Angel

It’s been a hope of many fans of the Buffyverse ever since “Buffy Season 8” kicked off, and now that hope is finally realized. Angel gets to continue fictional life (or is that undeath?) in comic form at IDW with Angel: After the Fall. The man tapped for the writing chores by creator Joss Whedon himself will already be familiar to fans of Angel-related comics: he’s Brian Lynch, the writer of Spike: Asylum and Spike: Shadow Puppets. We’ve spoken to Lynch, and he delivers as much as he can from behind the cloak of secrecy (and pesky Wolfram and Hart contracts).

Newsarama: You’ll be working on Angel: After the Fall; how did you get involved with the project?

Brian Lynch: I wrote a comic called Spike: Asylum, based on a character from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel named, of course, Asylum. Literally the day before issue 1 came out I ran into Joss at breakfast and told him what a huge fan I was and told him that the comic book was coming out. He said he’d check it out, and hurried away before his people tackled me and made me sign certain documents saying I would never come within fifty yards of him again.

A few weeks went by and IDW Editor in Chief Christopher "Chris" Ryall sent an e-mail telling me to call him and I did and Chris proceeded to read this very complementary, somewhat life-changing e-mail from Mr. Whedon saying that he enjoyed Spike: Asylum and thinks that maybe the time is right to officially continue the Angel story and that I would be the guy to write it.

We traded e-mails back and forth for a while and eventually met up for breakfast and he told me all his ideas and I told him the one I had ("Angel should fight monsters!") and then I put some of the ideas to paper, slowly the story’s spine started to form, I’d send him an e-mail with more ideas, he’d send an e-mail back with even better ideas, it slowly but surely became the greatest story of all time and he was all "this is neat" and here we are.

NRAMA: With the involvement of Joss Whedon, this is the canoncial follow-up to the five seasons of the television series, right?

BL: Yes, it certainly is. Everything that happens in these pages officially happens to these characters. It’s pretty exciting and kind of daunting. But the script for issue 1 is ready and the first five or six issues or so are very tightly planned out and I must say, it’s a fine continuation. I think people will be pleased. And shocked. And hurt. And then pleased again. But a little hurt. But mostly excited. And a little sleepy. Because man, they stayed up too late last night.

NRAMA: Can you tell us anything at all about the plot basics or characters involved?

BL: Spike definitely enters into the story. But I must say, I’m writing who or what the story needs. It’s not about favorites at all, it’s about telling the best story we can.

And certain characters are surprising me. There is a character in the first issue that I never really "bonded" with on the show. Joss had a wonderful idea for said character in the book, so he-or-she is in the first issue, setting up his-or-her (Good Lord this is annoying, sorry) story, and it was kind of a revelation as to how cool this character really is.

I e-mailed Chris and Joss last week and told them "I just wrote character X, and I was shocked by how much fun he-or-she was to write." I told Ryall I wanted to give them a spin-off.

NRAMA: Who’s handling the art and cover chores for the series?

BL: I’ve decided I’m going to tackle it. Little stick figures with teeny tiny little stakes.

Actually, myself, Mr. Ryall and Mr. Whedon all wanted one man, Franco Urru. I have already worked on 9 issues with him (between SPIKE: ASYLUM and SPIKE:SHADOW PUPPETS) and each time he surprises me.

And I can’t wait to see his take on all the other ANGEL characters. So far I’ve only see a quick appearance of Angel, Wes and Illyria in SPIKE:SHADOW PUPPETS #2, and they weren’t really Angel and company, they were all in Spike’s version of them. Angel was dashing and young and high school jockish, Wesley was kinda nebbish and Illyria was...playing in the background. He’s gonna blow people away and if I could I would clone him so we could do ninety different projects together at once.

As for the cover artist, he’s so great a mere mortal such as myself cannot even type his name, I am not worthy (Editor’s Note: We’ll do it: Tony Harris). Just know I’ve been a fan of his for a really long time and the fact that he’s providing the covers is such an honor.

Actually this whole experience is one big honor after another. Having Joss Whedon e-mail me and say he liked me stuff was amazing in and of itself, having him ask me to continue my favorite show of all time? That’s pretty shocking. And the cover artist...it’s more than I deserve.

NRAMA: Speaking at Wizard World Chicago a few years back, Whedon insisted that the ending of Angel Season 5 was not a cliffhanger; rather it was an invocation of the theme that the good fight never really ends. How much of that notion plays out in the theme of the new series?

BL: That’s a huge part of the series. Angel and his friends took a stand because he thought it was the right thing to do. They fought the good fight even though they were probably going to lose, even though they were facing insurmountable odds. But that’s the thing about insurmountable odds...surmounting them can be quite a bitch. The series begins to tackle the fall-out of Angel’s stand, and what it cost everyone near, around, and close to him.

And there’s monsters. And much saving of days.

NRAMA: Chris Ryall at the IDW panel said that this is a “12 issue-plus” series – how does that work?

BL: It’s one long story told over the span of many, many months. I think it will be an ongoing, but there are scheduled breaks for the main series (only a month or two, tops) after an arc of the story concludes.

What we have planned during those breaks, however, is pretty amazing. Once this series begins, readers won’t be without the characters for a while. Angel is definitely back.

NRAMA: If no one has ever seen the show or read an Angel comic before, what are they missing?

BL: What I love most about the show is it’s a big epic good-vs-evil adventure, but it’s told in a way that’s highly personal. The action is great and mythology is staggeringly thought-out and impressive, but strip all that away and it’s a very tightly constructed, pitch-perfect character story. Actually, it’s five or six character stories, as each lead in ANGEL has so much going on they could carry their own series.

And on top of all that, it’s funny as hell.

Also, if someone doesn’t watch or read Angel, they’re missing out on Lorne, I’d say. Demon lounge singer? Where else are you going to find that? Does Heroes have a demon lounge singer? No way. Does The Walking Dead have a demon lounge singer? Not hardly. Someday, hopefully. And then some crazy lady will pluck out his eye with a spoon.