Buffyfest Interviews Elisabeth Rohm

As you all full well know, actress, writer and activist Elisabeth Rohm graced our screens as Kate in Angel's first season. We recently caught up with her and she was nice enough to give us a few minutes to chat and catch up on old times.

First and foremost, we wanted to know about how cool working on the freshman year of Angel must have been and how it was working with the cast. "Mostly I just remember how loyal and protective David was....he's such a great person...always had my back."

As far as the character of Kate, if she had remained part of the show, "She would have probably continued being much like she was, but really being an ally to Angel." Ever wonder if she received any hate mail from fans at the time who were afraid that Kate would be Angel's next blond? Rohm confirmed that luckily never happened. See? 'Shippers can be reasonable at times.

Moving on to the present, on Kate's super-skin tight outfits in the comic continuation of Angel, Rohm commented, "I love the comics! She's hotter than I was! I love that! I'm all about being a super hot action hero!"

Elizabeth Rohm is definitely a fan of the Whedonverse, too. She watches reruns of the shows and elaborates " I love Angel, Buffy and all things Joss Whedon. I'm a fan first!" Not only is she a fan of the shows, but she's also inspired by us, her fans who continue to give her support. She spoke to us about her upcoming event at Wizard Annaheim and her in-person interactions with the fan community. "I am so grateful to my fans. I am there for them and they are there for me pushing all of this forward! The fans are awesome and I count on them!" Besides fan events, she's a big fan of Twitter saying, "I love tweeting with fans. I really appreciate having a way to stay connected!"

Elizabeth has a few new projects coming out, including a thriller by John Singleton called Abduction where she shares the screen with another supernatural hottie, Twilight's favorite werewolf, Taylor Lautner. "I'm a huge fan of John Singelton," Rohm shared, "so Abduction was a personal milestone for me. John is such a master! I'm sure it's going to be a great film!"

As if she's not busy enough, she's working on her 2nd novel, Desire which is being released soon. As for the writing process, "Desire has stayed pretty close to my original thought...I hand write and then type. Very slow process!!!"

Thanks again, Elisabeth Rohm!

(Spoilers) Exclusive Interview with Buffy S.9 Writer Andrew Chambliss

Cover by Jo Chen
Click to Enlarge

If you've been chomping at the bit for some more Buffy comic news, today's been a good day. Wonder Con's Dark Horse Panel just introduced Andrew Chambliss as writer for Buffy Season 9. We've got a great interview below, where the man himself spills the beans on the direction of Season 9, and more. Check out how his "Geek Street Cred" really shines through this interview!

Buffyfest: Although you've been part of the Whedonverse since Dollhouse was on the air, we want to welcome you to the Buffyverse, Mr. Chambliss! Thanks so much for talking with us. Set the stage for us: How were you approached about writing Buffy Season 9?

Andrew Chambliss: I'd been working with Jed and Mo on the Dollhouse miniseries when I got an e-mail from Joss saying he'd heard good things from them about my “Dollhousery”. He then asked if I'd be at all interested in working on Buffy Season 9 with him. It didn't seem like much of a question to me. The chance to work with Joss? In comics? About Buffy? Umm, yes please. And here I am. Okay, there might have been a few intermediate steps, but that's how it all started.

Buffyfest: Great story! In terms of your intro in the Buffyverse, how did you prepare for Season 9 once you got the news you were writing it?

AC: I'd already read the first three or four trade paperbacks of Season 8 over the past year or so, but I'd fallen behind as my life started to get busier and busier. After Joss emailed me about working with him, I quickly ran out and bought the rest. I read the entire season cover to cover two or three times. I also pulled my Buffy DVD set off the shelf and started watching my favorite episodes -- both to remind myself of the world and to start planting the characters' voices in my heads. Joss also held a Buffy summit at his house with Season 8 writers to brainstorm ideas for Season 9 and the Angel and Faith series. Getting to spend an afternoon with people like Joss, Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg. Geek heaven.

Buffyfest: Oh, to be a fly on that wall! Now that you're at the helm, which character are you most excited to write and why?

AC: It may seem the obvious choice, but I'm going to have to say Buffy. Going into season 9, she's in a really interesting place – she always thought she was going to die saving the world, but now that she actually survived, she has to face her real life (don't worry, they'll still be lots of slaying). And at the same time, she's watching her friends move on with their lives, and has to deal with the fact that the Scooby Gang might not be there to help her like they used to be.

I'm also excited to write Andrew because I can unabashedly let my inner geek shine through him. And I think this is the first time I will have written a character that shares my name.

Buffyfest: What about a character that you're disappointed you won't get to write with Giles dead, Spike off in his Bug ship and Angel and Faith moving over to the Angel title?

AC: Of course, I'm disappointed that I won't get to write Giles. If I learned anything from writing Adelle on Dollhouse, it's that British characters are fun to write. Maybe it's because you can add completely unnecessary letters to their dialogue, in words like “colour” or “aluminium”. Speaking of British accents, I can safely say that Spike won't be on his bug ship for very long. He'll definitely be a part of Buffy's Season 9 life.

Buffyfest: Let’s go back to Season 8 for a minute. Fans have had a lot to say about Buffy's move to comics. How about you? How did you feel about Buffy Season 8?

AC: I'm a big fan of Season 8. I think comics was the perfect medium to tell a story with the scope that Season 8 needed -- how else would you tell the story of Buffy struggling to lead an army of hundreds of slayers, except in comics? Even though the scope was often bigger than anything that could ever be produced on television, Season 8 still felt like it was the show – the voices were spot on, the writing was clever, and at the end of the day, it always came down to character.

Buffyfest: Okay, let’s talk art. Who’s the Season 9 artist and how has working with him/her been?

AC: Georges is returning for season 9, which makes me all kinds of happy. I loved his work on season 8, and have been impressed with what I've seen for Season 9 so far. The thing that constantly blows me away is how much thought he puts into everything he does. Recently, he sent us rough concept art for one of the covers – not only did he have 8 really cool cover ideas for a single issue, but he also had detailed explanations for each one. Right now, we're just getting started working together, but I know I'm going to love the experience.

Buffyfest: You've written comics for Heroes in the past, talk a little bit about your writing process for comics and the difference between comic writing and television writing.

AC: For me, television writing generally starts with the dialogue and builds from there. It's often an auditory medium before it's a visual medium. How many times do people listen to the TV while doing something else in another room? Comics are always a visual medium first, so I often have to remind myself to think visually just as much as I think about the dialogue. There's as much – if not more – that you can tell the reader through the art than captions or dialogue. Which reminds me of the best part about comic book writing – I never have to worry if anything I write is too expensive to draw. In television, you always end up having to scale back to meet the budget of the episode. But in comics, if you can write it, the artist can draw it. It's really freeing, especially when you're writing about things like demon armies or the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles cityscape.

I'm still fairly new to writing comics, so there's a lot I'm learning along the way. But, luckily, I'm writing under the watchful eye of Scott and Sierra who have been great in helping me figure out what works in comics and what doesn't.

Buffyfest: What about the big man himself? How will the co-writing work with Joss? Will you write all the issues or split the work load with him?

AC: Joss and I have been doing most of the story breaking over e-mail and the phone (I think he's busy with a movie or something). We're splitting the script writing duties at the moment and hope to continue to work that way as we continue to write the season.

Buffyfest: Any spoilers you'd like to share for the Season 9? Please?!

AC: They'll be some new characters introduced early on in the season. I won't give away too much, but one of them includes a hunky demon who served time in a mystical prison.

Buffyfest: That’ll definitely have people talking! With the announcement that there will be two main titles under the banner of Season 9, are you working with the Angel series writer to crossover the two stories?

AC: At the moment, we don't have any large crossovers planned, but we'll most likely send certain characters off to one another between both series.

Buffyfest: Switching to Dollhouse, what's the inside story on how you got the writing job for the show?

AC: I'd met at both Fox and 20th shortly after the WGA strike ended, and the executives there told me that they were sending my material over to Joss to read for Dollhouse. Cue the excitement, nerves, and whatever other neurotic behavior you can imagine. And then nothing. A month later, when I had finally forgotten that Joss might be reading my script, I got a call from my agent telling me that I was meeting with Joss the next afternoon (turns out it took him a while to read my script because he had been busy shooting something called Dr. Horrible). Cue the excitement, nerves all over again. The Dollhouse pilot script was delivered to my house that evening, I read it, and stayed up half the night working on pitches.

I met with Joss, Liz Craft and Sarah Fain the next afternoon. I pitched a bunch of ideas that Joss must have liked (which included Victor/Topher – some thing I was super happy to see land in season two) because I got a phone call from my agent saying they were offering me the job as I was driving home from the Fox lot. Twenty-four hours later, I was working on the show. I can still remember how surreal it felt at the time.

Buffyfest: Wow, that’s an amazing story, but there was obviously not a happy ending. From a writer's perspective, was it frustrating working with the network amidst all the problems at the time?

AC: It's always frustrating to have to change course when you really believe in something. The original Dollhouse pilot (it's on the first season DVD – watch it!) was really cool and set the stage for where Joss ended up taking us with “Man on the Street”, but the network was worried that the pilot came at the premise sideways and wanted something that felt a little more stand-alone.

Buffyfest: What are you most proud of when it comes to your storytelling on Dollhouse?

AC: There are things that I love about every episode of Dollhouse I worked on, but overall I think I'm most proud of the first episode I wrote for the show – “A Spy in the House of Love”. It was such a fun ep to write because each act really was its own self-contained story, and I really got to build to some huge character moments for everyone – Paul's realization that Mellie was a sleeper doll, Adelle opening up for the first time to someone who doesn't even exist, and Echo starting to own her burgeoning individuality. I think the fact that “Spy” was also my first episode of produced television adds to my fondness for it.

I'm also really proud of “Epitaph 2”. I was over the moon when Joss asked me to co-write the script with Jed and Mo. First off, because Jed and Mo are awesome to work with. Secondly, because I was going to have the opportunity to say goodbye to all these characters I had grown to love. And finally, it was post-apocalyptic – and who doesn't want to write a post-apocalyptic script? Everybody does. Especially when you throw in a Mad Max-style semi driven by people called “Freakshows”.

Buffyfest: And what story do you wish you could have told before the show ended?

AC: I would have loved to have been able to tell the story of how Topher ended up working at the Dollhouse. His arc from amoral, arrogant scientist to someone who was willing to give up his life to undue the damage his creations had caused was really interesting to me. I would have loved to have shown where Topher began that journey. I had outlined an episode where Topher had to "brain-nap" his former college mentor, and though we scrapped the episode for some very good reasons, I would have loved to have been able to tell that story in a later season.

Also, a post-robocall season 3 would have been a blast to write for TV. But that's why we have comics!

Buffyfest: You've moved from Dollhouse to the very popular Vampire Diaries. It's no secret that vampires are popular right now, so how do you approach the idea of a "good" vampire?

AC: For me, writing "good" vampires is actually a lot more interesting than writing bad vampires. They're in constant conflict between who they are – someone who wants to be good – and what they are – creatures whose instincts are too kill.

Buffyfest: A lot of people have compared Damon and Stefan to Spike and Angel. Do you see the comparison?

AC: I can see why people make the comparison. Stefan and Angel are both characters who strive to be good despite their dark pasts, and Spike and Damon often want to be bad in spite of the good that can't help but come to the surface.

Buffyfest: Any spoilers or scoops you can give to our Vampire Diaries fans out there?

AC: I'm going to stay tight-lipped, but the end of the season will be epic.

Buffyfest: Okay, we’ll just have to wait and see! So, let's finish with some fun fan questions. How did you get into Buffy?

AC: I remember watching the early seasons of Buffy when I was in high school, and never did the thought cross my mind that I might be writing in that universe at some point in my future. When I started to get interested in television writing a few years later, I began to watch the show much more carefully, and that's when I realized just how incredible it was. At that point, I was hooked.

Buffyfest: Was there a particular moment that made you think, "This is more than just an ordinary TV show”?

AC: There are so many moments, but if I have to pinpoint one, I think I'd say Angel losing his soul in season two.

Buffyfest: What about favorite season of the show?

AC: This is tough, but I think I'm going to say season 6. Spike and Buffy. The Trio. Dark Willow. In fact, I think I'm going to go watch some Season 6 right now.

Buffyfest: Us too! Before you go, though, anything you'd like to say to Buffy fans before Season 9 starts?

AC: Just thank you for welcoming me to all things Buffy!

Buffyfest: Thanks again for taking the time to speak with us. We're looking forward to the story you're going to tell in Season 9!

Illyria #3 Micro Interview with Mariah Huehner

Buffyfest: We get to see lots of new and unique creatures and demons in this issue.  What was the inspiration for them?

Mariah Huehner: I think the first thing we wanted was to open up the world a bit. When you revisit something like The Deeper Well you can't just rehash what's come before. Even though it's a place with a very painful history, it had to offer something new or it would look like a cop-out. So it was really important that we give it a new dimension, a new atmosphere in certain ways, which included new creatures.

Characters like the Cephaladogs (that's what I call them, anyway) were mostly inspired by my ridiculous love of octopi and squid, Henson creatures from shows like Farscape, and a whole bunch of deep sea doc's I'd been watching. I figured making creatures that would be connected to Illyria and allow her new dimensions was a fun way to blend my absurd admiration for squidly octopi and a very necessary character arc. Plus, since Illyria's Old One form had tentacles, it made for a nice call back and a way to make them distantly "related".

Buffyfest: The new Keeper of the Deeper Well is not what Illyria (or the audience) might expect.  Would you tell us a little bit about her, who she is and where the idea for her came from?

MH: She's kind of a blend of Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (one of my all-time favorite characters), my grandmothers, and Miss Marple (the knitting, spectacles, and tea are all a nod to her). I wanted to have the new Keeper be something completely and entirely different than The Drogyn, with a unique attitude and style. Physically, I wanted her to be the polar opposite of Sally from issue #2 and be exactly the sort of creature Illyria would underestimate along with the audience. We never tell you what she is, or even who she is (she's never named). She's mysterious on purpose, to keep you wondering. Especially about how it is she knows the things she does. What was really incredible, though, was how perfectly Elena drew her. It was like she read my mind, although obviously I did describe her in the script. But I'd done a sketch of her myself that I never showed Elena, of the characters face, and it's a dead ringer. Getting those pages in was a delight.

The other thing I wanted to avoid was being obvious with the new Keeper. Which would have been to make it some kind of warrior Illyria had to fight. I think that's really easy with Illyria and gets in the way of her development sometimes. As much fun as it is to see her break things, I'd rather she do it with some kind of purpose. And since this series is about her needing to address her place in the world, it seemed important to me that she interact with different personalities without always punching things. Between Sally and the new Keeper we get two very distinct female characters, too. And they both help Illyria in their own ways.

Buffyfest: Let's talk feminist subtext.  The only speaking characters in this issue are two women (for lack of a better term).  Was that intentional?

MH: Yes, it definitely was. I wanted to have an issue that would pass The Bechdel test, where there are two main female characters who talk about something besides men. Usually that's in film, but I thought it would make for a good challenge here. We've very rarely seen Illyria in a context that doesn't involve one of the male characters, and usually her story revolves around them in some way. Which makes sense in the main series since everyone revolves around Angel to some degree, but, I wanted this to really be -her- story. And while I know she's this kind of amorphous, not really gendered character, she appears in a female body to the world. So some of how she's perceived has to do with the shell she's in, and it influences how other characters treat her. Which then influences how she views them.

This feeling of otherness is one of the main themes I wanted to explore in the series, from a feminist perspective. Feeling out of place in the world, alien in your own body, somehow inherently wrong. Illyria commented in the series about feeling like the wrong size, for instance, and being cut off from the world she understood. Those always felt like metaphors to me, while also being literally true for the character. Obviously not just women feel that way, but it's one of the ways I identify with the character and one of the core issues she's been dealing with since the beginning. So it felt right to make it a major element of her arc.
 

Buffyfest: Illyria speaks in another language here.  Was this language derived from anything that already exists?

MH: Yes! The big influence is Elvish, although phonetically, I didn't attempt to spell anything like Tolkien did. I love the lyric quality of that language so I based a number of words loosely on how certain Elvish ones sound. There are also a lot of anagrams, such as Tirmek! That's Kermit with the letters rearranged. Because he's my favorite muppet and I love him dearly.

Buffyfest: There's a huge shift in Illyria's character that's expressed mostly in half thoughts and Elena's art, would you elaborate on what's happening to Illyria during this sequence?

MH: It's really two things. 1. A profound realization of who she's been, who she could be, and who she actually is. What it cost, why it matters, and what's to come. It's a moment of sort of excruciating insight, of bringing everything together that she's been feeling, dreaming, and questioning. 2. A reclamation, but you won't know of precisely what until #4.

When she reaches out to touch the stone she's mirroring what Fred did in A Hole in the World (which has been a theme throughout) and the curiosity that partly led to her death. I wanted to show Illyria having some of that same curiosity, being drawn to something beyond herself, and experiencing an emotional shift and a certain kind of "ending". It's deliberately abstract and vaguely poetic, since I don't think you can describe something like that in any kind of linear, clear way. Illyria is a bit of a self-important character, which makes her perfect for expressing your own existential dread. Not to mention the subtle physical alterations that indicate the inner changes visually.

What I hope the scene accomplishes is the idea that Illyria's awareness has shifted, or is at least starting to. She sees herself and the world in a different way, which culminates in issue #4. And it's these moments combined that shape her arc.

Exclusive Interview: Scott Allie on the Road Behind and Ahead for Buffy

Wow, it's been a long, strange trip. There's been ups, downs and outright wars - so basically, it was like any other season of Buffy. And just like other seasons, there's something bitter-sweet about saying goodbye to the gang for awhile. Luckily, we spoke with Scott Allie, editor and writer of the season, to keep the fire from going out for just a little longer.

Buffyfest: So, we’ve come to the end of Season 8. It’s been a long haul with many ups and downs. What is your most memorable moment from the past 4 or so years?

Scott Allie: When Joss emailed to tell me, "You're officially cowriting the finale with me." Or the moment that I realized, in a meeting with Marketing, that we hadn't shown issue #12 to Fox. 

Buffyfest: Those sound memorable! Now, in this final issue, we find Buffy living in San Francisco. Who's idea was it to set Buffy up in SF for Season 9?

SA: Pretty sure that was Joss. He had a pretty solid idea of where she'd wind up after this. 

Buffyfest: What about that city made sense in the decision? 

SA: Lotta stuff. It's a good place for a girl in her twenties to restart her life, and that's what she has to do. It's a meaningful place for a young person to head to. Plus she's gonna look really good doing the Batman thing hopping around those particular rooftops. We liked the idea of keeping her in California, but striking out to new ground. And we felt like San Francisco was a city that was up for grabs, in terms of superheroes. Lot of factors.

Buffyfest: Now that we’re at the end of the season, how much time has passed from the beginning of Issue 1 to the end of #40?

SA: I don't know. We haven't spent two minutes talking about that, to be honest. It's not long—it's not four years. Mostly things moved along pretty quick, although they were in Tibet a lot longer than it took to read those issues. But mostly things moved ahead without a lot of time passing. So maybe it's been a year, somewhere around there.

Buffyfest: One of the most asked questions in the forums is “Who's the prince?” Is this something we should have figured out already or is there more to come on this in Season 9?

SA: No comment.

Buffyfest: We'll take that "No comment" as "There are a lot of comments I can't share". Getting into specifics of issue #40, who's the bleeding guy on page 23? If you can't tell us, can we at least get a hint?!

SA: "Bleeding"? Is it his blood, or someone else's? Find out in Season 9.

Buffyfest: Oooh! Ok, moving on to the big break-up of the issue. Does Kennedy know that Willow's a cheating slimeball and, if not, do you think she would feel differently about their break-up if she knew the truth? 

SA: I don't think she knows, but we could alter that depending on how we set things up at the beginning of Season 9. I think more info for Kennedy can only make her feel worse. Willow's not at her best.

Buffyfest: No she is not, but Faith is! She gets Giles’ belongings, but Giles still gives Buffy the title of THE Slayer even in death. Is your interpretation of Giles leaving Buffy the "Vampyre" book the same as Faith's?

SA: My interpretation is different than Faith's. Faith's right, but there's more to it than that. Giles wouldn't give it to Buffy to burn Faith. Giles was a smart guy.

Buffyfest: Even though Faith is helping Angel, she seems reluctant to do so. Has she forgiven Angel or is she just doing it for the good of the group?

SA: Her gratitude for what Angel did for her goes way beyond forgiving him. It's the sort of thing where you never have to say you're sorry. Faith has grown a lot this season, and she's uniquely equipped to deal with Angel now. She's up for this. And her concern is not the group. 

Buffyfest: Who's idea was it for Angel to crash at Giles' apartment in London: Faith or Buffy? 

SA: I'd say Faith.

Buffyfest: Faith has "faith" in Angel. What about you? Is there hope for Angel?

SA: Yes. I think there's always hope for people. But he really has to earn it. He has to grow from this. He has to find a new way to deal with who he is. He really has some bad karma, and I mean that far beyond him having done some bad stuff he has to make up for.

  
Buffyfest: Connected to that, we have Buffy’s last line in the issue being “Let’s Go to Work” which Angel’s iconic last line in “Not Fade Away”. What’s up with that?

SA: It's the mission statement, but it also means something real different from when Angel said it. 

Buffyfest: What story are you looking most forward to telling in regards to Season 9? Why?

SA: Oh, I don't know. There's a lot. I've been really excited about some stuff with Willow for a long time, but as we tie some things together in the early planning, there are things that get more and more interesting. We've got bits for Faith, something for Spike, for Angel, for Buffy that I'm really excited about. Angel's gonna have some of the best bits. But there are lots of things we still have to nail down.

Buffyfest: Continuing with Season 9, what’s a Buffy and Angel world going to look like without magic? Are there any loopholes we need to know about?

SA: There are loopholes. Look at the dialogue between Willow and Aluwyn in one of my issues. Aluwyn spells some things out. But the world is really different. There are both good and bad repercussions to this. 

Buffyfest: In tune with a world without magic, will we see Fray again next Season?

SA: We've talked about it, but only if it makes sense. Only if it pushes the story forward. We definitely want to bring Fray out again, but it might not have a place in Season 9.

Buffyfest: What about the alternate slayer from the issue, “The Chain”? The fairy makes an appearance in this issue, so will we see the slayer again in Season 9 or is her death imminent at the end of the issue?

SA: I've always thought of her as dying there, but it's possible she survived. 

Buffyfest: Are the titles set in stone? Last we heard at Comic Con, there are going to be Spike and Willow books, as well. Is there any more news on that?

SA: We still have some work to do. Neither Spike nor Willow are set in stone—the only things that are rock solid are the two main titles.

Buffyfest: We know that this past weekend, you had a writer's summit in L.A. to map out the story for Season 9. Can you tell us who was there?

SA: Joss, Sierra, me, Zack, Jane Espenson, Drew Greenberg, Danny Kaminsky, and a few other writers ... names we'll share soon. There were some people we were counting on spending the day with who weren't able to make it because of their busy weeks, which was disappointing. 

Buffyfest: How did the process of setting up the story go?

SA: Great. It was fun. It was educational for me, and I've got a lot riding on it. We nailed the themes, the central conflicts. Lots of details to work out, but we found the main plotlines for all the main characters, and we nailed down our starting points. We still need to do outlines, breaking the bits into a real structure. But we spent the day throwing around ideas, seeing which ones still sounded good an hour or two later, and then watching ideas overlap and reconnect. It's gonna be a weird season.

Buffyfest: Can you tell us about any great moments that came out of the meeting? 

SA: Lightsaber fights and karaoke. I didn't even think I knew the Thompson Twins. 

Buffyfest: Ha! To be a fly on that wall. Finally, any other Season 9 news you’d like to share?

SA: Just that Joss is taking a bigger role in it than we initially expected. He'll be more directly involved in the writing than I was expecting, which is a relief. But we've got some other good stuff set up, things I wish we could tell readers, but now is not the time. 

Buffyfest: Don't worry. We'll be waiting patiently. Thanks for being a part of the reason we still get to talk about Buffy. See you next Season!

SA: Thanks, Michelle—thanks for keeping the readers talking.

Buffyfest Interviews Buffy S.8 Motion Comic Creator, Jeff Shuter

Jeff Shuter is the man responsible for the animated motion comic form of Whedon and Dark Horse's notorious Buffy Season 8. This will be the 7th or 8th incarnation of the Buffy franchise, with no end in sight for our snappy slayer. All episodes of the motion comic are now out, 19 in total, and they are being compiled on DVD for release next week. We'll be giving away a few copies, more on that tomorrow.

Still can't wrap your brain around this motion comic business? Check out our conversation with creator Jeff Shuter. (I asked him if it's "Shutter" like Shutter Island or "Shooter" like Shooter McGavin. He clarified with Shutter Island.)

Following this video clip is the full text interview below:

Buffyfest: So, Jeff, how did you come to be on the Buffy Season 8 Motion Comic?

Jeff Shuter: How did this come to be? How did I get here myself? I was, I had been working in this field in this genre for about 6 years and I had an opportunity to look at this material and see how it would fit into this type of format and explore. It's all a very experimental thing. I think there's a lot of polar opinions about motion comics, about whether or not this can be brought to life in this way. And, I thought, it's a great format for this type of thing because obviously it's a series adaptation, it's a movie to a show and now this ::gestures to signage of Dark Horse's Season 8 comic.::

Buffyfest: Yes, it's been done in many forms.

JS: Yes, We have freedom, it's not as something we've taken completely from scratch and trying to bring to life. So you can look, you can find there's a reason for it. But also, it's like in terms of this material and really try to incorporate my own take to what it is, I found that in fact there was some controversy about what this comic is. I thought "I love that, I love the controversy", you know, let's find out how to bring her back in a new format.

Buffyfest: Now were you a fan of Buffy or any of Joss Whedon's works before?

JS: You know what's interesting is I watched the show, in high school, a lot of my friends were super into it. I was into it, I watched it, but I wasn't a die hard fan. So what's interesting is when I went into this, I think part of the reason I wanted to get involved is the challenge. I wanted to really come into it in terms of figuring out what exists in the comic that doesn't necessarily exist in the tv show. To a certain extent, and with the resources of what these things are, you're never going to recreate the TV show. I feel if that's what folks want, they'll get that in this, but that may not be 100% what this is.

Buffyfest: Did you go and re-watch anything?

JS: Absolutely, I watched...I was a student of Buffy for quite a while. Really just trying to get a sense of what Buffy is and Buffy is quite a lot of things. I found that going into I'd like to say that my decision in breaking down the material was mixing Season 7 with Season 1 you get to Season 8. If you are a student of numerology...

Buffyfest: 7+1=8

JS: You know...it's that simple.

Buffyfest: Interesting...

JS: That's exactly my reasoning behind it. Because to a certain extent it makes sense, right? And also because there is so much numerology takes place in what's going on. I was like "That's the best way to do it" and in Season 1 she's in high school she doesn't realize the power and she's just...she's just starting to understand the consequence of the Hellmouth. And then in Season 7 it blows wide open.

Buffyfest: Literally.

JS: Exactly! What she knows is destroyed. In fact, I even added in S.8, the very first issue of the book, I really wanted to make that connection to Season 7. So in the shot after General Voll I'm assuming you're familiar...

Buffyfest: I've seen it (laughs).

JS: No, but I mean the comic.

Buffyfest: Oh! I've read them all, of course.

JS: So in the first book, right? They're in the helicopter, they're flying over and General Voll is talking about They're terrorists" and "We don't like her ideology" and all that stuff...

Buffyfest: yep

JS:...and I wanted to add that iconic symbol of that sign falling as they go across, as the helicopter goes across.. I really wanted to make a personal statement because that, to me, was where we were going with this. The sign has fallen, we're going over that crater and now this universe, this Hellmouth has expanded.

Buffyfest: It is an impactful beginning.

JS: Exactly.

Buffyfest: Now in the world of motion comics...how is it doing? Is it getting a good reception?

JS: It's amazing, actually! It's doing really well. We started this as this little... this little digital project, you know? And we were kind of hoping we'd experience it, we were hoping we'd explore it and just invent stuff along the way and really kind of adhere to the books. That was the thing, I wanted to make the book central, that was really important to me. That's my background. That's what was critical to me coming into this. And I think what's helpful is that it shows! From what I hear and I don't know all the bean counting, per se...from what I hear it's attracting almost as well as a cable show...it's attracting much better, people are really pleased with how this is doing. I think as people start to get used to the new interpretation and it brings in new people as well, which i think it awesome. It's drawing new viewers.

Buffyfest: Now, were you at all concerned about people who were really familiar and used to the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar and everyone else...they're so ingrained. Was the voice acting a concern?

JS: No, I mean, that's a tough question because ultimately we knew that, that we were gonna, that we were going to break away from that. We wanted to find, you know, actors that could...that didn't necessarily sound the same because that's very difficult. We had limited resources making this. So we wanted to find people that had a similar identity. I wanted to find people that I felt gave a sense of what Buffy's about. And of course . I know that I'm sure that by saying that...that's going to be ripped apart likely...

Buffyfest: I don't know about that...

JS: The thing is everyone , everybody has an idea of what Buffy sounds like. I wanted to find somebody that sounded like....We found Kelly, who played the role who, I think she, talk about a lot of weight on somebody's shoulders. She pulled it off and played it wonderfully. But we wanted to find someone, Kelly has a mixture of Season 1 and Season 7. She's got the seriousness of Season 7 with the kind of spunk and kind of wide-eyedness of Season 1.

Buffyfest: Now, there is going to be 19 episodes in the end of Season 1, correct? And all compiled on DVD?

JS: Uh, that to my knowledge that is what is the case. In terms of the other stuff they're gonna be doing, that I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that it's gonna be, from what I hear they're doing a lot of stuff. it's coming packed with a lot of extras.

Buffyfest: Do you know if it's the 40 issues of the season packed into 19? Or each one is it's own episode?

JS: From what I hear and I think they're still figuring it out, I think they're still playing with ideas, they want to make it, I know they want to make it really special. They want to make it really cool.

Bitsy takes over.

Buffyfest: So, how was working with Dark Horse?

JS: Oh, well working with Dark horse, I worked with Dark Horse, I worked with the books, my involvement with Dark Horse was strictly to read...

Buffyfest: So was there input from any of the artists involved?

JS: You know what that I can't....you're asking me a tough question. That is outside of my pay grade. I have no idea how that works.

Buffyfest: Ok, that is alright.

JS: Just so you know basically, I was given the books and said learn them and learn them well. Make them beautiful and make them wonderful.

Buffyfest: Before they multiply...

JS: Exactly. To a certain extent.

Buffyfest: OK, so let's switch tacks. So you had mentioned elsewhere that you had hit the ground running for the first 4 episodes. Can you tell us about some of the challenges you faced as you were learning how to do this?

JS: In terms of the like aesthetic of the comic or learning the world?? All of the above?

Buffyfest: All of the above.

JS: I think, I was saying stuff was constantly happening and experimenting with the format, trying to see where and bringing it to life that allows the viewer to feel that at the same time they can let go! Maybe follow the world itself, just recreating that experience. That's been going on for a while, trying to figure it out. It's not necessarily new, but what's cool is that it's constant experimentation, it's constant reinvention. That's what happened here. We really were inventing. It took about a good 6, 7 weeks of just like throwing stuff against the wall trying to figure what, trying to see what stuck, what makes sense, and we went through the first I'd say like 3 or 4 issues before I really felt that what that we'd started to see the work that our crew was bringing together. It started to mold and shape. It started to get to what I felt was the open aesthetic and literary, and hopefully given those who love the canon this material, has become a poetic voice for the material.

Buffyfest: Were there any innovations that you had throughout the project that you were especially proud of?

JS: Absolutely. It was sort of a development of a sophisticated camera system, it was based on digital effect software. We figured out that what really brought this to life and what really gave us a sense of movement in this particular production was having a sense of this inside camera that maneuvered around, cut out characters built it out like a diorama like you do, like you do in first grade. We build it that way with characters and props and the backgrounds. Then we choreograph that movement to an outside camera to something that's moving hub in general. I found that when choreographed right to specific points of dialogue you really get the sense of the narrator. You really get the sense of the voice. Then it was literally just shaping that and finding in that voice to the way the actor that played Buffy spoke and to the way that the world sounded. Finding those sort of focal points and building, making that choreograph around that essentially creating Buffy! That's her voice!

Buffyfest: Was there any particular scenes that you did and you thought "That's it!"

JS: In issue 5, it's with the decoy Buffy. And it happened there because I started to really click in my mind what Buffy is, to a certain extent. You can kind of see that. It's like when you look in the mirror and you look at yourself but you see yourself in a different way, you know? It's sort of like that issue to me was putting Buffy in a mirror and seeing what she saw that deeply describes what it is to be Buffy. Then it was in that moment throughout that episode where I really felt that things came together. Let's see there's another one too where we really felt in issue 10, when we're talking about dreams and we're talking about ripples in ripples and sort of narratives within narratives, that's also where I felt that it wasn't just a sense of Buffy that was a, to a certain extent that was... it was symbolic, it was an emblem of what this Buffyverse is. Because these books are not just a continuation, I feel that they are also written for the fans too, you know? I feel they are a celebration of what this world is about. And I felt like this stuff about dreams is emblematic...that I felt things coming together because I was really playing with when I got a sense of "dreams within dreams" to how these characters relate and how their world unfolds, I started playing with the aesthetics of windows within windows and, to a certain extent, that's what I felt was the key aesthetic moving forward at that point, that became the rest of the show.

Buffyfest: It's interesting that you happened to pick those two issues because they're two of the most popular issues and two that really resonated with fans...

JS: Really? And you know I didn't even know. That's interesting...cause I went into this....you know I didn't want to do...I did diligence, obviously, I watched the series, I did diligence on the show, but I went into this not wanting to know too much. I wanted to discover it alongside of everyone who is watching. I wanted to feel like, I really feel like that comes across. I hope people don't think that's, you know, weird, but I wanted to...I feel that this work represents me as a reader, substantially, discovering what's amazing about this universe at the same time that they are. I think that I started to feel a connection with Buffy and started to have a sense of the narrator as we moved along. That's why I felt like it was really truthful, because look I can't sit here and quote every quote from the TV series I'm not going to try to, I wanted to experience it and I wanted to make that possible.

Buffyfest: Um, speaking of discovering things, there's this lovely Buffy Jones Soda, have you had chance to try any of it?

JS: I have! I have! It tastes like Root Beer and it tastes like...no it's great, it's awesome. I love Jones!

Buffyfest: Is there any particular one that you like?

JS: I like, you know what? I like them all! I have them all at home. They're great, they're cool! I think they're awesome! I like the uh, to be honest with you, the orange and cream and that's because I come from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Buffyfest: That's awesome. Thank you very much sir.

Exclusive: BIG Scott Allie Interview about Buffy #39 (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Here we are at the turn of the tide. The penultimate issue of Buffy Season 8 has arrived and if you dare to read the interview below, you probably already know by now the events that have changed Whedonverse fiction forever. You may also be asking yourself "Well, how did I get here?" We're right there with ya, buddy.

So read on fellow Whedonite, as we take a journey with Season 8 editor and Joss' co-writer of the final arc - Scott Allie - and try to make some sense of our pain.

Major Spoilers ahead! Seriously, don't read this if you can help it, spoiler fiend.

Buffyfest: Why in the hell did you guys kill Giles?

Scott Allie: You're gonna spoiler tag this, right?

Buffyfest:  Heh. So, how did the conversation between you and Joss go about this major plot point? Was this something you’ve planned from the beginning?

SA: Revealing too much about this pulls the curtain back on the great and terrible Oz a bit too much. It was planned for a while, but not from the very beginning. I will say this. I've been involved now in killing two beloved characters—Giles, and Roger from Hellboy. And both times it had everything to do with the arc of the character, and in this case, the arc of the killer.

Buffyfest: Even though Angel and Giles have had a very tumultuous relationship, there was always an underlying camaraderie in the sense that they both cared for Buffy ("Prophecy Girl", "Pangs", etc.) Can you explain why Angel was chosen as Giles' murderer?

SA: I'm like you, Michelle—I love these two characters perhaps more than others in Buffy. There are qualities about them as fictional characters that make them appeal to me dramatically, as a reader, or a writer, and that's more about their flaws than their virtues. And I agree that they had a great dynamic. They were equals in a unique sense among Buffy characters. Back in the earliest seasons, they were the adult characters, so to speak. In a sense their dynamic is why it made sense for Angel to kill Giles. They served similar roles in Buffy's life, except with Angel as the lover who couldn't really be her lover, and Giles as the father who couldn't really be her father. But the real reason is that things were building for each character to where it made sense for one to die, and the other to do the killing. If Spike could've been Twilight, it could have made sense for him to do the deed, just a different kind of sense. These relationships are so intense that whoever did the deed, it would have been uniquely meaningful. Even if it were Dawn, it would have changed the world of Buffy in a very particular way.

Buffyfest: Season 8 seems to be the adult version of Season 2. Was that the intention?

SA: No, not the intention, but I think I know what you mean. I love Season 2, and what you're saying wasn't the intention, never anything we specifically decided upon, but there's clear similarities. I think what was great about Season 2 appealed to us in the setup of Season 8, and we ran with those things. But the differences are interesting too. In Season 2, it was fairly easy to say that Angel was not Angelus, but there's more ambiguity here, in terms of how responsible Angel is for Twilight's actions. I like moral ambiguity. I find that more adult.

Buffyfest: Continuing with that thought, was the decision to have Angel snap Giles neck a shout-out to the murder of Jenny Calendar?

SA: Well, yes, that's one of the real concrete similarities. When we set that scene up, Joss said we should specifically reference Jenny's death, visually, distinctly.

Buffyfest: What would you tell fans who are now fully entrenched in the "I hate Angel" club?

SA: I'd tell 'em they've never had more in common with the characters. I could see Willow doing a hell of a lot more than turning him into a frog, if she didn't have her own problems right now. This low point that we've taken Angel to is gonna be good fodder for Season 9. People felt we let him off the hook too easily after Buffy #34, but he's not off the hook. This is interesting, to me, as someone involved in shaping his story. He's a hero, sometimes a romantic lead, who has a long, long trail of bodies behind him. Killing Giles might not be the worst thing he's ever done, but for the readers and for the characters, it's the act we're gonna be most upset about. Angel's crimes have never been brought home as sharply and as viscerally for the fans as they've been brought home this week.

Buffyfest: Where does his story go next?

SA: Season 9. There’s one more issue that will show you were people are at in the wake of all the horror, but I can’t tell you where it goes next, not just yet. We’ll spill some more info when #40 comes out. But for Angel, it is going to be about redemption—that’s sort of what his story has always been, and maybe now he needs it more than ever.

Buffyfest: As a fan, do you hate Angel for what he’s done? Or pity him for being taken over by Twilight and committing this horrible act?

SA: It's not pity, but the second option is closer to how I see him. Twilight didn't take hold of Xander. Angel was the appropriate vehicle for Twilight. So he bears responsibility for being that appropriate vehicle. I don't just mean appropriate because he's a vampire—but because he's a guy who'd sign up for a plan like this. There's a reason the talking dog went to him first, and not Buffy. I've read some interesting fan reactions to Season 8 centering on a wholly dualistic view of free will—either there is or there ain't. In fiction like this, you have to account for a certain amount of mysticism, fate, predestination, etc., because that's the genre. But you also have to allow for free will, for characters to be responsible for their actions. You can have both. You have to, or this stuff doesn't work as good fiction. Even though the gods manipulated the Greek heroes, the heroes' actions were still tragic. So even where fate is involved, predestination, and even possession, there has to be a level or personal responsibility. You can pity Regan in The Exorcist, but you can't simply pity Angel. He's a hero, not a victim. He bears responsibility for his actions, even if that responsibility is unclear and subject to debate. So I do feel sympathy that his own character—who he is, his characteristics—set him up to be in the spot to do this thing, though this specific action was not his choice. If he were another guy—if he were Spike—this would not have happened. Spike would not have accepted the Twilight mission in the first place. Buffy wouldn't have accepted the mission, didn't when presented with it. Ironically, Giles may have. Maybe, if it were framed the right way.


Buffyfest: Does that make Angel less of a hero or more of a human?

SA: I don’t see the two as mutually exclusive, by any means. If he is more human than he was before, he should be more relatable. But he’s certainly a flawed hero, a very challenged hero. That’s what’s so boring about Superman. Not enough flaw. No challenges. A weakness to an extremely rare mineral doesn’t humanize a character, and I like my heroes humanized.

Buffyfest: Buffy and Angel have been challenged since the beginning of the TV show. Will Angel killing Buffy's pseudo-dad be the final stake in the heart of that relationship?

SA: Nope. Buffy #40 is the wedding issue. Because readers unanimously demanded it!

Buffyfest: Georges Jeanty recently said, "Faith does something really remarkable" about forgiving Angel. Care to elaborate on this?

SA: Not yet.

Buffyfest: Is anyone else going to die in Issue #40?

SA: Yes.

Buffyfest: Wait, what? Say again?

SA: Oh, it’s not what you’re thinking. Next?

Buffyfest: OK, speaking of issue #40, will we see a conversation between Buffy and Angel about Giles’ death?

SA: You will not.

Buffyfest: What about Spike? Will we see him again in issue #40 or is he off to the unknown with bug crew?

SA: He gets a scene in #40.

Buffyfest: In this issue, Spike says about Angel “He finally picked a side.” What does Spike mean by this statement?

SA: Well, he says it after seeing Angel punch Buffy through a wall, right? Angel's agenda has been unclear, and he's drenched in moral ambiguity, especially from Spike's point of view. Seeing Angel deck Buffy while the big war is waging above draws the lines in such a way that Spike feels justified in trying to kill Angel, no reason to hold back.

Buffyfest: Willow’s agenda is back to magic being her main focus. Do you think she's learned anything from Season 6?

SA: Absolutely, but what she learned in Season 7 is that there are certain roads to great power that don't destroy you, that are truly good. Frankly, given my interests, what's going on with Willow in #38 and #39 is some of my favorite stuff. There was so much I wanted to do with it, but it's not what the story's about. In the Seed, Willow found a battery for the kind of power she channeled in the empowerment spell. The empowerment was the ultimate payoff of everything she'd learned over the course of the series. It was redemption after Season 6, and it was the ultimate expression of her relationship and partnership with Buffy after seven years. It was a good thing, and it was a contrast to how badly magic had gone for her in Season 6. And the Seed offered her another perspective on that sort of power. I think we'll have time and need to reflect on this in Season 9. But in response to your question, I think we can learn a lot from our experiences and remain subject to our own hubris, and Joss's characters explore that idea really nicely.


Buffyfest: Now that Buffy has destroyed the seed and ended magic, how will this affect Willow and Buffy's friendship?

SA: Not insignificantly.

Buffyfest: More on that, we’ve seen that Willow and Amy lose their abilities to use magic. What other consequences are there to the breaking of the seed?

SA: The events of Season 8 were largely the result of the empowerment spell, and a huge amount of what goes on in Season 9 will be the direct result of the breaking of the Seed.

Buffyfest: So, was the empowerment spell a bad idea in terms of the universe and was this the universe's way of balancing good and evil in the world again?

SA: Not a bad idea, no—the empowerment spell brought great things to the world, but everything comes with a price. The balance swings back and forth, like a pendulum. Things are not in balance at the end of Season 8, but they’ll keep swinging.

Buffyfest: Now that the seed is broken, is the Fray future a certainty? Will we be seeing more of that future in Season 9 (or maybe even in Buffy #40?)

SA: To some degree, the Fray future is here, right? Listen to poor Willow … But I don’t think we’ll be doing a lot more time travel soon. It’s hard. Between Terminator, Season 8, and Umbrella, our heads are spinning.

Buffyfest: We asked you this question two years ago at NYCC and then again at SDCC last year, and we hope we can finally get your answer. What is the theme of Season 8?

SA: Betrayal. And the reason I wanted to be cagey about that, even though a lot of the fans had identified it, is because of a little anecdote from Joss. Joss himself has this running theme about awesome women, right? Smart women? Well, wayyyyy back in the beginning of this thing, he was talking to Kai, his wife. He was talking the story up to her, building to the big finish, "the closest, most unexpected betrayal," and she cut to the chase and said, "Buffy betrays herself, right?" If your theme is betrayal, self-betrayal is the harshest place you can go. So I was afraid that if I confirmed that betrayal was the theme, if I singled betrayal out as where we'd be heading in the climax, and you looked at that panel from #10, you'd figure it out, it'd step on the ending. I've had a couple readers write to me with the theory that Buffy would bring an end to magic, that Buffy would betray herself, etc. And they threw those theories out into the universe, and there was no word from me or Joss or Georges to confirm it, so readers were free to do with it as they pleased, to prioritize it as they saw fit, based on what was presented in the story. To tip the scales, outside of the text of the story, in a way that would promote one theory over another would damage the story worse than the accidental spoilers we leaked over the years.

Buffyfest: You mentioned that you saw a lot of fans had figured out that the betrayal was Buffy betraying herself. Were there any fan theories along the way that you found interesting even though they wound up being incorrect?

SA: Oh yeah, absolutely. I heard some cool ideas that were very much based on an intimate understanding of the characters, and that’s always exciting. The fan speculation about where it was going was rewarding to see, because it showed a pretty sophisticated level of engagement with the story.

Buffyfest: Completely unrelated, but important, what’s your take on the Buffy reboot movie?

SA: They should cast Miley Cyrus. Is there any way we can make that happen? That would be amazing. Only way this idea could get any better.

Hellboy, Hack/Slash and Haikus!!

Devastation.  It's the word Scott Allie used to describe Buffy #39 which comes out this Thursday (damn you, Thanksgiving).  Join us as we continue sweating it out with a week dedicated to Bad Horse's brother from another mother: Dark Horse.  First up, we talk with Super Scott Allie about two projects that are near and dear to his editorial heart:  B.P.R.D. The Dead Remembered, a 3 issue story focusing on Hellboy's Liz Sherman, and "Campfire Stories", a short story which is part of Hack/Slash's Trailer's series.

Also, do you like free stuff?  Well, we're giving away a free copy of Hack/Slash Trailers Part 2 signed by Scott Allie plus a host of Buffyfest goodies to anyone who can create an amazing Dark Horse inspired Haiku.  Here are the rules:

1. Write a haiku about Scott Allie, Buffy Season 8...anything Dark Horse related at all.  Your haiku should be in the form of 17 syllables broken into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
2. Post your haiku in the comments section along with what you’re basing it on.
3. Submissions must be received by 1 week from today - Tuesday, Dec 7th - to be part of the contest.

Check out the winner from our previous Haiku contest and see if you have what it takes!  We now give you, Super Scott Allie:

Hellboy

Buffyfest: Hi Scott. Let's get started with your new Hellboy series. How did you and Mike Mignola come up with the idea of focusing on the character of Liz Sherman in the upcoming B.P.R.D.: The Dead Remembered?

Scott Allie: Short answer—I don't remember. We always talk about various ways to further explore the Hellboy world, and we kill way more ideas than we follow through on, by a huge margin. With this, we were doing the Abe stories, written by Mike, and then written by Mike and John Arcudi, where we explore Abe's early adventures as an agent. After all these years—the character was introduced in 1994, with the idea that his character had been active with the Bureau since the late seventies. But we only started doing stories set in his early years as an agent a few years ago, and to date there are just eight comics. We've done 1946 and 1947, which begin to touch on Hellboy's early years with the Bureau. But it struck me that Liz, brought in as a hazard to herself and the people around her, after her powers caused the deaths of her family and neighbors—her transition from that damaged girl, to a teen runaway, into a full-fledged agent must have been very different from the boys'. We talked about the emotional issues we'd explore there for her, and he felt like I had a good take on it. So then the question was what to do with a Liz story, and Mike and I both felt that we were getting too far from traditional horror stories, so the idea was to do that. I get to return to my hometown once more, and deal with the local lore a bit.

Buffyfest: What intrigues you about the character in general? 

SA: The main thing is honestly that Mike has never written her the way female comics characters are written—even the good ones. The fact that she's a woman is entirely incidental. A romance between Hellboy and Liz would have never occurred to Mike. I love that about her. So what particularly interested me about that was how to do that with a teenaged girl. And I can't deny that a big part of what interested me was her similarities and huge differences from Buffy. A young super-powered girl, but one whose abilities are clearly a curse and a burden. And Liz Sherman never would have been a cheerleader.

Buffyfest: Did it bother you when the movies made Liz and Hellboy a couple or were you expecting the romance angle for a main stream movie? 

SA: No, I think adaptations have to do something different with the material. I just watched episode 5 of Walking Dead, and I love the CDC thing. The movie Hellboy is different from the one I work on, but it helped sell a lot of the ones I work on.

Buffyfest: What about the character of Hellboy? What do you love about him? 

SA: Everything. I love the Byronic aspects of him, the noble monster, and I love that in Hellboy there is no self-consciousness, something Byron and the gothic writers never could have gotten their heads around. I love how he can take the piss out of any situation. If people are gettin' too high falutin, he'll bring it all down to earth, if things are getting tense, he'll crack wise. Cracking wise is not unique among superheroes, and I know Mike learned it from Stan, but the combination of how he does it and to whom he does it is unique.

Buffyfest: Can you give us a little bit about the plot of the upcoming 3 issue story? 

SA: Yeah. The name of the book is B.P.R.D.: The Dead Remembered. Liz and Broom—the foster father to Hellboy and to a lesser extent her and even Abe—takes her on what seems like a simple mission to New England, where a priest is suffering a haunting. It involves a woman accused of witchcraft and murdered by a lynch mob, and Liz's own feelings of being judged unfairly. Hellboy's in the first issue for a bit, but mostly it's Liz and Broom.

Buffyfest: For those who never picked up a Hellboy comic, what would a new reader need to know in order to jump into the story right now?

SA: Not much. Someone totally unfamiliar will wonder who this big red guy talking to this little girl is, but again, Hellboy's not in it for that long. Beyond that, there's a note on the inside cover setting up briefly who Liz is, why she's with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense—and if the name of the organization doesn't tell you what it is, I don't know what to tell you.

Buffyfest: Let's shift over to the art for a minute. Why did Karl Moline and Jo Chen seem like a good fit for this title?

SA: I love Karl's storytelling, and the thing I'm most frustrated with when I write is when an artist can't pull off the character stuff. That's what was so great working on Buffy #37-39. Georges was great. And Karl does really nice character stuff, and he's great with making young girls both cute and heroic and strong, which is what I wanted for Liz. And there's a teenage boy in this that I knew Karl would do right. And the way it worked, if I remember, is that we were looking for something for Karl to do, and I loved his Liz one-shot for War on Frogs a couple years ago. So this came up and the schedule worked. With Jo, similar thing. Who does characters like this better? Mike's been coveting her work on Buffy. And with Buffy winding up, I wanted to keep working with her, so we segued her right into this off the end of Season 8.

Buffyfest: Is there any Buffy character you would compare Hellboy to?

SA: Hmmm. No. Hellboy hides his emotions. Does anyone in Buffy do that? Doesn't everyone wear their hearts on their sleeves? Can I compare him to Mal?

Buffyfest: Yes, please do!

SA: Oh, sorry, I don't really have anything to say on that, but I think there's something there. Still waters that run deep, real working-class approach to what they do. But Mal's emotions are more complex and repressed, whereas Hellboy's are a lot more simple, not a lot of turmoil in there.

Hack/Slash

Buffyfest: The Vampy Cats earn a mention in your Hack/Slash short "Campfire Stories".  Why were they the Season 8 monster you chose to mention?

Scott Allie: The way it worked is that I was writing the story, and I needed a cheap, quick way to link the Big Bird stuffed animal to the girl. Matching T shirts jumped into my head, and then I thought, "We need an adorable icon to link them." I literally started making up my own Hello Kitty sort of thing, and then a light bulb went off over my head.

Buffyfest: If you could write a Buffy/Cassie crossover story, what would it be about and how do you think these two Last Girls would react to one another?

SA: Buffy would laugh at her. She'd start respecting Faith's fashion choices. She would insist Cassie change her clothes. I don't know. I think such a story would be so postmodern it would throw itself on its stake. I was initially attracted to Hack/Slash by some awesome covers by Joe Quinones and Ross Campbell. But then I was put off by the T&A and gore. Then my girlfriend introduced me to Tim, the creator of the characters, and we hit it off, so I started reading. And I realized Hack/Slash is what I love best in B-movies—a bold and simple original idea executed with conviction, insight, and heart—above all else, heart. That's what made Buffy Season 1 rise to the top the way it did. Tim loves these characters. But he loves them within the confines of a genre that often aims at the lowest common denominator, and Tim does not flinch in going for it. Buffy comes out of a similar tradition, but drifts far, far from it. Joss does not write a lot of love letters to the horror genre. He does his own thing. And he'd have to deconstruct Cassie—or someone would—for these two to make sense in the same room.

Buffyfest: You reference a number of popular horror tropes in your story.  What are your favorites?

SA: None of the ones I touch in the story. My friendship with Tim got me to give slasher stuff a second look, which has led me down a long dark path that included a recent Saw marathon climaxing with me and a couple friends ALONE in a Portland theatre watching Saw 3D. I was a heavy-duty horror geek in the 1980s, but I never saw another one of those movies after Halloween III and Friday the 13th Part 3. I never saw any of the Chucky movies, or even Nightmare on Elm St. But in the last couple years I've gone back to watch a bunch of it. And most of it was really  worth missing. A couple things were interesting. Sleepaway Camp [shudder]. But most of it I was glad I'd missed first time around. The tropes that I was referencing in Hack/Slash were more to do with campfire lore than film. When I was a kid at Camp Rotary in Boxford, Mass, we had very vivid stories, and to a ten-year-old they seemed both true and unique. We had the haunted cabin, the hatchet man, and the giant snapping turtle in the lake. I imagine every camp had similar stories—really similar stories. And they were a lot more interesting to me as a kid thinking that they were unique to my experience, rather than simply being Hollywood cliches. Oh, further to that point, on the first page of "Campfire Stories," I reference some Lovecraftian stuff. That's hometown shit to me too. See, Tim had already brought Lovecraft into Hack/Slash, and he'd done it in a really interesting way—a mashup with Archie Comics. See, Riverdale, the town in Archie, is based on Haverhill, a town near where I grew up, just on the other side of Boxford. Haverhill is also just down the street from Salem, Mass., which Lovecraft called Arkham in his stories—and closer to Newburyport, which Lovecraft refers to by name quite a bit in his stories. So Tim saw a great geographical opportunity to mash Lovecraft and Archie. And Lovecraft, by the way, represents a whole bunch of horror tropes that are very close to my heart, and among my favorites. But in general, my favorites are occult horror, supernatural horror. What I'm doing in the Liz series. 

Buffyfest: Steve Niles, Scottie Young, and Robert Kirkman have all gotten the chop in the Hack/Slash story "Comic Book Carnage".  Is Scott Allie next? 

SA: Tim told me he has an idea if he does another one of those. We shall see.

Buffyfest: Who would kill you and what kind of slasher would you be if you came back from the dead?

SA: Horny teenagers, I assume, whichever ones I stumbled across.

B.P.R.D.: The Dead Remembered #1 will be on shelves 4/6/11. Hack/Slash Trailers Pt. 2 featuring a short by Scott Allie is in stores now.

Angel #38 Micro Interview With Mariah Huehner and David Tischman & Review (SPOILERS)

We caught up with Mariah and David for another in our series of micro interviews.  The first two questions are pretty vague but the third contains a rather large spoiler so I'm actually blacking out the whole thing.  Scroll over the text to read it.  Seriously.  It's so good that I've actually kept the review (which you'll find below) almost completely spoiler free for once.  So.  Here we are, then.  Interview first! 

Buffyfest: You just wrapped another man's (Bill Willingham) story arc.  What were the challenges with that and, honestly, how much did you deviate from his original plan? 

David Tischman: That's funny, because I don't know what Bill's plan was.  I would say, we're using and integrating some of the elements Bill had been tinkering with, but totally in our own way.  The story we're telling is 100% based on conversations Mariah and I had, about what the fans love about ANGEL, and about where we wanted to take the characters.  My inspiration is always the TV series.  Specifically, Season 1 and Season 5.  That's where I wanted to take these issues.  Keep the themes from those seasons in mind, make the characters' voices authentic, and that's ANGEL.  And I think we're there. 

Mariah Huehner: What we mostly did was take plot points I'd discussed with Bill, specifically around the Sisterhood and James, and then maneuvered them to get us where we knew the characters needed to be for the last arc. We deviated a lot, in the sense that we had the end game to plan for, so we really needed the story to go a certain way and end up where it does. Bill set up so much, and if we'd had the time, there were a lot of threads I would have loved to develop and explore more. But the reality is, we had to very quickly set up the last arc. And most of it was really getting to #38 and making sure that the emotional moments felt true and earned. Which I hope they do.

Buffyfest: Connor's evolution took a surprising turn this issue.  Will it play out further in the final arc?  What is Team Connor going to get up to while Angel is in the future 

David Tischman: Connor's evolution--your word, not mine--isn't over.  So, yeah, there's more to come.  That kind of power is scary and unpredictable, and it freaks people out.  I think we hit all of that.  By paring down the number of people bouncing around the panels on each page, we're going to be able to focus on character, and relationships.  And the evil in the world.  Some good action.  And a change of address. 

Buffyfest: That moment on the roof with Connor and Angel was huge.  Can you tell us how that idea evolved and what it's inspiration was? 

David Tischman: Look…there's only so many times you can tell the same story.  Or hit the same beat.  How long have we been dancing around this, "I don't know how to talk to my son" bit?  And, frankly, at this point, Angel should be more evolved than that.  We also need to move the story forward.  Mariah and I talked about it, and we agreed that it was time for that conversation on the roof.  The fallout from that conversation pushes Angel and Connor--both--to pursue their individual stories in this last arc.

 Mariah Huehner: The inspiration was kind of their entire relationship up until this point. Connor and Angel have this tendency to take a step forward, and then like 10 back. So, we really wanted to define them as father and son and what that means to Angel.  The other moment I thought about a lot was at the end of ATF, when Angel meets Connor after the dial back. There was a bit of mirroring it, emotionally anyway, and we wanted it to feel "big". That this was an important, defining place that they've reached. Everything in our last arc comes out of this moment, so, it really had to matter and it really had to make the reader -feel- the way they did when watching the show. We  wanted people to feel the bittersweetness that's at the heart of pretty much all of Angel (the show and the character), all the hardship he's been through with Connor, how difficult it is for him as a father. I think Connor brings out the humanity in Angel. So hopefully we accomplished that on some level. It's always so hard when you're dealing with the page because actors are what make emotional moments work on screen. They bring that other level to it. But hopefully we managed to do that a little here. 


With that pesky interview business out of the way... onto the review!

The Preamble: It's been just shy of a year since Bill Willingham's arc began and, this Wednesday, we'll finally see his story come to a close.  At times controversial, this season saw Connor take center stage, Spike struggle with soul difficulties, and Angel get bored.  We saw some new faces, some goodies turned out to be baddies, and not everyone made it out alive.  With Connor's life (and all of L.A.) hanging in the balance, Angel and co. stand fast as they begin their final battle with the Sisterhood of the Jaro Hull.

The Plot: I've been told that I spoil far too much in these reviews so I shall keep this brief and only give away a little.  The preview, which you've seen, shows Angel and Illyria attempting a rescue of the very much alive (for now, anyway) Connor.  Just as the Sisterhood takes up arms, Spike and the rest of the team turn up in the nick of time.  There's a battle, a revelation concerning Connor's "evolution", and then we find ourselves back on the top of a building, Angel looking tired.  What happens there I will not spoil but I will say that it was, to me, beautiful and long overdue.  We end with a new paradigm and the return of an old enemy.

The Review: You know, I've heard people say that IDW ought to be taking notes from Dark Horse on how to properly portray Spike.  Frankly, I think it's Dark Horse who should be picking up a copy of this issue for a refresher course on who Angel is.  After a long time of Angel taking the back seat, he is, without question, the focus of this issue and, as we already know, going to be the focus for the story moving forward.  Quite simply, this is the best Angel has been written in the five years he's been at IDW.  He felt so real to me and the scene with him on the roof was so palpable, that I am not ashamed to admit that I shed a few (very manly) tears.  Outside of that I have the same complaint that I will always have about the IDW comics: like the second half of Angel Season 5, the story moves too fast and not as much as I'd like gets explained.  I never quite understood why the Sistrhood of the Jaro Hull were such a threat and I wish I had a better understanding of Connor's evolution.  It also feels like not a lot actually happened in this issue even though, by the end of it, everything is different.  Ultimately, though, the emotional punch more than makes up for the flaws.

Angel #38 hits stores today!

Interview with Ian Klein - Essayist for Inside Joss' Dollhouse: From Alpha to Rossum

Last week we attended the book release party of Inside Joss' Dollhouse: From Alpha to Rossum hosted by essayist, Ian Klein, here in New York. The book is an anthology of 18 reflective and critical essays about Joss Whedon's show Dollhouse edited by Jane Espenson. Not just edited, but selected from an exhaustive group of submissions from writers both experienced and green.  Ian wrote one of the included essays about the character of Claire Saunders called "'I Like My Scars': Claire Saunders and the Narrative of Flesh". Before the event, we sat down with Ian to discuss the book, the Whedonverse, and more. Check out some photos of the night and our interview below.

Buffyfest: What is it that intrigues you about Dollhouse?

Ian Klein: I think what intrigues me about Dollhouse is what it attempted to do versus what it did actually do. I know one of the early criticisms of the show was "Who are we supposed to root for?" and "There's no central character here" but as someone who is interested in the creative development of television and thought, wow, that's a pretty big challenge. Even if I as a regular television viewer has never seen the work of Joss Whedon before I would think "wow, let's see how character transformations are made if we're leading toward a reaffirmation of identity or just this complete defragmentation of identity". So for me it was sort of about the creative challenge that the show posted initially and then it was interesting that I didn't end up latching onto Echo at all as a central character which for m was fine because there were plenty of other characters (including Claire Saunders) that I were more interesting and felt more real to me whether or not they were actual people.

Buffyfest: I want to talk about Claire. Why her? Why was she the one you chose to write about?

IK: I think Claire's vulnerability and her presence that was always behind the scenes was so intriguing and was one of the things that I saw in earlier postings online and that one of the things I noticed in the early promos for the show was that she was shown as being this mysterious and intriguing figure and was relegated to the background for some reason for so long. But, on the flip side, she still had such a strong character arc and you really felt empathy toward her throughout all the episodes and even though she was in, I think, only three episodes of the second season, her story still felt whole to me in a way that I did not feel about any of the other characters who are in every single episode. And the fact that she's scarred, too. When you see someone who is scarred in any popular medium, that's an immediate in into their psyche and you know that they have a past and you know that there's some sort of damage beyond the surface going on and the scar is just an external representation of the things you can't hide that are so traumatic that they have burst onto the surface of their being.

Buffyfest: In the trailer, the question is raised "Can you wipe away a soul?" which begs the much larger question "Do you believe in the human soul?"

IK: I do believe we have a soul. In terms of how that relates to the show, every character, I think, ultimately, has a fragment of their previous self in them and that is the core of themselves and that is what makes connections between the characters in a really meaningful way. So that sense of relationship that has developed through those core fragments, call it the soul, or what their purpose is on the show and of what our purpose is in life.

Buffyfest: Do you think the future as portrayed in Epitaphs one and two could happen to us in the real world? Or something akin to it?

IK: Yeah, I absolutely believe something like that could happen, especially with our current affinity for digital identity. Ten years ago it was the fear that someone was going to steal your credit card and make a purchase. Now, the stakes are a lot higher because so much of us is on hard disks (aka wedges) and that's scary. You know, I was reading this political cartoon about Google and it was just these two people talking at Google and saying "Well, we have everybody's information, what do we do now?" and it was sort of this question of "Who is going to make that move beyond where we are right now with our digital selves?" and ultimately it's going to come down to money as everything in the Dollhouse does. There's an essay in here about the economy that the Dollhouse sets up and that to make this world believable you have to address everything we have in our world but one of those biggest things is money. It's interesting, I just reread "Fray", and with Epitaph the world reminds me of a lot of the stuff that "Fray" talks about in terms of the classes, were they live, what they have... Fray has the sil,the bracelets that are the currency and she makes a mention to her sister about things being all about "cred" and "up" and the upper part of future Manhattan. So I think that something that Joss Whedon is playing with and I wish we would have seen more of that future.

Buffyfest: You've been reading the comics though, haven't you? The Buffy and Angel ones.

IK: Yes, which I feel play a lot more with that. Maybe it's because those writers or anyone who is writing comics is going to talk about what's happening right now in our world through that lens. It's the same thing that's happening in Buffy Season 8. WHo has magic and who doesn't. That's a kind of currency and skill as well that some people have and some people don't. So what happens when that's taken away from everybody, what happens when one person has more than someone else?

Buffyfest: Let's talk about the complication that comes of the reveal about Boyd as it relates to Claire. The importance of her having her own autonomy isn't just important to her, as a character, it's important to the show as a whole. Do you think that when we find that that Boyd is at the heart of everything that it in any way diminishes Claire's autonomy and who she is?

IK: I don't think it diminishes the autonomy that she's developed within this oppressive system because we know that there is some degree of programming, of course, already in the Claire Saunders imprint but she has, to steal from my own quote "She has succeeded even Topher's expectations in how far she has developed". So when the Boyd thing comes along I see it as this tragic manipulation with him using what power he has over her, whether that be literal or otherwise and based on her own knowledge, her own character, she was led to this. I do think she made a choice to be with Boyd and there's an essay in here that suggests that maybe she feels that Boyd is the one person that loved her most and she needed that and that it was a safe kind of relationship to have where she was.

Buffyfest: I want to draw a parallel between the nature of vampires on Buffy and the nature of actives in the Dollhouse. When a person becomes a vampire, they lose their soul and become a monster but, despite what the Watchers seem to think and what the slayers try to ignore, we've seen incontrovertible proof that these demons retain something of what the person was before. If we look at the actives, it's very similar. In that context, even though Claire denies her original personality, isn't it still relevant to who she is?

IK: Oh, yes, absolutely. I think were the show to go on and if we were to get more backstory, I think you would find someone who was, too some extent, shy, very compassionate and empathetic, and a caretaker. I think it's not so much that it's irrelevant but that Claire Saunders is an evolution in a way to that nameless person who came before Whiskey. So she's ultimately more powerful than the original idenitity but, having incorporated that, I think it's still respectful of that original identity. So we don't fail bad as viewers that we'll never know and she will never know who that original person is because we haven't identified with that original we've only identified with this amalgamation and the end product of that identity.

Buffyfest: Let's do the easy stuff. What is your favorite Joss Whedon show?

IK: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite Joss Whedon Show.

Buffyfest: What is your favorite season of Buffy?

IK: Season 6.

Buffyfest: What is your favorite episode of Season 6?

IK: For some odd reason (or maybe perfectly legitimate reason), I often watch the trio of Smashed, Wrecked, and Gone. All in one sitting. I guess I like dark things and that downfall is really interesting to me and how those are all euphemisms for being high. It's just a great character study in those three episodes.

Buffyfest: Who is your favorite character?

IK: I'd say Willow.

Buffyfest: Why?

IK: I think it's because of the dark places she goes and she's arguable the most innocent when the show begins. Buffy goes to some dark, personal places, for sure, and has gone evil for an episode or two but Willow was going to destroy the world. And she ripped the skin off of somebody. It's kind of dark. But that's so truthful. I like that she went there and I like the beginning of season 7 where she's apprehensive about being with her friends again and I think that's something that a lot of people can identify with, being ostracized, doing terrible things, and having earn peoples' trust again.

Buffyfest: Do you identify with Willow? Have you ever tried to destroy the world, Ian?

IK: I haven't. Not yet, anyway. Haven't had any desire to. But I've done terrible things. I've had to regain peoples' trust.

Buffyfest: Let's do the Dollhouse thing Favorite episode?

IK: I would say my favorite episodes is "Vows". Probably because of Claire's breakdown. Now I'm so in love with Claire and I feel for her so much, not that I want to see her hurt but, that scene, when she breaks down with Topher is really moving.

Buffyfest: So Claire is your favorite character then?

IK: Yeah, absolutely. I felt that I go to know Claire better by writing this. I had this thought that I knew there was psychological depth to her. She became so real in my mind. Especially this scarring which is such a universal thing.

Thanks so much to Ian Klein for sitting down with us. Inside Joss' Dollhouse: From Alpha to Rossum is available now.