As Buffy Season 8 concludes, Joss Whedon and the crew are working triple-overtime to deliver more books than ever.
In a three-day writing session this May, Joss and I broke the final four issues, scene by scene. I’ve worked with Joss for more than ten years, and I’ve picked up whatever I can about writing character-driven genre stories, but this was the best chance I’ve had to work hand in hand on a story. From the cover of Buffy #36 to the epic battle, we expect passionate reactions from the die-hard fans. And be sure to check out this month’s Riley Finn one-shot, from Caprica executive producer Jane Espenson, one of the busiest and most prolific writers in Hollywood. Fray artist Karl Moline joins her for their final contribution to Season 8.
The other big Whedon event is Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale, by Joss and Zack Whedon, with artist Chris Samnee. I’ve been a fan of Chris’s since his debut, Capote in Kansas, five years ago. But I never would’ve had a Serenity story to give him if we hadn’t pulled the script together after Joss came up with the plot so Serenity star Ron Glass would have something to tell fans about at an event clear back in 2007. Back then we were focused on keeping Season 8 running and couldn’t come up with the right writer to take Joss’s detailed outline through to the script. That was a long road . . .
When fellow editor Sierra Hahn and I got an early peek at the Dr. Horrible webisodes, before the first uploads in July of 2008, we knew we needed to do a comic. Joss was still busy with Season 8, so he suggested Zack, one of the cowriters on the webisodes. Zack liked the idea and everyone loved the results; so we did more shorts, a one-shot, and a collection of all existing material with a brand-new sixteen-page story, coming out this September. Joss, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen (the other cowriters on the webisodes), and star Nathan Fillion (Captain Hammer and Mal Reynolds from Firefly) came together for a hilarious intro in true Dr. Horrible fashion—though it’s not sung.
Zack did such a great job on his first comics scripts that Sierra and I talked about him for Serenity—but we felt that would place him too much in his brother’s shadow. However, he really established himself as a comics scribe in his own right working on Sierra’s Terminator series (which relaunches this fall). Ultimately it was Joss who suggested Zack to us for Serenity, and, after Terminator, we knew it was a good idea. Now Zack’s firmly entrenched in our comic-book crew.
This Whedon rundown wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Dr. Horrible star Felicia Day’s The Guild, which gets collected this fall. The Guild’s been one of our best-selling comics on iTunes, so we can’t wait to see how the collection does in comics shops. And don’t miss our One for One program this September and October—first issues of our key series for one dollar apiece, including the very first issues of Buffy and Serenity.
What’s next for the Whedon clan and Dark Horse? How about a Dollhouse comic written by Jed and Maurissa, who wrote key episodes of the show, and the return of the Angel series to Dark Horse in late 2011, in tandem with our Buffy Season 9 relaunch?
I can’t wait to hold these comics in my hands.
-- Scott Allie