#Buffy 30th Birthday #Comics Giveaway

#TalkNerdytoMeLover's @AdamReisinger

According to the character history in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", yesterday -- January 19, 2011 -- was Buffy Anne Summers' 30th birthday. Born on Jan. 19, 1981, Buffy died in 1997 and again in 2001, but has managed to become probably the longest-lived Slayer in the history of the universe.  

(Of course, in-universe, Buffy's actual age is probably something slightly different, since the Season 8 comics actually take place around 2004-05, and I'm not sure you can count the three months she was dead in 2001 toward her age, so there's always that. Still, happy 30th Buffy!)

I  celebrated Buffy's birthday in my own way by buying the Season 8 finale comic, and watching a mini-marathon of four episodes from Season 2 -- including the first "Buffy's birthday" episode, "Surprise". But I wanted to share my Buffy Birthday Bliss with you, the #NerdsUnite community -- or readers who stumbled across this post through a random Google search -- so I've decided to do a "Buffy" giveaway. I got a whole bunch of extra Buffy related stuff at New England Comic Con last year, and I'm saving some of it for a future endeavor, but for today, Buffy's birthday, I'm going to give away a set of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season 8 comics. The set includes issues #1-20, giving you (assuming you win) a nice jumping off point for the series. And, as a bonus, Issue #1 -- a second printing, but still the first issue -- is signed by cover artist Jo Chen.

As for the rest of the issues, here's the breakdown:

#1-4, Jo Chen cover
#5-8, Georges Jeanty cover
#9-11, Chen cover
#12-15, Jon Foster cover
#16-20, Chen cover

That gets you through the first four story arcs of "Buffy" Season 8, and you get an autographed collectible to boot! It's Buffy's birthday, but you get the present! So how do you enter? Well, there are three ways:

- leave a comment on this post or the post at AdamReisinger.com (make sure you include your e-mail address, or at least some way to contact you)
- Send a tweet to @adamreisinger, referencing the contest
- e-mail me at theslayer@mac.com, referencing the contest

You don't need to say anything specific in the comment/tweet/e-mail, but creativity can't hurt. I'll pick a winner at random at the end of the month, and ship out the comics free of charge to a winner in the United States (if you're international, you can still enter, but you may need to cover shipping charges, since 20 comics get kind of heavy).

Good luck, and again, Happy 30th Buffy!

For more nerdy content, be sure to visit AdamReisinger.com, or follow Adam on Twitter (@AdamReisinger)

The #nerds are still angry over the #buffy reboot!

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @SnogVlog

You know the shit has hit the fan when the tags #joss and #whedon are both trending on Twitter worldwide and every blog from here to Guam is writing about the Buffy reboot coming out of Warner Bros.  The truth is a rose by any other name just isn't a rose and a Buffy without Joss Whedon just isn't Buffy at all, period, end of sentence.  Dress it up put a hot chic writer named Whit (Whitney) Anderson in charge who has no writing credits to her name and a couple of small acting rolls but what you have is still a FAKE Buffy movie.  As a loyal fan I am saddened and quite frankly very disgusted by this entire thing I doubt it highly that loyal Friends fans would want a Friends movie without the original writers or the original cast. 

  For those who don't understand the history behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS) it started from the mind of Joss Whedon who's idea was unfortunately not realized on the big screen and instead was basically butchered into what we all remember as that lame ass movie from 1992.  Joss; having the guts that he had said wait a minute I want to do a television show so I can realize the dream of what Buffy was meant to be and the WB got on board.  The cards were stacked against him from the beginning and most critics were dismissing this as another bomb but with excellent, witty writing and a talented young cast he managed to shut them all up in the first season.  It was apparent very early on that this Buffy was nothing like the movie we were first introduced to.  The series ran for seven seasons from 1997-2003 and touched upon many different parts of growing up as well as being the one and only slayer in the entire world. 

  Buffy Summers, was more than a television character to most young girls growing up she was them, navigating a world of metaphorical evil and monsters all while trying to deal with being a teenager and sometimes the world of monsters and teenage boys blur.  The responsibility that is put on the shoulders of teens today and how they seem to be forced to grow up faster than we did when we were younger, we all related.  Joss was careful and meticulous to be inclusive to all groups of teens showing how even if we all seem different we are really all the same we really do all deal with the same things in life.  The thought of making this movie without Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, or James Marsters seems like a slap in the face to the creators, writers and all the loyal fans that followed these characters from their inception.  Each actor and actress made those characters their own we fell in love with them we cheered for them we cried for them and at times hated them but it was those people that made the characters come to life on screen.  You could absolutely do a BTVS movie with the original characters I mean for crying out loud they aren't in their 60s and when the show ended they were out of college approaching their 30s anyway. 

  Aside from the obvious reasons this movie shouldn't be made how about the fact that no one would go see it.  Warner Bros. stands to lose the entire fan base of BTVS alienating us its bad enough we have to watch movies like Twilight and shows like Vampire Diaries that clearly have taken most if not all of their storylines from BTVS.  Buffy and Angel constantly struggle to have a relationship as slayer and vampire, mortal and immortal, now its Edward and Bella, or Elena and Stephan the struggle between vampire and werewolf, good vamps vs. bad vamps who has a soul who doesn't, Buffy started it all, Joss started it all.  Warner Bros. is taking a beloved series that still to this day is more popular than ever and ruining it!  Could you imagine the first Star Trek movie being done without Captain Kirk or Spock, without William Shatner!?  I'm really starting to wonder if there are no good ideas left in Hollywood or will people just keep "rebooting" everything which is just another word for "remake."  The A-Team, Karate Kid, is nothing sacred anymore?!  Who's going to play Buffy, Willow Smith DEAR GOD NO!  I know for a fact there is certainly not a shortage of writers out there who would like to get a movie made who have original ideas and new scripts that no one has ever done before where is the creativity, the innovation have we all become PDiddy?

  BTVS meant a great deal to me it still does its one if not my ONE favorite television show of all time, right in front of Golden Girls, and to see it defamed hurts my heart.  All of us fans cry a little each time we think of this happening and if Whit Anderson has any amount of respect for the creator of the show (Joss) whom she vocally praises she will step down as the screen writer.  Whit take it from me you can't recreate genius you can't take a work from someone you admire and do something new or different with it because the best praise the best admiration comes from those who sit back and allow art to be what it is, art, a piece of history. 

  You want to really make a difference and pay homage to Joss? Whit, tell Warner Bros. you won't do this without Joss and without at least asking the original cast to join.  You want to blow our minds with your writing make us believers in you then continue the series take the season eight comics and bring them to the big screen.  Do the right thing for all the loyal fans that have spent years buying the DVDs, action figures, trading cards, and comics the people who wrote philosophy and psychology books based on the series those are the people you are servicing not Warner Bros.  In this crazy manufactured world of cheesy remakes we need a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel we need to know that light isn't an oncoming train.  I want to believe in you truly I do because I think a true fan understands the show and a person who has spent their lives dedicated to keeping its memory alive can really have a lot to add to the story.  If I had one wish this holiday season it would be that Joss Whedon reboots Buffy with all the original members of the BTVS cast, if only.

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11 Reasons the #Buffy Reboot is Doomed to Fail

#TalkNerdytoMeLover's @AdamReisinger

Today Warner Bros. confirmed that they're going ahead with plans to reboot "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a feature film, without Joss Whedon, who has taken his talents to Marvel.

Now, normally I'd be all about more "Buffy", since I spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing about the "Buffy" I already have, but I don't see how this can work. And here are 11 reasons why (why 11? Well, that's been my counting theme of late. Deal with it).

1. Joss Whedon IS "Buffy"
When you say "Buffy", the first name that comes to mind for many people is Sarah Michelle Gellar, but that hasn't always been the case. Gellar didn't play Buffy Summers in the 1992 movie, and the current comic depiction of Buffy isn't really based on her likeness. But in every form "Buffy" has ever been in, Joss Whedon has been involved. And a "Buffy" without Joss is a "Buffy" without a soul (oooh... vampire Buffy... no, no... leave it to the fanfic).

I could stop right there, but this is definitely a topic that NEEDS expansion, so here are the next 10 reasons.

2. "Buffy" isn't just about Buffy.
Over the seven seasons of the TV series, and the nearly one season (over four years) of the comic, we as a fanbase didn't just get attached to Buffy Summers, but to all the other characters in her life. However, barring some miraculous licensing deal, Warner Bros. doesn't have the rights to them. They just get Buffy and Merrick and some other vampires. Oh, and Pike. Fuck Pike.

3. If Joss isn't writing this, who is?
That would be Whit Anderson. Who is Whit Anderson? Well, until this news, she wasn't Whit, she was Whitney Anderson, a relatively inexperience actress who claims to have grown up a huge "Buffy" fan. Putting aside the fact that no true Buffy fan would get involved with a "Buffy" project sans Joss, Whit has no writing experience whatsoever. How could Warner Bros. put this project into the hands of someone with no experience.

4. Buffy doesn't need to be re-booted
It's been seven years since we've seen "Buffy" on the small screen and 18 years since we got her origin story on the big screen (and 12 years since it was re-done in 1998). That seems like plenty of time to give "Buffy" a reboot. But we've still got "Buffy" going on in comic form, in a Joss-approved direct continuity. This reminds me of "Terminator", when there were two continuities going on in the form of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Terminator: Salvation", and in the end neither of them worked out.


5. Along those lines, rebooting ignores too many untold stories
Remember when a "Faith" spin-off, even in TV movie form, still seemed like a possibility. What of "Ripper", the Giles-focused "Buffy" prequel? And Spike & Dru? A reboot closes the book on all these pretty much permanently, which the fans won't stand for.

6. The market for "Buffy" may be too fragmented
"Buffy" was never a ratings smash when it was on The WB then UPN. DVD sales have always been good, but never mind-blowing. And even among the fanbase, there are plenty of people who don't read the comics. Now a non-Joss-backed movie will result in many people not supporting the project out of spite, fragmenting the fanbase even more.

7. Buffy now has to compete with other vampire properties
I'm not even going to mention it by name, but you know the one I'm talking about. "Buffy" always existed outside of comparisons with the more modern (that's post-2006) vampire tales, but a new Buffy property will be in direct competition with things like "True Blood", "The Vampire Diaries" and... that one. Which means the studio will likely feel pressure to appeal to those fan bases.

8. "This is not your high-school Buffy"
Back to Whitney Anderson for a second. Those were her words in an interview with the LA Times, so if this isn't your "high-school Buffy", then who is it? Is it a Buffy that's already been a slayer for awhile? Or is this a rebooting of the entire universe, including allowing for slayers to be called after the age of 18? If it's the latter, then this really ISN'T Buffy, since so much of the drama of Buffy was about becoming a slayer while also becoming an adult at the same time. 

9. Who is this meant for?
This is kind of a combination of the previous two, but the traditional "Buffy" fan base is grown up now. I'm 30 years old, and most of the "Buffy" fans I meet at conventions are in the 25-40 range, which makes sense for a TV series that debuted in 1997. But a new "Buffy" would probably be pitched toward the tween market, which just isn't going to appeal to the fan base or stay true to the character in any meaningful way.

10. Joss has made it clear why "Buffy" didn't work the first time
Most "Buffy" fans are fans of the TV series, maybe the comics, but not really the movie. Why? Well, the studio screwed up Joss's vision. At least that's the story we've been fed over the last 18 years. Whether its true or not (and I tend to believe that it is), it's the narrative the fan base has accepted, which means they're even less prepared to accept a version of "Buffy" without Joss. We don't need floating vampires, cheesy Paul Reubens-style sidekicks, and poorly-developed character relationships. We need Joss's vision, if not his direct involvement.

11. Plain and simple, this would work better if it weren't "Buffy"
Buffy Summers isn't a comic book character who went years without aging and has been rebooted time and time again. She's a character we grew up with, and she grew up with us. Starting Buffy over cheapens the character. If Joss isn't going to be involved in this project, then why does it have to be "Buffy" at all? Couldn't it just as easily be a continuity of the slayer universe with a new slayer, who we can grow up with all over again?

Note: this post originally appeared at AdamReisinger.com

For more nerdy content, be sure to visit AdamReisinger.com, or follow Adam on Twitter (@AdamReisinger)