Comments | stormwreath: (Meta) Some background information

stormwreath

(Meta) Some background information

Mar 24, 2010 15:22

Some of you may already have seen a big interview that Scott Allie of Dark Horse Comics gave to Ain't It Cool News recently... but if you haven't, he gave the clearest statement I've ever seen about the copyright and licencing situation regarding 'Buffy' and Joss's other creative works. I thought it might be interesting to repeat it here:

SCOTT: ( Read more... )

meta, comics, season 8, buffy

Comments 22

ubi4soft March 24 2010, 18:00:45 UTC

Reading also the comments above, that licensing thing could explain the weird characterization of both vampires in the comics: Angel in S8 is based only on BTVS (things in LA got funky) and Spike's Willingham is based only on AtS S5. And also would explain Allies statement that Buffy is more important to Angel that Connor.

stormwreath March 24 2010, 19:09:19 UTC

I definitely think the idea is, "You shouldn't have to read our rival's comics to understand this character, as long as you've seen the TV show."

However, I very much doubt that Joss's interpretation of Angel in B8 can be understood if you don't see it in light of the A5 "Angel pretends to be evil, fooling friends and enemies alike, in order to infiltrate a powerful organisation and bring it down from the inside" storyline. :-)

ubi4soft March 24 2010, 19:35:29 UTC

I definitely think the idea is, "You shouldn't have to read our rival's comics to understand this character, as long as you've seen the TV show."

Shouldn't be the TV shows?

As for bringing down from the inside I thought he already learned it cannot be done with W&H (or you have to read AtF comics).

stormwreath March 24 2010, 22:06:26 UTC

I was thinking of the Black Thorn rather than Wolfram & Hart when it came to taking things down from the inside.

Although his time at W&H probably gives him even more experience with being the leader of an evil organisation, not to mention setting up a good reason why Buffy and her friends might no longer trust him...

And I get the impression the Angel comics, at least, are based on AtS and not BtVS...

mana1023 March 24 2010, 19:14:49 UTC

It sounds to me like Joss goes over every BtVS comic before it's released. And therefore everything in them has been Jossed. Or am I reading it wrong?

stormwreath March 24 2010, 22:04:06 UTC

With Season 8, Joss approves everything page-by-page. (Apart from the ones he writes himself.) With 'After The Fall', he sat down with the writer for a long talk, then let him get on with it. For the other IDW comics, and for the pre-Season 8 Buffy ones, I gather he didn't really get involved much at all beyond checking over their plans once a year or so and saying "Yeah, that's fine."

mana1023 March 24 2010, 22:13:56 UTC

Right. I'm just wondering why people keep saying that s8 isn't canon because they don't like it. And then they want to say it isn't Joss. I mean he still approves of everything.

stormwreath March 24 2010, 23:27:13 UTC

why people keep saying that s8 isn't canon because they don't like it.

Well, you said it. They don't like it: but because it's written and/or approved by Joss, they feel uncomfortable just ignoring it, and instead feel they have to justify why they aren't reading it.

As for saying "it isn't Joss" - I've actually heard the opposite more often; that on the TV show Joss had a team of writers and producers, and the actors interpreting the lines, whereas on the comic there are many fewer people directly involved, so his views are coming across undiluted.

Thread 5