Plus solicitations for August.

Jackal | April 24, 21:38 CET

The artwork looks kinda odd, but I always liked Connor (call me weird). I'll wait and see.

Ashley | April 24, 22:14 CET

Wow...I think the only thing that could top a comic about Connor would be one about Rona.

And the art is just baddy, bad, bad, bad. IMO, of course.

Rogue Slayer | April 24, 22:28 CET

Yeah, the picture of Connor looks like a third-grader drew it. He can look more angelic and vicious than that.
As for a comic with Rona, you'd have to include Vi as her fellow Slayer with Watcher-like ambitions.

impalergeneral | April 24, 22:48 CET

I don't know if I'd agree that this comic is a waste of time. I'd say Connor as a young person just beginning to come to terms with new superpowers, seems ideal comic fodder (in recognition of this, the character's episode was even titled "Origin" as a homage to comic books). I would think that making a good 'Connor has superpowers' comic would be far easier than trying to get a good story out of Angel by his lonesome in the Romanian forrests.

Regarding the art, maybe they are delibarately going for a retro-look.

Dalton | April 24, 22:52 CET

I too like Conner. I can't wait to read this. See how much of his father's son he really is.

Zip-Ity-Do-Da | April 24, 22:57 CET

Judging by his passion for Cordelia, I think father and son are both very alike. I think the only thing stopping them from understanding each other was the difficult circumstances that Connor was born into, and the whole Holtz thing. Personally I have never been annoyed by a main character on Buffy or Angel, whereas there are a lot of people who have hated Connor or Riley or Dawn or whoever. A few of the recurring characters I didn't particularly care for but there were few really annoying characters. Apart from maybe Kathy, Buffy's roommate.

Not sure what I think of these Angel comics, I still have to read them so I'll probably wait for trade paperbacks and they do seem kind of promising, but I'll just say I'm not expecting anything of Fray's calibre. I could be pleasantly surprised, however.

Razor | April 24, 23:42 CET

The art seems pretty horrid indeed, but having Jay Faerber as a writer is pretty cool. He's the kind of writer that can make you actually care about the characters, which is of course essential for stories in the Joss-verses.

Check out his book Noble Causes from Image Comics if you're interested in celebrity superhero soap opera. :-)

Niels van Eekelen | April 24, 23:43 CET

I wonder if we can ever expect a Cordelia: Spotlight?

Emma Frost | April 24, 23:51 CET

I would bet sometime next year.

Zip-Ity-Do-Da | April 24, 23:53 CET

I liked and understood Connor while I was watching Angel, but I really have zero desire to see what he's up to. In fact, I almost actively dislike him now. Let's try to remember to be careful when critiquing things.

zeitgeist | April 25, 00:07 CET

The chances of other spotlight comics will depend if these one-shots and the trade paperback sell well enough. Connor is the fifth spotlight which with the previous four (Illyria (April), Gunn (May), Wesley (June), and Doyle (July)) should be all appearing in one trade paperback to be released in November.

paxomen | April 25, 00:08 CET

Also.. There are four covers (only one of which by Bob Gill, the artist of the actual comic content), i don't know who drew that cover art, but it's quite possible the cover art we're seeing does not reflect the artwork inside the comic.

paxomen | April 25, 00:21 CET

I think this is the one that interests me least. I didn't mind Connor (especially later in season 5), I just don't find his story particularly interesting since he felt pretty much 'done' by the end of 'Not Fade Away'.

I really don't like that cover either and even though I seem to remember something about not judging books that way, I reckon i'll skip it (looking forward to the Wesley one though).

BTW, I still don't see the Illyria Spotlight in this week's releases. Has it been put back ?

Saje | April 25, 01:17 CET

I hope Darkhorse does something like this after the Joss comics. I would love a Xander, Faith, Giles and even Willow spotlight.

It will depend on where this one is set and the actual story inside. Even in the big comics like DC and Marvel, cover art can still suck. Look at some the Superman and regular X-men.

Zip-Ity-Do-Da | April 25, 01:38 CET

Looking forward to all the one-shots.



It might have been.That seems to happen sometimes with the scheduling.The only thing listed for this week is the second Angel scriptbook covering AHITW.

Buffyfantic | April 25, 01:43 CET

"I wonder if we can ever expect a Cordelia: Spotlight?"

Well, we've kind of already had it, as the last issue of the Dark Horse ongoing Angel book (#16) was billed as the Cordelia Special. It was fun, and it had Dennis, too.

"Also.. There are four covers (only one of which by Bob Gill, the artist of the actual comic content), i don't know who drew that cover art, but it's quite possible the cover art we're seeing does not reflect the artwork inside the comic."

I'd say this is probably the Gill cover. It's not the Messina cover at any rate, and though I don't recognize the names of the other two cover artists (so I don't know what styles go with them), I'd guess this one's Bob Gill.

Niels van Eekelen | April 25, 02:49 CET

Not impressed by the artwork but that's just me.

I am interested in the story. I used to hate Connor, but now I feel like I understand him better so I'm a little more forgiving these days. He, like Dawn, was so young and annoying when he appeared. Yet now I know that's how they were meant to be. And he's definitely a character with much more story to tell. *sigh* What could have been.

Guess that makes me zeitgeist's opposite.

WhoIsOmega? | April 25, 02:56 CET

I've seen a lot of comic artwork in my life and I have to say that that cover is, to put this politely, poor.

As Saje mentioned, it is generally unfair to judge a book by it's cover but given that the cover of a comic book is (at least usually) done by the same artist responsible for the interior art, plus that fifty percent of what makes a good comic is the artist involved, when you see a cover like that you can't help but doubt the contents of the comic too.

If that is the quality of the art inside then count me out because that simply does not look good enough. A shame because I was always something of a Connor fan.

D-Monik | April 25, 03:23 CET

Hm, I'm curious if they don't have the rights to VK's image? I know that it worked out that for the early 90s when they churned out action figures for pretty much every film, that I think in Alien they weren't legally allowed to make Ripley look like Ripley so they had to more generic the face.

Generally I hate the art they've had for the Angel comics (particularly that Spike miniseries or whatever where everyone looked like the characters but were unnatural since they were practically traced in my opinion) and don't particularly like this cover, but I actually sorta like the character. Most people hated him when he showed up and being a moody teen at the same time I sort of related and understood that all the characters have horrible relationships anyway.

I'm curious what's up with his character now, and I always pondered what was up with Dawn and Connor both being mystical creations that technically ought not exist. I'll have to keep pondering since we'll never find out but at least he's getting a bit more fleshed out presumably. I like the less whiny and more stable version of the character so much more.

orangewaxlion | April 25, 03:50 CET

Isn't it unfair for us to dismiss the comic for it's art when we don't even know if the artist of that cover is Gill (who is the one drawing the actual content inside)?

[ edited by paxomen on 2006-04-25 06:15 ]

paxomen | April 25, 04:02 CET

Actually when I first read the thread title I pictured Connor in Quortoth and I thought that would be pretty cool.

Then when I linked to the picture, wow. That looks awful.

Orangewaxlion I agree with you on the Spike one that was all traced. But have you seen the Spike vs Dracula? So far it looks really great.

Xane | April 25, 04:13 CET

I've collected comics for thirty years and I can tell you that the cover is almost NEVER representative of what you'll find inside. Particularly in recent years the cover artist is usually someone completely different (in most cases [but obviously not all] better) than the interior artist. I've never heard of Bob Gill, so I can't speak on whether he's the cover artist in this instance.

I admit I've never been a fan of any of the tie-in materials (novels OR comics) of any of Joss' work, and the Angel tie-ins are typically even worse than most. However, I'm so starved for anything Angel that I'm getting all of these things.

(I'm particularly looking forward to the Wesley one-shot, especially after seeing this interior art sample...)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I've NEVER had a problem with Connor (or Dawn for that matter). I've always thought he was an interesting character, and his supernaturally angsty teenager schtick was perfectly appropriate seeing as he was a supernatural teenager. And considering who his parents were I think he turned out better than should be expected. I'd love to see him in a future spin-off (along with Faith).

[ edited by Haunt on 2006-04-25 03:48 ]

Haunt | April 25, 05:24 CET

Connor really grew on me, I'm glad to see him get some new storyline attention.

Haunt, loving those sketches of Wesley.

Lunakitty | April 25, 07:06 CET

I added to the link title a brief mention from last weekend's Pittsburgh Comic-Con about Dark Horse's interest in another Serenity series, as related by Newsarama. That's really the extent of the report - it's about a third of the way down the page. Hat-tip to jnila for the heads-up.

SoddingNancyTribe | April 25, 07:12 CET

I never really understood the hatred for Connor. He grew on me, and personally, I felt really sorry for him. Will be looking forward to the comic.

Ameer | April 25, 08:08 CET

I didn't like the whole Connor/Cordelia storyline, though I get its neccessity. I vapidly hated Dawn until the 7th season. She won me over when she ended up *not* becoming a Slayer. (Though apparently, in an original script, there were plans to show that Dawn had indeed been a Slayer since the end of The Gift, but those plans were never followed through.)

Those sketches of Wesley totally ruled. And it is a Wesley book, so I can't not get it.

And wow, a Faith series with Connor? That would definitely be interesting. Especially coz the last time they crossed paths, it was beautifully violent.

Emma Frost | April 25, 08:48 CET

Ack, one of my complaints about comics based on TV shows or movies is that characters' likenesses are almost always disappointing; no matter how good comic pictures look, they can never quite capture all of the nuances of a human face. This isn't a problem if the comic is original material, but if it's a depiction of a TV/movie character you already know and love, it's a bit jarring.

It's definitely not a great likeness of Connor by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to say I'm intrigued by this story; I never really understood where dislike of Connor (or really any other Jossverse character; sure, some were stronger than others, but I honestly never really understood hating the characters to the extent that some fans seemed to) came from, although I only started watching Angel in Season 3 so for me he was always part of the show, I can see how suddenly having Angel's son in there might be kind of jarring to long-time fans. I'm actually a bit more interested in the Connor comic than the other "Spotlights" since the character appeared so little in Season 5 and we know so little of his story during that year, especially his reconciliation of his two sets of memories.

WryBread | April 25, 08:54 CET

Oh sign me up for Faith/Conner!

Zip-Ity-Do-Da | April 25, 09:06 CET

I love Connor, so I'm glad he's getting a comic, but man, I have to agree with others on the artwork. It doesn't even look remotely like Connor, imo. Still, hopefully the story will make up for the poor artwork.

love4ba | April 25, 09:55 CET

Jay Faerber is a really good writer, so there's hope for this. And I second the recommendation for Noble Causes, it's a good book. The lettering in the preview issue is stealer! ;)




(Um, I did the lettering for the preview issue, so I'm a wee bit biased. But Jay really is a great writer, so the book's in good hands.)

Dizzy | April 26, 02:22 CET