Buffy : Season 8

Hey all!

We’re back for another round, after taking a month off (since Georges didn’t pencil #24).

Rules are simple: Maximum of two (2) questions per member until your previous questions are answered. This is to account for the possibility that there may be a delay. Keep it clean, keep it civil. Simple right? Entries are welcome until I post a closing post.

I’m starting this a little early coz I’ll be hectically busy tomorrow.

Anyone who’s reading this and not a member, I’m accepting questions at wenxina@slayalive.com. Feel free to send me your questions and I’ll add them to the queue.

Alright... GO!

1. faithswatcher: How many covers for the arc ’retreat’ have been drawn, and anything juicy you can share about them?

Georges: There will be the standard 2 covers per issue and I believe that arc is 5 issues long so there’ll be like 10 covers. Spill anything? Hmmm. Oz is in it. But you knew that already didn’t you? I can tell you we get more into where Oz has been and what he’s been doing since he left in season 4. I think you’ll like it. Or hate it if you were a big Oz and Willow fan. Yes, in theory covers are done way before the book gets done. I wish I were faster because then I’d be so far ahead I’d be on season 9 by now, but I have done the covers for the next 5 issues.

2. AndrewCrossett: There’s been a lot of excitement over your great cover art for #26. Does it illustrate an actual scene in the book, or is it a made-up scene to show all the characters together in one place?

Georges: Not the cover as such. The cover is more of a metaphor to show that everyone is together again (the first time in Season 8) and they are in intimate danger. There are a few panels where everyone is in the scene. What a headache that was trying to do all the likenesses! That’s going to be a good issue when you read it. Yes, it does get everyone together. Jane Espenson, the writer, wanted to bring everyone together and start bringing the story back to its focus. Slayers and Twilight. I was telling Jane when I read the script that she forgot to put in the kitchen sink in the story but managed to put in everything else!

She is such a good writer, and I think her and Joss work well together so this issue just flowed really well.

3. Wyndam: On your cover for #26 (which I love) did you draw Faith’s weapon to look specifically like her knife from Season 3, or is that just a coincidence?

Georges: Yes. I wanted to give everyone a quick reference and put in things that might suggest something about their character. But all I could think of the Scythe and Faith’s Knife. It started out with a good idea but all I could do in the end was give everyone else swords. Like I’ve said before, I try to put in things that I think the fans (like me) might get.

4. Wyndam: Do the emblems/patches on Buffy and Faith’s shoulder (on cover for #26) mean anything specifically, or are they just a part of their outfit? Since they both have one and are so close together, it seems like there may be a reason for it.

Georges: Wow that is deep. I can totally understand you asking that question because that is something I would do. In this case, though, it’s just part of the jacket. Patches seem to be the "in" thing this year so I was just trying to make our Slayers more hip. Looking back at it, I should have put something clever on the patch.

5. bamph: In your interview with iFANBOY from ECCC09 you mentioned,"More "shockers" like Buffy in bed with Satsu "will be coming up."Did you mean more shockers related to Buffy and Satsu specifically or more shockers in general?That things are coming up that will cause as much a jaw dropping reaction as Buffy in bed with Satsu did but not necessarly related to Buffy/Satsu?

Georges: I think my jaw dropped a few times when Joss told me about some of the things that are coming up. I don’t know if we can surpass Buffy in bed with another woman, but there are some things coming up that you will either cheer or hate. Buffy is still going through her personal growth and that will continue, but I would advise anyone who was thinking of dropping the title not to do so. The whole Twilight thing is worth sticking around for, as it is. And it won’t be a situation where it gets revealed in the last issue, there are consequences that will need tending to.

6. bamph: Some characters took you longer to feel comfortable drawing and finding your groove.How has Oz been?Has he come easy to draw or harder than other Buffy characters?

Georges: Oz Did start out hard to get. As always I feel like I’m learning these characters as I draw them but I think Oz is coming along. In a weird way I’m drawing other characters from the Whedonverse in this book. Dichen Lachmen plays Sierra on the Dollhouse show and in Season 8 right now our gang spend a lot of time in Tibet. Dichen is Tibetan so I am using her as reference for the character of Bay.

More and ore, I am becoming comfortable with all the characters. I think I will have finally gotten it right around issue 40…

7. hitnrun017: The way Buffy looked in Living Doll, with the hat, was just adorable and 100% Buffy. Did you come up with that?

Georges: I’m always trying to have these characters with a look. I have tried to vary Buffy’s look in this season and I have been waiting for a while to put a hat on her. A good friend of mine, Crystal Shand, helps me out when I need season 1 through 7 help. I wrote her one day sayin "didn’t Buffy wear a hat at some point in the season..." She then looked around and told me the episodes where Buffy did have a hat on (one of the advantages of having a fanatical Buffy fan!) I was really happy to have put her in that hat. It’s a small thing but I like that sort of stuff.

8. wenxina: Georges, last we spoke, you had mentioned that you were right at the end of finishing off #26. How far into the "Retreat" arc have you finished?

Georges: I’m on issue 28 at the moment and should have that done by the end of the month. We are trying to stay a few issues ahead so that I can do all the issues till the end or the season (fingers crossed). Now that we are more than half way through, the pressure’s on me to keep this train moving. Off in the distance I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But ask me this question again in 6 months and see what kind of answer you get!

9. wenxina: Who came up with the design for the Thricewise? Did Joss give you and Jo Chen a detailed description as to what a Thricewise looked like, or did one of you just decide to give it "lips"?

Georges: No one was sure if we were going to see the Thricewise demon again so everyone on staff just assumed he was human the way he appeared in issue 10, like maybe he was a Warlock something. I always thought that he was a sort of a demon, so when it was announced that he would appear in the book again I took the task of drawing what I thought he would look like in his real form. Joss looked at what I’d done and said ‘I figured him to be human but we can save all these drawings you’ve done and put them somewhere else’ (some designs of which you’ll get to see in upcoming sketch books!) Then he thought about it some more and said, "y’know what, that would be kind of cool to see him as a demon of some sort embracing Dawn". From there the production staff decided on one of the drawings I had done, and there he was!

10. AndrewCrossett: You were recently on a convention panel with Felicia Day and Tom Lenk. Did you get to talk to them at all about the comic, and how they feel about the way their characters are portrayed?

Georges: That was the Starfury event in England. That was a blast! Yeah, I couldn’t believe I was sitting there with these 2 stars that I’ve watched over and over in Buffy! I know it’s a cliché to say, but they look just like they look in real life as they do on screen. We had wicked fun that weekend. Tom wasn’t supposed to be there but he had family in the area and he was going to be in town the same time as the show so the promoter, Sean Harry said, come on by! They were both aware of the comic of course, and I was a little nerved because I am knee deep in drawing Andrew at the moment, so it was strange to look over and there he was, in the flesh. I was taken back with their responses because they were geeking out because I was a comic artist and I was like, but you guys are the stars! They really like what they’ve see so far.

11. cheryl: In issue # 25, that came out today, Xander had some lines that resembled something another character would say (Spike). Can you say anything about why that seems to be happening with the characters?

Georges: I’m not sure what lines you mean, Cheryl. If there seems to be a subtle change in Xander that’s because in Season 8 he’s become more of the leader. He jokes about being Nick Fury with the eye patch and all t that is a fair assessment of who he is becoming. He’s still the bumbling lovable geeky Xander that we all know and love, but he’s also fulfilling his destiny as a leader, I think. We are just starting to see more layers in these characters in season 8 just as we saw in seasons 1 through 7. This is the first time that we’re really seeing them as adults out in the world. They are becoming more mature and realizing their place in a world with demons.

12. cheryl: How much longer before we have a pretty good idea who Twilight is?

Georges: That will be an arc all by its self. I think it’s the arc after the Oz arc, but certainly before the season ends, for sure. It won’t be one of those where Twilight takes off his mask in the last panel of the last page of the last issue of the season8. There will be ramifications about who Twilight is just as we have been leading up to (and dropping clues about). So to answer your question, you’ll have an excellent idea who Twilight is.

13. Jay: As of Issue 25, which panel (from #25 or any previous issues) are you MOST proud of?

Georges: Panels? In general I’m usually more happy in how a scene plays than an individual panel. There is a 2 page scene with Buffy and Giles coming up in issue 26 that I was really proud of. I just feel like I nailed the characters and their mannerisms. Panel wise, I’m really happy with any panel that I have really captured the character. I think I;m getting better at Oz. There’s a nice scene with him and Willow coming up that I really feel captures the emotion I was trying to interject from Jane’s (Espenson) script.

14. Jay: And what is your favorite season of Buffy and Angel?

Georges: I know I’m in the minority here, but if push came to shove and I couldn’t say all of the seasons, because I do, I love all the seasons, I would have to say season 6. It just had so much emotion and depth and change that I think it showed you how much more than a TV show Buffy was. She, and the other characters, become real for me in that season. And it also had an opportunity to do things you can only do when you’ve been on for a few years, you can really go back and examine the characters from where they started out to where they ended up. Dark Willow is a story you couldn’t have told in the first 3 seasons. That’s a story you can only get away with when you are emotionally invested in your characters and then your reaction to their turnabout (or in this case evilness)and you understand it but have a huge emotional reaction to. You really have to had invested time in characters like that. I love when you can do that. That’s why I feel the ending of MASH was as emotional as it was. You cared about these characters!

15. iloveromy: What is your connection to fashion? I can’t get over how awesome some of the clothes you design for the characters are. Your eye for style is so varied. How or do you keep up with fashion trends?

Georges: Catalogs, honey. Catalogs. I am constantly looking at Anthropologie, Guess, Urban Ouffitters, and Oilily, to name a few. Buffy’s majority of readers are women. I know full well that women look at fashion. I know I would get my ass chewed out by you guys if I just kept Buffy in a t-shirt and jeans. I really try to impress upon these characters what I think they would wear. In some cases it’s really clever, watching the show, I realized that Willow wore a lot of clothing with flowers and stuff on them. Then I realized, yeah, of course, she’s a Wicca and they worship the Earth so it would seem only natural to have her dress like that. Buffy has been the hardest because in the back of my mind I’m always thinking when the hell these girls have time to go shopping in Season 8?! Joss was willing to that fact slide and said just put them in what you think they should wear. You’ve proven yourself at this point, I trust you. Very high praise, and one I take seriously, therefore I am constantly looking at women’s fashions at store… even when I’m shopping for myself, I’ll look over and ask myself, would Buffy wear that? It can get very confusing at times…

16. weredog: Your penciling in "A Beautiful Sunset" is what I would consider to be your best work on Season Eight so far. What issue do you personally feel most satisfied with? (Don’t be modest ;))

Georges: I really liked that issue. It’s such a treat to get to draw an issue written by the man himself and I don’t think Joss and I worked together in a script since the Long Way Home, so the stakes were high, at least for me. And I just felt I Knew whereJoss was coming form. The only thing I might have changed about that issue is someone from Scotland wrote in and said he had never seen anywhere in Scotland that looked like what I had drawn. I would have taken my time and done more research for that. But I think the emotional factor was really high in that issue and that’s what I was concentrating on. I think the scene I like best is when Buffy sits with Satsu in the infirmary and they have a really good moment (a shadow of things to come…) One thing I put in that scene that didn’t make the printed page, which I totally understand, was Satsu was wearing the shirt that says “Joss Whedon is my Master Now.” It would have taken you out of the scene and that should never be the case. When I put little ‘extras ‘ in I try to make sure they won’t take away from the scene. That issue was just a really nice one-shot that I was very proud of. No modesty needed. When something works well I want to shout it of the highest tower. I always feel very very populer…lar.

That’s it folks. Thanks for playing this round... we’ll be back in... July!