Buffy : Season 9

Let me start by saying…there are no spoilers in here.

Since 1994 I’ve been editing comics at Dark Horse. One of the things I’ve often said is that I stay in the job because it’s constantly new. Since 1998 I’ve been editing Buffy comics. So how friggin’ new can it feel?

Pretty new. I did Buffy comics for a while with no contact from Joss. Later, Joss was writing the comics for me. That was new. Later still, I was writing the comics for Joss, getting notes from the guy who most understood this girl who’d grown into one of my favorite characters. That was indeed a change. Now, I’m working with Joss and a talented group of writers, artists, and editors to create something…new. At the writers’ retreat in February, at Joss’s house, we argued over which characters would star in which books, with the big prize being Andrew Wells, who finally landed a significant role in Buffy, even though we kind of felt like he was needed in London, with Angel.

This process was a great thing to be a part of, experiencing the uncertainty of staring at the blank page, so to speak. But instead of a lone writer in his den, here was a group of us, looking across two years’ worth of comics we had to fill, with only a rough idea of how it would start, most of which was right there in Season 8 #40. We gobbled veggies and chips and soda—the hard stuff was reserved for later, when the work was done and Joss would break out the lightsabers and the karaoke machine. We spent much of the day seeking out the theme, the aspect of Buffy’s life that she’s finding her way through. What is it about her twenties that can be as rich in story material and as universal as Joss found high school to be in the early days of the show? We tried out a lot of ideas that day, pulled at threads, then discarded them, until, after structuring the major beats of the season, we saw it sitting right there in front of us. Just like four years ago, with Season 8, I can’t tell you what the theme is, or it’ll give away too much, too soon. But as always, it comes down to Buffy trying to understand who she is.

With Angel & Faith, launching this month from Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, relaunching next month from Joss, Andrew Chambliss, and Georges Jeanty, we’re balancing the idea of a shared universe—a phrase that makes more sense to comics readers than any other group, I guess—with stories that work on their own. We’re not trying for a grandiose crossover event, but we are telling twin stories set in the same world—and a world that’s very strange and new for its characters, who have each changed a whole lot in the fifteen or so years we’ve known them. With The Avengers demanding much of Joss’s attention, everyone is pitching in more than ever to guide this thing as a team, to make sure the pieces are all adding up, and to make sure the two main titles complement each other, without stepping on each other’s surprises—like the revelation about vampires in Buffy, and how we follow it up in Angel & Faith. From the writers’ summit at Joss’s house, to the conference calls, to San Diego’s frantic get-togethers, working with this team has been an interesting job, each of us guiding the story in our own way, confident that our collaborators will come up with something that will really pay off.

Two years from now, we’ll wrap up Season 9. I know how it ends, but I’m not telling. We’ll have a dozen or so trade paperbacks stacked up around the office, spines carefully designed to all look like they belong together on the shelf. But as much as I love having the books in my hands, as much as I never get tired of that feeling, getting there is way more than half the fun. Getting there is far more interesting than the finish line itself. The work, the new challenges, is the point, the thing you take pride in when it’s all over and the work is in your hands.

And then, I imagine, we will come up with something new.

 editor

Scott Allie