Joss Whedon Article

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Creator Joss Whedon wears many hats--screenwriter, producer and director--but he'd be wearing them all a little differently, if he hadn't worn one as a kid: comics fan.

"I was a marvel fanboy from about 8 or 9 on," Whedon said. "The biggest thing for me at the time was Ross Andru Amazing Spider-Man years, which was the first stuff that I was just completely hooked on--along with Tomb of Dracula, which I thought was very, very cool. I also read a lot of the Jim Starlin Warlock stuff and of course, the original Perez run on The Avengers."

Whedon's career landed him the job of writing for Roseanne before he wrote the screenplay for the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie in 1992. What he didn't realize then was that Buffy would be his date with destiny.

"I had never intended on making a television show out of the movie," Whedon said. "I had written the movie, the movie didn't do very well, and I moved on. Then Gail Berman, who was working for the people who owned the rights to Buffy, wanted to make a TV show out of it."

"The way I saw it, a Buffy series was my chance to make high school horror movies on a weekly basis. I got all excited about doing it, and here we are. I never expected it to spin off into another series and end up consuming my life in the way it has."

In crafting the Buffy television series, Whedon assembled a cast of characters that from the outset seemed like an odd collection of individuals. When examined more closely, however, it becomes clear that Whedon had subconsciously built a super-hero team.

We've got Rupert Giles, the mentor; Buffy Summers, a vampire hunter; Daniel "Oz" Osborne, a werewolf; Willow Rosenberg, a witch; Spike, a Wolverine-esque vampire, Anya Emerson, a former demon; and Xander Harris, a wise-cracking sidekick who fills the "Snapper Carr" role.

While Whedon said his interest in comics had waned somewhat in the late '80s and early '90s, it wasn't until after the Buffy television series was on its way to becoming a hit that he realized he'd crated a traditional super-hero team. "I didn't really think about comic-book-ness of Buffy and Angel until recently, when I had a huge renaissance of devouring all the comic books I can find," Whedon said. "Then, I looked back at Buffy and said 'Oh, yeah, well, duh. This was always a comic book.' But early on, I didn't really quite understand how the sensibility of comic books had influenced me. Now, I think it's pretty obvious, when you look at what I've done."

"Someone recently referred to the Buffy-Angel shows as the 'Blade-Hannibal King Block.' I have no comment at this time," Whedon said, laughing.

Whedon's realization that he'd created a comic-book-inspired team of heroes was bolstered by Buffy series writer Doug Petrie, himself a longtime comics fan. "Doug came up in the comics world around the same time I did, and we started going over all the old stuff," Whedon said. "It was Doug who was able to point out that a storyline in Angel was very much like when The Silver Surfer went back to Zenn La and other, shall we say, strikingly similar storylines that were apparently in my subconscious. The two of us spend a lot of time together talking comics--some would say it's an inordinate amount of time--some might even say we waste a lot of time talking about comics. But they give us a wide berth as they pass us by, so we keep talking."

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From Buffy to X-Men
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When pressed to further compare Buffy to a comic book, Whedon said that, recently a staffer had pointed out the closest match to him. "Someone told me I had created my own version of the X-Men, and I tend to agree that that's the dynamic I've latched onto," Whedon said. "At their best, The X-Men were squabbling family or like a bunch of friends who happened to have super-powers. I'm sure there are younger super-hero teams who may be more comparable to Buffy and the group, but The X-Men are the ones who influenced me the most in assembling my cast of characters."

On a side note, The X-Men is not a topic Whedon is comfortable discussing lately. Brought on to re-write the script for Fox's X-Men feature film that is currently in production, Whedon relished tuning the film to be closer to the X-Men of his youth. Fox subsequently dropped all Whedon's changes and script alterations.

"I didn't have a great time with that whole deal, because my re-writes got chipped and there were resultant--artistic differences," Whedon said. "I'm sure being a known comics fan helped me get the job (since I'm sure no other person involved with the production is a comics fan) but, in retrospect, I don't think that having someone familiar with the comics or even fond of the comics was Fox's main concern. As a fan, it made it much more painful to re-write, but, then it also made it much more painful to watch it go away. I don't know what kind of movie they're looking to make."

Back to comparing his series to comics, Whedon said he feels that Angel is much more than just a Batman riff, as some critics are labeling it and Angel's assistant Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) hints at it on the show. "I see Angel more in terms of film noir then I ever do of a comics sense," Whedon said. "But, if I had to choose a comic book that fits his ability, it would be somewhere between Batman and Tomb of Dracula with a little E. C. horror thrown in. If I had to choose a super-hero, Batman would probably get the nod. But I didn't go out and say, 'Let's make a Batman.' I wanted to make a good, dark, noir-esque series about a vampire looking for redemption."

While Whedon's professional credits (Alien Resurrection, Toy Story, Speed, Waterworld, Angel and Buffy) could be seen as genre-specific, he's not afraid of being pigeonholed as a "genre" director or writer. "If I want to do the next Fargo, I have to think it up. If I get stuck in genre, it's because that's the thing that I want to write."

"Is somebody going to ask me to write the next sensitive drama? Probably not, although I think it's clear on Buffy that we do sensitive drama. We do every damn thing. I've done enough things that people get that, even if they haven't seen me do something, they may think that I have it up my sleeve. I love to work in genre. I love fantasy, I love horror, I love action, I love comedy, I love science fiction: These things move me and these are the things I love to work on."

With his firmly established love of genre material, Whedon said he has mixed feelings about adapting a comic book to a feature film.

"Every time I see a bad comic-book movie--and, so far, I've yet to see a good comic-book movie--it breaks my heart," Whedon said. "Part of me would really love to do a comic-book movie--Hell, I'd love to do a Spider-Man or Batman. Those things mean a great deal to me and have the potential to be wickedly cool."

"On the other hand, with Alien and even Buffy, I'm getting tired of working in things where 14,000 people own the rights. On Buffy, there are a lot of people who are attached, but I basically can make my own stuff, and that fine. With something like a Marvel comic book, you know you're going to be into heavy interference. I've dealt with that before and I'm not really that anxious to do it again. It would have to be a pretty special deal to make it worth the bother."

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A recovering fanboy
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These days, when Whedon can find a spare minute, he's still full-on into his own comic-book rediscovery, reading numerous titles from many publishers. "I'm very much into Astro City, The Authority, Preacher, Earth X, Ball and Chain and Whiteout--Whiteout was awesome. I was really moved by that--it was so simple and lovely," Whedon said. "There's usually a Batman story floating around that I'll get into. I missed the buss on the startup of the new Avengers stuff, so I'm no sure if I can catch up now. I can't get into the X-titles anymore, which I miss."

"I just don't know where to start--it's all so complex. Also, I can't understand anyone's powers any more--he sticks to walls or shoots ice--I get those. Nowadays it's 'I can ionize your biorhythm particles!' What does that mean? Everybody has turned into Doctor Strange. I mean, I've read X-Men, and I still don't know what Cable's powers are."

"I'm also heavily into Alan Moore's America's Best Comics line. Those are just awesome to read. There's a lot of extremely tasty stuff going on."

While Whedon said he loves Moore's ABC line, he would balk at the idea of helming say, a Tom Strong movie. "I think it was Frank Miller who said, 'When was it that the benchmark for greatness in the comics industry became being a movie?' The ABC stuff are great comic books. Great books and sometimes-great comics don't lend themselves to being movies. Could there be a Tom Strong movie? Sure. Could there be a Promethea movie? I'm not sure. I'm not that interesting in moving them to another medium."

"There's definitely a lot of synergy between different mediums nowadays, and I'm very into that, but some things should really just stand as they are."

"And so, ultimately, if they got turned into a movie, probably they'd be bad. Howard the Duck was a great comic; it's very difficult for me to mention Howard the duck around here without beings scoffed at."

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Whedon: comic-book writer?
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In addition to his film and television work, Whedon confessed there is one more creative mountain he wants to climb, and it shouldn't be too terribly difficult to figure out what it is. "I desperately want to write a comic book," Whedon said. "Not necessarily a Buffy or Buffy-based comics, but something of my own. I'm racking my brains to think of an idea that I can do but, with all these comics I've mentioned, I've read them and then thought, 'Oh, my comics story has to be good?' I don't have any good ideas! I just thought it had to be cool-looking."

"I see Alan Moore writing on 15 different levels and I'm left thinking I just want to tell a good yarn. I guess I'll keep working to find a story for my comic book. In the meantime, though, I've got a couple of television series that keep me more than busy."

"I had always had in my head the idea that there would be a Buffy comic book--she was larger than life and she fought monsters," Whedon said. "The property really lent itself to that sensibility, and, because when I was a kid growing up, we had Kitty Pryde--when she came along we were thrilled that there was someone to have a crush on, and that was sort of part of the idea. I saw Buffy as another Kitty Pryde in a way."

While Whedon was only involved peripherally with Buffy's move from television to the Dark Horse comics series, he did have input on the overall setting of the series and what it could and couldn't do. "My only real concern was when it would take place in relation to the series and what they could or couldn't do to characters. Buffy couldn't move to Madagascar and become a fisherman, for example," Whedon said.

Whedon also made an edict that the Buffy comic book was not going down the same road as other comics with female lead characters. "At the time the Buffy comic series was in discussion, I was pretty unhappy with the comic books that were out there," Whedon said. "I was looking at the stands and at the stores and seeing a lot of what looked like Playboy centerfold and really dynamic, exciting, bad art and a lot of women in thongs."

"I didn't want Buffy to turn this into some T&A comic book that pretends to be about empowerment and is about busting out of your bra. I though that would be lame. I wanted Buffy to be sexy and fun and wear neat clothes and all that stuff, but not turn into very certain comics that are well-drawn but are wickedly exploitative."

As far as approval for the comics series goes, Whedon tried it once, but found he didn't have the time to do it, so Whedon's assistant, George Schnider, now handles story approvals. However, Whedon's influence is still felt. "I see the Buffy comic book almost as Buffy: Year One--it's sort of just developing itself and is working on a limited basis in the stories that it can tell," Whedon said. "Eventually, certainly when the series is done (but I think even before), it will really be able to go a little nuts, to branch out and develop its own mythology and new characters and go to all those places we can't."

While Christopher Golden and Andi Watson handle the writing on the regular Angel and Buffy series, respectively, Buffy television writer Doug Petrie has tossed his hat into the comic-book world of Buffy on more than one occasion.

"I'd been on the show for two years, and somewhere along the line someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce me to Dark Horse's Scott Allie," Petrie said. "We got to talking, and he gave me a backup story in the Buffy Annual, and now I'm working on a graphic novel tentatively called The Kelgor Saga. It's a real saga in the spirit of Jack Kirby with a lot of elements that I couldn't use in the first Buffy script I wrote, and we realized that our budget could never support it."

"The story is set during the second season of Buffy, so Angel is still evil and Kendra is alive. It opens on a big money shot of a ship in a storm at sea, headed for Sunnydale, and the crew is being mysteriously killed: something that would've cost tens of thousands to use in the series."

The unlimited budget the Buffy and Angel comics series offer is one of the main appeals of the comic book for Whedon and Petrie. "Kitty Pryde had a pet dragon," Whedon said. We couldn't afford to do that for one shot on the show, but they could give one to a cast member in the comic book. Also, what about England and the Watchers Council? We can't afford to go there on the show. Heck, we can't afford to go to the Valley. The comic book can and should shake it up and keep the property fun.

"If I want to write in an army of demons on horses, I can write in an army of demons on horses in the comic book. We have tight restrictions on the show: You can't have an army of demons on horseback; you can't have a demonic bird that spits fire."

"But you can do all that in the comics. Within eight pages in the Dark Horse Presents #150 story, I had flying cars and a demon who was disembodied. I blew up a watchtower, destroyed a phone booth, and had a bug transform into a giant demon and get skewered with the hand of a clock tower. That's four or five million dollars right there in eight pages. That's stuff that we simply can't do on the show."

Whedon added that he enjoys the way the comics series expands the storyline of peripheral characters who don't have a chance to shine on the television series. "The stuff that they've been doing with Spike and Dru is really cool," Whedon said. "That's more of what I like to see the series doing: expanding the universe and mythology of Buffy much in the same way the Aliens comics expanded what the four movies laid out.

"Ideally, that's where the comics should go--exploring the universe around Buffy and the gang--and really come to stand on its own in terms of story and content. I really want to see it do all the things we wish we could do on the show--and then some."