To the thunderous applause of 3,000 fans packed into not one but four large exhibition conference rooms, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and comics inspired by Buffy, Angel and his original Fray; writer, director, producer Joss Whedon, stepped out onto the dais with the words, "I know why I'm standing up, why are you?" as he basked in the well-deserved praise and adulation for 7-years of literal blood, sweat, and tears. Once again Scott Allie [Editor of Dark Horse Comics] and his crew brought Joss down to Comic Con to be a part of all the comic action and eager to talk about the final installment of Fray, as well as the end of his long reigning icon, Buffy! With many new ideas, where Joss will go next with his comic interests, whether it be a possible Faith saga, a second run of Fray or something completely different, Scott and DH will be right there to help Joss bring it to his fans.

Dark Horse Comics booth

"Thank you to Dark Horse Comics for bringing me out here for Fray. For letting me make a comic that was closest to my heart and the slowest thing ever written. The last issue should be coming out in the next few weeks. Thank you for your patience, it was all Firefly's fault. Now, we all know Buffy is done. Nobody told you guys! That's so weird. It's sort of a bookend to a journey that has been, obviously, the most important and extraordinary thing of my life. The reason that it held and it's been so much is sitting in front of me. Thank you so much. We fought to keep Angel on the air. It was kind of a battle which was annoying. This year we're going to hit our 100th episode. We'll be making some changes and we'll also be doing a lot stuff exactly the same because personally I think the show is going really well. Thursday of next week, I will begin shooting the first one."

"And then there is that third show, Firefly. I'm such a whore! Firefly has been the most extraordinary and painful and explicating journey I've ever taken in quite so short a period of time. I loved that show so much. I loved everybody on it, and everybody who worked on it. And I knew that there was somebody who didn't work at the network who agreed with me! I believe December will be the DVD's. Every single episode -- including the ones that never aired -- all in wide-screen, and all with commentary. And I am in fact, in the process of still struggling, as I have been since the day we were cancelled, to get a Firefly movie made. I have no news except that I have hope and in the next couple of months I will know definitively whether or not we may actually be shooting one within the year."


And The Highlights Were ~

Audience: Can you shed any light on some of the rumors about Spike . . .
Joss: "We're just good friends."
Audience: Please tell us he's not coming back as a ghost.
Joss: "I'm not telling ya dick. But however we bring him back he'll still be James Marsters, so how bad can it be? We're going to bring him back as a mummy."

Audience: When Spike got his soul back, why didn't he seem to have the same moral quandaries as Angel?
Joss: "Well, he's a different guy than Angel. Hopefully he's a different guy because otherwise Angel's going to be really boring. I think Spike was actually a lot closer to human. Angel was at full-tilt evil, that just got clothes lined by those Gypsies and spent 100 years going, 'Ah yah aha hah,' trying to figure it out -- what it was he had to do. Spike actually went in search for a soul while he had none, so I think he was much more evolved then Angel, personally. I think that's why it was easier for him to make the transition."

Audience: Had you tried selling Firefly through the Sci-Fi Network?
Joss: "You know, the answer is yes, and I think something must have got lost in the translation because the answer we got back was, 'Ah no, that's not for us, that's too sci-fi.' [aud. has fits of laughter] And Oxygen said, 'Too many chicks.' And you'll never believe what the Western Network said."

Audience: There are many ends not tied up from the finale, like is Anya really dead; are you going to be doing a TV movie to tie it all up or maybe just a movie about Fray or just something from that part?
Joss: "Ah, bless your desperation. And I share it. The idea was to have closure so that people felt like we came full circle, that we said what we needed to say but not end everything so that one day there may be a movie, a TV movie, a spin-off. There are now things in Fray, mythologically, that don't match up which I'm going to have to explore when I do the next series of Fray comics. Oops did I say that? I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing some of these characters to show up on Angel next year. So we should learn a little bit about where they went."

Audience: Would you ever take any of the DC or Marvel characters if you had the interest and create something?"
Joss: "I really would. It's only a question of time. There are many, many characters in both universes that I would hunger to get my hands on, intimidated though I would be. I'm thinking I would like to do ultimate, ultimate Spiderman. Just reboot Spiderman, again. Because, you know, it's like 37 issues old and I think the kids, they can't relate to that. I wish, although all my life I've wanted Buffy to fight Batman."

Joss Whedon: "X-Men? Is that popular?"

Audience: In either show did you regret any direction you went or would you make any changes?
Joss: "I don't know how that whole feminism thing got into it but that was just embarrassing. I really don't have any regrets. I've been luckier than almost anybody in TV, I got to do almost exactly what I wanted on two different shows for -- right now a grand total of 11 years - that's an extraordinary gift. And as I learned last year, rather strikingly, it doesn't come very often. And although Firefly was always the show I wanted it to be, it was the show I wanted it to be for about 5-minutes, I wanted longer. So, I'm not big with the regret, it's just, I love that actor, I wish I could see more of them."

Audience: Conversations With Dead People - what was attacking Joyce, was that the First?
Joss: "That was the First, she was just messing with Dawn to sort of create a little rift. And then Buffy sort of not choosing her words; it was a benign thing, a warning casting the seeds of death. I had somebody ask me a question about Giles and how we messed that up, how come we didn't pay that off emotionally -- he wasn't the first, and I was like, 'Dude, just having fun.' I thought it would be interesting to let people think maybe and wonder and then don't. Let them rethink what they'd see."

Audience: Do you read or routinely scour the websites, because we've talked about stuff and then like 4-weeks later it'd be on screen?
Joss: "Obviously I've gotten most of my ideas from you. When we go to websites what we're looking for is a general feeling of; what's not playing, what are people really passionate about and what are they debating and where are we getting it right and where are we getting it wrong? If you see something 4-weeks after it comes out on your website that means we've been working on it about 8-weeks before that, at least."

"Obviously I would not wish any ill on Eliza's new show, but boy do I want to see Faith again!" ~ Joss

Audience: Is it possible there would be a Faith spin-off if Tru Calling perhaps --
Joss: "That's not her true calling?
Audience: -- was cancelled? The FOX network kind of mishandles new shows.
Joss: "Obviously I would not wish ill on Eliza's new show but boy do I want to see Faith again! As I've said, we're all just sort of reeling from the last 7-years and we don't have any particular plans but if Eliza became available I think that would probably become an issue because there's not a person on my staff who isn't hungry to do something about that. But there's a lot of great characters, you know I think Clem."

Audience: Did you think through the changes you've made to television or where you just expanding yourself as a writer with shows like 'Hush' and 'Restless'?
Joss: It wasn't really like, 'Well I'll show television how it's done!' When I created Buffy, part of the reason was I would learn to direct. And I also later found out after 7 years; I'll also learn how to write, it was just one big grad school for me and my staff and it was always about pushing new boundaries. "Hush" was about, 'I think I'm kind of boring. I'll take away a crutch, maybe dialogue.' In "The Body" it was like, 'I'm kind of hitting the music cues a little too hard, let's take away some of those crutches.' So it's also about just trying to be better, trying to learn, trying to use this medium and this incredible opportunity that I have to become somebody worth listening to."

Audience: Do you think that will happen years from now, like 10-years from now?
Joss: "It could, the great thing is the show's about growing up. If they do and we were to come back, it's not like, 'I can't believe they're trapped on the island again!' And wherever they are in their lives is wherever the story will pick up."

Nathan Fillion watches over the Joss Q&A audience

Audience: Have you thought about Buffy's legacy in terms of any changes you might have made or influences to TV, the way it's run, themes?
Joss: "I honestly believe that we were a part of a change about the way people perceive female heroes. What's really important to me is the fact that when I started the idea of Buffy, it was a novel concept; the idea a young high school girl being somebody important and powerful was obviously new, because here I am. I think there are other shows like Xena that deserve way more credit then they get."

Audience: In season 6 were you expecting the negative backlash?
Joss: "Season 6 was a real challenge for people, it was very dark, it was very upsetting and I think because the character of Buffy herself was sort of taken away from the audience, I think that's why when people say it went too far in the darkness, that's what they're missing and I don't disagree with that. We ourselves felt like after awhile, 'Okay we're dealing with some interesting issues, but holy Jesus! I'm so depressed.' So we wanted her to come out and find her power. I think in retrospect when all seven years are taken together you'll see that as with any fiction it always gets darkest before the end."

Audience: When you decided to have Spike rape Buffy and then in the next season proceeded to have a romantic relationship. What kind of a message did that send?
Joss: "It's something that we had been debating for years and we figured our ambivalence was exactly what we wanted to project and we used that on the show. We knew that we couldn't come back from an attempted rape to a romantic sexual relationship. But what we did want to say was that we could come back to a place of trust between these people. That man could redeem himself. And in time what went on with Spike and Buffy was very textured and complicated you couldn't just say, 'Well now he's the villain again.' I think that does a disservice to the complexity of what went on and we went back and forth endlessly. Should they get together once, should they never get together, should she serve her emotional need, should she feel guilty bout that emotional need? Hopefully some of that spilled out into the show because it is probably the most complex question that is asked in the entire run of the show."

Sarah Grace gets some from Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon

Audience: What's your favorite character in all the seasons of Buffy? [little girl]
Joss: "On 7th Heaven? Happy, the dog. My favorite character in the whole ever of Buffy, ever. Willow." [huge applause] Which is yours?
Audience: Ah, Faith.
Joss: "Not bad." Audience: Where are all the cast members of Buffy going?
Joss: [softly] "They go to cast member heaven. I know that both Sarah and Michele are shooting films right now and Aly obviously has one coming out. Very tasteful and for the kids. But we also talked to a bunch of the cast members about guesting on Angel when they have time. So I think you'll be seeing them around all over the place. They're pretty good at their jobs."

Audience: Xander's one of my heroes, was losing his eye something you had been foreshadowing or not?
Joss: "No, but we thought it was pretty funny."
Audience: Faith year 1 sounds pretty cool.
Joss: "We've been talking about doing a Faith series in the comics too."

Audience: Can you elaborate on Xander's reaction to Anya's death?
Joss: "Xander couldn't just not find her and have no closure at all and we thought it was a nice, interesting gesture to have the thing that Andrew had always been vilified for, storytelling, become what he was necessary for. Become, in fact, the reason as he asks himself as why he did not die. So that's what that moment was all about.