Joss Whedon

Next month Dark Horse Comics is re-launching Buffy the Vampire Slayer in comics form, with Joss Whedon serving as “executive producer” and writer, along with a sterling number of fellow scenarists, among them writers for the live-action versions of both Buffy and Angel. This is the first of a several part interview with Joss, which begins with the reasons behind his becoming so involved with comics, having launched Astonishing X-Men, preparing to take over Runaways and, of course, returning to the Buffyverse that he created.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Hey, it’s the 10th anniversary of Buffy. Have you given that much thought?

JOSS WHEDON: Not so much. If I do, it will suddenly make me realize my age. It’s 10 years later and people still remember it, so I guess that’s something.

GEEK MONTHLY.COM: I thought by now we’d have some kind of Buffy movie or something.

JOSS: I thought so, too, and the ways that that did not work out were yet more lessons in the wonder that is television.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Do you think there’s any chance of it, or is that concept pretty much dead for the time being?

JOSS: Never count anything out, because you just don’t, but it’s not something I’m spending my days trying to make happen anymore.

buffycomic.JPGGEEKMONTHLY.COM: You seem to have embraced comics fully. What’s behind that move?

JOSS: I call it my Merry Marvel Mid-Life Crisis. You basically write a script and about a month later somebody has done all the other work for you. I miss the turnaround on TV. I’ve been working at movies, which has been alternately rewarding and frustrating, but you don’t really see anything. I really like to do more rather than less. At the same time, I’m still kind of afraid of the TV world because of the one-two punch of Firefly and Angel. Honestly, I love that kind of serialized storytelling, and comics is the way to sort of do it on the fly. It’s actually been a little too much. Eventually I’m going to have to pay that mortgage, so I’m going to have to get a “real” job.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: That’s what I was going to ask - is this paying enough where you can afford to not write films or TV shows?

JOSS: Of course not. We get the check from Marvel and my wife just laughs and laughs. I do plan to jump back into other media, but I do love comics as much as I love other forms. Not in terms of finances, but in terms of my life, creatively, I’m putting my heart into this as much as I have into anything. It’s a privilege to be able to work with these characters and these artists. It’s a big deal to me.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: You say you’ll have to do these other forms again. Is TV something you want to go back to?

JOSS: I’d love to do TV, because I just think it’s the most beautiful way to explore the human condition. You can just go on with the characters and watch them grow in a way that, as much as I love them, you can’t do with films. It’s in my blood, figuratively and literally. I absolutely want to return to it, but I’m very skittish. I’m not the kind of guy who can throw something against the wall and then go, “Oh, that didn’t work. What’s next?” If I invest that much in it and the network just goes, “Nah,” I’m not interested. So I’m looking for a different kind of paradigm; I’m looking for a different kind of way of telling stories. The way things are changing right now, it’s a very weird time. Sometimes a weird time can be useful, as it was for me when the WB was starting to find its identity; and sometimes a weird time can be not so useful.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: How do you define a weird time?

JOSS: Like when reality hit, and now there’s no such thing as a fall season, everybody is putting things on Tivo, there’s the Internet and everyone is asking, “What is the new media? How is it going to work?” It can either make the networks take chances, or a network can entrench. I’m just hearing all of these horror stories from my friends who are in the trenches and especially since I have a family now, I’m not interested in being beaten with sticks, which is basically what getting a pilot off the ground is like.