WonderCon 2011: Dark Horse Unveils 'Buffy: Season 9' and 'Angel & Faith' Plans
Sat - April 2, 2011
by Joseph McCabe


With Joss Whedon busy preparing The Avengers, fans may have been getting a little worried that he wouldn't have time anymore for other projects, especially those featuring his most famous creation, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Well according to Dark Horse Comics editor Scott Allie, nothing could be further from the truth.





Yesterday at WonderCon, I spoke with Allie about Whedon's plans to return to his character once again with Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9, debuting later this year.

According to Allie, Whedon and Dark Horse are planning a leaner season this time around for the Chosen One, as well as long-awaited new Angel book – and the publisher has recruited some Whedonverse veterans to help out…





"A while ago," says Allies, "we announced by accident that we were getting Angel back from IDW, Joss's Angel. It will debut in late August and the book will actually be called Angel & Faith, because the two of them are gonna co-star in it. That's news today.

We also announced the creative team today of Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs. Chris did a great graphic novel called Area 10 for Vertigo. He's also the writer on an Avengers book from Marvel. And Rebekah's been the artist a bunch of stuff.

The two of them are doing that book together with Steve Morris on covers. Steve is amazing. A really brilliant painter, great with likenesses but also great with outrageous, weird concepts.



Then on Buffy: Season 9, which launches in September, Joss will co-write that with Andrew Chambliss, a writer from 'Vampire Diaries'. He also was on the staff of 'Dollhouse', and he wrote the series finale with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

Andrew will be co-writing Buffy with Joss and co-writing Dollhouse with Jed and Mo. Georges Jeanty will return as artist on Buffy Season 9. The new season will be twenty-five issues long, keeping it a little shorter. But you'll have Buffy monthly for twenty-five issues, Angel monthly for twenty-five issues. And we'll have the occasional side project.

On Angel the plan is that Chris will write the entire thing. On Buffy, we've talked about some potential guest spots. But mostly it's gonna be one creative team all the way through. There will be the occasional guest artist to make up for time for the regular artists. But the writers should be pretty stable.

And if other writers are going to jump in, it'll mostly be for side projects, like a mini-series here or there.




The simple fact of the matter is that Joss is really committed to this character. He's really committed to Buffy. He loves Buffy. He feels that this place is where he gets to relax, be himself, and do his own thing.

And so with the weight of the world on his shoulders with this Avengers movie, Buffy is where he gets to go play."

http://www.fearnet.com/news/interviews/b22210_wondercon_2011_dark_horse_unveils_buffy.html

Exclusive: Artist Georges Jeanty on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9'!
Apr. 5, 2011
by Joseph McCabe


This weekend at WonderCon it was confirmed, to the relief of fans, that acclaimed comic artist Georges Jeanty would return to pencil "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9".

Jeanty's pencils combine the best traditions of American comics draftsmanship with a European flair that made Season 8 a smash hit with fans and proved the "Buffy" saga could continue beyond the television show.

I spoke briefly with Jeanty about his return to the Chosen One.







On the announcement of Buffy: Season 9…

Strangely enough they made an announcement here that Season 9 will be coming out in September. It will be twenty-five issues. Dark Horse has gotten the Angel property back as well.

So Angel will also be coming out and they will be coming out con-currently for the next two years.











On what brought him back to the book…

As any fan will tell you it's the characters. You feel so much for these characters that it was really a joy to come back. It wasn't a chore.

It's funny because I did have a conversation with Joss. And I sort of asked him, "Are you coming back?" He said, "Well, are you coming back?" I was like, "I'll come back if you come back." And he was like, "Alright, that makes me feel better about coming on then." It sort of went like that. I was like, "Yeah, if we can keep the quality level of what we were doing before, I would love to keep doing this."

And, heaven help me, they've got me for another twenty-five issues.











On his reaction to the story he's been given…

Joss has given me an overview of the next season. As a fan, I love to go directly to the source. Whatever's in Joss's mind, that's what I really want to hear, and know he's got a direction for these characters.

He actually called me not too long ago and gave me a really good breakdown of where Season 9 is going, and what's going to happen. I was excited. I was really giddy. I was like, "Oh my God. I really want to see this." I'm more excited about what he has planned than anything I'd really like to see necessarily.

And a lot of what he's got planned is what I would like to see. So it works out twofold.











On whether he'll pencil every issue…

Let's hope. That still remains to be seen.











On the new co-writer…

Joss is bringing on another writer, Andrew Chambliss, who wrote on "Dollhouse" and "Vampire Diaries". So they've collaborated extensively.

So where Joss can't come in, a lot of the writing chores will be on him. Joss is still executive producing and he has all of the approval and the say, and nothing goes out without him looking at it. So it'll hopefully be a nice tighter, leaner season.











On how much has been planned…

Everything is mapped out – "This is where we're starting and this is where we're ending." There's some middle there that hopefully there's room to play with. But essentially that's where we're going.

Given what we're doing now, if anything seems to warrant special attention and it's not within the twenty-five issues, there will be a series of limited series, sort of branching out from this trunk of a tree that is Buffy. So if anything really needs to be told, we can do it in limited series as well.

It doesn't have to interfere with the twenty-five issues."

http://www.fearnet.com/news/interviews/b22238_exclusive_artist_georges_jeanty_on.html