I don't remember the Sgt. Rock or the League references, and I don't remember the X-Men Poster. But whatever. I really don't care. The scene in the comic was still fan pandering b.s. writing on the part of Whedon as far as I'm concerned.

And that was hardly the only thing I took umbrage with in the comic. I didn't like the "terrorist threat" angle, I didn't like Dawn as Giganta and whole "Buffy and I can't talk to one another" crap... there are all sorts of things with it that just don't work for me, and it really doesn't matter whether Joss is the creator of the characters or not- if the story is lame, the story is lame. It's not like he's a freakin' god of writing, people. He's produced his share of turds too - most of it noticeably in comics.

Concerning NOW's Green Hornet, there were plenty of lovely interiors there, particularly but by no means exclusively initial artist Jeff Butler, and quite a few covers that I found mediocre, and even some that were too artsy--fartsy for me. Admittedly, the art in most of the TALES issues was abominable---WTF was Dell Barras doing in Vol. 1? My main gripe there, however, was several seemingly unnecessary content inconsistencies. I'd love to sit down with Ron Fortier and ask him about arbitrary interference from the owners, The Green Hornet Inc. I'm sure that a dozen years after the project came to an end he'd be able to speak freely, unless he's in negotiations to revive it, of course (not likely, as he wasn't part of it during the last year or so). There was a text piece in the back of their very first issue that started out as an excerpt from the 1940s Hornet's written--well--after--the--fact memoirs (there was a description of his 1947--born daughter's teen years, in a decidedly nostalgic past tense), but ended as a 1955--dated personal journal entry! That was just the beginning; see my indexes at the GCD for more details.

There were at least four instances of Xander referencing in some manner various that I remember. 1) The aforementioned discussion with Oz regarding different types of kryptonite. 2) In one of the high school episodes (I think it was the one where the love spell goes awry, but I'm not certain of that) we see in Xander's room an X-Men poster. This stood out to me at the time because it wasn't a poster that you could buy, but rather it came with one of the boxed-set supplements for the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG. 3) In season five, Xander refers to Sgt. Rock ("This is war, isn't it? If there's one thing I've learned from Sergeant Rock, it's that in war there are rules..."). 4) In season seven, Xander asks for the local comic book shop to hold as issue of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for him.

So, yeah, Xander's a comic book geek. The bitching about SHIELD references is a non-issue.

Now that's nerdy.

Actually, the most frustrating thing to me about that show's demise is the fact that the cliffhanger ending was the first part of a two-part episode, which suggests that the second part was scripted to some degree. In fact, Caron was given the opportunity to "wrap" the series by rewriting/editing that final episode and refused, if I remember correctly. I'd be happy if somebody just posted the script, or synopsis, or outline, or whatever, online and let us read it.

Sorry to get off-track here, but dang, wondering about the Egg Man has bugged me for YEARS. Seems like creators could at least use the Internet to throw loyal fans some kind of bone. Or a comic.

The Doctor Who strips work better in collected form; you can go to http://www.whona.com to have a look at some of the graphic novels. 'Endgame', in particular, is worth a look, seeing as how it's got a couple of extremely cunning twists...but you might enjoy those twists more if you read 'The Tides of Time' first, which is very well-remembered by fans of the comics. (I'm hoping that someday they'll get around to reprinting some of the old Grant Morrison or Alan Moore stuff, but I'm not holding my breath. Especially not on Moore. With the way British copyright works, I don't know if they can.)

And Xander's definitely a Nick Fury fan; he even referred to Riley and his wife as "Nick and Nora Fury" once, pulling off the double in references. In fact, I'd say Xander's more probably a spy geek than a comics geek; he's the sort of person who wishes he could be suave, cool, calm and collected in any circumstance, and so I can see him secretly being a big fan of James Bond, Nick Fury, Remo Williams, et cetera et cetera. It definitely didn't pull me out of the story, though.

That's why I'm annoyed Joss went for this big slayer organization setup with the comics series. It seperates all the characters, and takes them out of any sort of emotionally relatable situation. Season six is almost painfully real and relatable, this is totally removed from reality, and that means I don't really care about what's happening on any level other than loyalty to the characters from the show. Really, the Buffy followup I would have liked would be either an episode like 'Restless' or just an hour of the characters sitting around and hanging out, not dealing with any major issues, just giving us a glimpse into where their lives have gone.

And the first seven pages of the Tek Jansen book are up on ew's website, I was fairly unimpressed:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20043846_3,00.html

Scheduled to hit shelves July 11.

Greg, isn’t a Veronica Mars comic (and the Buffy comic, for that matter) pretty much exactly what the crew here are talking about when they say that the poor, dying, insular comics industry has to connect to the mainstream and appeal to more people?

No.

At least it's not what I'M talking about when I snarl about that. I'm talking about doing what manga is doing. Getting away from the nerd stuff entirely and telling general-interest stories in a book-length format to be distributed in a venue other than comics retailers that cater almost exclusively to hardcore hobbyists.

A Veronica Mars comic in the standard 22-page format from DC does almost none of those things. You could MAYBE argue that it is -- somewhat -- getting away from the nerd stuff. But that's it.

Honestly, we might as well own up. Marvel and DC aren't mainstream publishers any more and haven't been, probably, since the 80's. They are hobbyist, specialty publishers. And they're the biggest we have! The 'mainstream' superhero stories aren't happening in the comics any more. They are happening on TV or in the movies. This idea that if only the public could SEE what great superhero stories exist, if they KNEW, why then they would FLOCK to comics, is just not realistic. Not for the superhero comics that exist as they have for the last fifteen, twenty years.

So when you talk about a DC Veronica Mars you are still talking about a book for the hardcore comics-store faithful, really. That will be the bulk of its sales. Because DC is locked into this direct-market, print-on-demand distribution system. Some of us are deeply bothered by this because we remember when comics were a MASS MEDIUM, actual MAGAZINES competing on newsstands with all kinds of other entertainments. I think comics written for that market tend to be better-written and better-plotted than ones that are resigned to only being seen by the hobbyist/collector market.

Others may disagree. But THAT is the argument. It has very little to do with finding the right property to lure people IN to comics shops -- I don't care if it's Veronica Mars or Buffy or Seinfeld or free beer -- because I think as long as comics STAY only in comics shops they're really never going to be more widely read than they are now. Jesus Christ, with superheroes ruling movies and TV the way they do today? The genre's never been more popular, not even in the glory days of the Golden Age. And yet none of this is reflected in superhero comics sales. If it hasn't happened by now, it's just not going to.

But this isn't one of those columns. This is more just... goofing off. A parlor game. What TV properties WOULD translate well to comics? I like licensed books, I think they present interesting structural challenges, and a lot of good work happens there, even if it gets snooted just because it's a tie-in property.

Okay, moving on-

Some of these properties do lose something when you lose the actors. It'll be nice to have some resolution to VERONICA MARS' ending (though, Rob Thomas, you had to know there was a high chance the show would be cancelled, why not actually give it a solid ending?!), but no Kristen Bell and no Enrico Colantoni will make it a problem.

And honestly, a lot of the appeal and the instant-fan-making property of FIREFLY comes from the cast being so good and having such chemistry and you hear about what a magnificent time they had with each other- I would honestly be fine with no new FIREFLY/SERENITY type stuff if the same cast got some show they could do together for years until they finally got sick of each other. It's not the only virtue the show has, but you lose something.

JACK OF ALL TRADES and DRIVE are both great ideas, though. And, despite the aforementioned loss of ensemble chemistry... ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT could make a screamingly funny comic book. It's halfway there anyway.

Funny, a few friends and I were having this exact discussion last night and joking about TV-to-comic transitions and their possible creative teams. I think the best one I came up with was The West Wing by Brian Michael Bendis.

Yes. I think it would work perfectly.

And if they make a Veronica Mars comic, and somehow it works (which I think it can...just not as well as the show), then I want a Moonlighting comic. A GOOD Moonlighting comic.

That was a pretty good show, and I bet it could make for good comics.