Scott Allie Q&A for #30
Dark Horse Editor, Scott Allike, and writer of Exurbia and Solomon Kane is back for another Q&A to celebrate the release of Buffy Season 8 #30 Retreat - Part V written by Jane Espenson and penciled by Georges Jeanty
1. bamph: I've just read issue 30 and while I get the WTF-hype for the ending, it actually didn't cause a extreme WTF or pissed off reaction from me although I was confused by it. I suppose answers will come in January. My question isn't about this though since I know someone will be asking soon enough.
I have questions about the new issue but I've got a general season 8 to kick things off. With season 9 already mapped out, plotwise, would you say Joss is actually telling a two season arc/storyline and would you say the end of season 8 is more along the lines of Becomine, Restless and Grave which had more cliffhanger ends to those seasons and setup for the next vs. Prophecy Girl, Graduation Day, The Gift and Chosen which had more definitive end series feels even thought they weren't?
Scott Allie: Season 8 & 9 are two totally distinct seasons, as distinct as any of them. You'll be following the same characters, for the most part, they'll be changed by these events, but believe me, we would not drag you through 40 issues for a cliffhanger. Season 8 pays off.
2. AndrewCrossett: Buffy obviously has her powers (or some powers) back, plus more... able to survive a 50-foot fall uninjured, able to fly. Would I be off base in thinking the physical contact with the goddess had something to do with it?
Scott Allie: That'd be a fair guess, but it's gonna take them some thinking to figure this out.
3. neowhobaz: do the goddesses play an integral role in the remainder of the series what with having godlike powers and all?
Scott Allie: Spoiler. Sorry.
4. Emmie: Can you comment on the writers' choice of Tibet as the setting - was it partially chosen for Oz's location, but also for the spiritual meaning found in Buddhism of "letting go, always letting go" of power and that by letting go, you truly find power?
Scott Allie: Yes and yes. But Oz himself is in Tibet because he was looking for a way to turn it all off. So they're going after Oz to get help in releasing their power, and Oz himself had already gone to Tibet to get help to do just that. But yes, the location has everything to do with the theme of the story at this point. Now we're sort of stuck in Tibet... I think Brad finds himself thinking, Really? We're still in Tibet?
5. Emmie: When the scene shifts to "Five Hours Later," the valley is covered in snow. Is this meant to be a natural occurance of did the Goddesses finally leaving the valley cause this abrupt change in weather? (I'm leaning towards the latter because of the magic changing both Buffy and the landscape around her.)
Scott Allie: I can't believe you're not mentioning the flying. Yeah, the goddesses brought the snow. Really what happened was Adam painted snow on the cover, and we thought that was cool, so we had the snow hit when the goddesses were active, and them kick up later.
6. bamph: I love Twilight's reaction to Amy and Warren bickering. It seems Twilight's reaction to Riley being a triple agent spying on him for Buffy was played where you could read it as him knowing all along or figuring it out at that moment. Warren even asks him this before Amy and him start arguing. So is the issue intentionally being ambiguous on whether Twilight knew Riley was playing him the whole time or not because it is a question that will be answered later on?
Scott Allie: You'll soon get answers on Twilight. But I thought it was fairly clear that Twilight knew, and wasn't commenting much.
7. AndrewCrossett: In the scene where injured Riley is lying on the floor, he doesn't seem to have the Twilight symbol on his chest anymore. Just a quirk of the art, or significant?
Scott Allie: I reserve the right to make that make sense later.
8. vampmogs: Is the Willow one-shot pivotal to the season or just her character? And why did Joss decide to write that himself? Also is there any particular reason her one-shot was released after #30 or is that just the way it worked out?
Scott Allie: In reverse -- We needed something to fill a month to give Georges catchup time. We fit those between arcs so as not to disrupt. I asked Joss if we could do Willow, because she's always my favorite spinoff character, commercially speaking. I asked if we could reveal a little of how she came to be super witch, and he said he had an idea. He was gonna get one of his writers to do it, but I think it was so central to her and who she is in Season 8, it was easier for him to do it himself.
9. buffycomic: Any update on a Buffy Animated spin-off comic since an actual animated show seems to be going nowhere still. Star Wars and Hellboy both had an Animated comic, why not Buffy?
Also, please bring back Brian Horton/Paul Lee for covers for Season Nine!
Scott Allie: I have an idea for an Animated-style book, but I really don't want to do this stuff without Joss's direct involvement, and he's been busy. We could make a shitload of money cranking out comics he barely knows about, but I don't want to do that. But I am gonna try to get dibs on a bit more of his time, so we can do a few more things. But they'll be the things he deigns to make to time for. As for Brian and Paul...? Maybe.
10. vampmogs: Buffy seems to be flying at the end of the issue. Can you tell us whether or not this will be a permanent development?
Scott Allie: She will land eventually.
11. Undercovers: Something that was keeping Buffy very much alive while it was on air and even in the years following the show's ending was the merchandise... guides, bestiaries, trading cards and so on. I spent my teenage years collecting that kind of thing, and now as a grown-up I still have a fondness for some Buffy merchandise. Mr Gordo - Buffy's stuffed piglet - is next on my list!
So my question is: are there any plans at the moment by Dark Horse to release merchandise to go along with Buffy season 8? I know it's been asked before, but a Vampy cat soft toy would be fantastic (and I am a retailer with a Dark Horse account, so I am not talking about buying just one!).
A behind-the-scene book about the comics would also be fantastic: a guide taking us through everything (origins of the new characters, altered/dropped storylines from the original pitch, peek at the script, drawing/colouring/lettering process, interviews, alternate covers submitted by Jeanty which were not finally accepted, and so on).. I would literally jump on such a book and it would very probably help bring back the excitement for season 8 that the monthly waiting is making hard to maintain.
Scott Allie: We'll do a book like that when Season 8 wraps up, I can't wait for that.
Toys and such are not my domain... I don't like that stuff, so I never think to make it. I am sort of surprised Dark Horse hasn't done more than the ouija board and the... oh yeah, the tarot deck never happened. Well, the board.
12. AndrewCrossett: Will the Willow one-shot be as sexy as the Jo Chen cover seems to promise? Sexy Willow is good.
Scott Allie: Nothing could be that sexy.
13. bamph: Connecting to vampmog's next question, will we get answers to how and why Buffy was flying in the Joss penned issue 31 or do we have to for Brad Meltzer's arc?
Scott Allie: They'll START figuring it out in #31, but you know answers don't come that quick in the Whedonverse.
14. Hellbound Hyperion: So no wthat we've seen Buffy... um, floating, flying, etc,. are we allowed to know the titles of #31 and Brad's arc now? Or is it still too spoilery for us?
Scott Allie: We JUST figured out the title with Joss today for #31. That will be Turbulance. You heard it here first, because I heard it here first about two hours ago. And the title for the next issue is Buffy Has F&#$ing Super Powers. Although I might have the spelling wrong on that middle word.
15. neowhobaz: You mentioned in the past that the count of the issues may crest over 40. Has it been confirmed for sure or is it still too soon to tell?
Scott Allie: It has not. We talked through Joss's final arc a bit today, but it's not tight enough yet to know if we need the final issue. I think it'll work in 40, but that's a guess right now.
16. claytonm: Would you say there is a lot more shockers to come (Brad's or Joss' arcs) and [Issue 30] us just the top of the icing?
Scott Allie: Still some shockers.
17. michamon: Is there any reason for the fact that it's impossible to read Myspace Dark Horse presents outside of the US?
Scott Allie: It's problems at MySpace. Something about how certain features are "mirrored" into other countries, even Canada. We keep asking them to fix it, but it hasn't happened yet. We're really sorry about it.
18. skippcomet: Was the group of Slayers and other characters in Tibet supposed to be all of Buffy's slayer organization, or was it just Buffy's, Andrew's and Satsu's groups plus Faith, Willow, Giles and Kennedy? I'm asking because in earlier arcs we briefly saw or heard about Robin Wood with the slayers in Cleveland, Violet leading a group in New York, Rona leading a group out of Chicago (she was the one who shipped Simone off to Andrew's group, correct?), and I don't think they were in Tibet with Buffy. At the very least, Robin Wood was definitely absent, seeing as we didn't see any tall, shaved-head, black men anywhere. I'd hate to think that they were all killed off off-panel or, even worse, just forgotten about by you, Joss, and Jane.
Scott Allie: Those weren't ALL the Slayers in Tibet, you're right, there are still cells in other countries.
19. bamph: I asked this in Georges Jeanty's Q/A but I'm also interested in getting your perspective. What did you think was going to piss off fandom in this week's issue and have us getting the pitchforks out? There was nothing in issue 30 that I could see that would draw a very angry reaction from fandom. If it was the Buffy flying ending, I still don't see what would make the fandom pissed off?
Scott Allie: I thought you guys would hate the flying. I thought you'd say, "Well, great, it's comic now, so suddenly she has to be flying? That's crap, Scott Allie, I'm gonna kill you for wrecking Buffy." It seems like any departure from the show is met with some venom, and this seemed to me the biggest departure so far.
20. AndrewCrossett: I believe Joss mentioned something about having figured out a way to make a "Dollhouse" comic work. Is this something that's being consdered yet? Does Joss's idea have anything to do with graphic novels instead of monthly issues?
Scott Allie: When we had that conversation, it was basically like this - for the eighth time, I was just making sure he knew we wanted to do it, even though he'd said he didn't see it working as a comic. "But if you ever change your mind...," I said. He said, "Actually, I do know how we could do it as a comic, but I don't know if I want to." So the potential storyline is there, but we're not even talking about actually doing it right now. We talked about it again yesterday when we were nailing down the title of Buffy #31, and we definitely are not adding Dollhouse comics to the list of current projects. Sorry...
21. Hellbound Hyperion: Picked up the Sugarshock! book the other day and loved it - I caught the first eight pages on MDHP but hadn't read the rest. It was possibly one of the best one-shots I've ever read (and I believe this was the same week as an outstanding Punisher one-shot, so that's saying a lot). Does Joss have any other original ideas bouncing around that you'd like to see turned into comics? The Sugarshock! concept is truly inspired, and I'd be interested to see what else Joss cold do in the MDHP/one-shot formats outside of the properties we already associate with him (Buffy, Firefly, etc.)
Scott Allie: I would love to do more original stuff with him, things that haven't excisted on TV, but that's only gonna happen if he clears the deck with current commitments and has more time for fun, like Sugarshock, and less people relying on him, the was so many crews currently do.
22. collex: I have noticed that Season 8 seems to play a lot with the superhero genre we traditionally associate with comic-book. Examples: Xander "Nick Fury" Harris, Twilight superhero-y garb (mask, logo, "cape") and now, Flying Buffy. Is this kind of hommage to the superhero genre just a coincidence, or was it voluntary?
Scott Allie: Joss loves comics, and superheroes, and all that. I'm sure that has a lot to do with why Twilight looks the way he does. There were a lot of superhero references in the show already, but the comic certainly takes that up a notch. We're gonna take it up about a dozen notches in a couple months when Brad takes over. Things like characters flying and becoming giants, though - I think Joss would have done that on the show if he had the budget for it. He wanted to make Dawn a giant on the show, but he knew they couldn't make it look good with their budget.
23. AndrewCrossett: When Twilight, Amy and Warren are watching the battle, Twilight says "That goddess almost killed them." But it's not until two panels later that this almost-killing happens. Was Twilight's comment supposed to be in response to the actual event, or did he actually say it before he happened? On several occasions, it seems like he's remembering things that haven't happened yet...
Scott Allie: No comment other than Twilight is not precisely psychic.
24. buffylover: Is Willow becoming more powerful than any character in the buffyverse, and would it show later on how much power she got?
Scott Allie: Will's certainly the most powerful central character, but there are plenty more powerful than her out there.
25. bamph: It's always interesting hearing the casts reaction to developments with the characters in season 8. I still get a kick out of Sarah Michelle Gellar's, Seth Green's, James Marsters and Nicholas Brendon's reaction at Paleyfest to the Buffy/Satsu hookup the week issue 12 came out. I thought their comments were priceless.
Last weekend was the Hallowhedon convention and Nick Brendon gave a negative reaction to the Xander/Dawn hookup going on in season 8 and it seems some cast members like Tom Lenk and Juliet Landau have been keeping up with the comic based on various interviews. According to Georges Jeanty in a recent interview, Tom Lenk is such a big fan of the comic that he even reads his dialogue out loud as Andrew. Have you heard more recently various reactions from actors associated with the show about the latest developments in season 8 and do you find there reactions as fascinating as I seem to? For example, I was actually surprised Nick didn't care for the Xander/Dawn developments although his feelins sound like they mirror some of the fans concern that you've heard in these question and answers about the pairing.
Scott Allie: I haven't heard a lot of that. Juliet said nice things about the books, and I did hear the bit when Seth Green broke the news to Sarah. Tom Lenk loves the comic -- I wish we could get him to read #29 for our website. But I haven't heard any reactions about Xander and Dawn. I hope Nicholas doesn't hate it. It was Joss's idea...
26. slayette: wenxina: What is the status on the possible one-shots that you mentioned in an earlier Q&A session? The ones that would most likely fall between Brad Meltzer's and Joss' arc. Have they solidified, or are they still just (hopefully very possible) possibilities?
Scott Allie: Sorry, no further info at this time.
27: skippcomet: As I'm sure you know, may fans take passionate interest in the Scoobies' love lives, who likes whom, who's sleeping with whom, etc. The revelation in "Retreat" that not just one but both Summers sisters are romantically interested in Xander at the same time, however, has thrown many fns who are (to put it mildly) deeply attached to Buffy's prior relationships with Angel or Spike for a loop, as well as those who simply want Buffy and Xander to remain platonic friends.
Many fans seemt to take Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike, along with her lack of romantic interest in Xander in previous seasons, as some part of unspoken statement from Joss that there is simply No Way in Hell Buffy Would Ever be Attracted to Xander (then again, in the past many fans thought there was no way Buffy would sleep with another girl, or get involved with Spike, or get involved with anybody again after Angel, for whatever it's worth), and therefore this latest turn of events is either completely out of character for Buffy or proof that some external force is acting upon her. So my question is, is Buffy's apparent current state of mind/heart realy her current state of mind/heart, is some external force at work here (besides the story), or is something else going on?
Scott Allie: Well, how do emotions work? Is this real or passing? Yes. Is it magically conjured? No. Speaking as a fan, I've always thought Buffy's best shot at not dramatic happiness is Xander. And I don't think she'll ever get there. But looking back in my own life, every girl who was ever to me as Xander is to Buffy, I eventually came around to considering them an option, right or wrong, whether it went anywhere or not. And just because you have a One True Love in your past, be it Angel or Spike, that doesn't mean you're not gonna keep looking for it elsewhere. I mean, that's just a fact, right?
28. faithlehane: Since the eighth season of Buffy is supposed to be around forty issues, do you have any idea of how long season nine will be, and how long we will have to wait after the last Season 8 issue for the first Season 9 issue to come out?
Scott Allie: Sorry, no answers yet. We're talking about it more, as 8 draws to a close, but Joss is buried. He doesn't need more major decisions to make.
29. sosa lola: Nick and Sarah had asked Joss to pair Xander and Buffy up in S7, and he refused. What changed his mind now? And did he think about having Buffy fall for Xander in the planning of the season - before #1 hit the stores?
Scott Allie: Doesn't look like he's changed his mind, and yeah, this has been part of the plan a good long time.
30. slayerette: In the panel where we see some of Team Buffy (Giles, Willow, Dawn) getting hauled away, it seems like quite a few notable characters from the season and arc aren't visible. Was it just a case of not being able to fit everyone in the one panel, or should we be worried that some pretty recognizable characters might not have made it long enough to get captured?
Scott Allie: All I can say is we showed you the ones we wanted to show. We were pressed for space, so we didn't have room to show that a character was simply out cold, or busy helping wounded - we showed the ones you needed to see to understand what happens next, and the other ones, you'll just catch up with next issue (January), licking their wounds. The charcters being led away, that was significant.
Thanks, Emmie, thanks, gang!!!
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