Later this year, a new era of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Dynamite will begin, and one of comics’ most talented creators will be at the helm of not just Buffy, but Angel as well. Writer Kelly Thompson will team with an all-star lineup that includes Stephen Byrne, Lee Loughridge, and Jeff Eckleberry for Buffy the Vampire Slayer in August, and then will team up with Giulia Giacomino, Loughridge, and Eckleberry for Angel later that month, creating a thrilling connected universe that longtime fans and newcomers will not want to miss. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Thompson all about her love of the Buffy franchise and what fans can expect from Buffy and Angel moving forward, starting with which episodes of both shows made the biggest impression.
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“For Angel, I think it’s probably A HOLE IN THE WORLD from Season 5 – just a brilliant exploration of superhero fiction where the heroes lose and lose big and you REALLY feel it, but also what they get from their loss turns out to be horrible but eventually quite interesting. I think the writing is top-notch in this episode, especially in the way it forces Angel to make impossible choices and suffer real loss as payment for ‘doing good.’ Amy Acker’s performance is spectacular. But I’d also say SMILE TIME, I WILL REMEMBER YOU, OVER THE RAINBOW, FIVE BY FIVE, GROUND STATE round out my favs a bit,” Thompson said.
“It’s harder for me to pin down a single episode of Buffy. I think HUSH, ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, TABULA RASA, and THE BODY are all up there…I could also make strong cases for THE WISH; FEAR, ITSELF; THIS YEAR’S GIRL/WHO AM I, INTERVENTION; and CONVERSATIONS WITH DEAD PEOPLE,” Thompson said
Buffy And Angel Will Begin With A Two-Part Pilot To Establish The World
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angelare picking up their stories from the TV shows, though not exactly from the ending episodes of those seasons. Thompson isn’t tipping her hat yet on the exact timeline, but she did reveal that Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1 and Angel #1 will get the universe started with a sort of two-part pilot, and you can be certain that the characters you have grown to love over the course of the franchise are well accounted for
“For the first arc (5 issues each), the two books are very interwoven,” Thompson said. “After the sort of ‘two-part pilot’ that is Buffy #1 and Angel #1 the books do develop a sort of ‘Home Team’ and ‘Away Team’ mode (X-Men Blue and Gold anyone?) – where they’re off on different missions – but even on Angel’s mission, the book will cut back to the ‘home team’ as they’re sort of all in this mess together!”
“I think the characters are just what I’m always interested in. They’re so rich and well-developed in the show,” Thompson said. “My hope is to pick up and carry that on as best we can. To give new and unexpected stories that feel right for Buffy and Angel but that maybe haven’t been fully developed before.”
The first issues of Buffy and Angel will also set the tone for how the two books and the teams within them will interact on a consistent basis, and while that didn’t get to happen as often as fans wanted during the original runs of both shows, Thompson is weaving more opportunities for crossover into these new books right from the beginning
“I think one of the things I’m most interested in, and why I wanted to do both books and to have the first arc crossover so dramatically between the two books is because that’s what the shows struggle with once Angel spins off into its own show. There are a lot of practical concerns that make crossovers between the two shows rare,” Thompson said. “Admittedly I do think they’re all the more special for how rare they are, but this was a chance to break free of that and get to bang together characters that we rarely got to see interact on the show. That’s definitely one of the biggest perks.”
Stephen Byrne Is Already In A Groove With Buffy the Vampire Slayer
So far, we’ve only seen the covers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and while those are awesome as well, Thompson revealed she’s already seen pages from Byrne for Buffythe Vampire Slayer #3, and he’s already found a groove
“Yeah, we’re very close to wrapping issue #1 of Buffy, so I’ve seen all of issue #1 – and Stephen is actually quite far ahead on his work – so I’ve seen all the way through issue #3 I think. His issue #1 is terrific, but as often happens on a series, he gets better with every issue,” Thompson said
“I’d also say that issue #1 of Buffy is particularly challenging – it’s not only your first issue drawing to likeness for a huge cast of characters, but there’s even more referencing work in that one than usual, which I imagine could be a bit tedious to build,” Thompson said
Your Angel Favorites Are Back, Including One of The Show’s Best Characters
While I’m a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was an even bigger fan of Angel’s crew of vigilante detectives, which is why I wanted to know which members of that crew were going to be involved in the new series. The gang all seems to be here, including one of the show’s best and most delightful characters
“Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and Fred are all here and mixed into this first big ‘event crossover’ story and sort of ‘working out of Sunnydale’ as everyone deals with this new status quo. Lorne and Gunn are also in the books though they take a sort of back seat role in the first arc,” Thompson said. “You should expect to see much more of them later in the Angel series.”
There also might be a new character or two in the mix, but most of the attention and focus will be on the characters that were already established in the two shows. “We have such a massive cast that for now I’m only adding characters where absolutely necessary for plot reasons,” Thompson said. “It’s a struggle to get everyone the panel time they deserve.”
Thompson Teases Buffy and Angel’s Main Villain And The Possibility of Puppets
While seeing the gang back together is great, they will have to have a worthy villain to face, and so far, the identity of that villain has been kept under wraps. That said, Thompson did tease one major detail about the book’s main antagonist while also revealing a new type of Vampire and more villains from the original series
“Our big bad is both new and old – an annoying answer, I know, I’m sorry. But we also have some very fun minions of the new big bad that Dawn nicknames Vampwires which are these super strong wiry vampires with wings that we have a lot of fun with,” Thompson said. “We’ve also got another couple villains from the TV show that pop up in the first arc – one with very shocking results – so there will be plenty of surprises in store!”
Now, big villains and returning favorites are all well and good, but the golden question that everyone has been waiting for is clearly whether or not we are getting puppets, specifically an Angel puppet, though a Buffy puppet would also rule. It turns out there’s hope for both. “God, I would LOVE to a do a crazy puppet crossover issue…maybe we can figure out how to make that happen,” Thompson said
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 lands in comic stores on August 5th, and Angel #1 hits comic stores on August 19th
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