahead!) Our favorite slayer is finally living a somewhat normal life as a waitress in San Francisco after the defeat of Twilight and the end of magic, the scoobies have disbanded, and vampires have gone public thanks to Harmony Kendall’s smash hit “reality show.” While Buffy has faced monsters, demons, vampires and more than one apocalypse, in the recently released issue, “Slayer Interrupted,” she faces something that she is enormously unprepared for—pregnancy. After weighing her options, Buffy chooses to get an abortion. On the eve of the release of issue #7, Persephone caught up with Dark Horse editor and Buffy writer, Scott Allie, to chat about what’s been going on in the Buffyverse and how fans have responded to several recent (and extremely startling) revelations.

Persephone Magazine: Obviously there is a major plot point in #7 that we want to discuss, but before we get to that, let’s go back and talk a bit about issue #6, and the events leading up to it. Has there been any backlash against the pregnancy/abortion storyline from the right? From fans in general?

Scott Allie: No more than we’d expect—I’m not put off by the backlash. We knew we’d upset people by even using the word. We knew that some people would think, because of their own feelings on the topic, that Buffy would never seriously consider the option. And we knew that some people would decide that this was the end between them and Buffy, them and Joss. We knew there’d be some sort of consequences. People avoid the subject generally in entertainment because it’s polarizing. But it’s something you need to talk about. The topic of abortion brings out really strong feelings, and it brings out so much venom from the right—even the idea of contraception is getting heated up in ways I didn’t think possible in this century. As our attention spans get shorter, we seem to want simpler, more extremist stances, things that will play great in sound bites, where there’s no room for nuance or respect for the other person. When you have such loud voices on that side of the argument, pushing the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” thing so far as to call a girl a prostitute for suggesting birth control be considered part of health care, it’s useful to remind people that these are viable and legal options, that these are within our rights. Abortion’s been legal for almost forty years. It’s strange that these people that want to push government out of every other part of our lives—certainly out of the business of helping people—want government involved in all these decisions about the most personal and private aspects of our lives. And obviously the experience of going through with an abortion isn’t something most people are going to want to celebrate or proclaim on a bumper sticker, but for some people, it is going to be the best option, and even the most responsible option, in some situations. And Buffy feels that right now it’s the right choice for her.

Buffy becomes pregnant after getting black-out drunk at her own party. Were there ever any misgivings concerning her ability to properly consent to sex?

I know this is something that bothered a lot of readers, and I’m not gonna say we’re right and they’re wrong. For Buffy, inside the story, dealing with the reality of it, from her perspective—she thought she had let herself get black-out drunk at a party in her own house. She remembered drinking, she remembered waking up hung over—not apparently hurt in any other way, when she woke up in her own bed in issue #1, but just extremely hung over. I don’t mean to diminish the reality of statutory rape when a woman’s under the influence, but when Buffy got the positive result on the pregnancy test, she assumed that whoever she’d had unprotected sex with was in a similar state, and that she needed to deal with the problem at hand—figuring out what to do about the pregnancy. We talked about how much energy should go into the search for the guy she had sex with, but we just did not think that that’s what the focus would be for her in the situation.

Why was it important for Joss and the writers to show Buffy visiting Robin Wood in issue #6, before deciding to have an abortion?

Fiction’s all about choice, right? Characters are defined by the choices they make, choices move plots forward. So it was important for us to show Buffy going through the process of making a choice—giving the choice a whole issue. We wanted to show that it’s not an easy choice, that it’s not a choice made lightly—it’s hard to imagine this choice is ever made lightly, but all I know is that it wouldn’t be made lightly by Buffy. And we didn’t want her decision making to be internal, because that doesn’t make for good comics. So when you’re wrestling with a big decision in real life, it’s good to talk to someone who has a useful perspective, one that you’re going to respect, and hopefully learn something from. Robin was the clear choice. Buffy doesn’t have a lot of examples to talk about pregnancy, or motherhood—and certainly no one in the Slayer community. Robin has the most useful perspective on the idea of a Slayer having a baby. Maybe Angel would have been a person to talk to, in light of Connor, but she’s not ready to talk to him yet. And I think she wanted to give someone the chance to talk her into going through with the pregnancy. That’s the most mature thing to do with such a huge decision—if you’re leaning one way, hear the other side out, see if you can be swayed. What she heard from Robin only made her more certain she wasn’t ready to go ahead with the pregnancy, even if Nikki Wood had been.

To expand a bit on the recent attacks on women’s reproductive rights and how that ties in with what Buffy is going through—it’s very encouraging that the comics show Buffy dealing with this choice, as you point out, in a clear-headed manner, especially when certain politicians imply that women are not capable of making that choice for themselves. Whether or not intended, Buffy has become something of a feminist icon. Would you say that the writers had these political issues in mind when writing the story, or does the story come first?

Well, Buffy became a sort of feminist icon because Joss had the radical notion to present strong female characters, not for political reasons, but because it’s truthful. It reflected his experience. And because of the world we live in, that’s considered a political statement, with so much of popular entertainment putting forth a different version of womanhood. The artist has something to say, and maybe that’s political, maybe it’s not. The world frames the argument for him. Abortion is a political issue because people politicize it. It’s actually a really personal issue. So the story is personal, and the story comes first, and the story can’t help but exist within a political context. Also, because Joss feels, as I feel, and Sierra and I think Andrew feel, that this reality deserves to be expressed in stories. A young woman makes a choice about her life and her body.

Although she does seek the advice of Robin, Buffy ultimately turns to Spike. Why do you think that is?

Well, Robin offered the most useful perspective for her, spoke with an experience no one else close to her could offer. But Spike was going to offer the most unflinching support. If things were solid with Willow, if Willow hadn’t left right before this came out, she might have gone to Willow. But Robin had made his opinion clear, and given her what she wanted, his perspective. Spike was in the forefront of her thinking for a number of reasons, but ultimately she needed a friend.

In #7, Spike more or less states that he’s in love with Buffy and believes that he could give her a normal, happy life. We don’t want to start a “shipper war,” but do you think we’ll ever see these two get together? And could they ever be normal? Is normal even what Buffy really wants anymore?

You clearly want to start a shipper war. Rather, you’re describing the shipper war. These are really good questions, best answered by the story … or never.

OK, OK. So, changing the subject—after learning Buffy is pregnant, Spike tries to keep her from slaying when Detective Dowling is attacked by zompires. Do you think this is a bit condescending?

Well, I can see what you’re saying, but I think it’s natural—until the moment that she’s no longer pregnant, it makes sense to want her to take it easy. Every pregnancy is different, each one affects the woman differently—this is not a small thing. Earlier in the issue Spike gives her a chance to change her mind. One can imagine a certain self-interest for Spike in the idea of her going through with the pregnancy, should Buffy change her mind. Maybe she’ll go through with the idea of running away with him. This pregnancy showed a glimmer of her seeing him as more than just her dark place. If she starts fighting vampires, it might get harder for her to change her mind. So I think Spike simply thought it made sense to not complicate matters further by throwing her in to the thick of it.

It just seems a little over-the-top perhaps, especially when one considers that Nikki Wood was pregnant with a baby while slaying, and also during her Cruciamentum. At any rate, Buffy didn’t seem too happy with this decision being made on her part.

Um, Spike probably doesn’t want to think about Nikki Wood.

Very true. All right, so let’s finally get to the real question that is on everyone’s minds right about now…Buffy is a robot!!!???

Well, yeah, it looks that way.

Is this what the First Slayer/Underground Pixie meant in “Slayer Interrupted,” when she said Buffy wasn’t the slayer?

She’s a robot!!!

Was there any symbolic meaning to cutting off Buffy’s (if in fact, it is Buffy) right arm? You know that people are going to yell “metaphorical castration!” People love yelling “metaphorical castration.”


Buffy’s body is the landscape of the story in this arc. Her body and her mind. So yeah, there is symbolic significant in the dismemberment, but not college-class symbolism, not, “The arm represents the child that might have something something.”


Considering that the image of Buffy’s arm being cut off was also spoiled in the teaser release of the cover art, has there already been a reaction?

Yeah, but the reaction’s great. I mean, it’s not all positive, but that part didn’t lead to people threatening to stop reading. I don’t think, anyway. We spoiled the arm thing in a fairly calculated move, I think it’s safe to say. And we cheated it a little bit, so as not to totally spoil the story point. But that cover took a long time to get right—we went back and forth about how best to portray the mechanical arm getting hacked off, and then we came up with the idea that it should be the bloody version people see in advance.


So, if Buffy is a robot, does this mean that she is definitely not pregnant?

We’ll want to wait till issue #8 is out to really get into that.

The name of this arc is “On Your Own,” but as Robin points out, Buffy isn’t alone. Although Willow has left for the time being, Dawn makes it clear that she and Xander will support Buffy, and even Buffy’s roommates want her to stay. Is there a deeper meaning to the arc title?

In one of my favorite bits from Season 8, Xander said something like, I think fearless leader needs some alone time. To which Buffy replies, Is there any other kind? Good stuff, Joss. I imagine even if Willow, Xander, and Giles were right there by her side, she’d be feeling a little alone through this. And, of course, they aren’t.

…
Stay tuned to Persephone Magazine for another Q&A with Scott Allie in April, on the release of Issue #8 of Buffy Season Nine!


ETA

http://fandomania.com/buffy-the-vamp...-comic-review/

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #7 Comic Review

Posted by Kimberly Lynn Workman



Issue: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Nine #7
Release Date: March 2012
Writers: Andrew Chambliss
Pencils: George Jeanty
Inks: Karl Story
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and COMICRAFT’S Jimmy Betancourt
Cover A: Phil Noto
Cover B: Georges Jeanty with Dexter Vines and Michelle Madsen
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

With an uncertain future for Buffy and a twist that I never saw coming, this month’s issue of the Buffy comic is sure to spur discussion among fans. When last we left the Slayer, she was getting ready to have an abortion. This issue we find her living with Spike in his spaceship? She is confusing me. On one hand, Spike’s her best chance at having a life. On the other hand, he’s not the ideal of normality. I’m enjoying the give and take of their relationship and I long for their happily ever after, or as close as they can get to it, but going by this issue they have a lot of hurdles in their way.



After we deal with getting Buffy settled in her new home, Spike gets a call from his cop friend. There’s a reason why untrained people shouldn’t go after vampires. So, like always, when someone’s in trouble Spike goes to help them out. It’s a personality flaw that gets him into troublesome situations more than once. And, despite Buffy’s desire to join the fight, Spike makes her promise to sit it out. She may be planning to get rid of the child within her, but until that comes to pass, Spike’s going to make sure she doesn’t put herself in any danger. Sadly, he keeps forgetting how stubborn Buffy is and the fact that she’s the Slayer. Her own safety doesn’t really play into it. Besides, if she hadn’t shown up, she would have never been subject to the cop’s attempts to play matchmaker between her and Spike. The universe wants them to be together and I wish it would happen.



Finally we have a real heart-to-heart between Spike and Buffy. She knows he still loves her, but he’s standing up for himself, not wanting to be her dirty, evil secret that she uses to escape reality. He’s better than that and, until she realizes it, he’s going to walk away. It might have been the catalyst she needed to admit her own feelings for him. It was a touching moment, I thought we were having a breakthrough, and then everything went haywire. Reality has ripped apart and I don’t know what’s going on. Apparently Buffy hasn’t been her real self for a while now, but we’re not sure when that changeover happened. At what point did she switch from real Buffy to Buffybot? Where is real Buffy? Is she even pregnant? What’s going on? I’m so confused, and feel so cheated. The doomed love story of Buffy and Spike just took three steps back. I hope some fixes are coming soon because right now my frustration levels are rising.

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars


Here's Kairos summery and review.

http://kairosimperfect.livejournal.c...77.html#cutid1

Buffy Season 9 #7, Review Having Been Completed


Summary:

The issue opens with Tumble and Anaheed deciding that they want Buffy to stay with them, then discovering she's already moving out. Buffy and Spike are conversing atop his spaceship, first about her staying with him, then about her impending abortion.

She asks if he called the doctor; he says her appointment is for tomorrow but he can change it. "No, I need to do this," she says. "It'll be one thing I don't mess up."

Dowling and his partner are in the car, answering a radio alert about "possible vampire involvement". She asks if he learned anything on his ride-along with Spike and he answers by revealing that he has stakes in the glove box. We see that Spike's ship is in the sky, following the car.

Back inside the ship, Buffy's moving her clothes into a tiny closet. Spike asks if she meant it when she said that she'd run away with him if she were going to have the baby. She replies, "We would have just ended up in some apartment just like this. Cramped. Dingy. Slightly less steampunk. And definitely sans the molting legs." Then, "If I was going to flout every Slayer instinct in my body, who better to do it with than you? But it never would have worked."

He counters by reminding her that he was good with Dawn when Buffy was down, and she touches his arm and says that if she were trying to have a normal life, he'd be exactly what she was running away from. Spike storms out, complaining that she only goes to him for help out of a jam, as Buffy facepalms. His mood isn't improved when his phone rings - it's Dowling, saying he found a nest.

Cut to Dowling and his partner (really wish I could remember her name). She wants to wait for backup, he picks up a bloody badge on the ground and says "This was our backup. But wait - where are the men..." He's attacked. The men have apparently been sired.

I'm not sure about the precise setting of this scene. There's a tower, and a statue of a man in a cape. Spike, directing his bugs, calls it "that bloody park with the fire nozzle sticking out of it." He returns to Buffy, who's stymied by the European sockets in her room, and tells her he's off to help Dowling. She wants to come, he demands she stay: "Until you don't go through with it [the abortion], you're persona non Slayer."

Dowling's zompires appear to have killed his partner. He flees to the tower. Spike's ship is now hovering over, and he leaps out and gets to work on the zompire mob (there are about twenty total). Dowling watches from a window near the top of the tower, terrified. The zompires are scaling it, and he's got a stake in his hand, rehearsing what he's learned: "Pointy end out. Aim for the heart."

Buffy, watching from the ship, asks a bug to get close to the tower. She's holding a stake, too. Spike's still on the ground fighting, but the zompires have made it up the tower and through the window, and one of them grabs Dowling. He looks like a goner until Buffy climbs in and grabs his leg. She holds onto him - or possibly swings him - so that he can whip his stake around and kill the one who's holding him. "That was my first slay," he says proudly, and Buffy replies, "Won't be your last." The zompires are closing in again.

The ship is right above them. Dowling asks when Buffy and her vampire boyfriend decided to play spaceship. She says, "Spike's not my boyfriend. Did he say that?" Dowling says it's obvious that the vampire's in love with her, and Buffy tells him to get on the ship.

She leaps down from the tower to help Spike. Between the two of them, the horde is soon dust, and Buffy immediately asks if it's true that he's still in love with her. He doesn't want her to make him say it when everyone else has already worked it out. She says, "You know I'm terrible at everything that doesn't end with slaying...why didn't you tell me?" He touches her belly and says, "'Cause you had bigger problems and you needed my help."

Then he turns from her and says he shouldn't have thought that things had changed between them, and he's leaving once he knows she's okay. He doesn't want to be "the dark place you run to when things aren't working." That's not why he fought for his soul, stood up for her, and is hanging around now. "You stayed here for me?" asks Buffy, and he confirms it.

Spike touches her chin, looks into her eyes, and says, "I can give you what you need. I want normal, too. And I want it with you."

There's a loud crunch. Buffy screams. A lone zompire has attacked and ripped off her arm - which, we see from the cables dangling from it and her socket, is robotic. Spike stakes the zompire and is left holding the arm, which is still grasping a stake. Buffy, stunned, asks if that's her arm; Spike says that's the least of their worries. She has, as he says, gone mechanical.

Dowling is safely with the bugs on the ship; they receive a request for a pickup from Spike. The ship descends.

Buffy's examining the arm. She doesn't understand; insisting that she's herself and not a robot. Spike says he knows his way around a Buffybot, and she definitely is one. Buffy contemplates that this means she's not pregnant, but she quickly returns to reacting to being a robot. The issue ends on her astonishment.

*

I do a lot of blogging in my head, usually about things that haven't happened yet. Just in case they do happen, I'll be ready. Before I read this issue, the reviews that my head was working on covered two possibilities: a) "I can't believe I was right! Angel's the father and Buffy's going to go through with having the baby and everything will be perfect forever!" and b) "This will be my last review, as the series has been handled so poorly that I can no longer support it in good conscience." Rationally I knew that these were severe extremes and neither would happen, but I still wasn't really prepared for the third possibility to be so utterly distant from both.

I can't come right out and say that I like it for the shock value alone. I do like that it shocked me, but I feel like these comics are picking up a little bit of Robert Jordan syndrome - we keep reading in hopes of resolution, but instead we get more threads that need resolution. It's jarring. Every issue I pick up is like the first issue of a new series.

Buffy's a robot. How did she not know? Unless we're dealing with a particularly sophisticated robot, she can't have bodily functions...wait. Ted did. But I just can't credit Andrew with being able to build a Ted. But it had to be him. But but but.

Anyway, my preferred explanation is that the switch came quite recently - and I'm saying switch because I believe this is Buffy's mind which has been transferred into a robot ("Only you could lose your own body" somewhat confirms this). I'll take a look through back issues, but I don't have a guess yet for when it could have been done, and certainly not for how or why. But her body is out there, missing, and most likely still pregnant. And Andrew has something to do with it. Blech.

Moving on. Buffy and Spike think that they're having a conversation. (Haha! I just remembered that when the Morris Noto cover was released we were talking about how Buffy looks all glazed over like the Buffybot. I called it the Buffybot/Darkplace cover. And Spike even referred to himself as the dark place in this issue, so it really is the Buffybot/Darkplace issue! I can be smug after all.) In reality it's not Buffy but she thinks she is, so it counts.

It's this conversation that, for many readers, most likely provides the payoff that I felt was missing. Understandably. I can imagine that some of the lines in it are eerily close to years-old Spuffy fanfiction. And now I have to go to work so I'm putting this entry up without finishing it. I'll come back for edits later.

*LATER*

You know what, I'm not even going to perform my usual trick of deconstructing the Spuffy scene until it's crystal clear that Spike's still an ass and Buffy still doesn't love him. The dialogue is there on the page for us to take what we want from it, and if this scratches someone's long-term itch, great. I'm just glad that their relationship is moving along. At this pace it might get its much-needed resolution before the season ends.

One complaint, though: Spike brings up something like looking after Dawn while Buffy was dead and it makes my skin crawl. You're a changed man, Spike, remember? Arguments about how awesome you were without a soul do not work in your favor. (On a related note, but not a particularly relevant one, I'm still figuring out how I feel about a certain shooting script that all but convinced me that Spike's deliberate acquisition of a soul was a retcon, and now he brags about fighting for his soul and all I can do is try to talk myself back into believing that it happened that way, because the alternative is just too awful.)

And one observation: Buffy knew that Spike was still in love with her. The bit about how she couldn't work it out herself because it didn't involve slaying was a cop-out, and everything else about that conversation was Spike monologuing: Buffy's only contributions were prompts for him to continue. It's easy to see why she would approach the problem like this, but she's been leaning pretty heavily on "I suck at everything but slaying!" since the first issue of the season, and if someone doesn't call her on it soon I'm going to start thinking that we're meant to believe it's true.

Get with the program, S9. Limits are for lesser people. Buffy can do whatever she wants.

[comic fan]

First advanced review for Angel & Faith # 8.

Review - Angel & Faith #8 Daddy Issues Part 3 | BAMFAS.com :: Entertainment*Gaming^Food-Music+Life

Review – Angel & Faith #8 Daddy Issues Part 3

By Jenny – March 16, 2012



Script: Christos Gage
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Dan Jackson
Cover: Steve Morris
Alternate Cover: Rebekah Isaacs with Dan Jackson
Executive Producer: Joss Whedon
Published By: Dark Horse

We begin this issue with some serious slayer action. Faith is dealing with Nadira, who coincidentally has a lot of characteristics of our Faith of yesteryear. Nadira has a lot of issues from her past and deals with them by lashing out at everyone around her, eventually making everything worse. Even though Faith has grown, she still has a short fuse and a knack for not holding her tongue or sword for that matter! In typical slayer fashion they talk out their problems while nearly killing each other, slayers aren’t generally known for their communication skills. After what appears to be a breakthrough, everything falls apart because of Faith’s surprising suggestion. Wounded, troubled slayers are only a part of the myriad of Faith’s problems, lest we forget that her estranged father is in town and all may not seem to be what it appears to be. He has problems of his own and as it turns out he wants Faith to fix them. We finally get a really good look into what kind of person he really is, and that person is, to put it mildly, not very good and it seems she would be better off without him around. Faith decides to take care of his problem in her own way with some help from Angel and things get ugly!

This is a deep issue, it is very sad and emotional. Even though we have seen Faith grow and mature, this issue really gets to the crux of her issues and shows her pain and suffering in a way we haven’t seen in this series before. Faith’s character is really captured beautifully. This issue is Faith centered so there is very little Angel in it, although his unswerving loyalty and support are felt when he is there. The dialog is excellent as is the story progression. The art is fantastic, Faith’s pain really comes across to the reader. I loved the Harmony issue, but this one is by far the best yet, I really hope that this series continues with the complexity that is featured in this issue.

Release Date: March 28th, 2012

[comic fan]

Scott Allie tweets about co-writing next Buffy arc.

https://twitter.com/#!/ScottAllie/st...60034133602305

Scott Allie‏@ScottAllie

@Elisabethf Awwwwww ... I'm just sitting here watching Mad Men and writing Buffy. Spike is smoking A LOT.
2:05 AM - 18 Mar 12via web

[comic fan]

Second Angel & Faith # 8 review.

ANGEL AND FATIH #8 Review |

[March 22, 2012

ANGEL AND FATIH #8 Review



“ANGEL AND FAITH,” Part Three of “Daddy Issues,” digs deeper into the psychology of Faith and her world. You can really feel the struggle that Faith is going through with her ne’er-do-well father suddenly turning up in her life. Faith wanted to believe in her father. But now, she has reason not to believe in him anymore. We readers know she’s right in more ways than one. And we also see where Faith is off. As a leader to her sister slayers, she does not always have all the answers. As we left off in the previous issue, Mr. Lehane is playing his daughter. He’s also dealing with forces that are way over his head. Faith may end up feeling sorry for him again but not now, maybe not ever.



The doddering, bald, pot-bellied Pat Lehane is a perfectly etched out character. He is no hero, more of an unlikely villain, and yet we still feel a little sorry for the bumbling old coot. He is just plain trouble and drowning in his own misery. It is actually quite a good turn to have him join the cast! It gives Faith something other than her sister slayers to be in conflict with. There’s a good scene with Faith as she brings down an unstable slayer and tries to talk some sense into her. It’s a great fight scene and opens up the issue with energetic artwork by Rebekah Isaacs and shows the limitations of Faith’s leadership.

Those scenes with Faith at odds with her dad are powerful. Christos Gage’s writing is quite in tune with the dynamics of dysfunctional families. Mr. Lehane, as guilty as sin, has no qualms about attempting to turn the tables on Faith and blame her for everything because of that hot Irish temper she’s inherited. Faith, not without her own checkered past, is quick to blame her father for how she turned out.

So what havoc has Mr. Lehane wrought on her daughter? Well, it is a whole mess of trouble in the form of a bunch of thugs out for blood and money. How will Angel deal with it? He can always turn into a vampire and scare the hell out of everyone. But what about Faith? How will she deal with this ultimate mess from dear ol’ dad and dad himself? That won’t be pretty. There is something called, “unconditional love” but then there’s also something called, “common sense.” Faith will have to act and act fast but she may also act too fast. Remember Drusilla and her gang and the Lorophage Demon? There are “daddy issues” and then there are “demon issues.” Oh, how things can escalate beyond control!

“Angel and Faith,” Issue 8, comes out March 28. For more details, visit Dark Horse Comics.

[comic fan]

The ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Abortion Controversy | Geeks of Doom

The ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Abortion Controversy

Posted by The Geeks of Doom | March 23rd, 2012



By Not Sure

This article talks about events in the Dark Horse comic book series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and contains spoilers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #7.

When we’re kids, all we need from our comic book heroes are superpowers, simple plots, and a clear line between good and bad — as an adult, though, it gets more complicated. Now we need complexity and relevancy. We need to be shocked and we need our emotions tweaked. The world around us and the issues that matter most to us need to be poured into our fiction now, even if it cuts through the most fantastic of settings and even if those issues shock or offend.

There is a proud history of that in comics, with creators pushing back against both the Comics Code Authority and the loud voices of those who think that ignoring an issue is akin to addressing it. When Stan Lee ran a story about substance abuse in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 without the CCA stamp of approval, when the story of Terry Berg was told, and any number of other stories that focused on equality, intolerance, spousal abuse, and several other hot button issues went out, there have been people standing up and people trying to push them back down with a bottle of white out.

Joss Whedon is the type of force that we expect to see standing up. He’s a behind the scenes comic book hero who knows how to write for adults; his work on Astonishing X-Men and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics show that, and his ability to write strong female characters and strong LGBT characters for television and comics are second to none. That’s why it didn’t seem out of character for Whedon to grab a hold of the proverbial third rail that is women’s reproductive rights in February when he produced the Andrew Chambliss-scripted Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #6, a book that revealed the eponymous protagonist’s intention to abort her unborn child.



Now, it’s important to note that Whedon clearly didn’t go into this jumping up and down in celebration. I also think that it’s safe to say that nobody loves abortion or the heat that comes off the issue, but Whedon felt it was important for his iconic character to “go there” and so she did, that is until now.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #7, which was released on March 14, 2012, it is revealed that Buffy is, in all actuality, a Buffybot, albeit one that does not appear to be self-aware. Now, the impact of this won’t be fully known until future issues, but as of right now it seems like the Buffybot is not really pregnant, which means there will be no need for an abortion.

There are two ways that we can look at this: either Whedon and Co. found a genius way to “say something” on a molten hot issue, taking Buffy through the painstaking process of deciding to end a pregnancy and then found a way to, not invalidate that process, but strip away all lasting (and controversial) effects that would have remained with Buffy had she gone through with it.

Or, Whedon betrayed his own words — “It’s not something we would ever take lightly, because you can’t. You don’t. It’s not an easy thing for anyone” — and did treat the issue lightly by throwing out a robot left turn that seems like an uninspired, “It was all just a dream” level trope.

I asked Dark Horse Comics Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie if Whedon had, in fact, betrayed his previous quote and he responded in the negative, “I’m proud of the job that Andrew [Chambliss] and Georges [Jeanty, the primary artist on the book] and everyone involved did, dealing with the seriousness of the choice. Putting that out into the world was important for us. We knew that the surprise with the robot would lead somebody to say we weren’t taking it seriously, but I don’t think you can read the comic and accuse us of being glib or exploitive. We dug into a topic we cared about and handled it with respect.”

With all due respect to Allie, questions and disappointment surely still remain. Did Whedon back down and call an audible during the creative process when he suddenly realized that the book would be creating a firestorm shortly before the release of The Avengers? No, according to Allie, who says that “first Joss came up with the robot thing, and that led to the other stuff. It wasn’t a case of us wanting to do an abortion story, then trying to figure a way out of it.”

How about the “Satsu situation”? Remember back in 2008 when Buffy had a momentary same-sex affair with Satsu to much fanfare and little relevancy? Is this another similar act, one that generates buzz and does little else? Let’s not forget that while Whedon is a gifted writer, director, and producer, he’s also a talented showman and provocateur.

That’s something that begs for an ample amount of cynicism if we’re chalking this up to a mere buzz hunt, but at the end of the day all we concretely have is that sharp left turn and the shell of what would have been a landmark moment in comics — a moment that would have gotten people thinking and talking for a long time about an issue that is largely ignored in the medium.

Whatever this was, why-ever Whedon decided to do it, the fact remains that no matter the hype and no matter how clever you are, you can’t really say something without actually saying it.

[comic fan]

Jane Espenson You Tube video interview.At the 7 minute mark she talks a bit about her season 9 arc.

WonderCon 2012: Jane Espenson and Brad Bell talk about Husbands - YouTube

1)She's already finished her season 9 story.

2)It's being drawn right now by the artist and two new characters are being designed.

3)It's a thing that fans of Buffy and fans of her series Husbands are both going to especially enjoy(The new male gay character).

4)Georges Jeanty is not the artist on Jane Espenson's S9 story.It's another artist.

[comic fan]

Preview pages for Buffy S8 # 8.

Preview :: Dark Horse Comics







ETA

Some spoilerish comments from Rebekah Isaacs.

https://twitter.com/#!/rebekahisaacs

Rebekah Isaacs‏@rebekahisaacs

"WHOA." - me, after reading every one of @Christosgage 's Angel & Faith scripts. So excited to get started on all the mayhem in #13!

24 Mar 12

Christos Gage‏@Christosgage

@rebekahisaacs Thanks partner. I feel the same way about your art, esp. the demons. Wait'll you see who you get to draw in the next arc!

SlayAlive‏@SlayAliveForum

@rebekahisaacs @Christosgage Things are blowing up in LA?

Rebekah Isaacs‏@rebekahisaacs

@SlayAliveForum Oh, we're far from LA in this issue. London, too

[comic fan]

Third Angel & Faith # 8 review.Very spoiler heavy.

the Realm Cast | Review: ANGEL AND FAITH Season 9 #8 - Daddy Issues Part 3

Review: ANGEL AND FAITH Season 9 #8

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Dawn Cordero



SPOILER ALERT... maybe?] Daddy Issues Part 3: Faith and Nadira get in a huge fight where Faith figures out it all stems from Nadira’s survivor guilt. She suggests Nadira go see Drusilla’s suck-all-your-pain-away-demon pet but Nadira instead goes off on Faith and leaves. Faith’s dad– dude, I’m still tripping that she even has one– is in trouble with the Irish mob and needs Faith’s help. Faith offers him money but he wants her to kill his blackmailer, Handsome Jimmy, instead. Jimmy finds Faith’s dad but when Angel and Faith try to pay off the debt all hell breaks loose and someone loses a hand. Faith is shook up and takes it out on Daddy Dearest but Angel intervenes and kicks pop to the curb. Faith runs away to the waiting arms of… Mother Superior and suck-out-your-brain-demon-guy!

ETA

Fourth advanced Angel & Faith # 8 review.

http://www.whedonopolis.com/article....20327132223895

ADVANCE "Angel & Faith" #8 Review: Old Wounds Still Sting

Tuesday, March 27 2012

Contributed by: williamdabloody

Well, Scoobies, I had to give my right arm to get this advance copy of Angel & Faith #8, but that type of thing is quickly becoming a trend, isn’t it? The point is that the Comic Book Slayer has scored another advance review for your comic book sniffing pleasure!

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

The Good:

Nothing like a little parental pressure. While last week’s made it seem like Faith’s father was up to the typical “dead-beat dad” no good, his actions take a darker tone in this issue. It turns out Faith’s daddy is in trouble with some real rough folks in ol’ London town, and given the revelation that his rough-and-tumble daughter is a slayer, he’s hoping to employ some of her more violent, life-ending habits. Can you think of a worse thing to ask of our dark slayer?

Faith turns on the dark. See above. Let’s just say that Faith has a pretty strong reaction to her father’s idea of using her as the family hitman. And, not everyone leaves with all of their...um...parts.

Rebekah Isaacs...big time! Gage’s script is awesome (as usual), but this issue really lets Isaacs shine. This is an issue full of pathos, and Gage’s script is elevated by the amazing emotions that Isaacs brings to Angel, Faith, and her father. Emotional beats are hard enough to craft, but Issacs soars in the pages of Angel & Faith #8, allowing the reader to actually see the inner feelings of the characters play out across their faces from panel to panel

The big finish. We’ve had a lot of big “WTF” cliffhangers recently. There’s one here that may be a little less “WTF” than the last issue of Buffy: Season 9, but it’s still really big, given what it may mean down the road.

The Bad:

It ended. And now, I have to wait another month before I get my fix. Grrr. (Argh.)

Don’t miss this issue, Scoobies! It’s worth an arm (and maybe a leg)! If you want to read my full, spoilerific review, it will be posted on Thursday over at www.fanboycomics.net!


’Till the end of the world,
-Bryant the Comic Book Slayer

[comic fan]

New Scott Allie interview.Confirms some things about the next arc.

New Info and Images from Dark Horse Comics Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie | Horror Movie, DVD, & Book Reviews, News, Interviews at Dread Central

New Info and Images from Dark Horse Comics Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie



By Doctor Gash
March 27th, 2012

Scott Allie is a busy man. Aside from his usual responsibilities as the senior managing editor at Dark Horse Comics, he's taken on new writing endeavors, and this weekend he finds himself as a guest of honor at the World Horror Convention (March 30-April 1) in Salt Lake City.

Allie has been named Editor Guest of Honor for the 2012 World Horror Convention. He joins his partner in crime, Mike Mignola, who will also be in attendance. Mignola is Artist Guest of Honor for 2012 (Sherrilyn Kenyon is Author Guest of Honor this year). This event also features the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award ceremony, for which Dark Horse Comics has been nominated in multiple categories.

Allie has recently returned to the writer's chair, creating stories for new issues of B.P.R.D. and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the first issue of B.P.R.D. releasing this week (March 28) and Buffy dropping next Wednesday (April 4). Amongst all this business, Allie had a chance to sit down and talk with Dread Central to get our readers caught up on the goings-on at Dark Horse Comics and the World Horror Convention.

"I think we're on a few panels together," Allie said, discussing his participation in this weekend's World Horror Convention with Mike Mignola. "He's got a spotlight panel on him, and I'm doing some writing and art workshops so I hope there are some aspiring cartoonists in Salt Lake City or I'll be awful lonely. I think they also have me doing some pitch sessions, a panel on Buffy with Buffy novelist Alice Henderson, and a panel on humor in horror, which is nice timing because that was the theme of Orycon last year in Portland, where I was also guest of honor. So I've done a lot of thinking on the topic."

Allie discussed the desire to take a more horror-minded approach to some of his upcoming work. "Mike (Mignola) and I wanted to do more horror stories," Allie said, discussing the new B.P.R.D. issue. "The stories that (John) Arcudi is focused on in the regular stories tend to be more action adventure, which kind of works better in comics, particularly in comics where the main characters have to survive everything they confront. Not that we're above killing our main characters once in a while, but you can't do it every story arc. In doing this story, we initially set out to deal with the vampire history of the Hellboy world, but then it took some detours, with some more Lovecraftian stuff. A couple of agents go to investigate a town that's suddenly been vacated after a strange mist has settled in. They encounter a professorial type who's here investigating the history of vampires and can't explain how the mist connects to the vampires. And things go badly from there."

Allie's new work on the Buffy series follows along with the abortion story arc. "After Buffy decided to terminate her pregnancy, she realized she was not in fact pregnant, but actually a robot," Allie said. "My story sees her sort of reeling from her recent experience, while trying to figure out what happened to her real body. Buffy has been on the outs with her fellow Slayers ever since she destroyed the connection between the earth and the magical realms. One of those Slayers has a particular plan in mind that Buffy has to deal with in this arc."

Discussing the horror aspects of the upcoming comics, Allie dished some info. "Buffy's not really all about the horror, but I think we get into some nicely dark emotional places. She's been to a bad place, and that's what I love about horror fiction. But with the B.P.R.D. stuff, Pickens County and subsequent Transformation of JH O'Donnell one-shot, we're really doing traditional horror, more so than I think you normally get in comics. B.P.R.D. does sort of work like 'X-Files,' but with these side projects that Mike and I are doing, it's nice in that it's more like the non-mythology episodes of 'X-Files'. And it's the agents that change from story to story, as well as the investigation itself."

Synopsis of Upcoming Dark Horse Comics

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #8-#10, written by Scott Allie and Andrew Chambliss, art by Cliff Richards, covers by Phil Noto. Buffy's pregnancy scare comes to an end when she discovers she's actually a Buffy-bot. Now the robot version of Buffy must team with Spike to recover her real body, with the help of Andrew Wells, who's responsible for the whole situation. Season 8's Rogue Slayer Simone returns to center stage as well.


Sounds like Scott flatly confirms Buffy,the real Buffy is and never was pregnant.Also confirms Andre is behind this.

ETA

Zianna's full summary of Angel & Faith # 8.

http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=18678

The issue begins with the preview pages. Nadira is fighting some other slayers when Faith arrives and provokes Nadira to fight her instead. The two girls start the fight and while doing it they talk as well. Faith tells her that fighting the slayers is not the way to forget how Perl and Nash killed her fellow slayers and Nadira replies that she was attacked and she had to defend herself, just like she has to defend herself now against Faith. Another slayer tells us that Nadira has been attacking lately every person available, vampires, demons even humans and she has sent 3 guys in the hospital. She's looking everywhere she can to find Perl and Nash but nobody seems able to tell her where they are. And although Faith had promised her that she would find them, it's already been weeks and she hasn't found anything. Basically Nadira still lives the nightmare and she can't forget what happened. Another slayer tries to get in between them to stop the fight, but Faith doesn't let her do that. The fight continues while Faith tells Nadira that she knows how she feels, she knows she feels guilty. She knows that she tries to send away every friend she has because she feels she doesn't deserve them. Besides, Faith has "been there, done that" herself once. And she suggests something to Nadira. She tells her that she knows a way to stop her pain, but not taking away her memories. Nadira will still be able to remember things, but she won't hurt. Which makes Nadira totally mad. What Nadira needs is to be able to remember, is to be able to feel the hurt and the guilt, so that she will be able to take revenge for the death of her fellow slayers. Faith warns her that if she continues like that, soon she'll run out of friends and she'll be dead too. And Nadira walks away crying and saying that what she needs is people she can trust. And Faith isn't one of them.

Next, Faith meets Angel outside of their apartment. While opening the door, they hear things breaking. It's Faith's father inside, who was smashing bottles of wine. He's been sober for months, but he's in trouble and he was feeling the need to drink again. So instead he started smashing the bottles. There's a guy from the Irish mod named Handsome Jimmy who is after her father. He owes him money. And Faith disappointed and angry realizes that this is the reason why her father came to her, because now she's rich. But her dad tries to apologize saying that he wants to repair his relationship with his daughter and that's the main reason he came, not the money. But the problem is that that man from the Irish mob knows stuff about him and he won't let him go so easily. And the only solution is for Faith to kill him. Faith tells him that she kills demons and vampires only, but her father insists that he knows her past and he also knows that she lives with a vampire. Handsome Jimmy won't stop, the only way is to kill him. Besides he's such a scum that nobody will miss him. And he tells his daughter that she has to kill him not for his sake, but for both of them. Faith gets totally mad and tells him to get out of her house, but her father informs her that Handsome Jimmy has already found him and he's coming there.

And he's right. Handsome Jimmy and his minions are outside the house. Faith and Angel go outside to face him. Angel gives him 200.000 telling him that that should cover the debt, and to leave them alone and never bother them or her father again. But Handsome Jimmy knows well an opportunity when he sees one. And now that Faith is rich, he has no intention of letting go of that opportunity. Besides her father has been causing him a lot of headaches over the years. So Angel puts on his vampire face in order to scare them, but the mob people take out their guns. They attack Faith and shoot Angel in the chest. Angel is injured unable to defend himself and the mob tries to shoot him in the head to blow it off. So Faith without thinking grabs her sword and cuts off Jimmy's hand. Angel comes around and tries to stop the bleeding and help Handsome Jimmy while Faith has totally frozen. Angel tells Jimmy's minions what to do to help Jimmy, and tells them not to say anything about it to the police or else they'll have to deal with him. He also warns them to take the money, go back to Boston and never to bother them again, or else he'll kill them. And even worst they'll have to deal with Faith then.

Angel and Faith go back to the house. Her father comes happily telling them that he has heard the screaming, thinking that Faith and Angel has killed the guys. Faith totally mad grabs him asking him what has he exactly done for that guy and her father replies whatever he had to do to raise her. Faith tells him to get out of her house. Her father tells her that she's no better than him, and just because she has money now doesn't mean that she has changed. Faith hits her father and tells him "I am what you made me you son of a bitch!". All her life she's been desperate, trying to find a family, she even found another father figure in Sunnydale who wanted to kill the whole city and still he was more of a father for her than her real dad. And she's even killed for him. She grabs her father trying to choke him telling him that he is the one responsible for the person she is and that she'll never change, so why should she even try to? But Angel steps in and stops her and Faith starts crying. He grabs her father and throws him out of the house, telling her never to contact his daughter again or else he'll have to deal with Angel. When he does back inside, he realizes that Faith has left.

Angel tries to guess where she's gone. He remembers the other slayers and he decides to go but all he finds is the girls killing zompires. No sign of Faith who is actually on her way to meet Drusilla and her Lorophage demon. Drusilla is no surprised to see her. She saw it in a vision, and now that she's not mad, she can also feel empathy so she knows why Faith is there. She's tired, and she asks Drusilla to take away her pain. Faith doesn't want to feel pain anymore and she doesn't want to hurt people anymore. At the meantime, Angel has figured it out and he's running to the church to stop Faith. But when he arrives he sees Faith already at the mercy of the Lorophage demon, asking Drusilla to make the demon take away her pain.

To be continued.


I have my copy of Angel & Faith # 8,"Daddy Issues Part III of IV"

Amazing issue IMO.Loved all the character stuff.The way Nadira is coming unhinged and becomes even more unhinged when Faith suggests taking her pain away via Drusilla.Looks like she's cutting ties with Faith and boy oh boy when she finds out Faith is protecting/working with Angel.

The whole pain issue and Drusilla removing it via her pet really reminds me of Star Trek V The Final Frontier where the villain,though more misguided and not evil is Spocks half brother Sybok.And Sybok is able to take peoples pain away in order to get them to follow him.When late in the movie,he tries it on Kirk,Kirk refuses stating he needs his pain.His pain is what defines him as a person and if you erase that you are erasing a part of yourself.

I wonder if Nadira's refusal here is going to make Faith have second thoughts next issue when she goes to Dru to remove her own pain.

And the stuff with Faith,her father and Angel was so juicy.The fact that Pat came to his daughter because she is a slayer and wants her to kill the Irish mobster he's in debted to.And then how he thows it back in her face that she's already a murder for the people she killed in back in season 3.Ouch.

And I really like the call back to The Mayor and how she's been always looking for a father figure and picked the worst.And it all stems from her "Daddy Issues" and the crummy father she had.

And Angel kicked so much ass in this issue.From dealing with the irish mobsters(another loss of limb) to how he is there for Faith keeping her from strangling her father and sending Pat packing.Really loved that.

This being the thing to break Faith and send her to Dru and Angel arriving just as her pain is about to be sucked was a great cliffhanger end to the issue.

Really enjoyed this one.I'm also curious if we will see Faith's father in the last part.


ETA 2

Kairos summary and review of Angel & Faith # 8.

http://kairosimperfect.livejournal.com/101813.html

A&F #8, Summary and Review

The issue begins with four pages (three of which were previewed) of Faith sword-fighting Nadira and trying to talk to her about her uncontrolled violence and, more pointedly, her survivor's guilt. Nadira disarms herself by stabbing the sword too deeply into the ground to remove, and starts going at Faith with her bare fists. Faith pins her easily and asks if she really wants to avenge her sisters, or just to pitch fits.

Nadira, sobbing, says she just wants it to stop. Faith helps her up and says there are better ways than suicide by Slayer - she knows how to take the pain away. She explains, "It's not a memory wipe. You'd still remember. It just wouldn't hurt anymore." Nadira asks if she's serious and then socks her in the face, yelling that she wants it to hurt - she wants it to eat at her until she avenges them, and then some more so she makes sure it never happens again. Faith warns her that she's going to end up like her sisters if she keeps this up, and Nadira walks off saying she'd thought she could trust Faith.

Back at the house, Faith meets Angel at the door - he's returning from the events of the last issue, and she comments on his appearance (his wounds are healed, but his shirt is still ripped open). He says she's seen better days too and asks if they need to discuss it, to which she says, "Nah. Let's just -"

The interruption is a crash coming from inside. They rush in to find Faith's father sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the liquor cabinet. He's cradling one bottle in his hands, and another is smashed around him. He says he'll replace it, and Faith snatches the full bottle from his hands and begins to ask if he's been drinking after his six-month sober stretch. He hasn't, but wanted to, hence the smashing.

He's in trouble. Angel asks what kind, and Faith wonders if it's cops. "I wish," says Pat, and explains that he owes a lot of money to "Handsome Jimmy", who don't let nobody slide. Angel silently and shirtlessly watches the conversation. The shelves with one missing globe are visible behind them.

Faith is apparently familiar with Jimmy's name - she berates him for running away to England after getting in trouble with the Irish mob, and then says she should have known that all he wanted was money, and that she'll cover it (clearly implying that after that, he's gone for good).

Pat denies that that's what he wants from her: he really is sober and really does want to repair his relationship with her, but Jimmy won't ever let him go and let him make a new life. He wants Faith to kill him.

Faith is aghast. She says she's a Slayer, not a murderer, and he retorts, "So what'd you do that stretch in the pen for?" He says he knows she's no angel, and he's also noticed Angel's lack of reflection. Handsome Jimmy, according to him, is a killer and not someone anyone will miss. He begs her to kill a human one last time, "Not for me...for us.."

Faith orders him to leave, and he gets desperate, claiming that kicking him out now might as well be putting a bullet in his brain. Jimmy found him, and he's coming there now. Faith and Angel exchange a startled look.

On the next page, Jimmy - a smallish guy in a cabbie hat, with white hair in a ponytail and mutton chops - and four other guys get out of a car outside the house. Faith and Angel stop them at the door. Angel is holding a metal box and yet has not had time to replace his shirt. Jimmy recognizes Faith and reminisces about how little she was last time he saw her, but she says that girl's gone.

Jimmy then looks Angel over. "Who's this, your fella? Kind of a pretty boy, ain't he?" Angel replies, "And you're a bad Irish stereotype," and tells him that there's enough in the box to cover Pat's debt with interest. "You're done with him. Forever." Jimmy pinches his cheeks, smiling, and insults his intelligence for good measure before explaining that Pat's given him a lot of trouble, and now that Faith is nearby and rich, it's time for Pat to start solving his problems instead.

Angel goes into game face and says, "Or I could." All of Jimmy's toughs pull out guns, Jimmy himself yelling "Vampire! Shoot it! In the head!" Angel crushes the nearest man's gun in his hand while correcting, "That's zombies." Jimmy pistol-whips Faith, who's kicking another guy, while two others are falling and one is shooting Angel in the chest (all in one panel!), and says, "Zombies, vampires...blow off the head, problem solved."

Angel's on the ground with a hole in his chest, back to human face, and Jimmy and the guy who shot him are standing over him with guns pointed at him. Faith leaps up with her sword and hacks into them, chopping off Jimmy's gun hand and cutting the other's wrist. Angel immediately makes a tourniquet with his belt and is asking Faith for help when he sees she's gone into shock. He turns to the other guys instead and instructs them on how to stop the other guy's bleeding, using the shirt from one of them to wrap Jimmy's stump. Then he tells them to call 999 and tell them "anything you want except the truth." He goes back into vamp face and orders them to take the money and go back to Boston and never bother them again, because what he really wants is to drink from that arm like a hose. As he leads Faith back inside he adds, "And if you really screw up, you'll deal with her. We clear?" One of the toughs acquiesces meekly before Angel closes the door on them.

Inside, he asks Faith if she's okay. She's shocked at the way she acted without even thinking, but then Pat comes running into the room with a smile on his face, asking if they're dead. Faith grabs him by the lapels and asks what he did for this guy. He says he did what he had to, to provide for her, and she orders him out again. His expression hardens. "Look at you. Got some money now. Living in England. And you think you're Princess friggin' Di. But I know where you came from." Faith looks at her bloody hands, and he says, "I know what you really are."

She punches him, hard. She's what he made her, she says. All her life she's been letting people use her because they can tell how desperate she is for a family. She tells him about the Mayor, who wanted to wipe out all of Sunnydale, and who was still more of a father to her than Pat. She killed for him twice, without thinking, and has been trying to kid herself that that was a different person, until he shows up. She pulls him off the floor and holds him by the throat. Tears are streaming down her face and now both of them are bloody. He's right, she says; she is what she is, and it's because of him, and nothing she does will change it. So why even try?

Angel intervenes with a hand on her shoulder. She looks at him, then drops Pat and walks away. We next see Angel throwing him out, along with a fistful of cash. "You ever contact her again," he says, "I'll show you who I really am." Faith watches him leave from the window, still crying. When Angel comes back in to find her, he sees only a bloody handprint, and follows the trail to the open rooftop hatch.

He immediately (i.e., without putting on a shirt first) goes out to search for her, first hoping she'll be with her Slayers. He finds them, fighting a zompire and talking about it amongst themselves, but Faith isn't there and Angel isn't sure where to look next.

We cut to Faith, running down the street toward Drusilla's church. Dru's waiting for her, surrounded by her pet and cult: she's seen a flash of the future that told her Faith would be coming. Faith asks if she knows why she's here, and Dru says she'd like to hear it from her. "I'm tired," says Faith miserably, "So damn tired of feeling like this." She points to the Lorophage. She wants Drusilla to take away the pain.

Angel's on his way, over the rooftop. As Faith affirms that it's what she wants, that she can't keep letting "the same pathetic daddy issues" knock her right back after she tries so hard to get past the pain, Angel makes it to the door. He's at a run, seeing the Lorophage with its claws positioned at Faith's head as she sobs that she doesn't want to hurt, doesn't want to hurt anyone else. "Just take it all away," she says, and the demon plunges its claws into her head, Dru's hand on her shoulder and Angel watching in agony.

*

If I had to summarize the reason that A&F is (at least so far) a better comic than Buffy S9, I'd say it's because it doesn't depend on the plot twist. All of the discussion, reviews, and energy surrounding Buffy right now are in regard to figuring out what's going on and how it will unfold in the next issue, while for A&F, we can just talk about the writing and art and enjoy it for what it is, as it is. Does Faith get the Lorobotomy treatment? Intriguing. Does something interrupt it or cancel it? That's cool too. The quality of the story doesn't depend on either outcome; the important thing is that the scene itself is a good one and so were all the scenes preceding it. (The other important thing is that I just invented a great word. "Lorobotomy" is going to spread like wildfire, believe you me.)

I can't speak to the use of the "Irish mob", though I'm guessing it's a fairly pointless bit of cultural stereotyping, but I did have a mild appreciation for Handsome Jimmy and his cocky "I'm so dangerous I don't even bother scowling when I threaten oh **** my hand just got chopped off" brevity. Seeing our heroes go up against humans is still kind of a fresh, interesting fight scene, because of the way they know they need to hold back but sometimes don't. (Faith + sword = OTP. Can I hope there's a little bit of Excalibur symbolism with Nadira's blade in the pavement?)

Maybe it's because the Twilight arc sunk my expectations so low, but it's still a rush to see Angel acting in character (and out of shirt - okay, that's the last time I'll mention it, and hopefully this is the last parenthesis). He respects Faith too much to bring up any points of his own when she's having it out with her dad, even when she gets physical, but he knows he can't let this be a wholly private affair. There's danger in the air and he needs to be there when she's ready for his help. It's lovely and gratifying to see how openly protective Angel and Faith are of each other in this issue. A threat to Angel sends Faith into limb-hacking rage, and he's taking on her enemy as his own problem without question or hesitation. It's the guard dog mentality that I love so much: Angel is not here to give you advice. He's not here to party with you. He's here to chase away the things that want to hurt you, take bullets for you, and then ask if you're okay.

Of course this issue is more about Faith, though, and I'm pretty happy with her development, too. Yes, the story of her daddy issues is moving too quickly to be quite credible, but I think it's better this way, considering that it all has to come out through dialogue and we probably wouldn't like having Pat around for more than an arc. Also, Faith is messed up. She's been so stable for this season that it's great to see what she's been holding in and how it explodes. The direct reference to the Mayor was perfect - ever since we met her, she's been wanting a Giles, and it informed everything she's done since then. Her joy followed by fury at Pat is just showing us why.

Personally, I think that the Lorobotomy will take, and we'll get to see the new, trauma-free Faith, with all the benefits and new issues that entails. The arc will wrap up with Angel finding a way to reverse the process. If I'm wrong, though, there's still a lot of interesting places it could take us.

This is starting to get redundant, but the art in this issue was another shining parade of Isaacs' skill. I'm particularly enjoying the variation she gives to the design of her background characters, especially the Slayers. I got the Isaacs cover, and spent a while just looking at Nadira's forearm - just the right amount of muscle tone for an athletic woman. It's the little things. Jimmy's guy with the shamrock tattoo on his arm was a bit much, but I'd love to see the Celtic design on the same guy's back in real life.

Finally, I just want to share a couple little things from beyond the last page: there's no plans for Dana. Nuts. The "real" cover of the Jeanty cover for Buffy #8 shows sparks and wires instead of blood where Buffy's arm is cut off. Free Comic Book Day is on May 5th. Wil Wheaton will appear as a character in The Guild. There's a comic called Axe Cop written by a six-year-old which I need to own.

It's a solid issue. I'm so glad we have this series.


ETA 3

Chris Samnee talks about his upcoming Angel & Faith # 10 work.Plus some new art.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/chri...tent=Newsarama

Artist Chris Samnee Bites Into ANGEL & FAITH



By Chris Arrant, Newsarama Contributor
posted: 28 March 2012

Dark Horse’s Angel & Faith have shown the fireworks that can be had from an unexpected team-up, and in May’s Angel & Faith #10 we can look forward to the same thing on the creative side. For this special one-off story, series writer Christos Gage welcomes his Area 10 collaborator Chris Samnee to draw a story of the titular duo coming to help some old friends of Giles from his Ripper days.

For Samnee it’s a chance to finally step into the Buffy-verse, a world he’s grown to love as a fan for years. Although he’s worked twice in the Whedon-verse on Serenity, his busy schedule hasn’t given him the opportunity to touch down on this world of vampires and the supernatural. But despite his busy schedule balancing issues of Marvel’s Daredevil and IDW’s Rocketeer, Samnee carved out time to do this special issue for a chance to re-team with Christos, a chance to draw the Buffy-verse, and the chance to work with a new colorist for the first time. Newsarama talked with Samnee about all those subjects in a rollicking phone interview while Samnee worked at the drawing board

Newsarama: You’re everywhere this year, Chris. We spoke with you earlier this month about your new Rocketeer series at IDW and you’re also doing Marvel’s Daredevil. What brought you over to Dark Horse to do this one-off issue of Angel & Faith?

Chris Samnee: Well, I’ve been talking to editor Scott Allie for going on about eight years now. I met him at a convention way back when, trying to get work from him back when I was begging for work. We struck up a friendship and I did some work for him like Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale in 2010 and then a short story in USA Today with the Serenity crew. Since then we’ve been trying to find something else for me to do there, and this opportunity jumped out at us. It seemed right, and it was also a good chance to work with my Area 10 buddy Christos Gage. In addition to all of that, I’m a big fan of the Buffy-verse and the Angel & Faith series as been great so far.

Nrama: Speaking of that Area 10 connection with Christos, what’s it like to be doing this – and be doing it with someone you’ve already done so many comics pages with before?

Samnee: It’s great. There’s already a sort of shorthand between us that makes things easier. I don’t think we even talked on the phone before I started working on Angel & Faith; we have our own language, and I was able to jump right back into it seamlessly. Another added thing is Christos tends to have a smaller number of panels per page, which lets me stretch my legs and do bigger things with my art. I think Christos is going for big action moments in this issue, and I hadn’t had the chance to do that much recently. It’s fun to break out of the routine that I had gotten into of doing a lot of period pieces with talking heads.

Christos is an amazing writer, and if you’ve been following Avengers Academy or Angel & Faith you can vouch for it yourself. There’s been a lot of writers in the Buffy-verse, but Christos really gets the characters’ voices just right. It’s my job to try to live up to that with my art. It’s a far cry from Area 10, and I’d like to thing we’ve both grown since then... but Christos is putting me to shame. He’s really grown by leaps and bounds.

Nrama: Although this is your first time in the Buffy-verse, it’s not your first time in the worlds created by Joss Whedon as we mentioned your Serenity comics. How would you describe your level of understanding for Buffy and the gang?


Samnee: Good. I didn’t really watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer when it first came out, but my wife got me into it years later. I got caught up around when the third season of Angel was airing, and have been glued to it ever since. When I got to see season one of Angel I told my wife, “oh my god... he’s Batman!” From episode one I’ve always been a bigger fan of Angel stuff than Buffy. It’s really grown on me, and I love it.

Nrama: Can you tell us anything about the issue you’re working on, Angel & Faith #10?

Samnee: It’s featuring two characters coming back from Giles’ past. They were going to be on the Ripper television series when Joss was working on that, but now they’re coming here. He gave the okay to use those characters in this arc, and it really grows on a lot of the mythology Joss planned from way back when. We have the connections between these two and boatloads of demons. It’s great to be able to draw a ton of crazy monsters, which is a far cry from what I’ve been used to. It really feels like an episode of Angel we’re doing here, but with an unlimited budget!

Nrama: We’ve seen you change-up your style to fit each book you work on, from Captain America & Bucky to things like Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and Thor, The Mighty Avenger: how do you do it, and what did you note about Angel & Faith that is going to help you find your way on this issue?

Samnee: Well, I feel a lot of that is tied to the colorist. There’s been a different colorist on each title I’ve worked on, and how they approach it affects how people receive it. With Justin Ponsor, for example, he brings a much more modeled coloring style with lots of highlights and smoothness. Whereas Bettie Breitweiser has smooth, cut edges with a lot of period colors.

I don’t know that I switch up styles too much, but I do try to get a tone across unique to each book. When I’m trying to interpret the script I might do some things lighter or darker. It’s not conscious decision, but somewhere in the back of my mind I’m making little decisions with each line that add up to a different tone. Captain America & Bucky turned out darker than what I expected, but still in a period piece kind of vibe. Thor, The Mighty Avenger felt like a lighter book. Angel & Faith has a lot of black. The lighting on the Angel show was pretty low-key, and I’ve been trying to match a little of that to get that look here in the comic. Also, a lot of it takes place at night with demons, so I couldn’t do the Thor, The Mighty Avenger bright skies sort of approach.

Nrama: Speaking of colorists, who’ll be doing your colors here?

Samnee: Jordie Bellaire, who I’m a big fan of. I’ve been trying to find something to work with her on, and this is it. Both our schedules have been busy, but this one works for both and I’m really excited to work with someone new that I’m a fan of!



Exclusive Interior Page

[comic fan]

First Advanced review for Buffy S9 # 8.

Review - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #8 - Apart Of Me Part 1 | BAMFAS.com :: Entertainment*Gaming^Food-Music+Life

Review – Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #8 – Apart Of Me Part 1

By Jenny – March 30, 2012



Script: Andrew Chambliss and Scott Allie
Pencils: Cliff Richards
Inks: Andy Owens
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Cover: Phil Noto
Alternate Cover: Georges Jeanty with Dexter Vines and Michelle Madsen
Created By: Joss Whedon
Published By: Dark Horse

It’s finally here, after what seemed like an eternity, we finally get answers! Buffy, after losing her arm and finding out she’s not human (?) is not having the best day. She’s pissed and she wants to know what the hell is going on. She and Spike go to Andrew and demand an explanation, there’s some pregnancy talk amongst other things but Andrew in a, “what’s the big deal” kind of way, is not giving Buffy what she needs. After a little prodding, he spills the beans and explains the entire thing! Buffy and Spike are confused, hurt and mostly just mad. There is a little bit of Spuffy action followed by a very angry Spike. We also check in with Xander and Dawn, who it seems like we really haven’t seen for an eternity and all does not seem well there. Finally, a nasty makes their return but as of now their intentions are unknown.

This issue wasn’t bad but it did feel like a couple really complex storylines were wrapped up quite easily. The pregnancy, the Buffy Bot, all taken care of, just like that! There was some mention of the Siphon and not wanting to get too spoilery, the nasty who returns (again) could be interesting especially because they didn’t do what would have been expected of them. Having Andrew in this issue provided some laughs, his goofiness and obliviousness are always great. The art was good and so was the dialog but ultimately it just felt like it was missing something. Obviously, it’s a must read for those of us who were dying at the end of the last issue but don’t expect too much, hopefully this new arc will get everything back on track!

Release Date: April 11th, 2012


ETA

Second advanced review for Buffy S9 # 8.

http://comicsgrinder.com/2012/03/31/...on-9-8-review/

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9 #8 Review



It’s nice to take things slow but it’s also awesome to gun it. Season 9 takes off with the new arc, “Apart (Of Me).” It seems like each page is full of plot development, and in a good way. There is even some sly reference made to Season 8. So much is going on. As you will recall from last ish, Buffy is having quite the identity crisis. Caught in the crossfire of the vampire wars, Buffy lost a limb! And sparks began to fly, as in robotic limb and, well, robotic being. This leaves Spike, her lover and her protector, with much to explain and so the two are off to find answers. They begin by blasting into the bedroom of a perfect Whedonesque man-child genius, Andrew. With all his action figures scattered about, his room more of a mess than usual, it is this bewildered dude who holds the key to Buffy’s future.

First thing’s first, Andrew offers Buffy a new arm, that is if she doesn’t mind another left arm since that’s all he’s got in stock at the moment. On to more tangibles, Andrew lets Buffy know why she’s not exactly Buffy. It was all an elaborate plan to help her! It’s complicated and well worth letting you find out the particulars. Let it be said that the script is crisp and sizzles with Andrew Chambliss and editor Scott Allie. And the art finds its feet with Cliff Richards (pencils), Andy Owens (inks) and Michelle Madsen (colors). We’re seeing here a more determined, energetic and downright righteous Buffy.

We appear to have more interesting give and take between the characters. And that has to do, to some degree, with the hightened action and he addition of Andrew. The tension between Buffy and Spike takes a new turn as Buffy becomes more vulnerable and more appreciative of Spike. Or is that the bot part of Buffy that is confusing things? Andrew appears regularly as spot on comedy relief. He tries to befriend, outwit, and even command Spike’s own coachroach A-Team. They aren’t having any of that. For the most part, they don’t even understand what he’s babbling about. It’s all nervy prattle to them but, to us Whedon fans, it’s all snarkalicious good fun.

What’s not so much fun, is back on the beat with Detective Dowling and his fight against the zompires. He’s dealing with one slain detective, Miranda Cheung, and its aftermath. And, suffice it to say, Buffy is going to go through quite a lot of changes in the next couple of issues. Everything is set in place. Get Issue 8 on April 11. And visit Dark Horse Comics for more info.

[comic fan]

ECCC12: The Art of the Whedonverse - Comic Book Resources

ECCC12: The Art of the Whedonverse

At a spotlight panel at Emerald City Comicon, Dark Horse showcased the art and process of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel and Faith" illustrators Georges Jeanty, Phil Noto and Andy Owens.

Marissa Nolan-Layman, Guest Contributor



The artists of Dark Horse's Whedonverse titles spoke about their process at Emerald City Comicon.

This year at Emerald City Comicon, Dark Horse wanted to do something a little different from their usual panels and highlight the steps of making a comic and the different individuals involved in that process. Dark Horse’s Director of Publicity Jeremy Atkins was joined by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9" artist Georges Jeanty, cover artist Phil Noto and inker Andy Owens for a discussion of their work on Joss Whedon-created titles including "Buffy," "Angel & Faith," and "Dollhouse."

A slideshow of the different steps of the process involved in taking a comic from small, rough layout sketches to 11” x 17” pages on to the inked and then colored final art pages.

Jeanty said that, while he does have his own style, he really admires Mike Mignola's “Hellboy” and has tried to emulate that in his work on “Buffy.” He shared an exclusive with the crowd to answer any internet rumblings; page 17 of “Buffy Season 9" #7 was swiped from issue #3 of the “Wolverine” limited series.

Jeanty also shared that when he came on board with “Buffy” he was not a fan of the show and had never watched it. He has now seen the entire series as well as just about everything Joss Whedon has created thus far. In the beginning he would question Whedon on the direction of the story saying things like “I don’t think Buffy would do this.” Whedon was very receptive to his comments and would either agree or give him very thoughtful reasons for his decisions.

One thing that Whedon made clear was that while this is a comic based on an established show, he was insistent that Buffy looked like Buffy and not Sarah Michelle Gellar; the same went for the other characters. The one place this did not apply to was the cover artwork. Phil Noto shared that he uses Google image searches for references on his likenesses for the covers. And that the only cast member who he has had to go through numerous rounds of revisions was Michelle Trachtenberg's Dawn, who coincidentally has never been on one of Noto's “Buffy” covers. When it comes to an actor’s likeness in a comic of this nature, they have the option to approve or request revisions of the image.

Noto shared how his process is entirely digital. He does his sketches digitally, when the final image is selected he then digitally colors and submits it. He said that covers tend to be much easier in terms of actors' likenesses because the artist do not have to capture as much emotion as is required within the story art. But, Noto said, he does have to convey the feeling of an entire issue without having access to the script so sometimes that can be difficult. When someone from the audience asked him what character in the Whedonverse he would like to draw but hasn’t yet, he answered “[The crew of] 'Serenity' would be awesome, also Lorne from Angel.”

Another question from the audience was “how many seasons of Buffy can we expect?” Atkins said that Dark Horse hopes for many more but the story will go at the very least through season 10. By far the most amusing question from the audience was “If the world doesn’t end in December of this year can you write that Buffy saved us,” The response to that from Atkins was “Someone needs to tweet that.”

While the panel focused more on process than exclusive reveals, some fans mentioned as they were heading out of the room that they would have liked to see more concept art and and a more diverse conversation of the “Art of the Whedonverse” instead of focusing so much on “Buffy.” On the whole, though, the crowd appreciated the behind-the-scenes look at the making of a comic.


ETA

http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/2012/0...mics-with.html

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Buffyfest talks Horror and comics With Scott Allie (Part 1)

Most readers of this site know Scott Allie for his work writing and editing the Buffy comics, but he's been working in funny books for a long time. One of Scott's biggest passions is the horror genre, so while he's the editor guest of honor at World Horror Convention, we thought it would be the perfect time to give you a little more insight into not only Scott, but also some of the other great titles we've been reading through Dark Horse. Look out for part 2 of this interview where we chat about Buffy and the first issue Scott's written this season, the upcoming #8.



Buffyfest: What, to you, defines a great, classic, traditional horror story?

Scott Allie: One of the things I love about horror is how broad a genre is, how many different things it can be. I love a horror story that gets you really caring about the characters, and where mood and atmosphere and pacing and weird, out-of-the-ordinary events keep the reader off-kilter and scared for the characters and even for themselves. This can be so many things.

Buffyfest: Can you remember the first horror story that really and truly scared you? What was it about that story that got to you?

SA: I might say Salem's Lot, by Stephen King. The town he was writing about could have been the town I grew up in in Massachusetts, and I remember many times reading the book over the years being paralyzed with fear. For all the supernatural melodrama, the settings and the characters convinced me that it could really be happening, that the world was really that dangerous. Probably the fifth time I read that book, in college, I was up till four a.m. reading it, terrified, and realized I had to call it a night, and that I had to go the bathroom. I walked out of my girlfriend's dorm room, out into the brightly lit hallway, and stared down the hallway, about a hundred feet to the bathroom door. And I just decided it wasn't worth it, that brightly lit hall was too scary, and I would wait till morning. I'd first read the book when I was about eight years old, and it scared me just as much at twenty. But the earliest memorable scares, for me, were the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, which once caused me to run screaming out of the kitchen where I was watching with my mom on a little black and white television set. She haunted my dreams for years.

Buffyfest: Aww. Well, a lot of people who know you primarily through Buffy might not know your background. How did you get into funny books and how did you get yourself from reader to editor/writer over the years?

SA: The first comics I read were in junior high school, Frank Miller's Wolverine series. That drew me in, but when I discovered horror comics, particularly underground horror comics of the 1970s, that's what really made me fall in love with the artform. I really dedicated myself to it, steered my college education around it, and found that what I loved more than anything was making books, comics in particular. I produced a lot of work in college, which got me a job at a literary magazine, and the job paid well enough that I was able to finance some self-published horror comics, which then got Dark Horse's attention and got me the job there.

Buffyfest: What other comics did you read growing up?

SA: The underground stuff was most exciting—Skull and Slow Death. They were hard to find, and Creepy and Eerie were the next best thing, as well as some Bernie Wrightson and Bruce Jones horror comics that Pacific Comics was reprinting at the time. This was in the early eighties, when Marvel and DC weren't doing much good horror, and Dark Horse wasn't around yet. Pacific was a company I loved a lot during that time. I also read a lot of superhero stuff, but I kept losing interest in it. Frank Miller's work would always rekindle my interest in superheroes, keep me around a little longer, and actually his great Batman stuff indirectly led me to Alan Moore's great Swamp Thing stuff, which were maybe the best horror comics of the 1980s, the books that ultimately got me to dedicate my life to this stuff. Alan's run of Swamp Thing is way better than Watchmen in my opinion.

Buffyfest: We know you’re doing some workshops at World Horror Con, what’s the most common advice you give to writers and artists when they’re struggling to break into the comic industry?

SA: Well, the most easily applied advice is this: Work small, don't commit to your magnum opus before you've really cut your teeth. A lot of people who are just learning how to write or draw comics want to start by doing a 50-issue epic, and they need to scale down their ambition to work that they can tackle, complete, and then, as they improve ... throw that early work away and not feel bound to it forever. The other thing I want to tell people is to know what it is they want to do, know why they're trying to make this happen. If what they really want to do is tell their own stories, have freedom to express themselves, they should not necessarily focus on getting good-paying work from Marvel or DC. They need to know what they want to do, and they need to look at the industry and see where they might be able to do that. And that's hard to do, but I think you might be wasting everyone's time waiting in portfolio review lines if you don't have a good answer to, "What do you want to do"?

Buffyfest: So the BPRD stuff you’re doing right now is meant to hit that classic horror sweet spot. Talk about the challenges and the benefits of the comic medium when delving into the horror genre.

SA: I think one of the most important aspects of writing in terms of executing a horror story is pacing—and pacing is one of the hardest things to control in comics. In film, the director totally controls the pace; second per second, he decides how the story rolls out. In prose, it's different, but still, the writer controls how the information rolls out. In comics, it's not just easy to skip ahead—it's hard not to. If I want to do a really slow, silent scene, where there's no words, and the reader just lingers over silent images ... there is nothing I can really do to stop the reader from glancing over the panels and skipping to the next word balloon. If I have a very slow-paced thing at the end of which, surprise, the monster jumps out of a cake, the only way I can manage that surprise is to put the cake monster at the top of a left-hand page, so you see it on the page turn. But it's not just about surprises—every aspect of pacing is harder in comics than other media, and pacing is uniquely important in horror.

Buffyfest: In BPRD: The Pickens County Horror, we’re dealing with some Hellboy vampire mythos, how do vampires fit into the Hellboy world? When you and Mike Mignola talked about vampires for this story, what vampire lore influenced you?

SA: Mike loves vampires, but vampires have been relatively scarce in the Hellboy world. There is a reason for that, which we're just starting to unveil. It was hinted at in BPRD: 1946 & 1947. It was hinted at in Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead. But Pickens County finally reveals what the vampires have been doing. Mike's reference points for vampire lore are very classic, Dracula and earlier, but we talked a lot, with Pickens County, about Near Dark. Also, of course, Lovecraft plays into it a bit.

Buffyfest: I read Ragemoor #1 a week ago and LOVED it. I know you’re editing that book, so I was hoping you could give us a little background on it. How did the project come about and what attracted you to it?

SA: THANK YOU. Corben and Strnad are the guys that were blowing my mind when I was a kid looking for REAL horror comics, in the tradition of Poe and Lovecraft and Weird Tales. I love working with Corben—it's an incredible honor. The way Ragemoor came about, as I understood it, is that Richard approached Jan to do a Poe adaptation. Corben just wanted to do Poe. Jan felt they'd done that, and wanted to do something original, but with overtones of homage. What they've done is FAR more interesting to me than any adaptation could have been. I haven't read a comic like this in years. Working with these two has been spectacular for me. At the same time, Corben wanted to get some Poe out of his system, so he's adapting some less well known Poe stories in DHP. So everyone wins.

Buffyfest: What other horror comics do you have cooking right now?

SA: Well, on April 2, our YouTube program beings on Felicia Day's Geek and Sundry channel, and we're kicking it off with a week long serialization of the horror comic The Secret, turned into a motion-comics/animated feature. It's Mike Richardson, my boss, doing a modern, teen-slasher-type horror story, but with a more classic approach. The art, by Jason Shawn Alexander, is awesome. Also, we're announcing a new horror series this weekend at Emerald City Comic Con, Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra's Colder. A real dark psychological thing. We've got some more cool horror comics to announce at Chicago's C2E2 next month, along with some Buffy announcements that we should talk about in advance ...

Buffyfest: Can't wait to hear all about it. Thanks as always, Scott!

In addition to BPRD: Picken's County Horror and Ragemoor (both very much worth your time), Dark Horse has a number of other titles out now I'm enjoying, including Conan the Barbarian (with art by the sensational Becky Cloonan), Dark Matter (think Alien meets Firefly), the delightfully disturbing adaptation of The Strain, and (my personal favorite) Lobster Johnson.

World Horror Con is at the downtown Raddison Hotel in Salt Lake Ciy this weekend through Sunday April 1st.


Part 2 of this interview will cover Buffy and Scott's upcoming co-writing duty on the next arc starting in Buffy # 8

[comic fan]

Third advanced review for Buffy S9 # 8.

Buffy (Season Nine) #8 - Sneak Review

Buffy (Season Nine) #8 – Sneak Review

Posted by Nicole Sixx in Comic Books, Reviews



** The following review while careful not to reveal any actual spoilers from this issue, it does tease the reader with hints as well as spoilers from issues past. Please feel free to purchase issue eight on 04/11/2012 **

The quest to figure out why Buffy is a robot and where the “real” Buffy is begins. Buffy and Spike seek answers and find them rather quickly actually. Readers who were as confused as I was at how Buffy could have been “pregnant” and a robot will be pleased to have a reasonable explanation.

Spike and Buffy have another heartfelt moment that touches once more on the issues that I mentioned were coming to a head in the last issue. Meanwhile back at Dawn and Xander’s place Detective Dowling comes a-knocking as the Zompire plot continues to brew.

Finally, given the ending of this issue, #9 promises to be very intense. I’m sitting on edge already. -N


ETA

http://fandomania.com/angel-and-faith-8-comic-review/

Angel and Faith #8 Comic Review

Posted by Kimberly Lynn Workman



Issue: Angel and Faith #8
Release Date: March 2012
Writer: Christos Gage
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Dan Jackson
Letters: Richard Starkings and COMICRAFT’S Jimmy Betancourt
Cover: Steve Morris
Alternate Cover: Rebekah Isaacs and Dan Jackson
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

The Daddy issues continue this month in the Angel & Faith comic. The negative ramifications of family can still be felt in Drusilla, Angel, and especially Faith. Last time we delved deeply into the damage Angelus did to Dru, but this month it’s all about Faith. That seems appropriate since she’s the one who has the mysteriously-appearing father on her doorstep. He’s messed his daughter up more than you can imagine, and he’s not through yet.


We start off with Nadira and Faith getting into it over Nadira’s thirst for vengeance. She’s seen her friends and loved ones slaughtered by Pearl and Nash. All she wants to do is track them down and kill them for their actions. However, she’s not too picky about how she gets this done. Anyone who gets in her way is bound to end up broken and bloody, too. Faith was supposed to be on top of locating the deadly duo, but she’s taking more time than Nadira’s willing to give. So, they fight out their aggressions with each other and look to be heading for a temporary truce until Faith offers the one thing that Nadira is willing to refuse. She doesn’t want a quick fix, she doesn’t want to do away with her pain, because that’s what’s fueling her mission. Faith should understand that isn’t the way, but the Slayer is dealing with her own heavy issues.



Her father, as we long suspected, didn’t come to England out of love for his daughter. He instead came to use Faith for her abilities. Dad’s in trouble with Handsome Jimmy, of the Irish mob, and he wants help. No, he’s not looking for a pay-out. Instead, he wants Faith to kill the guy for him. She’s killed a human before, he sees no reason why she couldn’t do it again. Yes, let’s bring up all those horrible memories again. It seems like such a loving thing to do. Faith doesn’t want to be that person anymore, she’s fought hard to put that behind her, so she’s not going to go into this fight willingly. Too bad for her that Handsome Jimmy and his crew isn’t going to back down without a fight. She’s pushed to take action and, in the heat of attack, she ends up chopping Jimmy’s hand off. As you might imagine, the issues increase tenfold as a result of this. She lets out a flood of emotions and memories as she lets her dad have it. He made her exactly who she is, broken and abandoned and looking for any semblance of family she can find. That’s gotten her into trouble time and time again.

Once dear old dad’s out of the picture, Faith splits and Angel goes looking for her. Trouble is, she’s not in any of her usual spots, so he’s having a hard time finding her. Turns out, she went to Drusilla. We saw indications of her major emotional problems early in the issue, but now it’s all come to a head. Faith just wants something to take away the pain. She’s tired of hurting, tired of the weight of the world resting on her shoulders, so she wants it to disappear. And that’s where we leave her this issue, getting ready to be drained of pain while Angel watches from afar. Will she go through with it? Or will Faith have to carry the burden still? We’ll have to wait until the next issue to find out.

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars


http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/03/2...angel-faith-8/

Comic Review: Angel & Faith #8

Posted by Waerloga69



Angel & Faith #8
Executive Producer: Joss Whedon
Script by Christos Gage
Art by Rebekah Isaacs
Colors by Dan Jackson
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Covers by Steve Morris, Rebekah Isaacs with Dan Jackson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 28, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

Geez… miss a couple of months of a comic book series and everything is different. Lots of introspection in this issue leads me to believe I need to go get the missing comics and play catch up. Sure, Faith is still leading the slayers around but she seems to have her hands full at it.

What makes a slayer turn on one of her sisters? It seems guilt does. Though they seemed well matched at first, Faith gains the upper hand and disarms her fellow slayer. A very sensitive Faith gives the other girl some rather helpful advice but allows her to deal with the pain in her own way, though not as she would have her do.

Returning home, we find Faith’s father, Pat Lehane, awaiting her. He isn’t going to win any father of the year awards, that’s for sure. What he asks her to do borders on ludicrous. It’s something no real dad would every beg of their child. But in the end, she shows what she is really made of, not just what others would have her be.

Angel takes a very back seat in this issue. We focus mainly on Faith and her growth, both within the circle of slayers and regarding her father. The story turns dark at the end, though we get glimpses of what is to come. The portrayal of Faith’s father is absolutely spot on for a dead beat dad, trust me on this. He is a user and gets written as such. Christos Gage shows that character in the perfect light, giving just the right amount of attention to Lehane’s persona. The art was a bit underwhelming for me, it felt a little flat and uninspired. I think it was less the linework by Rebekah Issacs and maybe more to do with the shading or coloring. But whatever it was, it didn’t detract from the focus of the comic too much. The writing kept me firmly rooted in the story.

As I alluded to earlier, I can usually stick this series in the “take it or leave it” category. Meaning it isn’t something I rush out to grab. But the story in this one is so much more character oriented that I feel like it might be worth it to just watch how Gage develops Faith. So that is how I will rank it. If you want to get a better feeling for Faith as a person and not as a slayer, pick this series up. If you are on the fence, it might not be for you… but who knows, you might get surprised like I did.

[comic fan]

Brief CBR Editorial on Buffy Season 9.

The Middle Ground #97 | How Buffy got her groove back | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

The Middle Ground #97 | How Buffy got her groove back



There were, let’s face it, numerous warning signs about Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season Nine, not least of all the way that Season Eight had turned out. But adding a second ongoing book to the line? Joss Whedon only writing the first issue instead of the first arc, because of his commitments to Marvel’s The Avengers? There was, it seemed, little possibility that the series could regain the support or excitement it had at the launch of Season Eight. And then, to quote Jarvis Cocker, something changed.

To be fair, the change had actually started with the final issue of Season Eight, which ended with a text piece from Whedon where he broke the hidden golden rule about making comics: Never admit that you’re wrong. In his trademark good humored tone, Whedon admitted that parts of Season Eight had strayed a little from what made Buffy Buffy, and had gotten so used to the idea of “It’s comics! With no budget worries, we can do anything!” that the question of “Is doing anything necessarily a good idea?” sometimes got left behind. It was a short essay that, in one fell swoop, won back a lot of the goodwill that the series had lost over its forty issue run just by being honest and recognizing some of the problems that had plagued the series throughout its run.

There was something to that, to the idea that the creators were aware of some of the things that had turned readers, turned me off the series up until that point. And yet, the nervousness about the new series remained: Two monthly series, including one starring the character many fans believed was “ruined” forever by Season Eight? Surely that would be disaster! And yet… Angel and Faith is, for me, the better of the two Buffy series these days, a surprisingly great book that jumps off from the events of Season Eight but doesn’t feel weighed down by them, with wonderful art by Rebekah Isaacs.

Buffy, too, is a surprisingly improved book. Whether it was the reaction to Season Eight or simply the new start afforded by the break and new volume, it has a focus and a level of “reality” — well, Buffy reality, at least — that the previous series didn’t, and new writer Andrew Chambliss manages to not only get the Whedon tone exactly right – The reveal at the end of #7 was spectacular, and seemed to fit in with some classic moments from the television series – but also makes it work in comic format in a way that the previous series didn’t.

There are, of course, still some problems with Season Nine, but those are more fanboy nitpicking than what was there before (Seriously, I am done with Spike already), but overall…? Buffy as a franchise has, against all odds, found its feet in comics in a way that I genuinely wouldn’t have expected to this far into its comic existence, and turned into a couple of series that I’ve found myself really looking forward to each month. Guess she somehow found a way to save her world (a lot) one more time.


ETA

Season 9 Drusilla miniseries on hold.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/...elled-for-now/

Juliet Landau’s Drusilla Cancelled… For Now

Written on April 4, 2012 by Rich Johnston

It was to have been a new spinoff title for Buffy Season 9 at Dark Horse Comics, written by the very actress that played her in the TV show.

But Juliet Landau‘s Drusilla, promoted extensively in Entertainment Weekly, to be drawn by Hack/Slash’s Tim Seeley is now off the schedules. One issue of the five part mini-series was solicited for June, but you won’t be getting even that, at least not yet, blamed on “unavoidable scheduling issues.”

Do expect more Buffy series announcements to come relatively soon, however.

Here’s how that first issue of Drusilla was solicited.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: DRUSILLA #1 (of 5)
Juliet Landau (W), Cliff Richards (P), Tim Seeley (A), Andy Owens (I), Cris Peters (C), Steve Morris (Cover), and Georges Jeanty (Variant cover)
On sale June 20
FC, 32 pages
$3.50
Miniseries
As Drusilla flees through the streets of London, her savagery is witnessed by a documentary filmmaker who becomes fixated on her. He wants to bring the story behind such a unique and mysterious specimen to the big screen! His hunt for Drusilla, past, present, and future, sets him on a path of no return!
• Actress Juliet Landau writes Drusilla!
• Follows the events of Angel & Faith #9!


Hopfully we'll have some words from Scott Allie or Dark Horse about this.He said there was to be some annnouncments in advanced of next weekends C2E2 convention next week.

We've got some more cool horror comics to announce at Chicago's C2E2 next month, along with some Buffy announcements that we should talk about in advance ...


Still this is disappointing but better to not have delays in the middle of the minieries and just put it on hold until it can be more copleted so it's released in a timely fashion.

Here's offical word from Dark Horse.Not canceled,just delayed.

http://slayalive.com/showthread.php/...1636#post91636

The previously announced Drusilla mini-series has been delayed due to unavoidable scheduling issues. We will have an update on the series status in the near future. Dark Horse will be canceling all existing orders but will resolicit the series at the appropriate time. We do apologize, but can promise both fans and retailers that there will be more news on new mini-series featuring some of the other beloved characters from the Buffy and Angelverse soon.

ETA 2

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=37981

Dark Horse Delays "Buffy" Spinoff "Drusilla" Indefinitely

"Drusilla" – the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer spinoff set to be written by actress Juliet Landau – has been indefinitely delayed by Dark Horse due to scheduling conflicts. CBR has the full story.


Fans looking for Juliet Landeau's return to Drusilla will have to wait a while

Fan favorite "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" character Drusilla may be back next week in the pages of Dark Horse's "Angel & Faith" series, but the announced mini series reuniting the character with her on screen actress Juliet Landau won't be coming on its heels.

As originally picked up on Bleeding Cool, Dark Horse has delayed the series indefinitely. When reached for a statement, a representative for the publisher had this to say: "The previously announced 'Drusilla' mini series has been delayed due to unavoidable scheduling issues. We will have an update on the series status in the near future. Dark Horse will be canceling all existing orders but will resolicit the series at the appropriate time. We do apologize, but can promise both fans and retailers that there will be more news on new mini-series featuring some of the other beloved characters from the Buffy and Angelverse soon."

The "Drusilla" series was announced with fanfare through Entertainment Weekly, and shortly after, Landau spoke with CBR saying the project was set to spin directly out of current issues of "Angel & Faith" as the actress explained "Scott [Allie] and I have been talking about this for quite some time -- ruminating and planning and finally doing it."

As for when that finally will come, stay tuned to CBR for more on the project as it becomes available.

[comic fan]

Scott Allie tweets about the Drusilla miniseries situation.

https://twitter.com/#!/ScottAllie

Georgia
@ScottAllie Oh no, Dru was canceled? I was looking forward to that! Will it be revived in the future?


Scott Allie
@Light_Watcher Hopefully!


Hopefully?

This gets stranger and stranger.Much like the Ouija board cancelation,I'm now thinking we won't find out what actually happened.