Whedonverse Ornament Swap Lists Have Gone Out!

Lists have all now gone out for the 6th annual Whedonverse Swap! Every participant in this year's swap
should have their recipient group list at this time. If you signed up but didn't receive the email, please let us know asap.

So now it's time to get crafting on those ornaments and remember to ship out by Dec 9th (we recommend even earlier if you're outside of the US or shipping internationally, so that everyone gets the packages in time for the holidays). That's just over 2 weeks away! If you still have questions, refer to the full details in the original post here or email us at buffyfest@aim.com.

If you need a little inspiration, check out the fantastic history of this swap here. Make sure to post photos in that group as well!

Thank you to all the participants. Happy swapping!

The Can't Stop the Serenity Auction is On!

Can't Stop The Serenity's annual auction on e-Bay is always the last event of the year. All the money goes to Equality Now. California Browncoats are running the auction this year and they have apparently donated a ton of great stuff! 47 Lots! It runs the gamut from Firefly to Buffy to Star Trek to Xena. Some examples include:

• A Crew Tshirt from Buffy's 100 episode "The Gift" 
• A crew Baseball Cap from Buffy's season 6 finale "Grave"
• A rare Season 3 Buffy promo card sent out by the WB.
• Signed copies of the "Superstar"script written by Jane Espenson
• An unpainted Spike action figure given to Blood Donors at San Diego Comic Con
• Tree double-sided movie posters of Much Ado About Nothing, donated by Lionsgate. Putting one up on your wall would be cool enough but one is signed by Joss Whedon, Tom Lenk, Clark (I'm not dead) Gregg, Alexis Denishof and Amy Acker. 
• A Jayne pack with a Ma Cobb knitted hat, a Jayne action figure and a Jaynestown "Hero of Canton" out-of-print poster signed by Adam Baldwin.
• Glossy photos signed by Jewel Staite, Alan Tudyk, Dichen Lachman and Felicia Day. 
• Browncoat fanpacks which might have an Inara tea caddy or music from the Bedlam Bards or a Serenity Comic or some Firefly inspired earrings or a QMX money pack, etc. They are all different.

Maybe you are a fan of Supernatural, Stargate, the Vampire Diaries or Warehouse 13? They have lots of items from those shows as well over there. And if you aren't a fan, they would make a great gift for someone! The auction runs till noon Pacific, Tuesday November 26th. Go out there and win something!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/californiabrowncoats/m.html

Last Day to Sign Up for the Whedonverse Ornament Swap!

Actually, yesterday was the deadline but we've decided to give everyone one last day since we failed to send out a reminder! So if you want to get in on the Fabuous Whedoney Holiday action, please make sure to read full details here and send an email with the following information to buffyfest@aim.com:
- name
- address
- email address
- whether your are willing to ship internationally (note: All of North America will be combined this year).

The 2013 Whedonverse Ornament Swap!

You know the Holidays are upon us when this post goes up! We're so happy to once again bestow upon all you crafty people our 6th annual Whedonverse Holiday Ornament Swap. Can you believe six years in a row now?! We adore this event and every year we are reminded of the wonderful creativity of this fandom. 

Check out the several hundred photos of awesomeness from years past:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/buffyfestholidayswap/

So if you're just hearing about this for the first time, the purpose of the swap is to create ornaments with a Whedonverse theme (Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Avengers, etc.) and send them to 4-6 different recipients. In return you will receive 4-6 completely different handmade ornaments from around the world. As you can see from the photos, you really can make them out of anything: Wood, knit, sew, paint, draw, sculpt, paper craft, recycle old ornaments (earth friendly!) And you'll have a more Whedoney Holiday!

If you'd like to join us, sign-ups begin right now and will end next Saturday, November 16th at 11:59 PM U.S. EST. And pretty please make super sure you're willing to go through with this entire process before signing up! Deadbeats ruin the holiday fun for everyone. Here are the guidelines in 6 easy steps:

1. Sign up by sending an email with the subject "MERRY WHEDON" and the following information to buffyfest@aim.com by Saturday, November 16th.
- name
- address
- whether your are willing to ship overseas* (US and Canada will be mixed together)

2. On November 18th you'll receive an email from us containing the addresses and email addresses of 4-6 swap participants for you to send your ornaments to. Since you'll have each other's personal info, please contact each other with any questions, disputes or praise.

3. Design and create the multiple Whedon themed ornaments! You'll have 3 weeks to make them.

4. Package your ornaments well (especially if you create something fragile) and send one ornament to each person on the list of swap participants in your group by Monday, December 9th.

5. Sit back and relax as you wait to receive 4-6 lovely Whedonverse ornaments in the mail!

6. Then don't forget to share photos of the ornaments you make and receive by uploading to the swap flickr group here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/buffyfestholidayswap. You will need a flickr account to upload photos, which is easy to set up.

*A note on international shipping: Please only select international shipping if you are willing to ship at least 2-3 of your ornaments overseas. Take your timing and the cost of shipping into account when you design your ornament. Lighter and more compact ornaments are cheaper to ship, but chances are you cannot send any food or plant life.

Any questions? Email buffyfest@aim.com 

"Whedonversity" Panel from NYCC 2013

Here is Dark Horse's Whedonverse Panel from Day 1 of NYCC in Full. The title was:
Whedonversity: A Look at the Future of Buffy and Serenity in Comics! Dark Horse Comics panel at New York Comic Con on Friday, October 11th, 2013.

Apologies for some video flaws in this, there was a Cosmic-Suit Spiderman bumping the tripod (not his fault).

New York Comic Con Day 2!

"Angel & Faith....& Tara!" Come snap a pic with the Whedonverse comic cast at 

New York Comic Con.

 

Big Scott Allie Interview - NYCC 2013

If you're in New York, we hope you're having a ball at New York Comic Con 2013 which is currently underway. Today is the Dark Horse panel where they'll be covering a lot of Buffy Season 10 and news about the new Serenity series. But if you're in a land far, far away do not fret - we gotcha covered. Editor in Chief Scott Allie sat down with us to talk all things Whedonverse and then some! Look closely too because there are some new images in there. Enjoy!

Scott Allie Interview Preview!

This might be our most scandalous interview yet! Don't miss Dark Horse Editor-in-Chief Scott Allie spill all the beans this Friday...

Buffy Season 10 Teaser Image and NYCC news!

Earlier today, ComicVine.com asked the question: "What can we learn from this image?"

click to enlarge

Well that's a very good question! We will be sitting down with Scott Allie tomorrow to answer this and other queries about the Buffyverse comics. Look out for that on Friday morning, during the Dark Horse panel at New York Comic Con! If you want any specific questions asked, let us know at Buffyfest@aim.com.

Our List of Sarah Michelle Gellar's Top Comedy Moments

Personally, we've always thought Sarah Michelle Gellar's comedic timing was stellar and a much overlooked aspect of her thespian skills. So now with her new sitcom series with Robyn William "The Crazy Ones" premiering tonight on ABC, we've decided to compile our favorite SMG comedy moments!

#10 "Earshot" - The scene at the end when Buffy says as deadpan as can be "You know, if you're not too busy having sex with my mother" and poor Giles runs into the tree.

#9 "Pangs" - Buffy gets her panties all in a bunch over Giles not possessing a ricer. It's so funny that the slayer can be so anal retentive. (*note: what is NOT funny is Buffy's cowboy hat in the beginning. That's a gripe for another post.)

#8 "Him" - In general season seven's "Him" is kind of skeevy (spell-or-no-spell) what with Buffy seducing a student on her desk and all. But once it comes down to Buffy digging out the old rocket launcher and turning it on Principal Wood (forcing Spike to tackle her to the ground), you have to at least chuckle!

#7 "Superstar" - Pretty much all of "Superstar" is Buffy being a starwhore to Jonathan's celebrity. Couldn't have been easy!

#6 "Something Blue" - "Spike and I are getting married!" Both a hysterical performance and a Spuffy's dream!

#5 "Welcome to the Hellmouth" - Buffy tells a random vamp: "Live in the now, you look like De Barge" Hilarious 80's reference with given superb delivery. HA!

#4 "Beer Bad" - Many people love to hate on "BB" but between Buffy's tragic hair and stumbling around like the drunk, belligerent caveman that she is, I can't help but laugh every single time. This bit of dialogue between Xander and Buffy is my fave: "Is there a lesson to all this? What did we learn about beer?", "Foamy!", "Good, as long as that's clear."

#3 "Life Serial" - Struggling with that damn, cursed Mummy Hand. Comedy gold!

#2 "Goodbye Iowa" - The speech is amazing and goes like this:
Buffy: [serious] You guys research the Polgara demon. I want to know where it is. When I find it I'm going to make him pay for taking that kid's life, I'll make him die in ways he can't even imagine.
~beat~
Buffy: That probably would have sounded more commanding if I wasn't wearing my yummy sushi pajamas.

#1: And the number one moment is...

"Hush" - In an otherwise terrifying episode hides the legendary scene where Buffy is enthusiastically wanking off to prove her point. Miming masturbation? Enough said!

'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D' Premieres TONIGHT!

Alright, this is it! The moment you've all been waiting for. Debuting tonight is Joss Whedon's return to television (since Dollhouse's demise) with the Marvelverse's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

As a reader of Buffyfest, you probably know by now that the show picks up the story after the battle that leveled much of Manhattan in Whedon's film The Avengers. However if you need a brush-up or aren't completely familiar with all the goings-on of the 7 feature films so far, IGN has an adorable timeline of the Marvel Universe as it pertains to Agents. And if you don't know this particular string of Marvel stories doesn't include Spidey or the X-men films, then you're really lost! WTF, go check that link out for sure.

The NY Times says about the premiere: "You’ll notice that the first episode is polished, fast-moving and at least moderately entertaining, which is no surprise, given that it was directed by the gifted storyteller Joss Whedon, who created the show along with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen."

On the other coast, the LA Times surmised: "Hit films have spawned many television adaptations, some of which are successful ("MASH"), some less so ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"). But there's never been a live-action series running not just concurrently with its franchise, but also in narrative sync. S.H.I.E.L.D. exists to keep things from getting to the point that the Avengers must be called in. A brand-expanding gambit, yes, but also a very clever concept."

Aww...RIP Sarah Connor Chron. Sad Face.

Also to all of our tweeps, do not forget that @Marvel is live tweeting the premiere tonight! 8pm!

Finally, Joss and co was also on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and the interview is now up on the interwebs in full. Click here to read it  before tonight's premiere!

Guns Don't Kill People...Joss Kills People.

I love this! So we were recently introduced to Once Upon a Tee, which is a website that offers weekly collections of limited tees for $12 based on theme. They've done a Star Wars collection, then Game of Thrones and now Joss Whedon, natch.

Their Whedon collection consists of eight super-cute designs from artists all over the world. Each unique and captures a different element of Joss and his work. I'm LOVING the "Guns don't kill people..." what with the Suessical font and Grr Argh Joss. Ha! But they really are all pretty fab. And 12 bucks! Can't beat that with a bat. The collection expires on Sept 16th, so if you're thinking of buying one get on that.

Check it and linkage:

Animal Crossing Town Tune: Redux!

We just found out that today is our 5 year anniversary on Twitter. Good times! I remember back then, I knew no one IRL that was on Twitter...they were the new kid social media on the block. But Michelle had just secured our very first interview (Kelly Armstrong - writer of the IDW Angel comics at the time) and so we decided to try some new ones out to spread the word. Twitter soon became our fave site for reaching out to the Buffyverse fandom and remains so to this day. Thanks for being born Twitter!

Another thing that was happening around that time was Bitsy and my addiction to Animal Crossing. We would sit there for hours giving the animals explicit catch phrases and we eventually put our heads together to create the custom town tune. We ended up with you guessed it...the Buffy theme song.

Recently, however, I received an email from someone playing the new Animal Crossing game "New Leaf". He was happy he found our recipe for the "Buffy" town tune but chided me for it as he found it "lacking." Haha! Oh internets. Anyway, it turns out he used our framework to make a better one and although that burns my ass...I kinda agree.

So without further ado, the new and improved Buffy Town Tune for Animal Crossing: New Leaf - created by Drguyks:

Felicia Day and Her Broski Play Retro Games.

OK, this is fantastic. I can't believe I have missed this up to now, but luckily our Bitsy has opened my eyes to this wonderment. Basically Felicia Day and her cute brother Ryon Day have created a mini web series called "Co-Optitude" - which in a nutshell is just them playing through the retro games that their parents never let them have as kids. 

The amazing part that Bits pointed out is that this couldn't be more like me and my own brother Ryan. Although we were Sega kids and Felicia and her bro are doing Nintendo but whatevs. So much like us, from the criticizing banter to the screaming at the badness and the exhilaration of winning. Ha!

Check the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" game below, it's hilarious. Or better yet just go ahead and subscribe to her whole channel "Geek and Sundry" if you haven't already. I've watched a few "Co-optitude" vids now now and won't be getting up until I've seen them all...work be damned.

Buffyverse Comics Sale - Get Caught Up with the Season 9 Finale!

Dark Horse looks to be running a sale this weekend on all things Buffyverse! Click the images below for the deets!