Week 1 Fabian Nicieza & Scott Allie The final issue of the monthly Buffy the Vampire Slayer series was released on November 26th, 2003. At the time, Fabian Nicieza had recently taken over on the book as its sole writer, having previously shared the task with friend and colleague, Scott Lobdell. The focus of Nicieza's stories were on the adventures of an earlier Buffy than we were accustomed to seeing. In arcs like "Viva Las Buffy" and "Slayer Interrupted", he 'filled in the blanks' that fans had mulled over for years, giving us Buffy's post feature film adventure in Las Vegas with the inimitable Pike, as well as fleshing out Buffy's experiences in a sanitarium that were only alluded to in the show's 6th season. All in all, Nicieza wrote or co-wrote 15 stories for Buffy and helped bring the series' greater arc full circle, finishing his run with the Summers girl's fateful move to Sunnydale. Scott Allie has been the editor on Buffy the Vampire Slayer since day one, shepherding the series through many different writers, artists and storylines. While it could be argued that it was the talent and skill of the individual creators that made the license a success, it should be noted that it was Scott's eye for excellent writing, art and storytelling that put them in a position to work their magic in the first place. He was also instrumental to bringing in writers from the television show and other Buffy related media to try their hand at various mini-series and one-shots. Scott continues to keep busy working with Joss Whedon on bringing Buffy the Vampire Slayer back to comics in some form, and handles numerous other titles for Dark Horse like Hellboy and the rest of DHC's horror line.

MIKE JOZIC: How did you guys each end up working on the Buffy monthly and what would you say was the initial attraction to the property?

SCOTT ALLIE: I love monsters. This was way before I had my horror line, of course, so I jumped at any chance to work on monster books. So I asked for Buffy before I even knew what the show was.

FABIAN NICIEZA: Simple. I love Buffy. Loved it since the first episode. I'd written a one-shot a couple of years ago after the Death of Buffy. But on the monthly title, my good friend, Scott Lobdell, did what he does second best in the world - he over committed on his workload and got into schedule trouble! Luckily for me, what Scott does first best in the world is come up with great story ideas and plot structures! So, I jumped on board to help script and flesh out the "Notes from the Underground" story arc.

JOZIC: What were your thoughts, or what was your experience when you sat down to write your first issue of Buffy?

NICIEZA: When I wrote the one-shot, which didn't have Buffy in it, I was conscious of trying very hard, maybe too hard, to "get" the voices of the cast through dialogue. It's such idiosyncratic work on screen that it's hard to convey in word balloons. By the time I had to script "Notes," I decided to worry less about that and worry more about typing! We were tight on the schedule, so I didn't have time to think too much. By the time we got to "Viva Las Vegas" arc, I felt real good and it's percolated nicely, I think, through the end of the run.

JOZIC: What would you consider as being the high point of your run on the book?

NICIEZA: I think "Viva" was a fun, fast-paced story with interesting insights into Pike, a relatively obscure character in the Buffy mythos, but I think "A Stake Through the Heart" is a better, deeper, more emotional story with a very different, "icky-horror" kind of feel to it.

ALLIE: Honestly, the last run. I like what we did on the last arc, "A Stake Through the Heart". As far as the monthly, that was the high point for me. Along the way, Tales of the Slayers was another real watershed book, and I loved "Ring of Fire" and "Blood of Carthage" as well.

NICIEZA: Ultimately, what I/we think doesn't matter much, does it? It's the readers that count.

JOZIC: Considering all the problems one could have on a licensed book, what would you say was the toughest part of working on the series?

ALLIE: Keeping it fresh. Getting it to where we wanted, and then deciding to try to change it on purpose to keep it interesting, or make it interesting to new readers. That, and trying to get the stories to really live up to the writing on the TV series.

NICIEZA: For me it's always trying to hear the actor's voices as I write the dialogue.

JOZIC: Was there anything that you wanted to do with story or characters that you couldn't or just didn't have the time for?

NICIEZA: I wanted to have Buffy fight a giant swarm of Aliens and Predators while kicking Batman's ass in a dark alley, but apparently, there were some copyright issues we couldn't work through.

ALLIE: Well, it ain't really over yet. The new places we want to take the characters to probably have more chance of happening with no TV show to keep up with.

JOZIC: What effect has working on Buffy had on your career?

ALLIE: Working directly with Joss taught me a lot about writing genre fiction. I think he understands compelling adventure stories, and how to smarten them up, do truly character-driven and yet fun comics.

JOZIC: Scott, since you've been there from the beginning, can you give us some thoughts on the creative teams during your time on the book?

ALLIE: Everyone brought something different - working with them all was very different. Of all the monthly writers, Golden knew the world the best. Working with Fassbender and Pascoe was like working with family...um, in a good way. It was with them that I first really got the hang of it, thirty issues down the road. Cliff Richards and Will Conrad were great, an editor's dream. They're adaptable, talented, fun to work with. In five years, you work with enough people that it's impossible to do justice to everyone in an interview like this.

JOZIC: Fabian, if you could change anything about your run, what would it be?

NICIEZA: The duration. Another year or two would have been fun!

JOZIC: What characters were the easiest to get a handle on, or the most enjoyable to use?

ALLIE: Buffy's the easiest to get. She's at once the simplest and most complex in the show, but her complexity is such that you can zero in on it pretty easily.

NICIEZA: Hardest to get a handle on, for me, was Anya, because Emma Caulfield, bless her soul, has the quirkiest inflections and line readings around, which make it tough to nail her dialogue. Easiest was Dawn, `cause I am in the minority of one and love the character.

JOZIC: Each season of Buffy the television show has an overarching theme that plays out in the final episode of that year. Would you say that could also apply to the five-plus years of the comic series?

NICIEZA: Certainly for our entire Pre-Season one we had a very strong theme: The Making of a Slayer. We see her after the events of the movie and we leave her the night before the first TV episode. And we showed a lot of what got her from point A to point B.

ALLIE: I think we tried to apply that to each arc, each three to five issue storyline, rather than longer runs. Actually, we did try doing a year-long arc early on, but we were still just figuring out the characters, and still didn't entirely understand the heart of the show, so we missed the mark.

JOZIC: Having just watched Season 7 a second time around, I'm curious what you guys might think of the final television episode? Was it a satisfying ending for you, as fans?

ALLIE: It was great. It tied things up, resolved seven years, but left a world of possibilities for us, for the characters.

NICIEZA: Like any long-running TV show, it had it's good runs and its weaker ones, but the better shows, which Buffy most certainly was, maintain a higher, more consistent level of quality over the long haul and that's what makes them standout. The fact that the episodes can bear repeated viewing in syndication shows how well made they were.

JOZIC: The comic book, and how it has been handled by DHC, Mutant Enemy and FOX, has been a kind of benchmark for licensed properties in this industry. What are your feelings on the end of the monthly series?

ALLIE: I really, really wish it hadn't ended. I think "A Stake to the Heart" was a rebirth for the series, a creative and experimental high point, and I want to build on it. I plan to build on it with miniseries down the road, but I'd rather have the playground of a consistent monthly presence in which to do it. There's something about a monthly, about working with the same team day in and day out, which builds an atmosphere in which experimentation and breaking bounds becomes possible. That's what I want. That's how I feel about ending when we were just getting somewhere. At least we went out on a high note.

NICIEZA: I feel disappointed, because it was a fun assignment, but conversely, if it was going to end, I think we ended it at the perfect place, literally the night before the TV show began. Nice symmetry to that, I think. Hopefully, we'll see "The Further Adventures of Buffy and the Scoobies" in comic form. The characters still have lots and lots of stories to tell.