The ‘Hellmouth’ crossover is nearly wrapped up, and as these things go, it’s pretty epic. In the many season of the Buffy shows, we never did see the other side of the Hellmouth- turns out it’s Hell. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. While Buffy, Angel, and Drusilla are descending lower and lower into the abyss, their respective supporting casts are getting a chance to take center stage. The stories are pretty good. The writing is sharp, and the art engaging. But not everything is perfect in the Buffyverse. This month, Buffyversity is going to look at the ways in which the process of comic creation is holding these cool stories back.
How Are Comics Made?
Chances are, if you are visiting Multiversity, you probably have a good idea as to what the comic creation process looks like. But if you don’t, or need a quick refresher, here it is. If you’re feeling impatient, you can just jump down to the next section where I’ll get more specific into the “Buffy” comics.
There isn’t a universally accepted process for making a comic, but you can assume certain things to be true. The writer comes up with the story, and writes it as a script. This is slightly different from writing a prose novel or a movie script. It typically gets into how many panels there are on each page, what those panels are shaped like; things like that. Then an artist looks at the script and drafts the images. Often there is more than one artist, specialists who focus on inks or color, who turn that initial drawing into the final comic you hold in your hands (or screen or whatever). Sometimes, the writer holds off on writing the exact dialogue until they see what the art looks like, giving the artists a chance to dictate the tone of each scene.
And obviously, different teams might divide up that responsibility differently. The process is distinct if there’s one person taking all art duties, or a team of three or more people. Sometimes the artist is very involved in that initial plotting. Sometimes there’s a lively back and forth. Sometimes the writer and artist never meet, and everything is done online and impersonally.
Every month another chapter of the comic book story comes out in the form of an issue. These tend to be around 22 pages long, made of fairly flimsy paper, and are held together with staples. Every few months, a set of issues is reprinted in a paperback book and bound with glue. That’s called the trade paperback but most, or a “graphic novel” by some. (As far as I am concerned, the only difference between a “comic” and a “graphic novel” is the binding, and every single comic is eventually collected into a graphic novel. Some stories only come out in that graphic novel format).
So how is Buffy made?
The “Buffy” comic is written by Jordie Bellaire and drawn by Dan Mora. I’ll happily editorialize and say that both creators are among the top in the biz. Bellaire is a prolific color artist, and an Eisner winning cover artist. Oh yeah, she’s a writer too. She does it all, and very well. Mora rocketed to stardom through his collaborations with the legendary Grant Morrison in the kick-ass Santa adventure comic “Klaus,” and Mora has also done WWE comics and is the primary artist on Kieron Gillen’s “Once and Future.”
Meanwhile, “Angel” is written by Bryan Edward Hill and drawn by Gleb Melnikov. Hill does work in all sorts of media, but he’s probably best known for his comic “Postal,” his work on “Batman,” and his recent divisive “X-Men” series “Fallen Angels” (which I mention because it shares a lot of themes with his work on “Angel”). Melnikov was not as well known before taking on “Angel,” but he did do some pretty cool “Power Rangers” comics.
These creative teams are obviously going to be different, but they largely follow the steps outlined above. Bellaire and Hill write their respective scripts, send them to Mora and Melnikov, and after some back and forth, they make an issue. From my conversations with Bellaire and Hill, I know that both of them aspire to be very collaborative. Hill talked about leaving blank spaces where he might normally put descriptions in order to give Melnikov freedom to take ownership of the characters.
Continued belowThe Breakdown
The first issue of “Buffy” ended with a page-turn reveal. A mysterious figure comes onto the scene, and we smash cut to reveal… a waifish white lady with brown hair. She’s in a dress. She’s definitely a vampire. But even as a Buffy fan, I was a little unsure of who it was supposed to be. (It was Drusilla). There have been a lot of moments like that, a smash cut to a familiar face from the show.
But… how familiar are they really? Mora’s art, which is truly excellent, is not very good at making people distinct. His people are cartoony, and exaggerated. They aren’t realistic, or strongly representational of the original actors. And that’s a very good thing! If you want to see how overly representational art can go wrong, just take a look at some of Salvador Larroca’s “Star Wars” comics. But in the case of “Buffy,” this really undermines those reveals. I need other context clues, perhaps through dialogue.
This doesn’t make Mora a bad fit for “Buffy.” There’s no one I’d rather have on the series! But the scripts aren’t playing to his strengths. Those page turn reveals only land if you can tell characters apart, which isn’t always the case. In a more perfect world, Bellaire would reflect this, giving Mora room to do what he does best. which is in my opinion, big kinetic action scenes, hero shots, and strong emotional reactions. All of those are great notes to end an issue on, and would certainly land better.
There’s also a strange issue of pacing. The ‘Hellmouth’ miniseries is on issue #4 (out of 5), but the “Buffy” and “Angel” series are moving forward. It seems that the story is picking up some time after the Hellmouth Crisis has been averted, but Buffy and Angel have not yet returned. That’s a great idea for a story, but it undermines the tension of the miniseries! Currently, Buffy is about to face a being named the Hellmother, who wishes to bring Hell to Earth. But like, that’s not gonna happen, because we know what’s going to happen next.
This is a problem that could be solved by circumventing the traditional publication model. If the story wasn’t released 22 pages at a time, we could read the epic ‘Hellmouth’ story at a different pace. How cool would it be if it was released as a graphic novel, a special event that brought together Buffy and Angel for the first time against a mighty foe? The issue sales for each installment of ‘Hellmouth’ aren’t zero, but they aren’t setting the world on fire. Maybe a big graphic novel release, with a lot of fanfare would set the world aflame, which is exactly what a Hellmouth wants to do.
As the creative teams settle in to a routine, the “Buffy” and “Angel” comics are getting better and better. The books are taking more risks, and the storytelling feels more natural. But they are still being published in the traditional comic system, and that’s worth taking scrutiny to every so often. Buffy may be a licensed property, but any comic series can benefit from discarding tradition in favor of a better story.
