Post by PokerKitten on May 31, 2003 18:59:39 GMT
I know this is old news, but I just rediscovered an interview with James about his work on this book. I own it; I like it. But James didn't end up liking the artwork for Spike or Dru. It's not so awful, but it could have been more accurate, that's for sure! Anyhoo, here's the article:
"James Marsters Interview"
February, 1999
Actor James Marsters has gained quite a following with his portrayal of the vampire Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This month, he turns to comics with Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike & Dru, co-written with Christopher Golden. Worlds of Westfield's Content Editor, Roger Ash, recently spoke with him about the comic and the
series.
Westfield: How did you become involved with the Spike & Dru comic?
James Marsters: Chris Golden was writing a Buffy book, The Watchers Guide. He was on set interviewing all the actors, Joss [Whedon, the series' creator], and the producers about it. We started talking about writing, Shakespeare, different books that he's written, and the projects that I've been writing for stage and screen just for myself. I don't have anybody interested in my scripts, but I enjoy writing them [laughter]. He came up with the idea. He said "If you ever wanted to toss around some ideas, I think it might be interesting to have the person who plays the character write something for the character." It sounded very exciting. I've loved comic books all my life, collected avidly when I was much younger and stayed in light touch with the industry ever since. I thought it'd be really cool. I don't know if I'm going to get an action figure out of Buffy, but damn, if they can make me look good in a comic book, that's just as good [laughter]. I want to see Spike kicking some major ass. I like scenes where he just clobbers hundreds of people. It's great. [laughter]. Actors spend their time going around to the producers saying, "Can I have a scene like this? I'd like to see Spike be the coolest guy in the world," etc., etc. And they're like, "Well, we'll try to fit that in." But when you're writing, you can do whatever you want. So that sounded really interesting to me. I think at that point in Buffy I was in the wheelchair, which I just loathed [laughter]. I wanted to see the character get the hell out of the wheelchair, so I figured the easiest way to do that would be to write it. Joss was very magnanimous about letting me go ahead with it and the people at Buffy have been really supportive of it and never laughed at me, which is great [laughter]. I think the end product is really good. Between Chris and I, we were able to keep true to the universe of Buffy but also give Spike and Dru a little more stage time just to sit down and talk with each other.
Westfield: How did you and Christopher Golden work together?
Marsters: Over the phone and through fax. Our first conversation was hours and hours and hours long where we laid down the basic plot. First we just kicked around different elements that we might be interested in. I was interested in having the characters torn apart in the beginning, have them not be together, and then have them discover through the book that they do need each other and that they are good for each other. It seemed to be kind of where the series was going as far as having their relationship being very complex with Angel. I was thinking "Let's go all the way with that. Let's just split these two people up." It's kind of what Joss does actually. You show the audience something that they want, then you deny them that [laughter]. So they're going to tune in or hopefully read on hoping to get that.
We threw around a bunch of elements. My best idea was that Spike would just try to murder Dru [laughter]. He'd just throw her out of a window and try to kill her. And then, through an adventure, find out that he needs her. Chris came up with a wonderful villain, a necromancer, who is someone who can control dead body flesh, which is basically the central tenant of witchcraft in the Shakespearean sense or the medieval sense. There were a lot of people who would go to battlefields, to executions, to shipwrecks, to try to find bodies that had not been given last rites which meant that they were damned and their body parts could be used for magic. At any rate, he thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to get one of these sorcerers who could manipulate dead body parts, damned body parts, because Dru and Spike and all vampires are in fact dead. So at some point in the book we could discover that this guy could actually control their bodies." I'd never really heard of that before, and that seemed like a really cool thing, so we ran with that.
We came up with the basic plot, we broke that down into scenes, and then we each took half the scenes and would write them. He took the first two just so that I could see the format of what the writing of a comic book looks like on the page, and then I took the next couple of scenes. We'd fax each other our work and I'd put my ideas into it and change it. It's kind of funny because we each had our own ideas and he would send me his fully written scene and I'd change it all around and then fax it to him and he'd change it back to the way he wanted. It was easy work, actually. Chris is really wonderful and he was very helpful and very patient with me, both in teaching me comic books and also just really listening to my ideas. I think he's one of the better known comic book writers in the industry.
"James Marsters Interview"
February, 1999
Actor James Marsters has gained quite a following with his portrayal of the vampire Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This month, he turns to comics with Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike & Dru, co-written with Christopher Golden. Worlds of Westfield's Content Editor, Roger Ash, recently spoke with him about the comic and the
series.Westfield: How did you become involved with the Spike & Dru comic?
James Marsters: Chris Golden was writing a Buffy book, The Watchers Guide. He was on set interviewing all the actors, Joss [Whedon, the series' creator], and the producers about it. We started talking about writing, Shakespeare, different books that he's written, and the projects that I've been writing for stage and screen just for myself. I don't have anybody interested in my scripts, but I enjoy writing them [laughter]. He came up with the idea. He said "If you ever wanted to toss around some ideas, I think it might be interesting to have the person who plays the character write something for the character." It sounded very exciting. I've loved comic books all my life, collected avidly when I was much younger and stayed in light touch with the industry ever since. I thought it'd be really cool. I don't know if I'm going to get an action figure out of Buffy, but damn, if they can make me look good in a comic book, that's just as good [laughter]. I want to see Spike kicking some major ass. I like scenes where he just clobbers hundreds of people. It's great. [laughter]. Actors spend their time going around to the producers saying, "Can I have a scene like this? I'd like to see Spike be the coolest guy in the world," etc., etc. And they're like, "Well, we'll try to fit that in." But when you're writing, you can do whatever you want. So that sounded really interesting to me. I think at that point in Buffy I was in the wheelchair, which I just loathed [laughter]. I wanted to see the character get the hell out of the wheelchair, so I figured the easiest way to do that would be to write it. Joss was very magnanimous about letting me go ahead with it and the people at Buffy have been really supportive of it and never laughed at me, which is great [laughter]. I think the end product is really good. Between Chris and I, we were able to keep true to the universe of Buffy but also give Spike and Dru a little more stage time just to sit down and talk with each other.
Westfield: How did you and Christopher Golden work together?
Marsters: Over the phone and through fax. Our first conversation was hours and hours and hours long where we laid down the basic plot. First we just kicked around different elements that we might be interested in. I was interested in having the characters torn apart in the beginning, have them not be together, and then have them discover through the book that they do need each other and that they are good for each other. It seemed to be kind of where the series was going as far as having their relationship being very complex with Angel. I was thinking "Let's go all the way with that. Let's just split these two people up." It's kind of what Joss does actually. You show the audience something that they want, then you deny them that [laughter]. So they're going to tune in or hopefully read on hoping to get that.
We threw around a bunch of elements. My best idea was that Spike would just try to murder Dru [laughter]. He'd just throw her out of a window and try to kill her. And then, through an adventure, find out that he needs her. Chris came up with a wonderful villain, a necromancer, who is someone who can control dead body flesh, which is basically the central tenant of witchcraft in the Shakespearean sense or the medieval sense. There were a lot of people who would go to battlefields, to executions, to shipwrecks, to try to find bodies that had not been given last rites which meant that they were damned and their body parts could be used for magic. At any rate, he thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to get one of these sorcerers who could manipulate dead body parts, damned body parts, because Dru and Spike and all vampires are in fact dead. So at some point in the book we could discover that this guy could actually control their bodies." I'd never really heard of that before, and that seemed like a really cool thing, so we ran with that.
We came up with the basic plot, we broke that down into scenes, and then we each took half the scenes and would write them. He took the first two just so that I could see the format of what the writing of a comic book looks like on the page, and then I took the next couple of scenes. We'd fax each other our work and I'd put my ideas into it and change it. It's kind of funny because we each had our own ideas and he would send me his fully written scene and I'd change it all around and then fax it to him and he'd change it back to the way he wanted. It was easy work, actually. Chris is really wonderful and he was very helpful and very patient with me, both in teaching me comic books and also just really listening to my ideas. I think he's one of the better known comic book writers in the industry.
) I'm thankful I didn't take it for JM to sign he may have refused 
