Drawing Blood
Doug Petrie on Buffy comics.
Doug Petrie's love of comics is well documented. He was the first Buffy
writer to pen an actual strip relating to the show (Bad Dog for the Buffy annual) followed by a semi-canonical link between Buffy seasons
three and four and Angel (Double Cross) and the highly acclaimed Ring of
Fire graphic novel.
“I'm a huge comic books fan,” Doug confirms with enthusiasm. “I always
have been and comics, particularly Marvel comics of the 70s were an
essential part of my stunted adolescence! It's a dream come true to be
writing them.
“What's fun with the Buffy comics is that we live in reality and we're a
television show with a budget. Buffy lends itself to large. large
stories, so with a comic like The Ring of Fire you just have this
absolutely unlimited motion picture budget. You get to make your 100
million dollar motion picture without spending much money. The ink costs
the same whether its inside a house or a battlefield with a thousand
demons on horseback".
Despite being able to handle both television and comic scripting with
seemingly equal ease, Doug has found that his ideas seldom find
themselves migrating from one medium to the other.
“Only one idea made it from the TV budget-busting pile to become a
comic,” he recalls. The giant bird that was supposed to be hailed by the
Glove of Myhnegon (as wielded by rogue Watcher Gwendoline Post in season
three's Revelations).
Originally it was supposed to be a falconer's
glove. The giant demonic bird that shot fire out of its mouth and all
these things that we just loved and no way could we afford all found
their way into The Ring of Fire.
Despite the opportunity to spend millions (in a virtual kind of way)
with The Ring of Fire, Doug would rue the day that big budgets took the
place of the writers’ creativity on Buffy.
“Well in a way I hope that we never really have all the keys to the
candy store because what we are forced to do is concentrate on
character, emotion and storytelling and the very basics - and to bring
out special effects as a garnish.
“I know that if I was given all the special effects in the world, there
would be a temptation - that I would have to fight every day - to do
very big splashy visual things that get away from the heart of the
series.
Even if we did have Industrial Light and Magic at our beck and call we
would probably not use it.” Let's hope George Lucas isn't waiting by the
‘phone then!
