Posted on July 6, 2014
With dozens of nonfiction books on Joss Whedon’s works from Buffy toAvengers, one critical area has been ignored: Whedon’s comics. In fact, he’s written several series for Marvel and DC, along with independents and the many issues of Angel, Buffy, and Serenity comics for IDW and Dark Horse. While a few isolated essays have tackled Buffy season eight or Whedon’s X-Men run, there is no anthology devoted to only Whedon comics. Now that’s about to change.
Essays on any aspect of Whedon’s comics (as described below) are welcome. The completed essays should be 4000-5000 words. Essays must adhere to MLA format and be friendly and approachable, yet academic in scope and content. New papers or presented conference papers rather than reprints are appreciated. This collection is not yet under contract, but I have several interested publishers who are awaiting a list of essays to be included. McFarland, who publishes most of the Buffy criticism collections, will likely be on board.
Proposal Guidelines: Please send a 350-500 word summary of your proposed essay pasted into your email, along with a short professional bio or cover letter.
Direct inquiries and proposals can be sent to Valerie Estelle Frankel, pop culture author and professor, at valerie at calithwain.com with a subject of WHEDON SUBMISSION.
Abstracts are due Aug 31, Complete papers Nov 30, 2014.
Essays on both canon and “less official” Whedon comics are welcome, as are comparisons between Whedon comics and other comics or other Whedon works. Discussion of comic conventions from canon to art to gender issues are also appreciated. Other areas, like comparing Whedon’s Avengers movie, Agents of SHIELD, Doctor Horrible, or other shows to comics are also possible. On the shows, Buffy is compared to Spider-Man, Superman and Power Girl, Angel is compared to Batman so much Boreanaz was offered the role, Dark Willow parallels Dark Phoenix, Cordy and Fred are called Wonder Woman, and Xander and Giles are compared to Jimmy Olsen and Alfred…there’s paper material there, too. This anthology welcomes established Whedon scholars as well as enthusiastic new writers.
Which comics are Whedon’s? Canon comics include the following Whedon products (as Whedon wrote or supervised them).
BUFFYVERSE
- Fray
- Tales of the Slayers
- Tales of the Vampires
- Buffy: The Origin (reprinted in Buffy Omnibus 1)
- Angel: Long Night’s Journey (#1-4) (reprinted in Angel: Omnibus 1)
- “Always Darkest” (reprinted in Myspace Dark Horse Presents #4 or available online)
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight (Whedon wrote #1-5, 10, 11, 16-19)
- Angel: After the Fall, Angel: The End, and spin-offs
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Nine (Whedon wrote #1-2)
- Angel & Faith
- Buffy Season Ten and Angel & Faith Vol. 2 2014-
See http://valeriefrankel.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/a-guide-to-the-buffy-and-angel-comics/ for a more elaborate Buffyverse comics guide and reading order.
X-MEN
- Astonishing X-Men vol. 3: (#1-24) & Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 (reprinted as the collections Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, Dangerous, Torn, Unstoppable)
- “Teamwork” (in Giant Size X-Men #3, available online)
SERENITY
- Serenity: Those Left Behind
- Serenity: Better Days
- Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale
- “Serenity: Firefly Class 03-K64 – It’s Never Easy” (available online) by Zack Whedon
- Serenity: Leaves on the Wind by Zack Whedon
DOCTOR HORRIBLE
- Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Zack Whedon
OTHER
- “Some Steves” (in Stan Lee Meets The Amazing Spider-Man #1)
- Runaways vol. 2 (#25-30) (reprinted as Dead End Kids)
- Superman/Batman #26 (p. 20-21)
- Sugarshock 1-3 (reprinted in Myspace Dark Horse Presents #1)
Please contact Valerie Estelle Frankel at valerie @ calithwain.com with any questions.
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