SEASON 10: BACK TO DUH HELLMOUTH // ISSUE 8

HEY YOU GHOULS!! (special Halloween themed Buffyfest blogpost review)

Considering the cover, the timing of this issue, and the actual interior of this issue - The Scoobs (read: Scooby Gang) are celebrating Halloween. The Book of Vampyr is missing and because of Magical GPS - they can tell the book is making its' way to Sunnydale. At this time of year in Sunnydale, all the freaks come out and put on their freakiest costumes and have a Burning Man-style celebration. So the Scoobs need to contend with returning to Sunnydale, which is DEVASTATO (spanish for fucked up) and having to deal with a gross costume party.

POR EJEMPLO

There is an amazing few pages done by the legendary Richard Corben. Do you know who that is? He's the man behind a lot of Heavy Metal magazine illustrations. Corben does monsters LIKE REALLY GOOD. In this super-muscled, textured, and expressive way. SERIOUSLY - GOOGLE HIM. His pages rule!! If you do some further googling - his stuff gets Super-Sexumundo (read: Sexual).

SAMPLE OF RICHARD CORBEN MAGIC

The issue kind of read like standard - "let's move the story along, let's keep you up to date." Obviously I do not mean to downplay the actual story - it is good. I don't think I can bear to tell you about the state of everyone's mind. I have spent the last few reviews being like, "Xander is complicated because...." and "Dawn is complicated because......" Here. It's kind of like - Buffy springs to action. There's a lil' mystery. Andrew (the closet-case gay(?) Scooby) makes some stank choices for some reason - which you will have to read on about. Some characters make a comeback (?). Some lingering thoughts about characters' previous actions are brought to light. (SPIIIIIIIIIKE???)

I will say the end has me super-excited. God what else CAN I SAY!??!? You know I dig this new season. I haven't hit a bummer moment. Rebekah Isaacs is kicking some ass. Christos Gage's writing reads on many different levels, which makes this rewarding. I've not come away from an issue wanting something else or thinking, "Gee had they only...." But if you are new to Buffy - this is a good starting point.

HOW DO YOU GUYS FEEL ABOUT SEASON 10??

I DON'T FEEL LIKE THIS.

Nick Brendon, You So Crazy - Part Two

Nicholas Brendon, slowly but surely becoming the Whedonverse's own Nick Nolte, was arrested for being a drunk, hot mess again at a Comic Convention in Boise, Idaho over the weekend. Just 2 weeks after getting married, he must have been still celebrating just a bit too hard.

Poor Nick, looking a bit bruised and worse for the wear in his mugshot on Saturday Morning, still turned up at the Tree City Con the next day...a delight to fans we're sure.

CNN reports:

Brendon was in town for the Tree City Comic Con. Police were called to a downtown hotel Friday after reports of a disturbance in the lobby, according a news release from the Boise Police Department. "When officers arrived, they found the suspect who showed signs of intoxication and repeatedly refused officers commands to stay seated while officers tried to speak with witnesses," the release said. "When the suspect continued to try and walk away, officers took him into custody for resisting and obstructing."

The hotel staff said Brendon had broken a decorative dish and they wanted to press charges. He was booked into the Ada County Jail and bonded out, police said. Brendon is charged with two misdemeanors -- malicious injury to property and resisting or obstructing officers. Police say additional charges are possible. 

Brendon remained on the schedule to speak at an event Saturday evening. His Twitter account thanked fans for their "love, support and positive vibes."

Haha! Broken a "decorative dish!" What the hell is this nonsense?

You might remember the first part of this story back in 2010 when Nicky got drunk once again and was very rudely tased by the po po! Keep your head up, buddy. We've all been there. Well not exactly there being booked in Boise and all, but you know what we're sayin'....the fans still love ya.

Parting Gifts from Scott Allie...

We got some exclusive previews for you! Here are 2 pages from Buffy #8 which are hilarious and mysterious, respectively. That issue of Buffy is on sale next week (Oct 22nd). Followed by art from Abe Sapien #17, which is on sale today! Thanks to Scott Allie! Click to enlarge:

NYCC Recap - Final Day: Amazing Cosplay, Super-Cute 'Firefly', Rapping Veggies & more!

The last day of New York Comic Con was a chill one. We basically just took in all the wonders.

Actually one of highlights of the day is a cosplay story to be told. It all started with a little Jayne Cobb running by, maybe 6 years old, complete with facial hair and Nerf brand Vera. What was this amazingness? "OMG!" I screamed, unable to move, and pointed in his direction, but the words wouldn't come out and he was running so fast. Luckily Ryan looked up, saw what was making me speechless and said, "Wait, no way, there's a little Kaylee too!" Without another word we just instinctively gave chase through the crowd, squishing through the packed Javits entranceway, down an escalator, and a full 5 minutes of running later we saw them all and just *gasped*. It was an entire Firefly family! Complete with caretaker Mal! When we asked to please please please take a photo they all got into like a rehearsed formation, complete with frickin River Tam signature double-weapon pose and we all *gasped* a second time. Could you not die? Check them out below.

So adorable. Speaking of cuteness in the Firefly 'verse, the QMX booth was previewing this cute Serenity plush - well more like a beanie - compete with detaching shuttles that pop out of the sides. I think I might need this!

Here's a slew of great Buffy Cosplayers from the duration of the convention all taken by Kevin. Check them out below!

Drusilla and Darla

Buffy & Giles

Eye-patch Xander - maybe you can't tell but he's mid-Snoopy dance.

Another Dru!

Season 1 Buffy!

Whedonverse coat of arms…pick out all of the Joss icons!

And a couple of us Buffyfest types, Tara & Kevin.

We still have a few more gems from NYCC to roll out, including our interview with Amber Benson, later this week. I'll leave you with these very entertaining rapping veggies called Super Sprowtz. Check out their YouTube channel. These guys were dedicated and look, it is important to eat your veggies you know.

NYCC 2014 - Tribute Panel: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Will Always Kick Ass

Here is the full video of the Buffy panel from this year's NYCC 2014. Paying tribute to the Buffyverse were panelists Amber Benson (who of course played Tara on Buffy) and writers of Buffyverse novels Thomas Sniegoski, Carol Goodman, Michelle Knudson, Hillary Monahan and Keith DeCandido. Enjoy!

 

Firefly: Online Panel at NYCC 2014

The MMORPG Firefly Online panel was held at NYCC day 1 and we have the full panel below! QMx CEO Andy Gore, Spark Plug Games' tech director John O'Neil, casting director Andrea Romano and composer Dave Wesley were all there to reveal some fun tidbits. The team had already announced that the whole Firefly cast would be reuniting to voice their characters for the game - yes including Alan Tudyk and yes, he is still dead. Well, Wash is, not Alan. Gosh! But you know what I mean. They also announced that cast interviews about the show that will be included in the game and showed a sneak-peek of Morena Baccarin as Inara.

There are 14 interviews being edited and packaged for inclusion on "The Cortex," a related app. You can register for the online version now of "The Cortex" now. Firefly Online is scheduled for Spring of 2015.

Apologies to the sound on the second half of this vid...especially to Dave Wesley whose lovely performance at the end sounds less than stellar due to our main camera pooped out and we had to switch to the emergency back-up camera!

NYCC Day 2 Recap: 'Buffy' panel, Tiny Jayne Hats, Ninja Turtles & more!

Day 2 of New York Comic Con can only be described as pure-as-the-driven-snow fun. So much fun! Inspired by the Firefly Online panel the day before, I went for a Browncoat look complete with tiny Jayne Hat fascinator. 

I should give credit to Angela Turner aka Ma Cobb who knitted this little guy as an ornament for our very first Whedonverse Ornament Swap back in 2008 and I sewed it to a headband in the morning.  I know, I know, it's genius. Thanks Ma Cobb!

Since we didn't have much Buffyfest press coverage until the panel at 5 pm, we really made the most of the convention day. We had the Einhorn's Epic Cookies, we stopped by our peeps at the Dark Horse booth, and then while waiting at a meet-up spot, we decided to do this:

Wasn't that so much fun?! I'm telling you, it's the most fun to be had with the shortest line at NYCC this year. Make sure you stop by at the Nickelodeon cube and make your own voice-over vid. They also have other cartoons…Rugrats, Spongebob, etc.

We popped by the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D signing where a very stylin' Clark Gregg was hanging out with Jeph Loeb.

And then on to the Buffy panel where we took a lot of photos of Buffy Cosplay. We'll have the video of the full panel up in full sometime in the next 24 hrs. Overall, a super fun day was had!

NYCC Day 1 Recap: Amber Benson, Firefly Online and more!

Day 1 of New York Comic Con was a bevy of geek madness, giant inflatables, themed food trucks and costumes, as per usual!

We met up with the always lovely Amber Benson (who played Tara on Buffy of course.) Look out for our mini-interview with her in a day or two where we discuss her new book, The Witches of Echo Park and Buffy.

Dark Horse's Booth is all decked out in the usual Whedon fare:

It was announced at the Diamond Retailer Breakfast that Dark Horse will be celebrating Buffy's Birthday in January once again. Here’s a shot at a Georges Jeanty variant cover….

I actually saw Seth Green outside when I was getting off the bus. He swizzled into the celebrity side door at the Javits. The panel he did later that day was pretty cool, though. He's doing a Vimeo channel with his Stoopid Buddy Stoodios that will offer a two-hour animation class exclusively on Vimeo's pay-for-view on-demand channel on December 15.

Finally, some food fun! This year there are definitely a few cool extras at NYCC. For instance, Did you know that New York Comic Con has an official cookie? Einhorn’s Epic Cookies at booth #130!  Einhorn’s Epic Cookies is an extra-cool cookie company -- each cookie comes with a free comic book, like the “Prize Inside” snacks of our youth but better (because it’s a comic, of course!)

And check out the Wikia Food Truck - line up early! It's so awesome, they did a tournament focusing on “Fantasy Foods” like Harry Potter’s Butterbeer, Fallout’s Nuka Cola, Glee’s Slushie and Doctor Who’s Fish Fingers & Custard. And you can sample some of the discussed treats for free at Wikia’s Fantasy Food Truck at the show from 2:00-3:00pm TODAY!

Part 2 of Buffyfest's Final Interview with Scott Allie on Retiring from 'Buffy'

As we reported earlier today, Scott Allie is stepping down from editing the Whedonverse titles at Dark Horse after having the role, well, forever. The simple fact is, there's never been a Buffy comic without Scott Allie and saying goodbye to him today has been particularly hard.

For those wondering how the transition will take place to the new Buffy editor Sierra Hahn, Scott had this to say:

"We work on the books pretty far out. I actually haven’t lifted a finger on a Whedon book since shortly after San Diego [Comic Con in July], but I’d edited scripts up to #11, I’d handled some covers, some collections, and of course the basic story line of all of Season 10 was worked out in Hollywood well over a year ago in a meeting that I mostly ran … So there’s not a month or even an issue where you can say, "He’s out!” and yet, on the other hand, I am indeed out, and Sierra’s steering the whole thing on her own."

Watch below to see the second part of our interview with Scott where he talks about what he's learned from working with Joss Whedon, how Buffy should end and his future with Abe Sapien.

Scott Allie, we cannot thank you enough for your work and dedication to the Whedonverse fandom. You will be sorely missed. I think we can speak for everyone when we say: We wish you the best of luck and happiness to you in everything you do. Your career accomplishments are kick-ass and you're an inspiration to many. Most of all, you've been a great friend to Buffyfest, and we'll never forget it.

Now can he rest Buffyverse? Can he rest?

Breaking News: Dark Horse's Scott Allie retires from the Buffyverse!

It is with a heavy heart we bring you this big announcement out of Dark Horse comics today. We've been told exclusively that Editor-in-chief Scott Allie, who has just had a baby, is retiring from the Buffyverse comics after a whopping 16 years. Scott has been instrumental in bringing Buffy to the comic world and has arguably worked longer and more consistently in the Buffyverse than anyone else, other than Joss Whedon himself.

Scott started working on Buffy in 1998 when Dark Horse first got the license and when the show was still in it's infancy - Season 2. He has seen it become a small, niche show on a then small, fledgling network...to the powerhouse fandom it's become today and has been creating stories within it every step of the way. Editor Sierra Hahn will now be overseeing all things Buffy at Dark Horse.

We conducted a big interview with Scott and will be showing it in two parts. This first part we talk about how he feels about leaving the 'verse, the early days of the Buffyverse comics and the reboot in 2007 to official canon with Season 8.

Check back for part 2, later today where we talk about fan mail, where he'd like to see Buffy end up and the future of what is now going to be his main focus at Dark Horse, Abe Sapien.

NYCC Day 1 and HUGE Dark Horse Announcement!

New Yorkers get ready for the east coast geek mecca - New York Comic Con starts today!

In other equally big news, we have an exclusive on a HUGE announcement coming out of Dark Horse Comics very shortly. Long time reader of the Buffyverse comics will be shocked. Stay tuned…

Entertainment Weekly Declares 'Angel' is Better than 'Buffy' on it's 15th Anniversary

This week is Angel the series' 15th anniversary, believe it or not! Entertainment has published a spoiler-lite article on the reasons Angel excelled over Buffy and I have to say, I tend to agree. Readers of this dear old blog might recognize my bias as I've been a long-time advocate for this idea. Buffy is amazing of course, but Angel's character development, noir look, gritty feel (for a genre show on network television) was so ahead of it's time. It's nice to see it finally be recognized.

Read the full article here and see if you agree:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/10/06/angel-better-than-buffy/

'Buffy' on the Big Screen Tonight in NYC

If youre in the NYC area tonight, check out Monday Night Movies at Huckleberry Bar in Brooklyn where their choice for tonight is BtVS! Not sure if it's the original Buffy movie from '92 (you KNOW I love me some O.G. Buffy) or if it's an episode of our belooved show...but either way who cares? Just run, dont walk because it starts at 9 pm.

Huckleberry Bar

588 Grand St Williamsburg

Brooklyn, NY, 11211

SEASON 10: CHANDLER & JOEY // ISSUE 7

HELLO PEOPLE.

So sorry about the late post / review of Buffy Seaon 10 issue 7. Shit be crazy over here.

In this issue, Dawn and Xander have broken up. They've moved into their separate apartments across the hall from each other. Dawn lives with Buff. Xander and Spike ARE NOW ROOMIES!!! Even the Buffster has enough self-awareness to know that "they seem like they are living beyond their means" "much like a situation on FRIENDS (NBC)!!"

What goes on here? Well - Xander is moving on from Dawn. Dawn seems already over it because of her magical reset. Xander doesn't have it so easy because he has to deal with being a mortal in love. Duh guys - it takes time. This leads to some male-bonding time between Spike and Xander. They grab a drink at a place not unlike the Bronze (remember that dump??). And they are enchanted by two ladies, who seem totally made for both Xander and Spike. One loves his poetry and the other loves Xander's dorkiness. Then it leads us to this sweet pic - if you dig the male form......this goes on for a few pages.

A fight ensues - a Buffy episode is not complete without a battle. Spike and Xander do this all in clad in boxers (which is great for straight dudes - but gay dudes love briefs).

But the real moving moment of the issue comes to Xander and "Anya" (which is STILL unclear if she is a ghost or a figment of Xander's imagination). Xander apologies to Anya for all the wrong he's ever done in a "semi-serious kinda choke you up" scene. Anya maturely shrugs it off and accepts how their relationship panned out (in a heartbreaking way). However, she wants to keep the lines of communication open - because Anya isn't here to find out about love. She simply wants to find out what she is meant here to do and she wants his help.

Meanwhile, Dowling (remember *that guy*?) - he and Spike have a talk about how Spike is still in love with Buffy. Shit smells complicated. I guess call this is a recap. I am really on board. Also, kudos to Rebekah on the best outfits for Season 10. Somehow she really gets the style of the show. There's a certain UPN/CW/WB-ness to it.

This is a great issue that plays out like a "little indie film" (kind of tired of hearing people say that)....but it was a sweet issue with a lot of character interplay and super-relatable activity. BUY this series and enjoy these people and these characters.