I have always considered myself a pretty big Joss Whedon fan so I was so super excited to attend Whedon Con!
Dark Horse Comics
The Great Divide
Too many people let a simple thing like Company Brand dictate what they enjoy. As I sit here and write this, there’s two Marvel films in theaters. Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man are in a theater somewhere in this country. ANT-MAN has been made into a movie. Never in my wildest youth imagination would I have predicted that there would be a film based on the comic book character Ant-Man. Yes, I’m astonished, and I’m elated! I was NEVER a fan of Ant-Man in the comics. Hell, I was never a fan of Iron Man or Captain America either, and yet I’ve enjoyed both of their films and now have a greater enjoyment for their characters in the books. But I grew up loving X-Men…and Batman! Gasp! ‘He’s with that other company, not with the wonderful Marvel, how dare you sir!’ I know, it’s crazy. I love both companies' characters and stories. And my question I pose today…why don’t you?
The Binge Watch: Jericho - Season One
I watch a LOT of television. I often find myself picking up brand new shows when I’m already overloaded with other shows that I haven’t caught up on. As it stands right now, I have the entire last season of Falling Skies to get through before the new season begins. I only just NOW finished the second season of Hannibal, in anticipation for season three to begin. I’m way behind in Homeland, Penny Dreadful, Orphan Black, and a few others. Yet I find myself on Netflix searching for shows I’ve loved so that I can re-watch them. I just finished Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Scrubs, and I’m on the final season of Lost. So when I decided to do this bi-weekly Binge Watch column, I wanted to pick a show that I hadn’t seen in some time. Jericho fit this bill nicely. I had only watched it the one time, while it was airing on CBS in its original, ill-fated run. The show barely lasted two seasons. It was canceled after its full first season, but due to a heavy fan based campaign involving a lot of peanuts being shipped to the network, it was renewed, only to be canceled again after just seven episodes. The series ran a total of twenty-nine episodes and spawned a continuing comic book series much in the way that Buffy has lived on in the panels of the Dark Horse Comics.
Seventeen Years of Buffy
First there was a movie. It wasn’t great, but it was memorable. I saw the movie on VHS for the first time and thought…meh. It didn’t blow me away, but the reason it was memorable was because of the title. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was intriguing and different. I can’t say I remember the advertising for the film and it wasn’t something I was looking forward to seeing, but I loved the horror and vampire genre so I wanted to see it. It starred Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens, Luke Perry, Hilary Swank, David Arquette, Rutger Hauer and in an un-credited role even Ben Affleck. It didn’t do great and after it was made into a show we found out it wasn’t made with Joss Whedon’s vision in mind. That was the summer of 1992.