April 21 2009
James Marsters on IDW's Angel series - "I like what I see".
He also shares his experiences on working on a Spike story for Dark Horse. Interestingly enough, Dark Horse have decided to respond to James' comments.
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Brian Lynch | April 21, 08:04 CET
[ edited by Mirage on 2009-04-21 17:23 ]
Mirage | April 21, 08:20 CET
- James Marsters only co-wrote a one-shot, not a mini-series.
- Ryan Sook did the artwork, not Keith Barnett. I've never even heard of Keith Barnett. Ryan Sook's artwork was controversial: a lot of people loved it, a lot of people hated it. I recall Joss praising it.
- Juliet is not spelled "Juliette."
Invisible Green | April 21, 08:33 CET
I can't say I agree with James on that romantic twisted leads have to be kissable.
Movie-wise maybe, because people have to want to go to the cinema and watch characters they might not know anything about, but for Spike & Dru fans (who really should realize that Spike & Dru often are "unkissable") that shouldn't be a problem.
Spike & Dru look beautiful on the show, even when "acting" ugly and feral, but I didn't mind their inside matching their outside in the comics.
But that's just me.
Skytteflickan88 | April 21, 08:48 CET
[ edited by sueworld2003 on 2009-04-21 18:10 ]
sueworld2003 | April 21, 09:07 CET
Simon | April 21, 09:09 CET
Comic Book DB lists Keith Barnett as one of five inkers for "All's Fair," as well as the inker of the short Spike & Dru story "Who Made Who?" from the "Lover's Walk" Valentine's Day one-shot.
Invisible Green | April 21, 09:34 CET
Simon, none of those, James co-wrote the one where Spike goes to Turkey..
JotheCat | April 21, 09:35 CET
I thought the art for that one was fine. But I guess if you write the story, you'd like to see it drawn the way you see it in your head.
Simon | April 21, 09:43 CET
DaddyCatALSO | April 21, 11:15 CET
As for James Marsters' feelings on the matter, this isn't news. I saw it reported years ago.
daylight | April 21, 11:33 CET
ruuger | April 21, 11:37 CET
resa | April 21, 11:50 CET
I still don't really see it as a comic where the characters need to be "kissable", but since it's about Spike's broken heart, perhaps beauty would have made it more tragic and moving.
The artwork made the comic more twisted than romantic.
I don't see the gothic influence tough, but since I'm not sure what's goth and what's not, that's not that suprising.
Skytteflickan88 | April 21, 11:56 CET
Dark Horse has responded to this James's comments.
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/04/21/dark-horse-responds-to-buffy-actor-james-marsters-comics-comments/
Someone might want to edit this into the header.
[ edited by Buffyfantic on 2009-04-22 01:05 ]
Buffyfantic | April 21, 15:47 CET
baxter | April 21, 17:08 CET
Hmm...I thought the art was beautiful and fitting to the story as did Joss. It's funny, who would know about what fits in a comic after all? An actor with no experience in the industry, who admits to wanting total creative control to a collaborative effort, or the editor with more than a decade of knowing what works?
marvelknight616 | April 21, 17:52 CET
I know John DeLancie had issues with a Star Trek comic he wrote, and he never got over it. Sometimes they want the name, and they don't really care about the writing. Comes as a shock to the namee.
redeem147 | April 21, 18:26 CET
Sure, the American/British accent differentiation played a role back in the Buffy days, but that's lost steam over the years with all the Brits and Aussies playing American roles. But man, forget about the accent. Spike was all about the outfits and the hair. I mean, those two tools just TRANSFORMED Marsters into Spike. It multiplied his sex appeal 10 times easy. (Just ask at least a couple of my highly distracted girlfriends during Buffy and Angel's runs.)
It must be tough for Marsters outside of the Soike persona--sure, he's still got the lean, mean bod and the killer bone structure, but outside of that he looks entirely... normal. And even a little on the slight side (I'm not buying the IMDB's reported 5-9 1/2" height). He certainly looks younger than than 46, but whenever he's not Spike he no longer looks, well, immortal. (Dave Boreanaz, meanwhile, looks even younger than he did on Angel.)
That's no knock on Marsters--reportedly a great guy. I think he's awesome he's still involved with creative pursuits related to Buffy. He's just so different from Spike... if anything, it's a testament to his abilities as an actor.
Rick Gershman VII | April 21, 18:31 CET
And I have to weigh in on the side of not liking the art at all. Even the picture of Drusilla on the MTV article is horrible. And not in a horror way, in an ugly way.
Xane | April 21, 19:48 CET
SoddingNancyTribe | April 21, 19:58 CET
I think the key to a successful collaboration is for everyone to understand where they stand up front. For whatever reason that doesn't seem to have happened in this instance. If the input of the guy brought into write it means nothing it might have been better to make sure he knew that he was only there to lend his name at the outset.
helcat | April 21, 20:30 CET
IDoDoodle | April 21, 21:45 CET
I don't know. I don't think James wanting "total creative control" is the case, it seems he just wanted to be heard and to be happy with the final product he put a lot of work into. I've met James, and he is the opposite of ego, so it just doesn't ring true to me. I've also met Mr. Allie.
Do I agree with James about Ryan Sook's art? It did look ugly for the story yes... but Sook is usually a fantastic artist. His work on "Ring of Fire" has some of the best Buffy art we've seen from Dark Horse. I'd love if he came back on Season Eight or Nine. The issue with James's story is that Sook made his art a lot darker and a lot more evily than it usually looks.
[ edited by patxshand on 2009-04-22 07:00 ]
patxshand | April 21, 21:59 CET
Isn't that the point? Since the characters were evil at the time?
It kinda sounds like James and Joss were approaching it with different ideas. James saw it as a romance, Joss saw it as a horror story. Joss won. You know Joss, he's gotta protect his theme and he's always been very concerned with making the vampires not too appealing.
Emmie | April 21, 22:46 CET
And that art work was ugly
Spike and Dru work brilliantly in the contrast between their beautiful human faces and their scary vamp faces . If you make their human faces ugly too you lose a lot of the impact.
Also why didn't Dark Horse talk to James as well as to Joss?
I would have thought that was common courtesy.
Frankly I'm not surprised James found the whole thing annoying.
Also he's been talking about this at cons for years now . I can't help wondering why Dark Horse feel the need to respond now when, as far as I know, they've never responded before.
debw | April 21, 22:54 CET
I don't think it's ever been a news item in its own right before.
Simon | April 21, 23:02 CET
I can't help wondering why Dark Horse feel the need to respond now when, as far as I know, they've never responded before.
My guess is it's because they're competing for readers with IDW (whose comics James endorsed in the interview) within the Jossverse franchise, and answering to the comments was a good opportunity to plug Season 8.
[ edited by ruuger on 2009-04-22 08:10 ]
ruuger | April 21, 23:08 CET
Thanks also for the link to the comic. Dear god, that artwork was dreadful. Sorry, but imo it really was.
sueworld2003 | April 21, 23:37 CET
After all, it's easier to answer a written interview than it is to answer "hearsay".
And about who's right and who's wrong;
Two visions collided. No one's wrong, no one's right.
It's too bad that they didn't all sit down and share their visions and intentions sooner than they did. Not sure if that would have made the comic look different, because Joss is the boss, but James would have known that he's "just" the writer, and might have been less disapointed.
Or maybe he would have been able to convince Joss to go another way.
It's all about communication.
*turns of the TV showing dr.Phil*
Skytteflickan88 | April 22, 02:11 CET
He talked about it in Starburst magazine in 2004 (scroll down), and I'm pretty sure I remember at least couple of other print interviews where he's mentioned it as well.
ruuger | April 22, 02:46 CET
biffsbabe | April 22, 06:50 CET
Rick Gershman VII | April 22, 09:33 CET
The writing was pretty “meh” and the artwork was pretty “meh.” I think a better job could have been done all together, not just in the writing or just in the artwork.
vampmogs | April 22, 19:50 CET
helcat | April 23, 06:27 CET