Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have a lot to be happy about right now. The character is as popular as she’s ever been, and that’s in large part due to the success of Dark Horse’s publishing the 8th season in comic form. We were lucky enough to speak with the man largely responsible for bringing life to the book, Georges Jeanty. Hit the jump to see just what Georges has to say about working with Joss, drawing Buffy, and what it’s like to be the penciler on such a popular book.

Georges Jeanty has a large catalog of comic work many of you may be largely unfamiliar with. He’s penciled some of the biggest heroes with assignments on Superman, Green Lantern, Spider-Man and Deadpool. His work on American Way is lauded by fans and critics alike. When presented with the opportunity to talk to the man tasked with illustrating the latest adventures of the Sunnydale Slayer, there was no way I could say no.

How did you get the gig as the regular penciler of Buffy Season 8?

Every time I tell this story, it probably paints me in a better light than I deserve. Joss and Dark Horse got in touch with me. I knew about Buffy, but I wasn’t really a fan of the show. Apparently Joss had seen my work over at Marvel and they had a list of people they wanted to get potentially. I don’t know where I was on that particular list, but when they called me I was like, “Well, okay. Sure. I guess?” And this was before I’d seen any of the episodes, and really been inundated with what Buffy has become. So I very humbly committed to 4 issues. Originally, I had no intentions of becoming the regular artist on the book. I thought this might be a good 4-issue gig, and then I could move on and do something else. Of course, it turned into this big overwhelming thing that I’m very happy to be a part of.

When penciling the book, how much of the look and feel is up to you, and how much comes from Joss or the other writers?

I have to say, probably the best compliment I ever had was Joss at one point, and somebody came to me and said this, I wasn’t there to receive it first-hand, but I think they asked Joss a similar question. He said, “Georges is the heart of the book.” I was very flattered in hearing that. I think it’s a feel, I guess. I will say after I got the gig, I did get educated and I eventually saw every episode, and subsequently have become a fan. This is a book that’s really being done with not so much an eye for a payday, but for a love of the medium. If there is any difference, I guess I can say my heart is in it more than any other gig.

So after watching the series and becoming inundated with everything, you immediately fell right into it?

Oh yeah. I was sort of playing catch up. I’d heard of Buffy, of course. Who hadn’t heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? The only episode I’d seen was years and years ago with John Ritter. And I was only watching that episode because I was a John Ritter fan. My claim to Buffy was coming at it watching because another star was appearing on the show, and not really seeing the core characters and what the show was actually about. I was very humbled, and I definitely got an education very quickly. As a result, I think those first four issues I didn’t do enough justice only because my knowledge was extremely lacking, in my opinion. If I had those four issues to do again, those first Joss wrote, I would definitely do them a lot better.

Aside from getting to work with the other writers from television series, they’ve pulled out all the stops in getting top comic writers like Brian K Vaughan, Brad Meltzer and Jeph Loeb to contribute. How much of a challenge is it working with these different writers arc to arc?

What I found interesting, obviously with the comic artists who are writing like Brian K and Jeph Loeb, I also found that with the regular series writers like Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson and Steven DeKnight, you’d think there’d be more of a difference, not necessarily with the style but with the approach, but all of these guys come at this genre with a sense of love for it. BKV was the first non-TV writer I worked with. He was telling me he was just a real big fan, and when Joss told him there was a Faith story that was his if he wanted it, Brian jumped at it. Mind you, all of these writers were penciled in before the series got off the ground, and before everyone realized what the popularity was going to be like to jump on that bandwagon. This wasn’t motivated by popularity or by sales or money, but I think it was their love of the material that motivated them all to come in.

As such, in doing the book, it feels like this big old block party where everybody here just loves this whole Buffy thing. We all want to do the best work we can. In terms of the writers, everyone I’ve talked to is always open and generous with their time, and what the book means to them personally, or what they were trying to write with their specific story arc, it’s been overwhelming how generous everyone has been. There hasn’t been any sense of ego at all.

Now having familiarized yourself with the source material, and you’ve settled into a groove, where do you find yourself drawing your influences from? In regards to layout and monster design, are you trying to keep in line with the television series or are you going more fluid, animated style?

I’ve always been the kind of artist that felt whatever the story called for, that’s what you should do. Hypothetically, if the story was more of an anime-type of story, I probably would gear my work more towards that. Or if it was a horror story, or a comedy story, I would sort of tell it a little differently. Which is just fine with me. I like to think of myself as having the ability not to just be a certain type of storyteller. I strive for the subtle differences with storytelling. Case in point, with the Faith arc, I really tried, and I don’t know if I succeeded, but I really tried a more Frank Miller/Daredevil approach with those four issues. Mostly because when I had gotten into this, I’d read that Joss created Faith because he looked at her as Buffy’s Elektra. I thought that was interesting, and wouldn’t it be cool if the arc had the feel of a Frank Miller Daredevil comic. Again, I don’t know if I achieved that, but that was my goal approaching it.

In terms of style, I don’t know that I’ve changed anything up. I know Joss, for one, said at the beginning to me he really wanted the book to feel like the TV, but with the budget they never had. He said, “Don’t think small with your monsters. When you’ve got the opportunity, think in terms of an unlimited budget.” I think that was something I tried to illustrate with the first issue’s alternate cover where this big monster is attempting to eat Buffy. This was something Joss had impressed upon me that I wanted to bring out through the artwork, in that yeah, the monsters are bigger and with everything else, the ante has been upped considerably in the comic. I usually just read the story, and I personally think the story is paramount, so I’ll think about what is good for the story, not how can I conform the story to how I draw.

You’re enjoying a nice break now with Karl Moline filling in on the current Fray story arc. Without giving too much away, what can we expect when you return to regular penciling duties? What are you drawing right now you think people are going to get a kick out of?

I can’t give away too much, like you said, but I actually had a heck of a time drawing Harmony for a little while there. There is going to be an animated issue coming up, and like I said before, I’m working with Steven DeKnight on a story right now. More than that… you know they don’t tell me as much since I’m one of those guys that talks and talks and doesn’t realize he’s giving away more than he probably should.

Season 8 the comic series is going to be 40 issues, so this break with Karl Moline doing the four issues is good for me, because theoretically after this break is over, our goal is not to have a fill-in for the rest of the 20 some-odd issues that are to follow.

I think that helps lend a consistent style to the book, instead of having fill-in artists all the time.

Yeah, definitely, and I think that’s the way Dark Horse is approaching it. But I totally support having Karl come on for this Fray arc, because obviously as a fan I went back and read the Fray books as well, and I though it was cool to have the exact same people who did that book come back for this four issue story. That’s just really a nice little compliment, I thought. There is no ego for to say I’m upset I couldn’t do every issue. A nice happenstance is all the fill-ins have been done by people who have actually drawn Buffy: Cliff Richards and Paul Lee… I thought it was kind of cool that they got people who were drawing Buffy previously. That’s kind of nice keeping it all in the family.

Finally, it’s been said every comic is somebody’s first. I always like to ask creators which of their books they want to be someone’s first.

Which of my comics that I’ve done in my career?

Yeah.

Wow, that’s saying a lot. Actually, it’s funny you say that. The thing I hear the most from comic shop owners and retailers who come up to me at conventions is about people coming into the shops who’ve never been into comics before looking for Buffy Season 8. I like to think that the first issue, or that first trade, or whatever issue they’re picking up henceforth, is going to be their first issue. I think that’s kind of flattering that for someone who’s never read comics I could be their sort of ambassador to this fine world.

I think more and more, with the movies being what they are, more people are getting into this genre. With everybody getting into it now maybe because of the Hulk and Iron Man and what not, and that are experiencing Buffy for the first time in comic book form, I think it’s great. In my opinion, it puts a greater responsibility on somebody like me, for them to not having picked up the book, but to have read it and said, “Hey, this is actually pretty good. Aside from me liking Buffy, I liked what I saw. I liked the story. I liked the artwork and storytelling.” That’s something I’m always trying to keep in mind, especially with the Buffy book, people who are reading Buffy are probably not big comic book readers themselves. That challenges me to put the little nuances that were in the Buffy shows throughout the seven years in the comic. For example, I think in issue 12, off to the side in Buffy’s bedroom, I put in Mr. Gordo, her pig that she sleeps with now and again. And just little things like that, you know there isn’t a big red arrow pointing to it saying, “Look at this,” but it’s one of those subtleties that if you read the book… you know where that origin is from. Little things like that, that I think people reading the book can pick up on, and I usually challenge myself to say, “Is there something I can put here that might be cool to an avid fan of Buffy?”

It’s nice to know that someone’s taking the time to put stuff like that in.

Definitely. You know, like with Faith’s tattoo, obviously everyone who knows about it knows about it. There’s an issue coming up where someone goes into a tattoo parlor, and they’re looking at the wall of tattoos you can get, so I started going through all of Buffy to see who actually has tattoos. In sort of a nod to the TV show, I put up as many tattoos on the wall that would relate in the comic book. When that issue comes out, the casual reader will go, “Oh, okay that was a nice issue,” but hopefully the fan of the show will look at it and say, “Oh my God, that’s Faith’s tattoo, or that’s Giles’ tattoo.”

Thanks to Georges for taking time out of his busy schedule to do this interview. You can find Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 in comic shops everywhere.

To find a comic shop near you: 1-888-COMICBOOK