Before I get started on the Q&A portion, I just want to thank everyone for all the comments about Angel and Buffy the past few days—I know that on the surface there’s been lots of drama, but I think that just makes it evident that fans and creators alike all care deeply about this world that Joss has built. And thanks for responding here. Let me see if I can clear out a little bit of the murk here. And away we go. You’ve got the mike first, AngelicLestat…

ANGELICLESTAT: It appears that you (and all at IDW) were as shocked as all of us at the reveal of Twilight and what it would mean for Angel at IDW (and the fact that you were all kept in the dark even though you publish comics with him as the title character!!!). In the short term (i.e. Bill Willingham's arc) it will of course have no effect. But how do you see this affecting the 'Angel' franchise in the long term, both positively and negatively?

And on a personal note, Angel at IDW has my full support for as long as you publish stories in that verse!

In reverse order—thanks, that’s great to hear. Okay, next question! Oh, wait, gotta address the other part, too. I think that you could say that there’s no one involved with the Whedonverse that wasn’t shocked by those images appearing online last week, from Joss on down. As for the long-term impact, there’s no real way to say. I’d say that’ll be determined by the ultimate fan reaction to how it’s handled, and how it affects the character going forward. If the fans like the way things play out, the long-term affect will be good for everyone. So the better answer, really, is for me to ask all of you to keep weighing in on what both DH is doing and what we’re doing, separately, together, or any other possible future iteration. That’s the only real way to know how it affects things.

unDEADHEAD: I'm wondering how long-term your plans are for the Angel franchise. I know Spike is coming out later this year, and Brian seems to have a general plan for those stories. Some of us believe the reason Dark Horse is insistent this Twilight matter won't affect IDW is because Twilight is perhaps a FUTURE version of Angel.

Do you have a general timeline drawn out for the Angel series, and if so, how far into the future does that reach?


We do have a timeline for anything we do, yeah, and especially on a comic like Angel where it’s an ongoing series with lots of various tentacly legs (the Spike series, any spin-off miniseries, etc.). Like all long-term plans, they do tend to change as things develop, but the basics of where we’re headed are in place. Anyone who knows Bill Willingham’s writing (his comics writing, I mean) knows that he’s a long-term guy. He sets up story elements that build and payoff and build again. Look at his masterful Fables series—he set things up early on that played into the comics into issue 50 and beyond. And with each issue of Angel, as his voice with the characters gets stronger and stronger and he really gets his sea legs under him, his love for the characters and the series grows along with his plans.

And, alright, let’s not ignore the elephant in the room any longer. As everyone saw earlier this week (depending on when this runs), Willingham released a statement about the Buffy news and its possible affect on his comic. This isn’t something I would’ve said, or wanted Bill to say (quite the opposite, actually) and I know it really fractured some opinions of the guy even as his first issue of Angel, 28, is all you’d seen to that point. But I hope people do take his fire as the words of a deeply passionate writer who takes his job very seriously. He wanted on this book because he loved the world Joss created, and he has plans that extend what Joss has done in fun new ways and is excited and eager to have people see them. The Buffy news took him unawares, and his first thought was for his run on Angel, and not wanting to see his long-term plans affected by it. So I don’t defend what he said or how he said it, but I know it came from a place of caring and passion for the characters and I hope fans can see it as that. I also hope he never does that again.

SCARECROW: After the Fall had Joss Whedon's name attached to it, and it's pretty well documented what his involvement was. Bill Willingham recently revealed that Joss has not at all been involved in the current arc. Are the Angel comics still canon beyond After the Fall?

It’s funny—I read Bill’s comment and cringed because I know how important this is to fans. Being on the other side of the curtain as I am, I never quite saw it the same way. From the start, we’ve submitted everything to Fox and Mutant Enemy for approval. And when we get that approval, in my mind, that has always meant what we did was canon. I mean, it’d be folly for me to expect Joss to approve everything himself. But I also know that him getting involved more directly on After the Fall really got people to stand up and pay attention to a greater degree.

So when Willingham says Joss isn’t involved in his book, he means he’s writing them and submitting them for approval, but the story idea and script and dialogue come from him. When they come back approved, same as anything, that’s canon to me. We’re doing stories that pick up on elements following After the Fall, so short of Joss Exec-Producing our comic too, I don’t really see how these are anything but canon.

Joss ran through the gestation of After the Fall in his recent response to Twilight-Gate (I’ve never been part of a “–Gate” before, it’s kind of fun, especially since this one doesn’t involve illegal wiretapping. Or does it, Scott Allie…? I also like that this whole thing has a nickname, which not even Leno/Conan have. “Tonight-Gate”?), and from there, the man is show-running Buffy, writing many of those scripts, was show-running an actual TV show, writing and directing a movie, creating Dr. Horrible, writing Sugar Shock, I assume occasionally seeing his family and/or sleeping… I don’t know how he manages to stay as involved in all of that as he does, without trying to put even more constant demands on him with Angel.


BUFFYFANATIC: Have you spoken to Bill Willingham since his angry letter was sent to Comic Book Resources? His comments have gotten a lot of strong reactions on both sides of the argument from fandom. Have you had a chance to clear the air with him some?

I’ve talked to Bill, yeah. Probably addressed everything about this above, but the air is clear. Bill knows I don’t agree with what he said or how it was said.

The thing about Internet blow-ups is that it’s no longer the old days of griping in a bar. Google can make sure your comments follow you everywhere. Bill was taken aback by the Buffy news, and wanted to make sure people knew that the things he’s doing in Angel stand on their own merits. Cue the purple—well, red—prose. Now we’re all back to work on making good comics and making Joss and his fans as happy as we’re able to do.

Ultimately, the reason these things rub me wrong all around is I don’t want fans to have to get a look behind the curtain and see that the people doing these books are human. I don’t want you to see us sweeping up or grousing at one another or scratching ourselves in various places—all of that takes away from the real reason we’re all here, the comic itself. Bill’s got some great things in the works—holy crap, what’s going on with Illyria soon!—and for anything to get in the way and have a writer judged on their mood rather than the work itself is the worst thing that can happen. His Angel series is a damned good extension of where things left off after After the Fall, and that’s what I want fans to see, not the person at the keyboard. Hopefully we can get back to that on both sides.

MARVELKNIGHT616: Mr. Willingham stated he has not read the Buffy Season 8 Comics for the purpose of "specifically to avoid being influenced by them." Do you read the Dark Horse comics to maintain a sense of what's going on in the shared universe, even if your side isn't necessarily interacting with the slayery side? My real question is, given the opportunity, would you be interested in a crossover?

I do read every issue of Buffy. Sometimes it takes me a while to catch up, but I’ve got them all. And I’ve always been interested in a cross-over. Angel might be appearing in Buffy now, but I’ll be damned if they can use without a full crossover taking place!

WIL: Given that the Twlight arc was conceived prior to After the Fall, and Joss' involvment in both, was there ever any discussion of how the two series events might impact on each other? Also, has Joss ever indicated that the events subsequent to AFT are to be considered anything less than canon?

I’m pretty sure—don’t quote me on this—that Joss once said “anything IDW does is canon. Transformers? Bat Boy? Even those Bloom County reprints? Yep, all part of the Whedonverse canon.” Joss was likely heavily medicated when he said this.

But really, to give an actual answer, the creator of the shows/characters never taps anything with his scepter and deems it canon or not—that’s for others to determine. Joss is a storyteller, so if a story suits him, he tells it. He never came to us with After the Fall and said “I’m here to make your stories count.” He said (and this is more of a real quote than the above) “I see in Brian Lynch someone who could actually work with me to tell the story of what happens after Season Five ended.” But he also told Brian to “use the fish,” a character Brian created in Spike: Asylum. So by the strange transitive property of canonization, that means Asylum and other stories with are also thusly canon, and since continues to be in Angel for Willingham’s run, that to me makes it all part of the same whole, whether Joss plotted the story over pancakes with Brian or whether Willingham came up with it in the Minnesota hinterlands.


MARKOSDARKO: Great work you guys been doing with the Angelverse, and the recent spoilers sure got all of us a little worried about Angel's franchise. Bill Willingham's comments on this were really coherent but made me a little confused at who exactly has the final word on what happens with the character. Joss is the creator, Bill is the current writer, and Joss' plans don't match Bill's plans at all.

Says who? Remember, Buffy is set years in the future. And more to the point, you saw a cover image. The story itself is still something yet to be seen. So who knows where things are headed? If there’s anything fans know about Joss’s work, it’s that he’s not likely to give you what you expect.

MARKOSDARKO continues: In the past, Joss' involvement with the Buffy and Angel non-canonical comics were of a distant surpervisor, warning the writers of storylines that shouldn't be written, plots that could get in the way of his own plans for future storylines. This seems to be the case with the current Twilight situation. Didn't Joss warned IDW about Twilight? Shouldn't he?? How exactly important is Joss' word about what happens on IDW's Angel series, considering Bill's position?

Well, Joss’s word is The Word, you know? It’s as important as anything at all to do with these comics. But in my mind, him not voicing anything to the contrary is also important. When we get approval, when we’re not told “don’t do that, Joss doesn’t approve of that,” it works for me the same way as word saying “go do it.” There’s only so much of the guy to go around, and monthly comics require constant vigilance and attention.

TRANQUILITY: Any word on a release date for Brian's new Spike series?

Summer. More solid info to come. And oh my, it kicks off with a… well, with a… ahh, you’ll see. We’ll leak the image soon…

KINGOFCRETINS: To your knowledge or in your opinion, or that of IDW's own legal team, does Dark Horse's use of the Angel character in its Season 8 comic series violate IDW's license agreement for the character and the property in question?

Nothing is gonna drag a conversation about comics into the doldrums faster than getting into legal matters. This gets back to stuff that I never want fans to worry about—I want you wondering about developments in the comics, not billable hours. There was no violation of any agreement. I do think all of this could’ve been minimized by including us in their plans. At the same time, this was a secret Joss built four years ago, and I do get the attempt to maintain extreme secrecy. I’m not on the other side of this, so it’s not for me to tell someone else how to handle something. We all handle things differently. Which is why I’m disclosing right now that Hellboy is the villain we’ve been building to in Transformers.

CHANGELING: The question that interestes me most, since the whole Twilight thing went down is, was Mr. Allie able to convince you that the reveal of your main hero as their supervillain does indeed not affect the IDW continuity? And also: Great work on Angel, I enjoyed it a lot so far and am looking forward to the new arc.

We’ll be having ongoing conversations about all of this. And thank you.

BAXTER: Do you have any information that Spike might be a later 'reveal' for s8 - in particular, I always worry about the poor bloke in Buffy's world so I hope he is not at risk of being used for comic/demonic relief by either Buffy or Angel/Twilight there.

You’re a sneaky one, Baxter. Did you just ask the competition for details on Dark Horse’s series? Alright, but just between you and me, so please don’t post this online—the Spike in their series (is Spike even in their series? Or are you fishing here?) is really a Skrull. A Skrull who’s wearing a Black Lantern ring!


ALLYCAT: During Twilight-gate the people over at Dark Horse once again re-iterated that this had been planned for four years. Have you any intention to create long term plans like that on Angel? (Or Brian's Spike; I can't wait!) Or will you leave things more open to allow the individual writers to create their own plans for their run? (Could you maybe describe how a process like this roughly works?)
PS: Like some of the posters before me, I'm behind the current IDW creative team 100%; I have no doubt that you will make your story match with the continuity of Buffy in some brilliant way, like you did with the Harmony-situation.

Not to mention the sharkheaded guy from After the Fall. Sorry, this is a big tangent, but I saw someone online post that “of course Dark Horse can use Angel or Spike if they want to, IDW once used the shark-headed guy in After the Fall.” I found that an adorable illustration of why I don’t want fans to have to worry about the nonsense behind the scenes.

As for long-term plans, see the above for a bit of that talk, and beyond that, it’s really up to the writers. The creative process is, in short terms so as not to lose the few people still reading, writers put together their proposal for the series planned out as far as they’ve got it at the time, it gets approved (canonized!) and then they totally change their plans on us when they submit the actual scripts. Same as it ever was.


ICLEMENS: It seems like such issues as the recent hoopla are consequences of publishing comics based on existing media franchises.

Do you prefer working with brand-new material or series that already have an established set of characters and the accompanying set of opinionated fans? Why?

After this kerfuffle (a recent favorite word of mine, just not one I expected to use as often as I have this week), I prefer books that have never had nor will ever have any continuity whatsoever.

I prefer working on properties I like, whether new or well-established—it’s actually as simple as that. I’m a lifelong comic guy—I love continuity and making things that’ve come before work with a direction I might have (I just heard a bunch of the Transformers and G.I. Joe fans who balked at us re-re-booting those continuities go “riiiiiiight.”). So new, old, they all bring their own challenges, and like with anything, having passion for the work is enough to get me excited about working on something.

GVH: Do you feel there is an implicit difference between the 'canon'-status of tie-in comics, like your current Angel and Spike lines, and those of "regular" comics like Batman or Spider-Man (which change writers all the time and are still considered canon). And: should there be?

Canon is always tricky. With something like this, so tied to the vision of its creator, I know people approach it differently than, say, Spider-Man, which hasn’t been written by or directly approved by its creator in 40 years now (well, longer if you think Steve Ditko should also have approval). So it’s not for me to say there should be canon of the same nature for Angel as with Spider-Man. It’s really up to each fan. Using Spider-Man as the older example, canon to me once Stan Lee left the book comes down to “do I like the story?” If I do, it matters. If I don’t, well, Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy never hooked up, as far as I’m concerned.

Any property that’s got legs and especially one produced serially like comics is going to eventually develop continuity problems or eventually be handled by someone other than the creator. Does that make them non-canon? For some people, yes. For me, not if I like it.

So all I do, knowing that this is very important to fans of Angel, is do my damndest to be true to established canon and tell stories that extend what has come before. From there, whether you go by “Mutant Enemy approved it” or “Brian Lynch and Joss Whedon broke bread together” or whatever other possibility, that’s up to the fans to decide.

In other words, yes, everything we’re doing is canon.


ALOHA JOE: If you could be any creature in the animal kingdom, what color would you be?

The one that doesn’t get the Internet in its hidey-hole.

SKYTTEFLICKAN88: Let's play pretend: In case you had been co-writing Season 8 with Joss, who would you have suggested/preferred would be made Twilight, and why?

Scott Allie, of course. Or the shark-headed guy. Or me, since I love getting cameos in comics—and, since I appeared as a character in the final issue of After the Fall, I am actually now canon in the Whedonverse. But seriously, this is a long, well-considered storyline and it feels presumptuous of me to say where I would’ve taken things since I wasn’t there for its gestation. Like, the reasons for a character being Twilight are obviously something very specific, it’s not necessarily just “who’s under the Green Goblin’s mask?” Although since Normal Osborne does appear in every single comic on the stands now, maybe that should be my answer.

ANDREW NIXON: Hey, Chris. Just wondering about what your personal reaction was when you first heard the news about the reveal of Angel being Twilight. It seems like you must have known that something like that was coming down the pipeline, but care to elaborate? Thanks.

Just from reading the Buffy comics, I had an inkling of things a couple months ago and asked various parties if that was indeed the intent. While I didn’t get confirmation on that, the image itself didn’t necessarily surprise me as much as just how I found out, which is echoed by most everyone who saw it appear online last week.

SLA: A lot of people is talking about Angel in the buffyverse, but what about Buffy in the Angelverse? what's your opinion about using characters from Buffy in Angel, in some way or even publish some Buffy story (this might be impossible, but if you coul, would you?). I'm asking this, 'cause some time ago I read that the great Brian Lynch could've pick vampire Buffy for example to turn Angel in a vampire again, that kind of twist are always interesting and it like Twilight being Angel now. Besides the style between DH y IDW is kinda different, so I think the Buffy stories would have another perspective.

Btw congrats for the IDW's position in the ranking of top comics publishers. I'll Keep reading Angel comics while you're on IDW's board =) And greetings to Mariah Huehner, new editor of Angel: Immortality for Dummies and of course, Only Human, she's great too.

You’ll keep reading as long as I’m around? You might’ve just saved me—there was talk of moving me to 12:05 and moving Scott Allie into my spot. Bullet dodged!

The plans for Buffy in Season 8 and 9—more Skrulls!—will likely keep her too busy to appear anywhere else. But like I mentioned above, I’m always open to finding ways to join forces when it makes sense.

MATTMANIC7325: Are there any plans - or would you consider - releasing a "deluxe" version of After the Fall as one huge hardcover? I think it'd be amazing to have Brian's entire series in one book and there would definitely be an audience for it, especially considering how much effort are put into the beautiful HCs that IDW are putting out. (Chucking in #23 and Spike: After the Fall would just be the cherry on top too =D)

We’re definitely going to do that, yes, a big Premiere Edition hardcover of the entire thing. Details and release date to come.

THUDDLES: Cordy is dead. Wes is dead. Fred is dead-ish, well Illyira. Lorne is respectfully stepping away and Spike looks like he might be a little preoccupied once a month… Gunn and Connor seem alright though. Despite his new pals and celebrity, I ponder whether Angel might be feeling a little lonesome.
I understand that he now lives in a comic, and well comics have the annoying habit of not allowing people to stay dead.

So basically I’m wondering your opinion on future appearances of these now absent characters? Though I love these characters and I trust IDW, seeing Angel flying around in a mask has got me worried that other comic book tropes might follow him.

In Angel 34, he gets bitten by a radioactive spider. Which promptly dies, and the radiation has no effect on a vampire anyway. So don’t worry—Angel in our comics will remain the character everyone loves. And Connor, Kate, Betta George, and others are along now, with some interesting new faces—and interesting new faces on old characters—to come.

LAPUTANMACHINE: could you explain the whole situation on the characters? Joss explained in an interview yesterday, that it would be no problem for them to use Buffy-characters like Angel or Wesley, but what's about only-Angel characters like Gunn and Illyria and does your contract strictly forbid any appereance of a Buffy-character in your series or could there be another deal for cameos of some Buffy-characters?

It’s a strange thing, splitting licenses that exist in the same universe. In a way, it’s made us UPN while Dark Horse remains The WB. Or CW. Or whatever they’re called now. The rules were never firmly defined, but essentially, the characters most known on a given show are the ones that are controlled by that license-holder. It gets into two strange areas, when characters like Spike or Cordy have such an overlap between both shows. And stranger still when you consider that these are all Joss Whedon’s characters and it doesn’t really work to tell Joss not to use his own characters. He’s always been respectful of the lines between the two companies and handled that very graciously. Season 8, his huge undertaking, is a different kind of beast, and all the ways this will work are still being determined. There’s nothing that strictly forbids someone like Willow from appearing in Angel, really, but I’d rather focus as much as I can on the stories and characters we want to use on a regular basis and not look to shoehorn in cameos.

RIP WESLEY: That is (and to break up the Twilight barrage you're likely answering): Similar to how writers from Buffy (the TV series) have been writing a issue or arc, has IDW tried to track down some ol' Angel writers for a issue or arc? You've done well getting some Actor involvement (e.g. Juliet Landau) but how about some of the scribes of yore. You don't even have to tell us who or when, but even a 'yes' or 'no' would be fantastic - me being the fan and the answer being tastic.

Lastly, and in my serious voice, thank you for playing 20 Questions with us!

I don’t even know if I’m near 20 or over—I grabbed all comers tonight. But anyway, I’ve tried to track down a couple folks and talked to others who were far too busy with their next TV show. But I think that consistently, the writers on the show nailed the voices and told great stories, so I’d be very open to working with any of them if they still have a jones for Angel.

Also, actor who played the shark-headed guy, we should work together on a comic.

BILL ABELSON: With the Angelverse having lost so many core characters -- Cordelia, Wesley, Fred -- all that's left from the core days of the TV series are Angel and Gunn (I'm sorry, but Ilyria just isn't Fred).

My question is, why was the decision made to drop Lorne from the main storyline as well? I don't get why the sad passing of Andy Hallett should also mean that his character is gone.

We’re not dropping Lorne—not permanently. I respect the work Andy and Joss did in creating that character, and he won’t be gone for good. But he deserves a bit of a happy ending for a while. And I really wanted to do some kind of tribute to Andy but not do something that feels like “cashing in.” And if we use the character more in the comics right now, I don’t know, in my mind that feels wrong to me. It’s a judgment call, but for now, I want to give him his due, and then have a moment of silence for a while. But no one can stifle Lorne’s singing forever. He’ll be back.

LUIS ANDRE FERREIRA: My question is: Bill Willingham in his Comic Book Resources specifically states Joss Whedon is no longer involved with the Angel comic since After the Fall ended, and that he has no interest in connecting the stories he is writing with the fact that Angel is Twilight in the Buffy comics. How will you deal with this? Will you ignore the Twilight elephant in the room?

I want to see where this is all headed in Buffy before I even know how to properly answer that. I can’t read into a cover image and make any decisions from here. But no, I never ignore elephants. I just make them non-canon.

Patrick Lague: Did "Twilightgate" really come as a surprise to the IDW folks? If so, good surprise or bad surprise? Is the Spike 'he definitely isn't Twilight' cover intended to be a 'look we're supporting what Joss is doing at IDW' or a big 'F U for potentially screwing what we're doing over here'? I ask because Willingham's response to Allie's interviews was extremely negative, and I think undeserved.

We’ve pretty well covered this, I think. It was a surprise, and it remains to be seen whether it’s good or bad, which is the same way I’d want everyone to approach it. Wait and see and then decide after you read it. The Spike cover is a tribute to how quickly Brian’s brain works and then how quickly Franco and colorist Andrew Crossley work. Brian tossed that out there as a way to respond through a fun image after we saw the leaked covers, and the artists quickly did the rest. I don’t do public “F.U.s,” that’s not how I operate. I wouldn’t imagine it could’ve come off that way to anyone, but you never know. Scott Allie, who I showed it to before it was released online (just to show him how that kind of approach works…), laughed. There was nothing mean-spirited there (or in my ribbing of Scott Allie here). Willingham’s statement, see above, I spent a couple hundred words on that already. We’re already down to the “moving on” portion of our show here.

PATXSHAND: Everyone else has basically covered the Twilight matter, so I was wondering if you could update us on the other Angel/Spike projects IDW is working on. What is the status of books like the Spike/Eddie Hope series Bill Williams mentioned, the non-Lorne John Byrne book, the book that Franco's doing with that awesome Angelus spread, and any other projects you guys are working on?

Hey, Pat—nice hearing from ya. There’s all kinds of plans (long-term, even!) but since I’d imagine people are as tired of reading my words as my hands are of typing them, I’ll actually—for the first time—pass on a chance to hype our other comics. Also in part because I really like the guesses I’ve seen so far from people about that Franco “Angelus” image. But you know you can’t keep that part of me down for long…

REDEEM147: Fans of many franchises often make a great deal about whether a property is 'canon'. Do you think it matters?

And so the snake has finally eaten its own tail. Thanks again, everyone. And for all of you who had a response run here, send your address to letters@idwpublishing.com and mark the e-mail subject “Whedonesque” and we’ll get you set up with a little something.

--Chris