Interesting.

Not sure how I feel about Urru - good on Spike books, but *hated* his Angel in Shadow Puppets #2. If he can improve that then maybe he'll be suitable. I'll stave off judgement until I see some pages of course.

And Betta George being canonised.Hmmm...not sure how I feel about that now to be honest - does that mean Asylum and Shadow Puppets are canon now? Not sure how he'll fit in to a bleak epic miniseries - but hey what do I know huh?:)

angeliclestat | July 28, 00:26 CET

I'm a big fan of Urru, myself.

zeitgeist | July 28, 00:49 CET

I like him generally - but its the depiction of Angel that matters most to me - and it wasnt great in Shadow Puppets.

angeliclestat | July 28, 00:53 CET

I've sort of been down on the idea of non-canon books becoming retro-canonised as well.I would perfer they weren't but if some are I would rather it stick to Brian's own books at the most.

I don't have a problem with Urru's work on the two Spike series.I thought he did a nice job but I was sort of hoping for someone new for this.Maybe someone who hasn't worked in the verse yet to give a fresh feel.Again Urru has done well but I guess I wanted something that feels a little different visually for this,something new.I'm sure he'll still do a great job though and I guess this sort of goes along with the idea that Spike:Asylum and Spike:Shadow Puppets are being retro-canonised.But again,I prefer that wasn't happening overall and any comics done pre-After The Fall stay non canon.

I remember Tony Harris's work on Starman.Can't wait to see his covers.

This series is definitly sounding dark which I was expecting given where we left the characters.

I'd like to find out more about this,"7-8 page stories of different characters, every 5 months as breather" thing and what that entails as well as seeing the cover of issue 1.

[ edited by Buffyfantic on 2007-07-27 22:08 ]

Buffyfantic | July 28, 01:05 CET

:Squees and bounces off walls:

I'm so pleased by this news.

deborahmm | July 28, 01:17 CET

Still not sold on this idea completely. But it'll happen with or without my blessing, so I'll shut up and move on.

And no mention of Tony Harris being the artist (cover and interior) for Brian Vaughan's fantastic Ex Machina? I loved Starman, and in some ways feel Tony's art back then was even better than it is now. But I'd think his most recent (and arguably better known) work would be what gets the shout out. *shrug*

Haunt | July 28, 01:18 CET

I've added a Newsarama link which has additional info.

Simon | July 28, 01:42 CET

I was kidding about bugging Joss until he said "yes", of course, with Buffy. It's hard to convey sarcasm or a jovial tone over the internet. I even said, after I made that joke, that I feared the internet is going to think I was serious.

As for Franco Urru doing Angel, you haven't seen his take on the character yet, you've only seen Spike's interpretation of Angel via a dream sequence. It was written that Angel be all sorts of hot and high school jock-ish, with a used car salesman's smile.

As for George: he's not hanging with the Angel crew, he's a small part of the overall story. And the reaction to the fact that he was in it was pretty huge at the panel. That made me feel nice.

Brian Lynch | July 28, 01:42 CET

I just love this news! Can't wait!

sueworld2003 | July 28, 01:43 CET

I'm very excited for this comic...

Dan Corson | July 28, 01:51 CET

Too bad newsarama thinks this is "season eight." Hopefully, the folks at Comicon didn't use those words, because it just would hurt some credibility.

CaptainB | July 28, 01:55 CET

I love that cover.

Buffyfantic | July 28, 01:55 CET

Wonderful news - and that cover is awesome !

Shade of Pale | July 28, 01:57 CET

It's a really good cover. Right now it's one of my favourite IDW Angelverse cover art (the other being the awesome one of Spike holding a rapier and about to duel with Dracula).

Simon | July 28, 02:00 CET

Simon - I really liked that Sean Murphy cover as well.

Shade of Pale | July 28, 02:11 CET

Betta George becomes canon and Franco Urro the artist. Best news ever. I'm sure that Franco will do as fabulous a job as he's been doing on the Spike books so far. Since new characters are introduced in ongoing stories all the time, I have no problem with Betta George being introduced into canon - especially since he's such a great character.

I really like the idea of there being special issues concentrating on characters who aren't major players. There are some wonderfully interesting minor characters in the Angel (and Buffy) verse and it'll be fun to see a little more of them.

Great news from IDW. Thanks to all of you making this happen.

MacGuffin | July 28, 02:22 CET

Your right Brian - Im willing to be openminded about Franco - he has done great work so far.

And Very Nice Cover:)The blood on the hands. The 'angel wings' motif behind him - the symbolism - the colours.Very beautiful:)

[ edited by angeliclestat on 2007-07-27 23:36 ]

angeliclestat | July 28, 02:29 CET

I don't understand this part. Every five months they take a month off? Or every five months they release an issue? Or... option C?

Anyway, I am looking forward to this. Though I have no idea who George is, so methinks I have some reading to do before this starts.

Jobo | July 28, 02:34 CET

Fantastic news for Angel fans. This seems to have a very epic feeling to it. Franco is a wonderful artist, i'm sure he'll do a great job, like he did with those Spike comics. What was also very intresting are those mini-issues that will center on lesser known characters.

On a side note, i am saddend that no new Spike project has been announced.
This will run for over a year, i can understand that Brian is too busy with all of his projects, but isn't there anyone else willing to do a Spike-project?
I'm sure Spike will be great in "After the fall" but like the tv-show, it's Angel's meaning it centers around him.

Vergil | July 28, 02:35 CET

Meh, not crazy about that cover. Too closely based on what I always thought was a pretty lame, cliched publicity shot of Boreanaz. Still excited for the story, just hoping there will be a variant...

WillowSlay | July 28, 02:41 CET

I'll do it. "Spike does the shopping". A gripping 6 part mini-series done in a brand new style that no one has ever heard of called "decompression".

Failing that, Scott Tipton has written some very good Spike stories. I'd like to see him get another crack of the whip.

Simon | July 28, 02:43 CET

'I've added a Newsarama link which has additional info.'
Thanks Simon!

angeliclestat | July 28, 02:44 CET

""I'll do it. "Spike does the shopping". A gripping 6 part mini-series done in a brand new style that no one has ever heard of called "decompression".""

Yeah okay, i think it's best to wait for someone else, not that your idea wasn't any good.

""Failing that, Scott Tipton has written some very good Spike stories. I'd like to see him get another crack of the whip.""

I also own his Spike comics and while i did like his one-shots(except the art), "Auld lang syne" i didn't like as much.

Vergil | July 28, 03:11 CET

I think Scott Tipton is tied up with some big Star Trek comic stuff for a while at IDW.

http://www.newsarama.com/Comic-Con_07/IDW/TNG.html



IDW might want everyone concentrating on this one epic canon story for the next year.I can understand why they might want this the only Angelverse thing for the next year,due to its importance.

Buffyfantic | July 28, 03:19 CET

Taking into account that they stated Angel ended with season 7 this may not even be worth bringing up but did anyone else notice the "12-part + series" comment at Newsarama?

Do you think that this just refers to the additional between-arc filler specials or is there still some question about how long this could run? Could it end up being a continuous run of 3 or 4 issue arcs, for example?

Koven | July 28, 03:43 CET

I'm just not a big fan of that cover.
Angel looks strangely passive and the 'prayer' pose of hands clasping does NOT sit well with the confident, assured vampire who strode into that alley, ready to die.
Even the angel wings are ripped off from the soundtrack cover.
And Spike, you're right, his hair DOES stick straight up!

Jo Chen's covers got me SO excited about where the Buffy S8 series was headed. This one could be set in ANY season from all the info that it gives us. I'm disappointed. Though I hope that the content will more that make up for it.

I'm also hoping that Illyria is a series regular and won't be kept for the 'First Night' stand-alone. Oh, pretty please?!

missb | July 28, 06:41 CET

Yeah, not digging that cover. Not like it's horrendous or anything, just...I wanna say...bland? Maybe that's the word I'm searching for, not sure.

This is really awesome news, I'm just confused about the whole "five months" breather thing.

And I wanna know what the official word is: Are Asylum and Shadow Puppets canon now because George, whoever he is, is now canonized? If so, gots to do me some catching up...

UnpluggedCrazy | July 28, 10:05 CET

Woot ! Like the cover though I normally prefer a bit more empty, this is almost busy (if there were more separate 'elements' rather the sort of layering effect then it would be). And is that mirrored Hebrew or Aramaic or something ? Or (maybe more likely) just made-up magic looking writing ? Colour me intrigued.

So, are the breathers effectively going to be anthology issues of e.g. three 7-8 page stories featuring different characters drawn by a stand-in artist ? Cos I really like that idea, variety is spicy or something (and it's way better than skipping months however it actually works out).

And George being canonised rules the entire world IMO. He's a great character and it doesn't have to mean Asylum/Shadow Puppets are retro-canonised (though i'd have no problem with that - they're good and they don't seem, on the face of things, to contradict the existing canon) since it all comes down to whether Spike in A:AtF knows Betta George and has memories of his previous adventures.

What's wrong with monster trucks though ? We've had most other kinds of monster on Angel, just seems a bit truckist is all i'm sayin'.

(also, i've barely seen Franco Urru put a foot wrong so absolutely no qualms in that regard)

Saje | July 28, 12:57 CET

I'm still very excited for this comic...

Dan Corson | July 28, 16:12 CET

I was kidding about bugging Joss until he said "yes", of course, with Buffy. It's hard to convey sarcasm or a jovial tone over the internet. I even said, after I made that joke, that I feared the internet is going to think I was serious.

Sorry, I wasn't absolutely positive. It was sort of a case of "I'm kidding. No, I'm kidding that I'm kidding. No, I'm actually kidding when I say I'm kidding about kidding." I was looking down at the screen so I wasn't sure what the final word was and to what extent, so by that point I was "Hell with it, I already typed it, it stays." ;-) Besides, I have faith in your powers of persuasion, that if you felt a need to use one of the BtVS characters that Dark Horse isn't, like Oz or Clem, or if you wanted to use characters like Andrew, Willow or Faith who have made multiple appearances on AtS, that you could manage to convince Joss of the absolute wisdom of letting you borrow them for just a bit.

deanna b | July 28, 18:04 CET