Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon’s new Buffy comics from Dark Horse arrive in March. In this second part of our interview with him Joss talks about how the project started, explains the notion of ‘comic book time’ and tells us what big things are in store for the Buffy characters...

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: What brought you back to Buffy and what was the genesis of the project?

JOSS WHEDON: It’s not that interesting. They said they wanted to do something, and I thought, “If we do something with TV movies, we could have this cool synergy.” The movies didn’t happen, but I sort of fell into it and I really fell. It was when I was writing some Andrew dialogue where I thought, “Oh my God, I’m home.” It was really nice. It was like, “Oh, the things we can do, the ways we can expand,” and those voices are so indelible to me. Even though the actors are not speaking them, I can still hear them perfectly and they never flub a line.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: So it was easy finding those voices even though you’ve been away from them for a number of years.

JOSS: You know, it really couldn’t have been easier. There they were. It was never much of a struggle, because I did it for so many years, and because the actors were doing it, you don’t just have an idea of how the characters speak, you have the actual voice in your head. So it really does make things easier.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: When we’d come back from a summer hiatus, usually real time had passed on the show.

JOSS: Every time.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: So how much time has passed between the end of the show and the comic?

JOSS: Comic book time.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Which means what?

JOSS: A vague amount of time, probably more than a year. Ultimately with comics, they don’t come out every week but every month. Whereas in show where every week it was something that would happen to you, a mystical version thereof, the comic book is going to be a little more sprawling with a lot of storylines going on and so you have to sort of fudge the numbers a little bit. You know, when will the rest of Reed Richards’ hair go gray? We don’t know. In fact, when I was talking to Marvel, I asked, “How long has Colossus been dead?” and they’re like, “Never say, because time doesn’t exist.” You could spend ten issues on something that happens in one night. So, like I said, it is about a year later or more. I make mention that Dawn supposed to be in college, so that means it would have to be at least a year and a half.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Now in the comic Dawn is a big giant girl sitting in a basement.

JOSS: She’s very large, and for some reason it’s my favorite thing. I get very excited when I talk about Giant Dawn.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Now why is that?

JOSS: I don’t know. I’m really not positive, but I’m not alone. Drew Goddard also has affection for Giant Dawn.

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Will she be Giant Dawn for a while?

JOSS: It’s going to be a long journey for her to find a cure for her giantness.