Well, this is odd: according to a sentence in Dark Horse Comics senior managing editor Scott Allie’s comments in the “Horsepower” column in the back of this week’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Riley one-shot, Angel comics are returning to the publisher in 2011. IDW has had the rights to Angel since 2005.
Here’s exactly what was written in the note:
“What’s next for the Whedon clan and Dark Horse? How about a Dollhouse comic written by Jed and Maurissa, who wrote key episode of the show, and the return of the Angel series to Dark Horse in late 2011, in tandem with our Buffy Season 9 relaunch?”
That’s pretty big news to announce within the text of an in-house promotional page at the back of a comic, something pretty easy for a reader to skip over. On IDW’s official forums, chief creative officer and editor-in-chief Chris Ryall wrote, “We’ll be addressing this soon, so please bear with us. Thanks, for your patience and your support. Back soon.”
Picture of the column and potential Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 spoilers after the jump.
The character of Angel has appeared in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic, but his post-TV series ending adventures have continued in IDW’s comics, starting with 2007 miniseries Angel: After the Fall. Like Buffy Season 8, the current Angel IDW comics are considered canonical, picking up from where the TV shows left off — in Angel’s case, after season five ended in 2004. Dark Horse and IDW collaborated on IDW’s Spike miniseries, meant to bridge the gap between Season 8 and After the Fall.
Angel and Buffy creator Joss Whedon has been involved with these comics, overseeing both and scripting several issues of Buffy. Before 2005, Angel starred in many non-canonical Dark Horse comics, starting with 1999′s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel three-issue miniseries, collected as Angel: The Hollower.
Newsarama has contacted Dark Horse Comics for comment, and will update as the story develops. Here’s the announcement:
August 18th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Well, it’s better for the franchise. But I suspect there will be a lot of bad blood between IDW and Dark Horse, and maybe between IDW and Fox, for some time to come. And Willingham is probably that much more steamed.
I find the announcement of a Dollhouse comic a lot more interesting. Especially since Joss said he saw no point to making a comic from a show that relied so heavily on its actors.
August 18th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
I never understood why ANGEL went to IDW in the first place.
August 18th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
I want an ongoing post movie Serenity Comic
August 18th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
It’s so weird to see IDW actually lose a license.
August 18th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
I’m glad to see Angel return to Dark Horse. I don’t think a spinoff should be separated from its mothership.
August 18th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Simon, the Dollhouse comic is a special book included with the Season Two DVDs. It’s a standard-length comic book, but fit to the dimensions of a DVD case. Scott Allie would like to do more Dollhouse books, but so far, we’re just getting this one with the DVD.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
I personally think that Dark Horse (in particularly Scott Allie) have handled this and the recent ‘Buffygate’ fiasco appallingly. They’ve shown little to no respect to the creative team at IDW and acted very unprofessionally in my option. They seem to hold Joss’ involvement with BS8 as the ultimate top trump card, thinking that it makes the series more valid / important than IDW’s, when in my own opinion, Brian Lynch and Bill Willingham have done a far better job with the Angel series (I do choose to ignore that first appalling post-After The Fall arc).
I can’t imagine that Joss can be happy about a second scandal relating to this series and would suggest he looks into another editor for series 9. Perhaps Chris Ryall?
August 19th, 2010 at 12:40 am
Well, Angel went to IDW because Dark Horse didn’t want it and IDW did a great job. Willingham, especially, writes the best Whedon franchise these days and Angel comes out more regularly than Buffy. But it’s the nature of franchises that they need to be renewed at some time and I guess Whedon (or Fox) preferred to have both in the same pot.
August 19th, 2010 at 1:06 am
IDW is a joke. They have the worst artists and writers. Angel After the Fall would have been descent if it wasn’t for the art. You couldn’t tell who the hell was who. And then after that the story went to pieces even when Willingham took over. It got even worst when he took over. Hopefully Dark Horse could fix the horrible job done by IDW, and IDW goes the way of Devil’s Due.
August 19th, 2010 at 5:53 am
The big reason I didn’t buy Angel while IDW published it was the $4 price tag. Hopefully that changes when Dark Horse takes over.
August 19th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Rod, I have to agree with the issues you raise about the art in Angel. I also had a really hard time telling the characters apart. But to paint IDW with such a broad brush does a disservice to all the good work they do. Based on the presentations I’ve seen them do at retailer cons they seem like a passionate bunch of comics aficionados who take their work very seriously. I don’t see IDW going anywhere anytime soon, thankfully.
August 19th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
I’m fairly sure I remember joss and company saying that angel after the fall was not cannon in response to people getting confused about angel from bs8 being the same person as angel in atf.
I read an interview with joss that said he only had the slightest involvement with atf, in that he liked the writer and sent him a copy of the notes he had about what they would have done had they continued angel. Beyond that there was no connection.
Has this all changed since then?
August 19th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Since Whedon’s name was only on the cover for the After the Fall issues, I think it’s safe to assume only After the Fall is canonical. Yes, stories have spun out of a canonical work, but IDW’s early Angel books spun out of the canonical “Not Fade Away” episode and were “undone” by After the Fall.
August 19th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Only After the Fall is considered canonical. Everything after can be equated to the series IDW first started putting out when they first got the Angel license such as Angel: The Curse.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:42 am
obviously something’s happening at IDW. obviously Dreamland Chronicles is leaving the company too. Obviously it could spell the beginning of the end. Obviously people could be overreacting
October 8th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Obviously, Whedon wanted everything to go to Dark Horse. You can pretty much consider him a Dark Horse creator these days when it comes to comics. Kinda sad as this was a really good selling book for IDW, even at $4! The big publishers get bigger, and step on the up and coming challengers. This industry will never change.
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