Buffy : Season 9

The Whedonverse is very precious to me. It kept me sane as a teenager, and Buffy: Season 8 was my gateway drug into comics. So when the chance to talk to Whedonverse editor Scott Allie, I lost my cool and went total fangirl. Luckily, I got myself together before I met him at NY Comic Con.

I was desperate to talk with him about Buffy, so I immediately asked about what challenges he wants to see Buffy take on in Season 9. He responded that she needs to figure out what the next stage of her life will be. As he puts it, "Her life was on this trajectory that was kinda up, up, up, up and now all that’s behind her. She just has to be a girl living a life in San Francisco, and it’s like the epic scope of that part of her life is behind her, and she just has to figure out how to move forward."

Then I asked him about the pressures of dealing with such dedicated fans. As he puts it, there are many differences between each fan groups. Even the Whedon subgroups are radically different. Then he gave me a great quote....

"There have been challenges that I have publicly not done a great job with, which is part of the learning curve. You are ever aware of this very driven fan group....But if you spend too much time thinking about it, you can’t do your job."

I asked a question for my inner fangirl about if we were going to see more Sugar Shock. Allie said it was on Joss’s to-do list, but nowhere near the top. Allie did tell me that he feels like Sugar Shock is perfect just the way it is, so he doesn’t think it needs to continue. He did concide that there are places to take these characters but it is such a high energy comic, which is hard to recapture. While part of me agrees with him, part of me also pushed him to bring it back in Dark Horse Presents, where it debuted.

He did confirm that Joss wants to write some of Buffy Season 9 as soon as Avengers is finished. They also want to dedicate time to Serenity projects but Joss is just too busy!

I had reached to our fans on twitter to ask for questions. The first one came from the infamous One True B!X. He asked for details about the Star Wars/Serenity flip book. Free Comic Book Day will have one book featuring both series. While Allie couldn’t tell me too much, here is what I did find out. They have a great writer, are still confirming an artist, and overjoyed about cover artist that he had been wanting to work with. For the story I got a little bit more so.....

SPOILER ALERT!!! For Serenity Comics Continuity SPOILER ALERT!!!!

The Serenity side of the story is focused on a particular aspect of Mal, as the most loveable rouge in the galaxy. I pried about where in the Firefly/Serenity timeline this will take place and it is still in discussions. Right now, it will definitely take place after Shepard’s Tale. It is "likely" that it will take place after Float Out, so we will see either pregnant Zoe or even new mom Zoe! The story has already been pitched to Joss, and hopefully they will add Baby Washburne in!

Spoilers Are Over, It is Safe to Read Again.

The other fan question came from @JDianeAbela. She asked about Allie’s involvement with the Dr. Horrible comics. It surprised me to learn that it was actually Allie’s idea to do the Captain Hammer story in Dark Horse Presents. This was the first comic that Zack Whedon wrote. With the success of that, it was so easy to decide to do a Penny story.

On his end, Allie has been busy writing as well as editing. He has been working on B.P.R.D., and Star Wars. I was hoping for some more independent work, but nothing coming up. He did hint at something called Lightrail, that he just can’t find the time for it. When it does come to "light", it will be with artist Todd Herman.

All in all, it was a really fun chat. He was interesting to talk with, and while I probably didn’t get all of the info I should have, I am still so excited I got to meet him!