PopMatters - Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: The TV Series, the Movies, the Comic Books, and More

JOSS WHEDON: THE COMPLETE COMPANION

ISBN: 9781781164570

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.

144 Southwark St.

London

SE1 0UP

First edition: May 2012

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Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion copyright 2012 PopMatters Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual articles copyright 2012 their respective authors.

Front cover adapted from a photo by Al Ortega.

This publication has not been prepared, approved, licensed or endorsed by Joss Whedon, or any entity that created or produced any of the films, programs or publications discussed in this book.

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A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in the USA.

THE COMPLETE COMPANION THE TV SERIES, THE MOVIES, THE COMIC BOOKS AND MORE

TITAN BOOKS

First of all, I want to tell you something about Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: Its different all the way through. Some essays are short reviews that introduce a show or comic or movie to a reader who has never seen/read it. Some of the selections are long, serious-looking academic articles (footnotes, multisyllabic words, deep thoughts) by internationally known scholars. Some are fascinating interviews with actors or writers. Some are fond reminiscences of a fans pleasure in Buffy or another Whedon masterpiece. Some are psychological studies. Some are explanations of the fandom and/or the industry that supportor notthe television, movie, and book worlds. Some are impassioned, sometimes really provoking arguments for or against a certain interpretation of a work. So I hope any admirer of Whedons creations will find essays to enjoy, debate, and value here.

I didnt expect to be editing this book during the fall of 2011. In August I was celebrating my birthday with a two-week stay in London after attending the delightful St. Hildas Crime and Mystery Weekend at Oxford when I received an email from Karen Zarker. She asked whether I might be interested in editing a collection of articles, many from PopMatters April 2011 special feature, Spotlight: Joss Whedon (edited by Robert Moore), on Joss Whedons works in all media. Of course I might! The only catch was that the 60-odd (some quite odd...) essays from 46 writers had to be edited and submitted to Titan by November 21. Of course I said yes! After all, as Han Solo once said, how hard could it be? After grading too many thousands of English themes and research papers, evaluating more than a few manuscripts for publication as journal articles and books, presenting many papers at various academic conferences, and publishing a few essayssurely editing one little book on my favorite television genius wouldnt be too difficult. Well, it was and it wasnt.

Consider the subject: the works of Joss Whedon. What better subject could I have asked for? Confession: I was not one of the people who watched Buffy from Welcome to the Hellmouth on March 10, 1997. While I thought Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the funniest, coolest series title Id ever heard, I wouldnt be caught dead or even undead watching the show: it was about nasty, mean, evil vampires, for heavens sake. I dont like vampires. But my friend and fellow English professor (you might have heard of her: Rhonda Wilcox) kept saying You have to watch this show! Its the best-written, wittiest, most brilliant series on television! Go watch! Now! But I resisted. Until spring quarter ended and the network-that-shall-not-be-named reran all the little bitty first season of 12 episodes; then I forced myself to watch the evil vampires, just as a special favor to my friend. By the third episode I was hooked. And I havent missed a Joss Whedon series since then (thanks, Rhonda). I loved Angel and appreciated Dollhouse. (I even enjoyed Waterworld before I had ever heard of Joss.) And how could I resist Fray, X-Men, Dr. Horrible, and The Avengers? Best of all, I was rewarded with a series obviously created just for me, who had written a dissertation on popular Westerns and read science fiction for decades: Firefly.

Consider the writers in this book: What more interested writers could I have dealt with? Whether undergrads, critics, journalists, lawyers, professors, theologians, or regular fans, they all truly wanted to say something about Josss creations; every writer I contacted was eager to clarify or add something to make his/her/their essay even better. Each essay is in a different style, a different dialect (mostly shades of American and British), a different voiceand I quickly discovered approximately 127 different ways to document sources. I attempted to make at least the format reasonably consistent. Otherwise, each writer in the book says what she/he wanted to say. If you put all of them together in a room, it would be difficult to distinguish the types of fans. And I can verify that those staid, overeducated professionals (professors, especially) are just as enthusiasticrabid?as the twenty-year-old who just discovered Buffy or Angel or Firefly and stayed up all night watching an entire season on DVD. If you dont believe me, please attend a Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses and see for yourself; SC5 meets in Vancouver in July 2012. And you can read Slayage, the online Journal of the Whedon Studies Association anytime.

And, finally, consider my project manager. No one could have been more helpful and witty than Karen Zarker of PopMatters in shepherding me through the perilous experience of being a content editor. Having the opportunity to edit Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion is the best seventieth birthday present I could have received.

Mary Alice Money

Emerita Professor of English

Gordon College, Barnesville, Georgia, USA

Robert Moore

Why another examination of Joss Whedon? He has been the most intensely studied TV creator in popular culture, with dozens of books and thousands of essays covering and recovering every aspect of his television series, movies, and comics. What is it that has generated such unprecedented interest? Why do so many people care so deeply about his television series, comics, movies, and Internet musicals?

Whedons influence on pop culture has been so deep and wide-ranging it is hard to realize that we are only a decade and a half removed from the debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the fledgling WB network. The WB is long gone at this pointas is UPN, where Buffy relocated after a dispute between Twentieth Century Fox and the WB over moneybut Buffy