The world according to Joss

[makd]

Moderator's note: And I steal yet another thread...

If it's by or about the man, the myth, the magician, share it here for all to enjoy.

This is from the Bronze Beta posting board:

joss says:
(Thu May 20 05:26:55 2004) [Edit/Delete]

Can't stay long. Wanted to say thank you one more time, to all of you except anyone who ever criticized anything ever at all. I came on these boards in Buffy's first year and the support -- and even the criticism -- has been more helpful than I can type. I set out in television with one simple goal: to purchase a russian bride. Didn't work out. Immigration stuff -- it's complicated. But I did get to make this show, and that other one, and that other other one, and meet some of the best artists and the best friends I've ever known.

I had dinner with Tim Minear the other night, and we talked about what kind of show we want to make next. And it always comes back to the same themes... people getting strength. People helping out. People being thankful for whatever they have, be it power, a decent life, or a fun-tastic russian bride. And I'm thankful that for the last eight years my cohorts and I got to feel like the superheroes. 'Cause of y'all. I don't know if the Buffyverse is going to return to TV, but I hope so, and I know we'll be putting SOMETHING out there. Maybe on HBO, 'cause I like me some cussin'.

Keep you posted.

[LadyDi]

makd said:

This is from the Bronze Beta posting board:

joss says:
(Thu May 20 05:26:55 2004) [Edit/Delete]

Can't stay long. Wanted to say thank you one more time, to all of you except anyone who ever criticized anything ever at all. I came on these boards in Buffy's first year and the support -- and even the criticism -- has been more helpful than I can type. I set out in television with one simple goal: to purchase a russian bride. Didn't work out. Immigration stuff -- it's complicated. But I did get to make this show, and that other one, and that other other one, and meet some of the best artists and the best friends I've ever known.

I had dinner with Tim Minear the other night, and we talked about what kind of show we want to make next. And it always comes back to the same themes... people getting strength. People helping out. People being thankful for whatever they have, be it power, a decent life, or a fun-tastic russian bride. And I'm thankful that for the last eight years my cohorts and I got to feel like the superheroes. 'Cause of y'all. I don't know if the Buffyverse is going to return to TV, but I hope so, and I know we'll be putting SOMETHING out there. Maybe on HBO, 'cause I like me some cussin'.

Keep you posted.

Thank you so much for posting this here! Newish to cyberfandom I never went to the Bronze Beta board (kicking myself now). I really hope Joss does return to TV (but not HBO, 'cuz then I'd have to pay extra).

[Sara]

Posted by Joshua Adams:

Found this interview:

filmforce.ign.com/articles/425/425492p1.html

The conclusion to the interview should be online tonight at some point. I haven't read anything scandulous or earth-shattering so far, but he does breifly touch on a lot of things, including Season 7s short comings, and Fredie Prinze Jr.'s comments about Sarah leaving.

[Sara]

Posted by Rae:

From SandyShores:

Here's a link to an interview with Joss Whedon where he talks alot about how he got into writing.

darkhorse.com/news/interviews/z_buffy/sku_00018int/index.html

I thought it was interesting that he went to film school, but didn't get into writing until much later.

[Sara]

Posted by Sarah:

This can be found at

buffy.nu/article.php3?id_article=2563

but I've also copied it, in case it becomes hard to find there.


From Timesonline.co.uk

Throw Off Your Anoraks and Rejoice

Angel and Spike are back from the dead - again. And it’s all thanks to the weird science of Joss Whedon.

By John Harlow

The letter, pinned to a notice board, is well typed and politely phrased, but barking mad. 'Did you notice,' asks the writer, "an intruder materialise in your office the other night? I was practising my teleporting skills at home in Folkestone, and I think I may have ended up in your office in Los Angeles by accident. Sorry." Welcome to the off-kilter world of Joss Whedon, master of the Californian twilight zone.

For the past decade, Whedon - creator of the slyly humane satire that was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel, about Buffy’s vampiric ex-boyfriend, who has a soul of gold and a dodgy Galway accent - has been the unchallenged monarch of television’s bloodsucking hordes (or, in Hollywood PC terms, undead Americans). Questions of super-natural nomenclature are taken seriously in Los Angeles, and not just by teenage goths. The Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, where fundamentalist scholars regard mental illness as satanic possession, is drawing up a map of demonic activity in LA - and Fox Studios, where Whedon has his office, is splat in the middle. Maybe they are on to something? The 39-year-old writer looks too young and innocent to be true. As he steps into the shady domain of his production company, Mutant Enemy, and taps a 6ft plaster demon on its knobbly head, you cannot but think: what if Auberon Waughand Renée Zellweger had had an auburn-haired surfer love child? He would have looked uncannily like Mr Whedon.

Dressed in cargo pants and a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of the 1940s starlet Joan Leslie - big bonus points for obscurity there, Joss - the press-shy writer is taken aback by my materialisation in his sanctum. He has not sat down with a reporter for a year. The trap has been set by his cor- porate pals, because, frankly, since Buffy dusted her final "big, bad" last summer, the scene has not been rockin’ in the Jossiverse.

Buffy has gone, largely because Sarah Michelle Gellar, known on set as "the Duchess", wanted to spread her artistic wings - and ended up filming Scooby-Doo 2. A cartoon Buffy has failed to get off the drawing board: "Too expensive, allegedly," Whedon says tightly. His next venture, Firefly, a futuristic space saga, was sucked into a black hole after 13 episodes, criticised as dull. It may come back as a feature film with the original cast. "

That is a non-negotiable," he says firmly. "Firefly was the best experience I ever had in television, and it was killed before it could walk." Even Angel faced deep scrutiny in the mass audience shrinkage that has unnerved the TV suits over the past year.

Whedon, son and grandson of influential scriptwriters, whose chipper days (a shared Oscar nomination for writing Toy Story) have far outnumbered the lame (Alien: Resurrection, anybody?), was suddenly facing membership of the Hollywood hellfire club, where writers such as The X Files’ Chris Carter and Ally McBeal’s David E. Kelley are paired up with monkeys typing Shakespeare until they create another hit.

So, Whedon is a little on edge. As he talks, he is stabbing himself with a retractable Buffy stake and his knee is bobbing. Finally, unable to sit still, he picks up my minidisc recorder and weaves around the furniture. It works - at home, later, the machine spits out a few words, groans and melts down. Luckily, old-fashioned shorthand is less vulnerable to demonic influence.

Whedon’s battle to save Angel, which starts its fifth series on British television this week, has left its bruises. Last spring, studio bosses told him to cut costs or shut up shop. "I had too many stories left to tell. The series was not the pot of gold everyone might think: at least, that’s what the suits told me. It was painful dealing with those people. But we rescued Angel from the grave, again, at least for this series and maybe the next."

While Kelley sacked high-priced stars to save The Practice, Whedon expanded his cast, sharpened the writing and pushed Angel higher in the ratings than ever before. Key to its overhaul is the resurrection of the goodish vamp Spike, once a Victorian aesthete known as William the Bloody (thanks to his awful poetry), who had apparently sacrificed himself in the final, big-budget Buffy. Now Spike is back, still played with British cockiness and snarling wit by the Californian James Marsters. Think Karen out of Will & Grace with better cheekbones and slinkier moves. "The studio wanted him: it was me they were not sure about," says Whedon, half joking.

Fans are happy, too - last November, they raised £5,000 for a full-page advert in Variety, thanking Whedon for saving Spike. Let’s be frank. Obsessive fans - from Russian tweenies to scholars who organised a congress on slayerdom at Oxford - know that the Angel series has never quite equalled the intensity, tenderness and optimism that lay at Buffy’s ensemble heart. Lines such as "What is your childhood trauma?" and "I am love’s bitch, but at least I am man enough to admit it" have entered dictionaries of pop-culture quotations. Angel has not yet reached the heights of Buffy episodes such as The Body, which dealt with the death of the slayer’s mother, or the almost-silent Hush, or the episode staged as a musical, called Once More, With Feeling. But, suddenly, with Angel’s Anakin Skywalker whiner of a son written out, it is almost as wickedly funny as Buffy at its peak. It gives us hope again.

Angel has taken over an evil law office that runs a 'dial-a- sacrifice' phone service: "Press one for goat, two for pets or loved ones." He seems a little bit less scowly, despite Spike floating around, goading him and trying to have sex with the gorgeously dumb vamp Harmony. She is played by Mercedes McNab, whose dad, Bob, was an Arsenal full-back when they won the FA Cup in 1971. But that is another tale from the twilight zone.

Whedon is an unashamed anglophile. He named his first-born Arden, after the Shakespearian forest. The scripted but unfilmed opening line of the film version of Buffy was pure Python - a medieval knight chatting up a wench: "Some plague we are having, eh?" Even more tellingly, Whedon loves Danger Mouse. His father, Tom, who wrote The Golden Girls, introduced Joss to England in the 1980s. "I was at Winchester College for three years. I nearly took my A-levels there. It was all British authors, except for Emily Dickinson, but I loved it. I named Rupert Giles (his pukka librarian, played by Anthony Head) after Mrs Giles, our matron, a rare point of comfort in a cruel world," he says, mocking his own nostalgia.

"My public-school education was not wasted. For instance, I can write British slang for Giles or Spike, like `wanker’, or worse, which nobody here understands.

I can get away with it." He can mock the Brits, too - Spike to Giles: "Bet your whole life flashed before your eyes, didn’t it? `Cup of tea, cup of tea, nearly had a shag, cup of tea.’"

What about this talk of a Giles spin-off, set in Britain? "I still want to do something with Tony Head, even if it’s only a one-off ghost story for the BBC. There is a clamminess there I look forward to. But I would not do an English school story - Rowling has the lock on that."

Are there any lingering regrets about Buffy? "More music. There were some musicians I wanted to get onto the show. I wrote Lovebomb after hearing Britney Spears wanted to come on, but, of course, it never happened. But we did get Aimee Mann, and when I met her, I said: `Oh, God, oh, God, I am such a fan - and now I have to finish this sentence.’"

Will Whedon ever break away from the world of ghosties and ghouls? "Why should I? You can make big points without getting pompous, such as showing how a teenage girl can be strong without being bad. I almost wish we had never been nominated for an Emmy for Hush, stayed underground and away from award shows. I am genre, through and through, and this is where I shall remain."

At least until he is teleported to Folkestone, anyway.

The new series of Angel starts on Sky One on Tuesday

[Sara]

Posted by LeeHollins:

Fans' Love for His Brand of Weird Blows Even Joss Whedon's Wide Mind

By David Martindale

As hard as it might be to believe, there's a limit to Joss Whedon's imagination. He's the first to admit it, in fact. The creator/executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel, knew all along that his characters could save the world, but he had no idea whether they could win viewers' hearts. He knew that he could make good television, too, but didn't dare to dream that he'd make a couple of modern-day classics.

And that's what Buffy, which ended triumphantly last May after seven seasons, and Angel, now entering its fifth season, are: They're classics--a couple of small-screen masterpieces that seamlessly leap from horror to humor, from action to angst. They're scarier than most horror movies, funnier than most sitcoms and more action-packed than a John Woo flick. But the quality that makes Buffy and Angel truly special is a depth of feeling and intelligence that's exceptionally rare on TV. These shows might be populated by vampires, demons and misfit monster hunters, but the characters are nevertheless real and relatable in every way.

"It's been very close to what I envisioned, except it grew up a lot more," Whedon says. "When I started Buffy, I didn't know its full potential. I just had the basic notion of 'It's tough to make it in high school' and that it would be funny and involving and scary and really hip. But I didn't know how good my actors would be, I didn't know how long we'd go and I didn't know how far we could go with the medium. The basic idea was always there. But it grew beyond my best imagination."

Whedon's weird, wonderful worlds of Buffy and Angel sprang from this one idea: In most horror movies, the beautiful blond girl is an inevitable victim. "I started feeling bad for her," Whedon says. "I thought, 'It's time she had a chance to take back the night.'" In lesser hands, this premise--the sassy high school girl discovering she's "the chosen one"--could have been awful. In fact, the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie (which starred Kristy Swanson in the role later inhabited on TV by Sarah Michelle Gellar) WAS awful. Whedon wrote the screenplay but had no say in the final product and was very disappointed. Years later, however, he got a second chance. The Buffy series, with Whedon as a rookie producer, premiered on the new WB network in March '97, quickly winning critical acclaim and a small but devoted audience.

Then, in 1999, at the height of Buffymania, Whedon took one of the show's most popular supporting players--David Boreanaz, who played Angel, a vampire seeking redemption for his past acts of evil--and developed a new show. "It was clear, when I first devised the Buffy pilot, that Angel was the one character bigger than life in the same way that Buffy was, a kind of superhero," Whedon says. "I knew, as the dark, mysterious love interest for Buffy, that he had the potential to be a breakout character."

Angel is a reformed vampire whose reign of terror began in Ireland in 1753 and ended on a night in Romania in 1898 when a Gypsy curse restored his soul. Tormented by his past atrocities, he's now trying to reclaim his humanity--a journey that most recently has taken him to Los Angeles. Whedon set the new show in the City of Angels because, "L.A. is not only a very funny place, but it's also incredibly scary. It is a minefield for horror."

Many of the resulting story lines have been, in Whedon's estimation, "the same kind of all-over-the-place, transcending-genre kind of thing" that brought Buffy so many kudos. In four years, Angel has done everything from save the world from the horror of permanent darkness to explore the highs and heartaches of fatherhood. Yet at its core, Angel remains a meditation on redemption and the qualities that make a hero.

"The thing about a hero," Whedon says, "is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is." One day, Angel may even get the atonement that he seeks. "But it won't be easy," Whedon assures. "It won't come cheap." Until that day, viewers can only hope for many more years of great stories. Whedon & Co. haven't let them down yet.

www.tnt.tv/DramaLounge/Feature/Article/0,17420,5147,00.html

[Sara]

Posted by Joshua Adams:

This is old, and me posting it here may be of absolutely no use to anyone, but I know a lot of us got hooked on the BtVS around Season Six and may not have come across this. Definitely the biggest interview with the Man (ok, the other man) himself that I've seen. So:

www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3731/avfeature_3731.html

[Sara]

Posted by Karen:

www.slayage.com/articles/000080.html#000080

August 27, 2003
OPINION
Note To Self: Religion Freaky
by Daniel Erenberg


Joss Whedon has said time and time again that he is an atheist and that he tries not to let his lack of religious belief infiltrate his television shows. However, he’s been attacked more than once by righteous political catholic organizations that object to the ways he does use religion in his shows.

Continued ..........

[Sara]

Posted by Spring:

SandyShores said:

www.slayage.com/articles/000080.html#000080

Interesting article but not well-researched. Didn't even bother to check which BtVS episode had the quote he used - and since when was Caleb a Catholic priest? The article-writer is a good writer with interesting ideas, but it was sloppy - which ruined it for me.

[Sara]

Posted by Laura:

SpringSummers said:

Interesting article but not well-researched. Didn't even bother to check which BtVS episode had the quote he used - and since when was Caleb a Catholic priest? The article-writer is a good writer with interesting ideas, but it was sloppy - which ruined it for me.

I agree -- especially since somewhere else (I don't remember -- soon after the ep aired) it was noted that ME was being deliberately vague about what sect of Christianity Caleb followed. Yes, after I saw the episode, I stated on the ScoopMe! boards that I wished ME hadn't used the Roman collar -- but enough was published afterwards that made me believe that ME was trying to be ambiguous about it, and wasn't trying to single any particular denomination for attack.

[Wit and Wisdom of Joss]

216.239.63.104/search?q=cache:www.slayage.tv/pages/Wit_Wisdom_Joss_Whedon.pdf

[Karen]

Joss post about the new "Serenity" trailer to first air next Tuesday....from the Browncoats site via Whedonesque: whedonesque.com/?comments=6549


Joss says "Trailer. Serenity. Tuesday." (reg req) Yep, this coming Tuesday we'll see the arrival of the very first official trailer of our BDM.

There's also some serious hinting that its theater premiere will be before The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. DO NOTE, the trailer will contain a few spoilers so everyone that want to stay completely spoiler free will have to avoid it (like you'll be able to resist).

(ETA) eddy adds this info:

"If you're a member of the official browncoats site, you probably just got a email from Joss about the trailer.

But if you're not, here it is:

'Hey guys.

I'm here on the official site, so that can only mean one thing: somebody finally told me my password! (Again.) It probably also means that I have some big-ass announcement or other. Well tops on the announcement list is this: after months of intensive yoga, i can finally touch my toes! (They feel round and bunion-y.)

But there's more! I'm talkin' movie news, peeps, so no more drumroll: Trailer. Serenity. Tuesday.

Yeah, kids, the haps is hap'nin', and it runs thus: EXCLUSIVELY on Apple movie trailers (and linked through this site as well of course) will be a small, medium, large or FULLSCREEN trailer for Serenity the major motion movie. Yeah, THE trailer. And the following Friday said trailer hits theaters. Which theaters? Until I get confirmation you'll have to guess, but I'm betting you can.

Now, here's a word of warning: this trailer ain't shy. If you're looking to live totally spoiler-free, know that there's plenty of key dialogue and images running through this bad boy. It's pretty tasty, though, and it doesn't give everything away. But close scrutiny will definitely learn you much of what's to come. (Anakin TOTALLY goes evil.) It's a nice piece to while away the time till September, and hopefully should intrigue th' peeps that don't have coats of brown.

The only thing more exciting than y'all finally seeing this was showing it to Nathan. Like a schoolboy giggled he.

Bye-ee!

Joss "You can't take my toes from me" Whedon.'"

[William the Bloody]

Karen said:

Joss post about the new "Serenity" trailer to first air next Tuesday....from the Browncoats site via Whedonesque: whedonesque.com/?comments=6549


Joss says "Trailer. Serenity. Tuesday." (reg req) Yep, this coming Tuesday we'll see the arrival of the very first official trailer of our BDM.

There's also some serious hinting that its theater premiere will be before The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. DO NOTE, the trailer will contain a few spoilers so everyone that want to stay completely spoiler free will have to avoid it (like you'll be able to resist).

(ETA) eddy adds this info:

"If you're a member of the official browncoats site, you probably just got a email from Joss about the trailer.

But if you're not, here it is:

'Hey guys.

I'm here on the official site, so that can only mean one thing: somebody finally told me my password! (Again.) It probably also means that I have some big-ass announcement or other. Well tops on the announcement list is this: after months of intensive yoga, i can finally touch my toes! (They feel round and bunion-y.)

But there's more! I'm talkin' movie news, peeps, so no more drumroll: Trailer. Serenity. Tuesday.

Yeah, kids, the haps is hap'nin', and it runs thus: EXCLUSIVELY on Apple movie trailers (and linked through this site as well of course) will be a small, medium, large or FULLSCREEN trailer for Serenity the major motion movie. Yeah, THE trailer. And the following Friday said trailer hits theaters. Which theaters? Until I get confirmation you'll have to guess, but I'm betting you can.

Now, here's a word of warning: this trailer ain't shy. If you're looking to live totally spoiler-free, know that there's plenty of key dialogue and images running through this bad boy. It's pretty tasty, though, and it doesn't give everything away. But close scrutiny will definitely learn you much of what's to come. (Anakin TOTALLY goes evil.) It's a nice piece to while away the time till September, and hopefully should intrigue th' peeps that don't have coats of brown.

The only thing more exciting than y'all finally seeing this was showing it to Nathan. Like a schoolboy giggled he.

Bye-ee!

Joss "You can't take my toes from me" Whedon.'"

Oh jsut...flippersmackin' cool! Joss...what a card... "can't take my toes from me..." Hee! I can't wait!

Vlad

[Karen]

The Serenity trailer goes up online at 1 pm PST today.

Just click on the poster when they put it up.

*bouncing with anticipation!*



Announcement on Ain't It Cool News
www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=20039

Don’t Forget!! Universal’s
SERENITY Trailer Goes Live In A Few Hours!!
I am – Hercules!!
"Serenity" isn’t due till Sept. 30, but it’s already got itself a dang trailer! It appears Tuesday on the Apple Movie Trailers site. I was a little hazy on exactly when, so I was going to suggest everyone just keep checking that Apple Movie Trailers site for the next 30 hours or so.
Then the film's writer-director - who doesn’t blame me even a little for ruining his many excellent TV shows with incessant and unnecessary spoilers – wrote in with this:

Herc -- yes it's me […] again. Here's th' vital info: The trailer goes up at 1:00 pm PST tomorrow [Tuesday]. Sing it to the world.

That piece about the trailer in AICN was awfully disrespectful of you, I thought. It made us out to be butt-buddies, which apart from that one magical night under the stars is TOTALLY untrue.

Later on, -j.

Joss is, of course, kidding. We are still the biggest butt-buddies. Ever. Despite the increasingly cold and lawyerly tone of his representatives’ cease-and-desist letters.
I digress.
Beginning 4 p.m. New York Time, bask in every ounce of “Serenity’s” Zoic-y greatness!!
Then we all get to go to the movies on Friday and see that same trailer on the big screen. Probably before “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Maybe before that movie about the chubby, middle-aged guy who replaces Vin Diesel as “XXX.” Hopefully not before “House of D.” But no promises are made!!

[Sara]

From TVGuide.com:

Spike and Angel Rise from Grave
by Ethan Alter 6/21/05

Cancelation, like death, doesn't seem to stop vampires. Characters from three defunct Joss Whedon series — Buffy, Angel and Firefly — are being resurrected this summer in comic-book form.

First up, on June 29 is Angel: The Curse, IDW Publishing's five-part story set after the events of last year's apocalyptic series finale. The story finds Angel in Romania searching for the Gypsy tribe that cursed him with a soul a century ago. IDW also brings back Angel's former rival for Buffy's affections in the one-shot Spike: Old Times in August. The blond Brit will reunite with a vengeance demon and former crush. In between these two Buffyverse comics, the first issue of Dark Horse Comics' Serenity, based on the space-cowboy TV show Firefly, goes on sale July 6. The three-part comic serves as a bridge between the series and the upcoming movie, directed by Whedon and due in theaters on September 30.
Additionally, Whedon is regularly penning the best-selling title Astonishing X-Men from Marvel Comics. Here, the busy writer/director takes a break from editing his feature-film debut to tell TVGuide.com all about his comic antics.

TVGuide.com: What is your exact involvement with these different comic-book projects?
Joss Whedon: It ranges... For the Angel and Spike comics, I basically told [the writers] areas to stay away from, just in case those were stories that we still might get a chance to tell on film. Otherwise, I pretty much let them do their thing, although I kept peeking over [their shoulders]. For the Serenity comic, I worked out the story with the writer Brett Matthews and have been sort of overseeing the editing and giving notes.

TVG: How will the comic lead into the movie?
Whedon: Well, when the series ended, certain things were happening and, in the movie, certain things have already happened. So the idea was to bridge the time gap and act as a kind of prequel for the movie. Inara has sworn she's going to leave the ship, and this deals with Mal's reaction to that. It also showcases the crew in their usual state, with lots of heists going wrong. And it features the return of a villain from the series... a couple [of them], in fact. It's an action/heisty romp that hopefully gives the characters a little more resonance. It does leave you prepped for the movie should you want that, but you don't need to have seen the series or be planning to see the movie for the comic to work.

TVG: You're known for being very hands-on when it comes to controlling the direction of your worlds. Is it hard to watch other people write adventures for these characters?
Whedon: I get the usual mix of feelings: horror, pride and fun. You do want to do everything yourself, but every now and then, someone shows you something you haven't thought of and it's really charming. It's tough because I'm very strict about the canon of my shows, but at the same time, you have to let people create. As long as it's responsible, all they have to do is make it engaging and I'm satisfied.

TVG: What advantages do comic books offer over film?
Whedon: For one thing, there's no budget. The artists can't say, "I can't afford to draw a dragon." Also, you can tell stories in all kinds of odd ways and you're not beholden to sponsors. But at the same time, while you can do almost anything, a Buffy comic is going to be picked up by younger people, so you have to look out for what you're doing there. And ultimately, you don't have four acts and an episode a week — you have 22 pages and an episode a month. So, in a way, it's very similar. But you do have great leeway to do whatever you want in terms of visuals. We have a space-heist sequence in the Serenity comic. That's an expensive proposition in a movie or TV show. It's zero gravity and Nathan Fillion [who plays Mal Reynolds in Serenity] hates harnesses. But his comic-book self doesn't mind floating at all! He's the most perfect gentleman I've ever worked with. [Laughs]

TVG: Do you think any of these comics will become ongoing series?
Whedon: I could see it happening. But for me, it's about getting the story out that you're telling right now. Don't worry about the next thing. You have to keep your eyes on the prize, and right now that prize is trying to make a three-part comic that's worth your time and spare change, and a movie that's worth putting your butt in the theater. If both of those things work, then I'll have to work more. And if they don't work, I'll wish I had to work more.

TVG: Finally, will we ever learn what happened in that alleyway in the series finale of Angel?
Whedon: Of course. I have every intention of keeping the Buffyverse alive — and not just in flashback tales that I'm not connected to. And if I can't do it with the actors I love, I might just do it with drawings of the actors I love.