So for the "finale" issue?

[Tie was here]

Is it going to a be a WHOPPING 22 pages??

They should make it double the length. Or one arc in one. Like a TPB.

[lee]

How many issuses is there?
I read theres gonna be 40. plus a season 9. Thats over 6 years for 2 comic seasons. Thats ridiculous, they should make it so its a season a year.

[KingofCretins]

Season 8 is 40 issues long. I don't think 8.40 will be double-length, but undoubtedly it will be longer. 8.15, for instance, was 26 story pages instead of 22. I think 8.09 and 8.05 were longer than normal as well.

There's no realistic way to pump these issues out faster. It takes time to get the penciler and writer to the same page, then it has to be inked, colored, and printed. If they tried to go to two books a month, they just couldn't keep up. Not unless you were going to have two entirely separate teams working on it (DC had, and may still have, a system where the Batman and Superman books came out every week, but that's because there were four different teams working on four different books in a serialized story). Here, since Sarah's people have to sign off on every single hand that draws the Buffy character, there's no real chance of being able to have that kind of multi-team approach.

[Koos]

There's no realistic way to pump these issues out faster. It takes time to get the penciler and writer to the same page, then it has to be inked, colored, and printed. If they tried to go to two books a month, they just couldn't keep up. Not unless you were going to have two entirely separate teams working on it.

Dark Horse comes up with two issues of Indiana Jones each month. I don't see a problem for the further. The next arc is drawn by someone else than Jeanty. Issue 20 will be drawn by someone else as well. And issue 10 was drawn by someone else too. The arcline has been set out. They have bunch of guest writers. So, I think it should be possible.

I hope they will, because to me the waiting is annoying factor number 1. So much, that I am considering to let the show go in its entirety.

[Matt]

The next arc is drawn by someone else than Jeanty.

Who's drawing the next arc, is it the same guy that did the drawing in the Fray comic books?

I think Dark Horse could get more issues out montly if they had the team on board, but maybe there's just not enough people willing to put the hours in.

[Koos]

Who's drawing the next arc, is it the same guy that did the drawing in the Fray comic books?

Yes.

I think Dark Horse could get more issues out montly if they had the team on board, but maybe there's just not enough people willing to put the hours in.

There are time schedules at stake, but I don't think it has anything to do with a lack of interest. It's a job afterall. The latest news from Scott Allie shows some interesting light in the sense that Fox needs to approve the artist for issue 20. No idea why this is the case, probably having to do with the rights for the characters and the way the artist can make a character in the show look the same in his drawings.

This could be a clue as to why there isn't a team. I find it hard to believe that Dark Horse wouldn't want to be bring out more each month. And the same for Joss.

[KingofCretins]

It's not FOX that has to approve new pencillers, it's Sarah Michelle Gellar (her representation, at least) -- she is the one who owns the likeness rights for the Buffy character. I'd actually love the story behind that. I seriously doubt they'd have been offered to her when she was cast. Presumably she got them built into a contract renewal at some point, but I'd be curious to know when that was in relation to the show and its popularity.

[Matt]

So you're basically saying that Sarah Michelle Gellar has to be shown every single drawing of Buffy before it can be given the go-ahead? I mean, that's a lot of images.

But, I've seen some of the drawings from previous comic books of Buffy and it doesn't look too much like her.

[-beardo-]

I think that's wrong Sarah has only just found out about the Buffy comics at the reunion. This was a few months ago. She did not know they existed so if she had to approve the likeness then she would have known about the comics. Fox owns the characters therefore owns their likenesses.

[KingofCretins]

She knew of the comics, but not of the events in them.

She doesn't have to be shown every single panel, no, but she (and by she, I mean the people she assigns to this, or her herself) have to see sample work by any penciler they want to use. She then says "okay, they have my permission to represent the Buffy likeness".

[CaptainOats]

That's just stupid. Sarah should be thinking of her fans and tell them she doesnt care what she looks like in the comics. What does she think the artists are gonna do anyways? Make her look anorexic or messed up? She should just try and help them get as many issues out as possible!

[Charles]

That's just stupid. Sarah should be thinking of her fans and tell them she doesnt care what she looks like in the comics. What does she think the artists are gonna do anyways? Make her look anorexic or messed up? She should just try and help them get as many issues out as possible!

She is thinking of her fans which is why the comics don't look as bad as they possible could.

I'm guessing this approval rating came around because of one of two times: The switch from WB to UPN or the video games where Buffy is voiced by someone else. I remember people being highly upset about the latter.

[Sacred Knight]

Throw out the hurdle of Sarah having to approve of her likeness (which isn't stupid, in fact I consider it quite business savvy that she even got those rights in the first place), and that wouldn't speed up the process, so it really doesn't matter. To get out issues any faster the bottom line is that they'd need separate teams. For two books a month, you need two teams. And so on and so forth. That's just the way the comic industry works.

[Thomas]

That's just stupid. Sarah should be thinking of her fans and tell them she doesnt care what she looks like in the comics. What does she think the artists are gonna do anyways? Make her look anorexic or messed up? She should just try and help them get as many issues out as possible!

Honestly, I'm glad she has to approve an artist before they can officially be used. Sometime, the best artist arn't picked and it tends to ruin the comics, at least for me, for example several issues, or possibly all, of "After the Fall." So, since Sarah can say no to certain artist, we get better quality art, since I highly doubt she'd let someone draw her all deformed looking.

[EndersWrath]

That's just stupid. Sarah should be thinking of her fans and tell them she doesnt care what she looks like in the comics. What does she think the artists are gonna do anyways? Make her look anorexic or messed up? She should just try and help them get as many issues out as possible!

*sigh* It's legal issues, not just Sarah herself. It's not her that says how many issues come out per month. If they wanted to they could get more people to do samples and get approval but they haven't. It's not like Sarah is telling the people that only a few people are allowed to draw her.

I'm sure they could get two issues out in a month if they had the team behind it, but the fact is that they don't. I honestly don't get why people are always so quick to jump onto the idea that she is the reason why we don't get something about Buffy everytime this happens. Like when people blame Sarah for Buffy ending... uhm, that was mostly Joss' decision, and I'm thinking that what creater/writer/producer wants, then creater/writer/producer gets. She isn't even APART of the comics and people are still doing it. Its wrong and just plain rude. "Oh Sarah used to play Buffy in the show, and now they are drawing her in a comic and they aren't coming out fast enough, lets throw eggs!" ... I mean really.

[vampmogs]

I also think Sarah has a right to approve images of herself. Take for example if an artist depicted an almost exact image of her, something Jo Chen is very capable of doing, in a very derogatory act. Now of course Jo Chen or Joss wouldn't do this, but I don't blame Sarah for wanting to make sure those kind of things can't be printed everywhere if they look exactly like her. When you've got people like Jo Chen out there who are so bloody gifted they can draw you as if it was a photo, she has every right to make sure she's not been sketched to do things she wouldn't want people to see an image of her doing.

[Wolfie Gilmore]

I also think Sarah has a right to approve images of herself. Take for example if an artist depicted an almost exact image of her, something Jo Chen is very capable of doing, in a very derogatory act. Now of course Jo Chen or Joss wouldn't do this, but I don't blame Sarah for wanting to make sure those kind of things can't be printed everywhere if they look exactly like her. When you've got people like Jo Chen out there who are so bloody gifted they can draw you as if it was a photo, she has every right to make sure she's not been sketched to do things she wouldn't want people to see an image of her doing.

Mind you, there are plenty of images of her in incredibly compromising positions on the internet, thanks to photoshop. Erm...I've heard?

I think it's polite and fair in this case, given that she was involved with...she WAS...Buffy from the start. But when someone's face is copied in any old comic...I'm not sure what the legal status is then? I've got a cover of 2000AD with a picture of Tony Blair as an evil robot, and I'm pretty sure he didn't sign off on that

[DigitalLeonardo]

The biggest issue is really more Sarah's people. It was the same with ALL the comics. If you read "Panel to Panel" it says that all the artist had to be approved by Sarah (or her people) seeing as she is a somewhat famous person and it goes for alot of actors. (a major reason why the princess for Enchanted will never be an offical disney princess... they'd need amy adams approvle on every product for the character) It was the same for all the Buffy action figures, it is really just to protect Sarah from getting any raw deal.

From what I can tell she doesn't go into every panel and say "yes" or "no" its really just the artist needs to be approved and once they are they can draw her. So since Jo Chen as been approveed she doesn't need to get approve every time she draws her, I'm sure her people still look at all the cover art before hand to make sure we don't get a nipple Buffy shot, but thats about it.

Same go for all regular artists. So I doubt that is the issue we get one issue a month since there are a nice handful of artist who can draw SMG for comics.


Also I am with Joe, SMG isn't to blame for anything really. She is just doing what she needs to, its smart and is just part of the buisness. I seriously doubt she wants to walk into a comic shop and see a naked her on the cover of a comic (hmm, I wonder how she'd feel if she was the naked one in flames rather then Faith...)