Wannablessedbe - discussion thread!

[Ginner]

Kay i've done that...i just hope xita got the IM...i wasn't able to send emails yesterday, i don't know why. Is there anything else?

[tvsurfer]

I'll post it tomorrow Ginner

[Kirk B]

I have scanned the first page of the comic, and am willing to send anyone who asks me a copy of it.

What I want to know is, why can't they do a scene like THAT on the show?

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Kirk B

"Even when I'm at my worst, you always make me feel special. How do you do that?"

"Magic."

[Beautiful Tara's Girl]

Well...you know, maybe with Willow instead of Oz with Tara in that last panel...

[Kieli]

I'm as excited as a Kitty can be! *VBG* I got both my copies of the comic yesterday and can I say just how hard I laughed! Amber clearly has some serious talent in the writing dept. Even though the tone of the comic was to be kind of serious there were some scenes that just had me ROTFLMAO. I loved the double entendres and the whole "wink wink nudge nudge" words in italics. Way cool with the romancy type stuff too. Let's just say that I'm a totally happy and satisfied camper. Now all I need is another comic with them and vicarious smoochies *VBG*

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"My heart doesn't stutter."

[Ginner]

quote:

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Originally posted by tvsurfer:

I'll post it tomorrow Ginner

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tvsurfer, You ROCK!!!! quote:

[Shaniezak]

Anybody notice Anya turning around to give Kelly the raspberry just as she, Xander, and Willow walk into the Bronze, on page 4?

Oh, and a minor oops on the part of the colorist: the first time we see Willow and Tara getting ready to perform the binding ritual on Morrigan, Willow's robe is green and Tara's is purple. But for the rest of the ritual, it's the other way around.

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"I don't know what fabric lies beneath the life we live, but on the other side of our mortal pain is a place of sanctuary." -- Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise

[xita]

I thought so too at first. Then I thought they were doing a pre-spell ritual i.e. another scene because the rest of the wicca group is not dressed in their robes at this point.

[tommo]

Firstly...Dennis, your comic was absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Wow. Breathtaking.

And yes, I'm assured I'll be receiving my copy in the post soon. The doorbell just rang and I skipped happily down the stairs, sure it was the comic. But alas, it was just examination papers. Ick.

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"I like money better than people. People can so rarely be exchanged for goods and/or services."

[EvilAnya]

I really liked the comic, 1, because i love Terry Moore and I think he was a good choice for an artist, and 2, because Amber did so great with the characterization of the story. I don't know who did that Valentine's day one but i kept wondering if they had ever seen the show.

[Wonko]

I got my comic today and by and large, I'm delighted with it :-) Amber is definately the greatest. I watched out for the part where the colourist got the robes switched but I don't think it was really a mistake because they seem to be wearing completely different outfits in the second scene. How do I know this? Cause in the second scene you can see Tara's cleavage (rawr...ahem...*eg*)

One minor quibble though - why did everyone conveniently 'forget' that Caitlen was responsible (albeit indirectly) for three deaths? And all the other wicca group members were so forgiving at the end...weren't they friends with Stacey, Kelly and Dana? If someone had summoned an evil goddess who killed three of my friends I'd be pretty darn upset, wouldn't you?

But as I said, Amber is a goddess (a good one, of course :-) and she wrote it so...perfect, perfect, perfect!! *g*

Wonko

[This message has been edited by Wonko (edited April 26, 2001).]

[Ginner]

*Coughs and spits her milk everywhere*

CLEAVAGE!!!!

[Wonko]

Oh yeah...cleavage...*mmmm*

In fact, that whole area is *really* well drawn...

Wonko (swearing she's not really a perv *g*)

[Halcyon]

ok, posting part of someone's review of the comic here(i.e.i skipped the summary of the comic). Its from usenet but he actually sounds like a reasonable fella

quote:

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WannaBlessedBe (WBB)
Writers: Amber Benson and Christopher Golden
Artist: Terry Moore with Eric Powell
Letterer/Colorist: HiFi Design

The person responsible of this atrocity of a review: Bill A. CaBil@aol.com
Character Interaction:

Heh, I really liked it. The characters actually interacted with each other, talking with each other rather than just at each other. The end result of the conversations did not necessarily seem predetermined with the characters merely working out a script. Artistic depictions matched meaningfully with the dialogue in an interdependent manner, adding a subtlety to it. Even the colorist and letterer got into the act at one point (view through the open door into Caitlin's room as Will and Tara discussed the problem.) I believed the conversations could have taken place. They all feel like they were from the show. Which is the whole point, right?

Timeline Wonkiness: Okay. When does this take place?

First of all, I am going to have to take the words said in the issue at their face value. Supposedly Fox licensing operates underneath the illusion that the comics appeal to a younger age bracket than the show (How a show that exists in the 8pm timeslot on national TV has a younger demo than the modern comic book, which overall has been inching to late teens, younger 20s for quite some time now is beyond me, but hey, they're lawyers, I'm sure they know what they are doing.) So if they want to insist in the comics that Will and Tara are just ‘friends,' well, then this can take place any time you care to.

But that way lies madness, and in addition, is no fun at all. So I'll do that later when my deranged giggling won't disturb you all.

Anya and Xander know of Tara's existence, so it's post "Who Are You." Willow and Tara are ‘best friends', in Tara's words. So I am going to assume this takes place before "New Moon Rising," because of what we know of Willow's character. I don't think after NMR Tara would merely describe them as best friends, and I don't think Willow would let her.

Aside: I don't believe thoughts on the contrary that Will and Tara were involved before NMR. I'm sure Tara would have taken Will with any condition she cared to attach, but 4th season Will would not have done that. She was the sort that demanded intimacy (climb out of the gutter, this begins at romantic kissing, no need to go there yet) required love, and that would require acknowledging it. As she said to buffy in the middling bits of that episode,
she and Tara had something strong, but she wasn't sure of it yet. A problem she seemed to discovered a solution for at the end of the episode.

Buffy is not around because she's in LA. Therefore making an argument that this happens just previously to "The Yoko Factor," which would make it after NMR, which would make the whole previous argument sound, well, dumb. I don't think so. From "Sanctuary" it seems that Buffy was gone for maybe a day or so. WBB takes place over three days and two nights. I guess it may be possible to jigger stuff to fit then, but then there is the whole emotional context thing that won't be working, but that could be because of FOX licensing insisting on ostriching the whole issue...

Ugh.

Or we can just argue that the whole attempt to pin this to specific time a
pointless exercise, and I just wasted a very small portion of your life kicking
the concept around. In which case, you would be wrong, because in actuality I
have wasted a meaningful portion of my own life.

Back to my point. If I am right, this takes place during the time they are engaged in that relationship dance, in which Tara wanted Will, Will was thinking she wanted Tara and getting comfortable with the idea, and both were getting a buzz from being in each other's presence. I like that concept, it explains a fair amount, so that is what I will stick to until someone can convince me otherwise (or bribes me.)

(But the appearance of mouse in Tara's room, under the bed while Caitlin is visiting, definitely proves that this pre-Miss Kitty Fantastico, since no sane mouse would stay in room with a kitten rampaging about. So it proves this happens before Yoko Factor! I am right! Take that you FOX lawyers! Hey, wait, a second, put that cattle taser away... ZOOORCH! ...i'll move on now.)

Writer Comments: Let's face it, a lot of people are going to give this title a try because it's a Buffy book co-written by someone directly involved in the show. Re: Amber Benson, seen on the show portraying the character Tara. Admittedly not someone involved in the writing end of the show, and thus theoretically knows what they are doing, but on the plus size, the audience
actually know who she is and what she looks like. And how hard can it be to write a comic book after all?

Bwah-hah-hah!

Sorry, couldn't keep the straight face any longer ("how hard can it be..."classic)

She co-wrote this with Chris Golden one of the regular writers of the comics and also the fiction books. Now here comes the hard part.

I've met Chris at cons, and he seems to be a decent sort, but his writing tends to be more on the workmanlike end. He doesn't suck, but neither does it strike any real chords in me. He tends towards reportage style writing, which just tells the surface story, leaving the depths untouched. He may have one or two moments per issue/story were you dip a little further down than that, but
usually not.

WBB, on the other hand, is filled with such moments, little character flourishes that underscore Will and Tara's relationship in this (hypothetical)time period in the show. I count @ 7 moments of either dialogue/actions that pop up in the issue. (See obsessive subtext list below)

So who was responsible?

In her favor, I did a little digging, and Amber Benson has done writing/directing of shorts herself, so she must have picked up the basic skills somewhere, and it is possible that she is responsible.

On the other hand, Chris Golden has been around for a while, and most of the time he was worked with licensed properties. It is possible that he has been hamstrung by licensing considerations, and the presence of Amber Benson allowed the licensing guys to slack off.

A lot depends on the script style also. There are two types of comic scripts,
something that is called Marvel style which has the basic movements of the story, the artist does them, and then the writer comes back in and fills in the dialogue. In the full script style every little detail is mapped out and described. If this was done Marvel style, Terry Moore, the artist, who has done excellent work on Stranger's in Paradise, could have been responsible for
lot of this. I haven't read enough of SiP to be certain if this fits into its style though.

But I subscribe to the WACKO (Writer As Creative King/Overlord) theory of comic
book writing (for a full descriptions of this theory read But I Digress, Peter
David from Krause Publications, pg 104) in which the writer is always the guilty party. And with some traumatic use of Occam's Razor, if Chris Golden usually presents an average story with little subtext, and Chris Golden and Amber Benson together present a good story with some subtext, the simplest
explanation is that Amber Benson is responsible for that change.

Chris Golden and Terry Moore may now carpet bomb my domicile at their leisure.

That being said, if anyone could accidentally send me a copy of the script, or
the script of ‘Chance,' Benson's short, so I can have something for comparison purposes, I would a) really appreciate it and b) will blame it on those pesky voices in my head. (What, not you Kyle, I'll blame it on Greg, he keeps on inssting that he had no choice but to channel a country-music station all day last week. )

Obsessive Subtext List

I'm a social scientist, so this is not really obsessive considering what I may have to do for my graduate thesis. Those bad habits carry over to all aspects of my life, honestly.

With my cover story firmly into place, we can hit just the Will/Tara subtext points. (There are more, see the overall summary, but since I will try to archive this review on Will/Tara sites, an explicit listing of just those will be probably most appreciated.)

(the lack of page numbers in this comic is just another reason Dark Horse needs help)

1.) Implied Willow feeding Tara a grape
2.) A discussion of spells involving oil with hands meeting over a water bottle
3.) Willow being interested only in the magic of two
4.) Willow's comments about Tara's shoe psychic abilities. (In other words, Tara pays attention whenever Willow removes an article of even innocuous clothing.)
5.) A parting hand hold in front of Caitlin.
6.) Tara reassuring Willow that there is a special kind of magic that is only between them and the sequences that follow, with the head tap being a nice touch.
NOT 7.) I won't count the handhold in the dorm lobby. That was just spell preparation.....
7.) Will/Tara head/shoulder touch on the last page
This obsessive list brings up an interesting point on the inherent fascination and relative acceptance of female relationships (as compared to male relationships). I could go into a long discussion about the evolutionary, social, and psychological causations of it, but instead I'll merely just apologize for it, and promise to seek gene therapy as soon as it becomes available.

Nitpicks:

Last panel of page 16:
While waiting for the rest of the girls to show up, in the lobby of an dorm Will and Tara set up an altar, with burning candles, books, and spell ingredients? And they didn't notice it until they spoke? Only to have the "gearing up" sequence immediately after and moving everything outside? The
scene was there for an emotional raising of the stakes for the other members of the Wiccan group. It would have been just as effective with a doorway frame,Will and Tara holding huge books, holding candles, spell ingredients in hand on the way, with the whole "Come with me if you want to live" vibe, and been more logically consistent..

Ending Scene:
The ending scenes had a touch of "happy enditis," you know, all's well that ends well, with a chuckle at the end. Except the chuckle was a little bit forced. To have made it humorous, they should have raised the stakes of what Caitlin was planning as the new club president with specifics, not just that she was going to be it, but that she had grand plans so Will and Tara would
have something specific to react against, so the wry concern would seem more in place.

Reviewer's disclaimer: It's always easier to critique than actually do\something. I do not point these things with glee, or to prove I can do better(I doubt I could) but merely to point out what weaknesses in the story that I could detect. If this was a bad story, I wouldn't be able to suggest minor tweaks since the problems would be far more fundamental. In other words, it's
only because that it's good that I can say this.

Overall Rating:

Oh yeah, I should tell you if it's good or not.

For the typical Buffy book, this is one of the better ones to come out in the last year. If you want to pick up a Buffy comic, and never have before, and have no familiarity of comics at all, this is a good one to pick up. Complete in one issue, the panel layout relatively easy to follow, effective art (clear and expressive), good story, and it reveals stuff about the characters. Heck,even the page turns (the last panel of each page) are spot on (only three of them were weak), making you want to turn to the next page. The Spike and Dru
specials are fun, and I have a soft spot for Lovecraft inspired fiction so I liked the Giles special more than I should have, but WBB is probably the best of them.

Now, how does this stack up against other comics? This is no Planetary or
Promethea, but it compares well to the average comic out there. With 5 being
average, WBB rates as an 6 or a 7, depending on how bitter and jaded I feel toward the comic industry as a whole that day. For comparison purposes, this would be about equal in entertainment value as one of Kurt Busiek's latest reboot of Avengers (but not his Astro City, which rocks).

It's good, but not in the whole rush out right now and get some way. For people that already go to comic shops, give it a browse the next time you go in, even if you already have tried looking at some Buffy titles before. For Buffy fans, it's probably the best Buffy comic available right now. It's okay to go into a comic shop to go get one. They are just as afraid of you as you are of them, (in actuality, the perception that comic shops is a haven of adolescent boys who will relentlessly punish outsiders that wander into the shop is one that many comic shop owners are working hard to overcome.)

Reviewer's thanks

Well thank you for listening to little ramble. If you have any questions,
comments, or other concerns, email at CaBil@aol.com, with the subject line
being "WBB review" please.

Amber Benson's Closing Essay (Being a Girl)

Interesting discussion on why girls don't get interested in comics. (One word.Spandex.) For comics fans, reading it will flash inform you why most people don't give it a try.

Just one thing. "The hallowed halls of Dark Horse"? The halls that produced the aliens/Terminator/Predator/Starship Trooper/Mask series of crossovers can
never be hallowed without at least a visit by the Pope and the discovery of a potato chip dispensed by the snack machine there in the shape of St. Francis of Assissi. Sorry.

But she should (not merely ‘could') do this again. (Well, she asked in the\last paragraph.) Remember, indy comics are cheapest form of visual entertainment to create out there, with a relatively open distribution system.
No rules, no limits, no execs, no lawyers, no networks. (Well, she did just do
a short, which according to a website she paid out of pocket for. But with a comic, you can do a much longer form of story within a far more reachable budget. Remember folks, most actors get paid, well, not crap, but far less than what we peons like to think. Or she could just do more mainstream stuff.)

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[This message has been edited by Halcyon (edited April 26, 2001).]quote:

[CaBil]

Howdy.

My name is Bill, and I've heard that someone has reposted my review here.

Cool, I wanted it to be spread as wide as it could.

Do people have questions and/or comments?

May I repost the entire review in a seperate thread?

Bill

[april]

hey bill, glad you made it to our board! i like your review - anything pro-w/t is okay by me!

and as an official moderator, i hereby decree: go forth, young man, and start a new thread for your review! be fruitful and multiply! oh wait, wrong book. but yes, start a thread!

[Dazey]

I finally got mine today, yay. I was under the mistaken impression that pre-ordering would get me the comic, if not on the day it was issued, then within a day or two after. Not 8 days after. Annoying. But anyway, I finally have it. I haven't read it yet; I'm saving it for later when I'm in my jammies and all snuggled up in bed with my kittycat at my feet. So why am I even posting here? Good question....

I was going to comment on the review, but apparently there is or will be a separate thread...? Anyway I'll wait.

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"Just be yourself. That's more than enough for me."

[This message has been edited by Dazey (edited April 27, 2001).]

[ForeverPiper*]

Where can I go to read Amber Benson's comic, Wanna Blessed Be? I hear all about it but I don't know where to go to read it, and I REALLY want to read it. Someone please help me...I would be eternally grateful!

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Will? I'm...I'm glad you're doing better. -TARA

[BBOvenGuy*]

If your local comic store doesn't have it, you can still order it online from Dark Horse.

Go here:

http://www.darkhorse.com/products/pg_pr ... index.html

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Remember the Kitten Board Mantra: "Joss is nuts about Tara, Willow/Tara and Amber!"
(...and Marti's rather fond of them, too...)

[Blixxt*]

Xita also has a few pages of it scanned up at the nether realms. If you go here, just click on the numbers 1 through 5 of Wanna Blessed Be to get a nice preview.

[ForeverPiper*]

Thanks a bunch!

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Will? I'm...I'm glad you're doing better. -TARA

[The Next Tara Maclay*]

Thank you!!!=)

*reposted by WillTara

[Caity]

Does anyone know when Amber will be co-writing another comic?

[Dr.G]

Caity, check out the New Willow and Tara Comic: Wilderness thread to find the answer to your question.

[I love Tara*]

Hey guys,

Hi! I'm from Brazil and I can't find Wanna Blessed Be here anywhere. I would like to ask u if someone could scan the comic and post it here? Please, help me!!!

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Under Tara's spell 4EVER

*reposted by WillTara