Post by Emmie on Oct 7, 2009 15:20:17 GMT -5
Dark Horse Editor, Scott Allie, and writer of Exurbia and Solomon Kane is back for another Q&A to celebrate the release of Buffy Season 8 #29 Retreat - Part IV written by Jane Espenson and penciled by Georges Jeanty.
In stores October 7th! Which is today!
Remember to please submit one question per post and do not submit another question till the pending one has been answered.
If you want to participate, but you're not interested in registering at this time, you can e-mail your questions to emmie@slayalive.com and I'll submit them for you with credit. Again, we'd really love people to actively join in, but I'm hoping to encourage any fan out there with a great question to feel free to share it.
If this is your first time participating in the Q&A, please take a look at past Q&A's as your question might have already been answered. Also check out the on-going Q&A with Georges Jeanty, the main artist for Season 8. Thanks!
The floor is now open!
1. trunktheslayer: Hey Scott, sorry but I'm gonna be "that guy" (and I don't just mean with the long-winded question): Either last issue or the issue before, there was a letter published by someone named Raki. To say the least, the letter was blatantly homophobic. Now, I'm all for showing diversity of opinion but this letter was something far more bigoted. I meant to ask before, and I kind of need to, but why publish it? Especially when we've already seen so many "I don't like Buffy going gay" letters? Then in today's issue, a counter-letter is finally published and then not only was it essentially dismissed, but immediately followed by yet another "I don't like Buffy going gay" letter. I don't think this is a mark on you personally. I'm just trying to understand the reason for 1)posting the Raki letter in the first place, given how blatantly offensive it was to a certain group within the fandom and 2)Why immediately follow one of the few openly pro-gay letters with an almost direct counter to it(that didn't say anything we haven't heard a thousand times)?
Like I said, I hate to be 'that guy' but yea, I'm offended to put it simply. The Raki letter was bad. Really bad. Seeing a counter to it was a really nice surprise...until it essentially got written off with a "Sorry you feel that way, we didn't mean it" and followed up by the exact same type of letter it was referring to.
Scott Allie: Why publish it—So that everyone is heard, and you guys can respond. As I've said a million times, I run almost every letter we get, and the only ones I edit are the ones that I think are just unfounded attacks on my creators. Readers complain because they think I censor letters (I don't) and other complain because I don't (I won't). The Whedon fandom has a surprisingly diverse range of beliefs, including beliefs counter to what Joss's work is all about. I find that interesting. I didn't find Raki's letter that offensive—she hates what we're doing on a number of levels, hates the gay content in the series, thinks we're doing it for bad reasons, and would probably argue that that's not homophobia talking. I've read and heard much more hateful speech than Raki's—just because I disagree with something doesn't make it offensive to me. It has to rise to a higher level than that. Even if she said lesbians are awful people, which I don't think she does—that's an opinion, one I find more outlandish and silly than offensive. If she said lesbians should be rounded up and beheaded, I'd draw the line, but still—asinine more than anything else. And are you saying I dismissed Danny Hirschhorn's letter? Absolutely not. I said I was sorry because I was sorry he felt that way. I'd done something wrong if I made him feel that way. I emailed him privately, basically the same reply I posted in the lettercol, and judging by his response I don't think he felt blown off. You feel I should not run distasteful letters. That's certainly a fair call. I don't want to be the guy deciding what's offensive and what's not, so I'm not gonna do it, unless it's REALLY over the top. Here in Portland, Oregon, we live in a bit of a bubble—we're so liberal, we sometimes forget that the rest of the world doesn't think like us. We're shocked when we see Fox News. While I will never move away from my liberal Mecca, I think it's dangerous to forget the other side's out there; and I think it's good for us to look out from our safety zone at the harsh world out there. Some would say that we should keep our safety zone safe, but I want to be the lookout. In the Buffy comic, I think we can look out from a place where we know that we're ultimately safe, ultimately good to each other, and keep an eye on what the phobes are all about.
2. bamph: Something I've been wondering about. Twilight wants to end all magic.Amy is a witch and is basically addicted to magic if you go by season 6 and magic is basically the thing keeping Warren around. So my next question is,why would they be on board with working with Twilight and helping him end magic when they themselves are almost defined by magic especially Amy? It doesn't make sense when you think about it unless Twilight promised them something in return for there aid or they're just too dense to really get what Twilight wants to do. Will the reason why Amy and Warren are with Twilight given there magic reliance be brought up at some point?
Scott Allie: Like everyone who conspires with oppressors, they figure they'll be spared, that there'll be exceptions.
3. AndrewCrossett: A lot of us nerd/fans (me included) spend time poring over every issue, trying to find obscure clues in things like a character's exact wording of a line, or background details, etc... an example is in #28, when we were wondering if there was any significance to Andrew's losing track of Willow after her encounter with Oz. I guess a lot of it has to do with the amount of study time we have between issues. Is there any point to our looking for obscure clues and hints, or is the story actually more straightforward than we think?
Scott Allie: There is a point, though there's nothing much to the one you mentioned. And it is probably more straightforward than you think.
4. parabola: It's been noticed in the solicits for the Retreat TPB that it's a hefty 168 pages ... does this mean that Joss' issue #31 will be collected in this volume?
Scott Allie: Um, something might've changed there. It was never gonna include #31, but it was gonna include Willow. However, we changed our minds on that. Joss & Jo's story is going in there, and the Harmony/Colbert thing is, but not the Willow oneshot. So the page count might be a bit lower.
5. Emmie: Do we have a title for Issue 31 penned by Joss? It was notably lacking a title in the solicits.
Scott Allie: Holding onto that one for a moment. #32 will go without it in solicits too.
6. Charles: I was wondering if there was any sort of official explanation for what happened with Sam, Riley's wife, or is that more spoiler-ish talk?
Scott Allie: I think we're getting to that soon.
7. iloveromy: How far ahead is Jo on covers at this point? Any other guest artists doing covers?
Scott Allie: Hopefully no more guest artists on covers. We have up through #33 from Jo, and the Vol. 7 tpb cover. Oooh, now I'm just being mean ... you won't see that one for ages ... We recently brought a bunch of Browncoats to Milwaukie, and we hid a bunch of art for fear they'd see what was coming. We might not even show the covers when we solicit, how about that!
8. wenxina: So... I noticed that Monroe was alive and well in this issue. Problem is, I'm pretty sure that Bay that killed him in one of the flashbacks in #27. His limp form is shown lying down, with a ripped out throat, and Bay mentioned her remorse in killing him since it may have made him a martyr. Was this an honest mistake? Or is there more to it?
Scott Allie: Shit. Yeah, he does look sort of dead there, huh? He wasn't supposed to be dead. He wasn't dead. Bay didn't kill him. But yeah, we got too nasty with the blood there, I guess.
9. Ben Marston: Will we be seeing all of the special Harmony inserts that featured on the back pages of BPRD, Solomon Kane and Krull in the Deluxe editions of season 8 also? As well as this how about the Jane Espenson 'Harmony' blog over at MTV, will this be seen in printed form? I think that all of these would be a great way to flesh out the 'Preadtors and Prey' story and should be inserted before and after the 'Harmonic Divergence' issue. Hopefully we'll be seeing the 'Tales' one shot, Always Darkest and 'Harmoney comes to the nation' before 'Retreat' also. I cannot wait to get these to read the entire run as a whole in all it's glory. Oh, just got to put a sneaky little question in here too. Have you decided as to whether you will be doing 4 sets of 10 issue HCs or the 2 sets of 20 issues?
Scott Allie: Pretty sure 4 books of ten. Won't decide till late next year. If your other comments were indeed a question, we'll have most of that in the paperbacks, but good ideas for the hardcover. Forgot about that blog...
10. AndrewCrossett: Joss has said that one of his goals with season 8 was to show how things progressed from the end of the TV series to the situation in "Fray." Should the things we've seen about the future (in Fray and ToYL) be considered immutable? Is the story now less about where we're going and more about how we get there?
Scott Allie: No, but yes.
11. bamph: On the Buffy/Xander/Dawn thing, while I feel bad that Buffy feels bad, in this situation, my sympathy is with Dawn. Dawn has always had an inferiority complex and a lot of insecurities about being in Buffy's shadow. The episode Him from season 7 really showed that as well as stuff here in season 8. Given that, under these circumstances, I just can't root for Buffy hooking up with Xander at the expense of her little sister who always had these sort of fears. So my question is, are we even supposed to be rooting for Buffy to hookup with Xander over Dawn now that Xander and Dawn are together and who is the underdog in this situation,Buffy or Dawn? Because on paper, I think we're supposed to see Buffy in that light, but as much as I feel for Buffy, my sympathies are leaning more towards Dawn given previous history on the show and Buffy's reactions in the new issue.
Scott Allie: Really for you to decide. As much as we love her, I think we all have a hard time sympathizing with Buffy. No? I really like how it plays over the next few issues. It won't take too long for a pretty clear picture to form here.
12. henzINNIT: You said that you considered the Willow 1-shot for the Retreat TPB, but not any longer. Does that imply that you are considering saving it for TPB #7 or just not including it at all?
Scott Allie: Seven. (Used to be an in joke at DH to answer any complex question with simply the word "seven," but in this case it's right.) It was a very weird printing consideration that bounced it out of Six, but it's a pretty necessary chapter of S8, so I gotta get it into a trade.
13. collex: Hi Scott. So, I know you said you couldn't comment last time (your perceived attitude on that has got a lot of folks talking, you can imagine), but the Season 8 adaptation trailer that was announced by FOX to be on their Bones season 4 is finally not there. Is it because it has been cancelled? Or is it still alive and you still don't want (or can't) talk about it?
Scott Allie: Seven.
14. wenxina: Hey again. While I don't really want to drag this on, I just wanted to point out that in relation to my previous question and your answer to it, it wasn't the blood so much as Bay's comment in the very next panel that led me to believe that Monroe was killed. The thing about making him a martyr implied death, especially when combo-ed with the throat ripping imagery. Would this be something that would be worth fixing, or at least tweaked to make it more clear that Bay didn't kill Monroe?
Scott Allie: Yeah, that's worth revisiting with Jane. I didn't have it to look at when I answered before.
15. bamph: This weekend is the Baltimore Comic Con. Dark Horse is doing a Buffy Season 8 panel on Saturday. Can we expect any news or new reveals about upcoming issues at the panel? Anything new being announced?
Scott Allie: Nope, it was just Jo and Georges and me chatting. But Georges almost tossed out a major spoiler. He forgot which issue had just come out. Oops.
16. Sosa Lola: Did Xander and Dawn go public with their relationship in #29? Because the lack of reaction is kinda weird.
Scott Allie: Just keep reading, and reading close. They have not gone public yet.
17. AndrewCrossett: Hooray for Felicia Day doing a Guild comic at DH. I somehow knew she was destined to hook up with you guys sooner or later. At a DragonCon panel, Felicia expressed interest in what was going on with her Vi character in the comics. I know Felicia is now buried under almost Joss-like levels of busyness, and I don't know if you have any further specific plans for Vi in season 8, but is there any chance we could see Felicia write something about her? Maybe an MDHP webcomic or something?
Scott Allie: We've talked about it, and we all agree we should focus on The Guild.
18. collex: I live in Quebec, where we receive both the French HC and he English TPB. I was looking at the two side-by-side and I was wondering: why does the French HC doesn't use the same cover art than the English TPB? The cover art of the English TPB is the back-cover art of the French TPB, and the cover art of the French HC is the cover art of one of the included in the book. So why the change? Is it a question of rights, or of formats?
Scott Allie: Editorial preference. I edit the English version, and commission the front cover especially for the paperback, rather reusing something that English-language readers might have already bought as a single issue. The French don't sell the single issues, so any cover is new to them, and apparently they like the full-bleed of the comic cover.
19. skippcomet: I'm the guy whose long-winded letter about Xander you printed back in issue #25, so first I wanted to thank you for printing my letter. Now, my question: Over the course of Season Eight, there has been criticism from some corners of fandom that a lot of the story elements and plot twists of Season Eight (such as the amount of female nudity, Buffy and Satsu, the prominence of Xander and Andrew, the lack of a resident vampire sex or love interest, or the very notion of Buffy developing a romantic interest in Xander or any other "normal" male) are inherently more appealing to "the male gaze" than they are to "the female gaze," which is supposed to be in contrast to BtVS being a feminist show (and which implies that certain parts of the audience are supposed to be more important than others). The idea that many in the audience are examining the characters, storylines, and relationships according to the yardstick of "must be this feminist to ride" (apologies for the mixed metaphor) is an old phenomenon in fandom, in my experience; but in this month's letters, you briefly discuss what you call "Joss's keen sense of drama." Have there been any discussions with Joss or the other writers about when or even if the "sense of drama" ever conflicts with whether the elements of the story might be perceived as not being feminist or feminist enough?
Scott Allie: Without confirming or validating your other points, which I can't get into right now—anyone read my tweets from last night? I still haven't gone to bed—the simple answer to your question is no, that conversation has not taken place.
20. flippinslayer: Anywho, my first question is about Xander (keep in mind I’m not intentionally asking about things that involve spoilers with this one!) are we gonna know more about what happened with him and Dracula? Or are we just to guess on our own? (Now to the spoilers) I just need one question answered and I will 100% know the identity of twilight and will keep it to myself at all cost. Does Warren’s reason for being in season 8 have anything to do with robots or human copies?
Scott Allie: to Warren question: No. Regarding Xander and Dracula, we won't be going back into that this Season. What specifically do you wanna know?
21. dusktodawn: How much longer are we going to have to wait for a twilight reveal?
Scott Allie: Not very long. You'll find out during Brad's arc.
22. Ben Marston: Will the scene that features Buffy falling to the floor crying in 'Anywhere But Here' and 'Always Darkest' occur in one of the remaining issues of season 8?
Scott Allie: Not exactly, but the scene holds great significance.
23. sosa lola: Will Renee ever be mentioned again?
Scott Allie: Probably, but I'm not positive.
24. smashed: I was asked to ask this question again, but with a picture, Could you tell us what font this is?
img4.imageshack.us/img4/1139/dibujogm.jpg
Scott Allie: Lemme get back to you.
25. collex: When Xander and Dawn kissed in issue 28, the reaction a lot of people, excluding me, was "Ehww, they are basically brother and sisters. She's too young! It's icky." So, my question was, had you anticipated this kind of reaction? And did you, at one moment, tought of no going forward with "Dander" because of these possible reactions?
P.S. Last time you said you would tell us about the tarot if you were drunk enough. Are you drunk enough now?
Scott Allie: We expected a little outrage, but that ain't stopping us. As far as the age thing--what, she's 18 and he's 22, 23 ? No big deal. And I'm sober...
26. slayerette: I was re-reading the TOYL arc, and I kept going back to Future Dark Willow's comment,"...the most important thing about death isn't who dies. It's who kills them." Was that just a foreshadowing of Buffy having to run her through with the scythe? Does it apply to what is still to come, or both?
Scott Allie: I'd say equally significant for both those things you mention. It's key.
All right, thank you from Baltimore!
Cheers!
In stores October 7th! Which is today!
Remember to please submit one question per post and do not submit another question till the pending one has been answered.
If you want to participate, but you're not interested in registering at this time, you can e-mail your questions to emmie@slayalive.com and I'll submit them for you with credit. Again, we'd really love people to actively join in, but I'm hoping to encourage any fan out there with a great question to feel free to share it.
If this is your first time participating in the Q&A, please take a look at past Q&A's as your question might have already been answered. Also check out the on-going Q&A with Georges Jeanty, the main artist for Season 8. Thanks!
The floor is now open!
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. trunktheslayer: Hey Scott, sorry but I'm gonna be "that guy" (and I don't just mean with the long-winded question): Either last issue or the issue before, there was a letter published by someone named Raki. To say the least, the letter was blatantly homophobic. Now, I'm all for showing diversity of opinion but this letter was something far more bigoted. I meant to ask before, and I kind of need to, but why publish it? Especially when we've already seen so many "I don't like Buffy going gay" letters? Then in today's issue, a counter-letter is finally published and then not only was it essentially dismissed, but immediately followed by yet another "I don't like Buffy going gay" letter. I don't think this is a mark on you personally. I'm just trying to understand the reason for 1)posting the Raki letter in the first place, given how blatantly offensive it was to a certain group within the fandom and 2)Why immediately follow one of the few openly pro-gay letters with an almost direct counter to it(that didn't say anything we haven't heard a thousand times)?
Like I said, I hate to be 'that guy' but yea, I'm offended to put it simply. The Raki letter was bad. Really bad. Seeing a counter to it was a really nice surprise...until it essentially got written off with a "Sorry you feel that way, we didn't mean it" and followed up by the exact same type of letter it was referring to.
Scott Allie: Why publish it—So that everyone is heard, and you guys can respond. As I've said a million times, I run almost every letter we get, and the only ones I edit are the ones that I think are just unfounded attacks on my creators. Readers complain because they think I censor letters (I don't) and other complain because I don't (I won't). The Whedon fandom has a surprisingly diverse range of beliefs, including beliefs counter to what Joss's work is all about. I find that interesting. I didn't find Raki's letter that offensive—she hates what we're doing on a number of levels, hates the gay content in the series, thinks we're doing it for bad reasons, and would probably argue that that's not homophobia talking. I've read and heard much more hateful speech than Raki's—just because I disagree with something doesn't make it offensive to me. It has to rise to a higher level than that. Even if she said lesbians are awful people, which I don't think she does—that's an opinion, one I find more outlandish and silly than offensive. If she said lesbians should be rounded up and beheaded, I'd draw the line, but still—asinine more than anything else. And are you saying I dismissed Danny Hirschhorn's letter? Absolutely not. I said I was sorry because I was sorry he felt that way. I'd done something wrong if I made him feel that way. I emailed him privately, basically the same reply I posted in the lettercol, and judging by his response I don't think he felt blown off. You feel I should not run distasteful letters. That's certainly a fair call. I don't want to be the guy deciding what's offensive and what's not, so I'm not gonna do it, unless it's REALLY over the top. Here in Portland, Oregon, we live in a bit of a bubble—we're so liberal, we sometimes forget that the rest of the world doesn't think like us. We're shocked when we see Fox News. While I will never move away from my liberal Mecca, I think it's dangerous to forget the other side's out there; and I think it's good for us to look out from our safety zone at the harsh world out there. Some would say that we should keep our safety zone safe, but I want to be the lookout. In the Buffy comic, I think we can look out from a place where we know that we're ultimately safe, ultimately good to each other, and keep an eye on what the phobes are all about.
2. bamph: Something I've been wondering about. Twilight wants to end all magic.Amy is a witch and is basically addicted to magic if you go by season 6 and magic is basically the thing keeping Warren around. So my next question is,why would they be on board with working with Twilight and helping him end magic when they themselves are almost defined by magic especially Amy? It doesn't make sense when you think about it unless Twilight promised them something in return for there aid or they're just too dense to really get what Twilight wants to do. Will the reason why Amy and Warren are with Twilight given there magic reliance be brought up at some point?
Scott Allie: Like everyone who conspires with oppressors, they figure they'll be spared, that there'll be exceptions.
3. AndrewCrossett: A lot of us nerd/fans (me included) spend time poring over every issue, trying to find obscure clues in things like a character's exact wording of a line, or background details, etc... an example is in #28, when we were wondering if there was any significance to Andrew's losing track of Willow after her encounter with Oz. I guess a lot of it has to do with the amount of study time we have between issues. Is there any point to our looking for obscure clues and hints, or is the story actually more straightforward than we think?
Scott Allie: There is a point, though there's nothing much to the one you mentioned. And it is probably more straightforward than you think.
4. parabola: It's been noticed in the solicits for the Retreat TPB that it's a hefty 168 pages ... does this mean that Joss' issue #31 will be collected in this volume?
Scott Allie: Um, something might've changed there. It was never gonna include #31, but it was gonna include Willow. However, we changed our minds on that. Joss & Jo's story is going in there, and the Harmony/Colbert thing is, but not the Willow oneshot. So the page count might be a bit lower.
5. Emmie: Do we have a title for Issue 31 penned by Joss? It was notably lacking a title in the solicits.
Scott Allie: Holding onto that one for a moment. #32 will go without it in solicits too.
6. Charles: I was wondering if there was any sort of official explanation for what happened with Sam, Riley's wife, or is that more spoiler-ish talk?
Scott Allie: I think we're getting to that soon.
7. iloveromy: How far ahead is Jo on covers at this point? Any other guest artists doing covers?
Scott Allie: Hopefully no more guest artists on covers. We have up through #33 from Jo, and the Vol. 7 tpb cover. Oooh, now I'm just being mean ... you won't see that one for ages ... We recently brought a bunch of Browncoats to Milwaukie, and we hid a bunch of art for fear they'd see what was coming. We might not even show the covers when we solicit, how about that!
8. wenxina: So... I noticed that Monroe was alive and well in this issue. Problem is, I'm pretty sure that Bay that killed him in one of the flashbacks in #27. His limp form is shown lying down, with a ripped out throat, and Bay mentioned her remorse in killing him since it may have made him a martyr. Was this an honest mistake? Or is there more to it?
Scott Allie: Shit. Yeah, he does look sort of dead there, huh? He wasn't supposed to be dead. He wasn't dead. Bay didn't kill him. But yeah, we got too nasty with the blood there, I guess.
9. Ben Marston: Will we be seeing all of the special Harmony inserts that featured on the back pages of BPRD, Solomon Kane and Krull in the Deluxe editions of season 8 also? As well as this how about the Jane Espenson 'Harmony' blog over at MTV, will this be seen in printed form? I think that all of these would be a great way to flesh out the 'Preadtors and Prey' story and should be inserted before and after the 'Harmonic Divergence' issue. Hopefully we'll be seeing the 'Tales' one shot, Always Darkest and 'Harmoney comes to the nation' before 'Retreat' also. I cannot wait to get these to read the entire run as a whole in all it's glory. Oh, just got to put a sneaky little question in here too. Have you decided as to whether you will be doing 4 sets of 10 issue HCs or the 2 sets of 20 issues?
Scott Allie: Pretty sure 4 books of ten. Won't decide till late next year. If your other comments were indeed a question, we'll have most of that in the paperbacks, but good ideas for the hardcover. Forgot about that blog...
10. AndrewCrossett: Joss has said that one of his goals with season 8 was to show how things progressed from the end of the TV series to the situation in "Fray." Should the things we've seen about the future (in Fray and ToYL) be considered immutable? Is the story now less about where we're going and more about how we get there?
Scott Allie: No, but yes.
11. bamph: On the Buffy/Xander/Dawn thing, while I feel bad that Buffy feels bad, in this situation, my sympathy is with Dawn. Dawn has always had an inferiority complex and a lot of insecurities about being in Buffy's shadow. The episode Him from season 7 really showed that as well as stuff here in season 8. Given that, under these circumstances, I just can't root for Buffy hooking up with Xander at the expense of her little sister who always had these sort of fears. So my question is, are we even supposed to be rooting for Buffy to hookup with Xander over Dawn now that Xander and Dawn are together and who is the underdog in this situation,Buffy or Dawn? Because on paper, I think we're supposed to see Buffy in that light, but as much as I feel for Buffy, my sympathies are leaning more towards Dawn given previous history on the show and Buffy's reactions in the new issue.
Scott Allie: Really for you to decide. As much as we love her, I think we all have a hard time sympathizing with Buffy. No? I really like how it plays over the next few issues. It won't take too long for a pretty clear picture to form here.
12. henzINNIT: You said that you considered the Willow 1-shot for the Retreat TPB, but not any longer. Does that imply that you are considering saving it for TPB #7 or just not including it at all?
Scott Allie: Seven. (Used to be an in joke at DH to answer any complex question with simply the word "seven," but in this case it's right.) It was a very weird printing consideration that bounced it out of Six, but it's a pretty necessary chapter of S8, so I gotta get it into a trade.
13. collex: Hi Scott. So, I know you said you couldn't comment last time (your perceived attitude on that has got a lot of folks talking, you can imagine), but the Season 8 adaptation trailer that was announced by FOX to be on their Bones season 4 is finally not there. Is it because it has been cancelled? Or is it still alive and you still don't want (or can't) talk about it?
Scott Allie: Seven.
14. wenxina: Hey again. While I don't really want to drag this on, I just wanted to point out that in relation to my previous question and your answer to it, it wasn't the blood so much as Bay's comment in the very next panel that led me to believe that Monroe was killed. The thing about making him a martyr implied death, especially when combo-ed with the throat ripping imagery. Would this be something that would be worth fixing, or at least tweaked to make it more clear that Bay didn't kill Monroe?
Scott Allie: Yeah, that's worth revisiting with Jane. I didn't have it to look at when I answered before.
15. bamph: This weekend is the Baltimore Comic Con. Dark Horse is doing a Buffy Season 8 panel on Saturday. Can we expect any news or new reveals about upcoming issues at the panel? Anything new being announced?
Scott Allie: Nope, it was just Jo and Georges and me chatting. But Georges almost tossed out a major spoiler. He forgot which issue had just come out. Oops.
16. Sosa Lola: Did Xander and Dawn go public with their relationship in #29? Because the lack of reaction is kinda weird.
Scott Allie: Just keep reading, and reading close. They have not gone public yet.
17. AndrewCrossett: Hooray for Felicia Day doing a Guild comic at DH. I somehow knew she was destined to hook up with you guys sooner or later. At a DragonCon panel, Felicia expressed interest in what was going on with her Vi character in the comics. I know Felicia is now buried under almost Joss-like levels of busyness, and I don't know if you have any further specific plans for Vi in season 8, but is there any chance we could see Felicia write something about her? Maybe an MDHP webcomic or something?
Scott Allie: We've talked about it, and we all agree we should focus on The Guild.
18. collex: I live in Quebec, where we receive both the French HC and he English TPB. I was looking at the two side-by-side and I was wondering: why does the French HC doesn't use the same cover art than the English TPB? The cover art of the English TPB is the back-cover art of the French TPB, and the cover art of the French HC is the cover art of one of the included in the book. So why the change? Is it a question of rights, or of formats?
Scott Allie: Editorial preference. I edit the English version, and commission the front cover especially for the paperback, rather reusing something that English-language readers might have already bought as a single issue. The French don't sell the single issues, so any cover is new to them, and apparently they like the full-bleed of the comic cover.
19. skippcomet: I'm the guy whose long-winded letter about Xander you printed back in issue #25, so first I wanted to thank you for printing my letter. Now, my question: Over the course of Season Eight, there has been criticism from some corners of fandom that a lot of the story elements and plot twists of Season Eight (such as the amount of female nudity, Buffy and Satsu, the prominence of Xander and Andrew, the lack of a resident vampire sex or love interest, or the very notion of Buffy developing a romantic interest in Xander or any other "normal" male) are inherently more appealing to "the male gaze" than they are to "the female gaze," which is supposed to be in contrast to BtVS being a feminist show (and which implies that certain parts of the audience are supposed to be more important than others). The idea that many in the audience are examining the characters, storylines, and relationships according to the yardstick of "must be this feminist to ride" (apologies for the mixed metaphor) is an old phenomenon in fandom, in my experience; but in this month's letters, you briefly discuss what you call "Joss's keen sense of drama." Have there been any discussions with Joss or the other writers about when or even if the "sense of drama" ever conflicts with whether the elements of the story might be perceived as not being feminist or feminist enough?
Scott Allie: Without confirming or validating your other points, which I can't get into right now—anyone read my tweets from last night? I still haven't gone to bed—the simple answer to your question is no, that conversation has not taken place.
20. flippinslayer: Anywho, my first question is about Xander (keep in mind I’m not intentionally asking about things that involve spoilers with this one!) are we gonna know more about what happened with him and Dracula? Or are we just to guess on our own? (Now to the spoilers) I just need one question answered and I will 100% know the identity of twilight and will keep it to myself at all cost. Does Warren’s reason for being in season 8 have anything to do with robots or human copies?
Scott Allie: to Warren question: No. Regarding Xander and Dracula, we won't be going back into that this Season. What specifically do you wanna know?
21. dusktodawn: How much longer are we going to have to wait for a twilight reveal?
Scott Allie: Not very long. You'll find out during Brad's arc.
22. Ben Marston: Will the scene that features Buffy falling to the floor crying in 'Anywhere But Here' and 'Always Darkest' occur in one of the remaining issues of season 8?
Scott Allie: Not exactly, but the scene holds great significance.
23. sosa lola: Will Renee ever be mentioned again?
Scott Allie: Probably, but I'm not positive.
24. smashed: I was asked to ask this question again, but with a picture, Could you tell us what font this is?
img4.imageshack.us/img4/1139/dibujogm.jpg
Scott Allie: Lemme get back to you.
25. collex: When Xander and Dawn kissed in issue 28, the reaction a lot of people, excluding me, was "Ehww, they are basically brother and sisters. She's too young! It's icky." So, my question was, had you anticipated this kind of reaction? And did you, at one moment, tought of no going forward with "Dander" because of these possible reactions?
P.S. Last time you said you would tell us about the tarot if you were drunk enough. Are you drunk enough now?
Scott Allie: We expected a little outrage, but that ain't stopping us. As far as the age thing--what, she's 18 and he's 22, 23 ? No big deal. And I'm sober...
26. slayerette: I was re-reading the TOYL arc, and I kept going back to Future Dark Willow's comment,"...the most important thing about death isn't who dies. It's who kills them." Was that just a foreshadowing of Buffy having to run her through with the scythe? Does it apply to what is still to come, or both?
Scott Allie: I'd say equally significant for both those things you mention. It's key.
All right, thank you from Baltimore!
Cheers!
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