Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Since this is the month of Buffy, what better way to keep it rolling than with an exclusive DH.com interview with Buffy creator and writer for the new series, Joss Whedon. Take it away, Joss!

Dark Horse: Buffy Season 8 told exclusively in comics, how did that come to pass?

Joss Whedon: With the Marionette strike, I didn’t really see any other option. You know this already! Sheesh!

DH: What were you looking for in an artist for Buffy Season 8?

JW: A man who can lift a refrigerator with his shin-muscles. Georges Jeanty assures me he can do that, and that there is such a thing as shin muscles. Of equal but lesser importance was someone who, while capturing the likenesses, did not draw a weak-ass non-comic that reeks of licensing. Buffy is a superhero comic now. Georges mixes both abilities with a grace and power not seen since Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.

DH: How did you decide on Jo Chen for covers?

JW: I am a Jo Chen groupie. When she draws a cover, Brian K. Vaughan and I scream and faint like Beatles fans. I want her to sign me. Okay, that’s going too far. I want her to sign Brian. Seriously, her stuff is so intoxicatingly lush, so alive, plus also with the dead-on likenesses. She’s a goddess (not a cool one, not like of the Forest or the Night or anything; I think she’s the Goddess of Making a Right Turn on a Red Light, but still, that’s useful).

DH: How many issues do you plan on the series going?

JW: It started out as twenty-five. But now it’s blown up so big, I have so many ideas, so many awesome writers scrambling to get in the game, I think it could go as many as twenty-five.

DH: Had you gone another season on the TV series, how close would it have been to what you’re doing in the comic?

JW: Not so much. I would never have had Giant Dawn, and right now my favorite thing in the world is Giant Dawn. (She is also my shining star, the wind beneath my wings and the best part of waking up.)

DH: Will you bring back any of the dead characters from the show in the comic?

JW: That would be fake. I’ll bring back the maimed.

DH: Brian K. Vaughan’s writing the second miniseries; Jeph Loeb has said that he’s going to write an arc. Which other writers will you bring in on this series?

JW: You already know this! Look, if you’re gonna charge me with something, charge me. Otherwise, I’m walking.

DH: In Fray, you hinted at a closing of the door between our world and the world of demons. Are we going to see that?

JW: We won’t see the door. We may see the dumbwaiter. Factually speaking, we’ll see everything our silly, silly brains can devise. Thus the love of comics. Worlds within worlds. Earths that are Prime. Planets that are Hulk (can I say that here?). And Giant Dawn.

DH: What was the first comic you ever bought? (Or what comics did you read as a kid?)

JW: I can’t remember my first. I do remember seeing an X-Men on the stands for twenty-five cents that said "Professor X is DEAD" and the now-famous "Not a hoax!" DC was "Still only twenty cents!," hamburgers were "a nickel!," and we had to walk "four miles through the snow!" to get to "school"! So much has changed . . .

DH: As a longtime comics reader, how do you feel about the treatment of your characters in comic books?

JW: I’m indifferent. I’m not cruelty-free, if that’s what you’re getting at. I’ve tested makeup on Urkonn and dissected hundreds of Agent Brands in the fight against Green Hair.

DH: How is writing for a comic different than writing for live actors?

JW: Comics don’t question my authority. On the minus side, they suck at improv.

DH: What is your most memorable or favorite convention experience?

JW: Buying my first lightsaber. Dude, I have a lightsaber! Also catching Tenacious D right after our panel—lots of new material in that set. Hearing people cheer for the first time in my life (for me). Buying my second lightsaber. Ditching security with Aly and David B. Watching my nephew seeing his tribe for the first time. And coming in at number one: a lecture on drawing from John Buscema when I was ten. Got his and Stan’s autographs, gnarlsome!

DH: What comics have you been reading lately?

JW: Girls remains intense. Powers can’t be stopped. Or topped. Or opped. (I think I’m done there.) I need more Scott Pilgrim and I need it now. Spider-man Loves Mary Jane has surprised me with coolness. As always, Y: The Last Man rocks on. I’m forgetting something.

DH: What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?

JW: I didn’t have Halloween as a kid. Either in the city (that one that never sleeps), where trick or treating is just creepy, or upstate at the farm, where the nearest neighbor was five miles away and trick or treating required pitons and a sherpa guide. So none. So thanks ever so for rubbing my face in that memory. Punch you right in the shin-muscle, I swear to God.

But oh! We had costumes at school and one year I rigged a little scaffold to come out of the back of my shirt and was a hanged man. Shared Best Costume with a girl in catsuit. A GIRL in a CATSUIT??? I want a recount. Thanks for bringing up that memory too. Shin-muscles.

DH: Are there any new characters running through your mind that you’re wanting to create?

Well, there’d better be, or I’m as over as this interview.