Oh this is cool and I love his take on Amber and I am so excited to hear about how Amber works to make things cool!BTW, here's the full text of that story:
First, some news: GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has nominated Buffy the Vampire Slayer as one of the five best comics for 2002. The American Library Association has awarded Buffy: Ring of Fire an award for Outstanding Graphic Novel. And in the second week of January, Diamond Comics named Buffy: Haunted #1 the top reordered comic, beating Superman #600 and Dark Knight Strikes Back #1. Thanks to everyone involved in those books.
What's on my mind this week? Artist approval ... it's the toughest thing about the Buffy comic. Anytime we want to get a new artist working on Buffy, we need to get him or her approved by whichever cast members he or she is going to draw.
Getting Terry Moore approved for last year's Willow and Tara comic was pretty easy. Amber Benson was writing the book, and loved his stuff already. And Alyson Hannigan is the easiest one in the cast to draw. It seems almost impossible to draw a picture of Willow that's not cute.
Terry's launched a new comic of his own (Paradise Too!), adding to his already busy schedule, so there was no way he'd be available to return for this summer's Willow and Tara II.
Three attempts by artist A.J. Jothikaumar at getting Dawn just right.
After a little bit of fishing around the industry for just the right artist, Jeff Matsuda introduced me to A.J. Jothikaumar, a newcomer to comics from the world of animation, a supremely talented artist with a great mix of anime and American animation. A.J. signed on for the book, and I was excited about it again. But we were already running late, and he still needed to be approved.
True to form, the Willow "audition" piece was beautiful. Amber called the drawing of Tara spectacular. This time, Dawn's also in the book. Michelle Trachtenberg's publicist, getting back to us after New Years--it seems that everyone in LA except Debbie Olshan takes a couple weeks off for the holidays--said no way. It didn't look enough like Michelle.
And so, Amber Benson once again became my hero. I faxed a new peice from A.J. to Amber, who was just then returning from Sundance Film Festival, where Chance, a film she wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, debuted to great response. Amber talked to Michelle and her mom, Lana, and came back to me with a couple more changes. The day this was happening, A.J. was at a doctor's appointment, and had to keep walking out of the hospital to call me on his cell phone to see what was happening. I'd ask for the changes; he'd do them on typing paper in the waiting room, and then call a friend to come get them and fax them to me from Kinkos. So he missed Amber's call, thanking him for doing such a good job on this, her third comics story. This was a Friday afternoon, and Amber was running into work later that night, where she'd show Michelle the new drawings.
Amber's call was at 6 that night; Michelle had already gone home for the weekend. On Monday, Amber had an early call--but Michelle was off on a photoshoot. Michelle's mom, Lana, called Diane Benson, because someone at either Fox or the publicist's office had sent her the wrong drawing--so it look to her like we hadn't changed a thing. Diane straightened that out, but then it was still a matter of getting the right drawing to her. The Bensons and Trachtenbergs made plans for dinner to discuss the whole mess.
I was taking some friends out for drinks, and we got a call from Amber right as the picture showed up. She was with Lana and Michelle, and everything was cool. Lana wanted to talk to me. We chatted about the whole confusing ordeal, and life in Hollywood. We barely talked about the drawings--Amber had worked all that out already. We talked about Michelle maybe writing a comic, maybe an introduction to False Memories, the collection of Buffy #35-38, which featured Dawn so prominently. Everything was happy, and A.J. could get on with the drawing ...
So in just a few months, you can look for Willow and Tara II: Wilderness, in which the lesbian witches and their ward, Dawn Summers, run off into the Northern California forests where loggers and other folks are meeting with pretty horrible ends at the hooves and paws of the local wildlife. The three girls from Sunnydale get in the middle of an eco-war--between the environment and the people living off it.
[This message has been edited by xita (edited February 02, 2002).]
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