Back home after visiting with my folks down in Pennsylvania to celebrate their respective birthdays. And I came home to discover that, hey, Spike: Old Times really IS out this week. So whad’ja think?
PAD
Back home after visiting with my folks down in Pennsylvania to celebrate their respective birthdays. And I came home to discover that, hey, Spike: Old Times really IS out this week. So whad’ja think?
PAD
• 
It was great! I really enjoyed the humor, it was like watching an episode. Hope to see you doing more work in the Buffyverse! I don’t want to spoil it for anyone yet, so won’t say anything else.
Eric
Looks great from what I saw and could skim but that price tag is a killer. I’m having to wait for my overtime check on the first to grab it and just hoping it’s still on the shelf by then.
To summarize what I said in the original thread:
It was a bit more comedic than I expected, but I quite liked it, moreso after a second reading. It felt a lot like one of the more lighthearted episodes of Buffy.
The art was very nice, Fernando Goni clearly did his homework to get the character likenesses down. At the same time, though, I found it to be a little…static.
Like a few others, I think it would have been nice to have seen a reference to precisely when in continuity the episode took place – it must have been late in Buffy season six. Incidentally, “Dawn’s birthday party” as referenced in the book was actually Buffy’s.
Is Spike’s last name of “Pratt” an original PAD concept, or did it come out of a novel or something like that?
Lastly, I’m thinking Spike himself wouldn’t have been too impressed to see his name on the cover written in the Angel font.
I’d love to see PAD do more work with Whedon characters – a solid combination.
“I’d love to see PAD do more work with Whedon characters – a solid combination.”
Second. PAD on Firefly in ’08.
I think this story took place specifically during the Angel episode “Rain of Fire” from season 4 (during buffy season 7). Hence the Fire hail stones raining down from the sky all of the sudden for no reason in the middle of the story for no reason mentioned.
Another original thread
This is a book for the hard core fans of Buffy/Angel universe. I say that because the story is based on an in joke. An actress that was hired to play a love interest of a pre undead Spike in 1889 in season 5 of Buffy the Vampire slayer (Cecily), was rehired in season 6 to play a vengeance demon (Halfrek). When Spike and Halfrek came across each other at a party, they sort of looked at each other like they had already met. However, they never did any thing else on the show to elaborate on this. Along with the mystery of “what ever happened to Mrs Kitty Fantastico?” It became a huge subject of debate and many fan fictions were written about it. This one shot explains all that.
Since I’m short on time, I’m not going to do the synopsis of the book it self. It would take a full thesis to explain all the references to things that happened in the shows Buffy and Angel, that you need to fully understand this single comic book. (Or you could go buy seasons 5, 6, & 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Season 4 of Angel on DVD .) Of course all of us that have obsessed over the show will absolutely love the little references. This was written for the fans. As far as the pacing goes, it has the feel of one of the more comedic episodes of Angel. I would even say it flows more like a good episode of Singfeild.
As far as the art goes, all of the humans and people in human form are up their with Astonishing X-Men. The demons and vampires however are not as dynamic or detailed as they should be. This has been a complaint of mine on almost all of the Buffy related comic books that have ever come out (Frey being the one exception). It seems like there has been a standing order from Joss to have all of the demons toned down in the comic books. Almost to the point where the artist is so restricted that the monsters look less realistic than their latex and rubber counterparts on the TV shows. I think the Buffy books would have a much larger readership if the artist were able to draw stuff that would normally be to expensive to produce on the TV shows. Other than that, Fernando Goni does a good job.
Story A-
Art B
“I think this story took place specifically during the Angel episode “Rain of Fire” from season 4 (during buffy season 7). Hence the Fire hail stones raining down from the sky all of the sudden for no reason in the middle of the story for no reason mentioned.”
However, Halfrek dies in the fifth episode of Buffy that season. Rain of Fire (original title Apocalypse, Nowish) is the seventh episode of Angel, so while I suppose it’s possible that it actually takes place before Halfrek’s death, it doesn’t seem likely.
Why is fanwanking so much fun?
Oh, I was going to add that I thought the fireballs in Old Times were simply another attempt by Halfrek to snuff Lenny.
“Oh, I was going to add that I thought the fireballs in Old Times were simply another attempt by Halfrek to snuff Lenny”
Marge Simpson responds: No! Not Lenny!!!!
;p
Kind of mundane, second-tier art but a very solid story by PAD. Enjoyable even if you don’t know all the backstory and quite impressive if you do.
I’m baffled that PAD never cracked into the BUFFY/TREK tv-writing spheres. He’s a natural with both sets of characters and his TREK novels have frankly been far superior to most TREK tv and movies over the past decade or so.
I agree wholeheartedly with earlier posts endorsing more PAD work on the Buffy-verse.
Good read!
What? it did? man I really wish there was a shop in this town run by someonewho could actually read past the first quarter of previews…..
Well done.
I went to my local comic shop today and was surprised to see it there. I had to grab it.
It was really good! I laughed out loud several times. It was very much in the feel of the series. And the art was wonderful.
The art was okay and the story was decent. Had a couple of very funny moments.
On the whole though it was just too expensive tho. Almost $8 for 1 comic is too rich for my blood.
Take Two:
I enjoyed it, the art and story was quite nice. The thing I liked most about it was all the variations on Halfrek’s name Spike used. I know it’s a bit from somewhere– it’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t put my finger on it (don’t those metaphors mix so well together?). I want to say Monty Python, but that’s not it. I want to say Looney Tunes, but that’s not it. I want to say Marx Brothers, but that’s not it. Gah.
Still, it was a nice meditation on the nature of vengeance and pointlessness of such. Oh yeah, I enjoyed the Billy Idol gag. Ironically, seeing Spike in comic book form brought up shades of John Constantine heh.
Well, it’s OUT alright. But I haven’t read it yet. Bought it, though.
I’m sure it was great. But since one of my shops didn’t order the book, and the other was sold out before I got there, I’ve yet to find out for myself. *sigh* And so the great hunt begins…
I wanted to pick it up, but like other people have been saying… too rich for my blood. :\
I can’t say enough good things about this one-shot.
Any plans to do another Whedon-verse comic in the future?
Regards:
Warren S. Jones III
It is out!?!? Great, my regular comic shop didn’t see any sign of it. They couldn’t even find it on the list of what was new this week.
They do sometimes get things in a week late. I’ll have to check them again on Wednesday, or maybe try another store. They’re usually pretty good about getting things in that are on my sub — they even picked out the puppet cover for Angel #1 (figuring, correctly, that I’d appreciate it more than most of the people who had it on their list). Unfortunately I didn’t figure there was much point in adding a one-shot.
I really enjoyed ‘Old Times’ – the artwork and the storyline were excellent, and the ending, well I loved that !
Thankyou, PAD and Fernando.
It is out!?!? Great, my regular comic shop didn’t see any sign of it. They couldn’t even find it on the list of what was new this week.
Same here. I’m in Queens New York. Maybe it’s a regional problem?
Well I enjoyed the story. PAD’s sense of dialogue has the same type of dry wit as Whedon’s so that’s a natural fit. Liked the basic idea and the humor a lot. ***SPOILER WARNING!!!:** One thing I wonder about, since this fellow was still under the curse of his ancestor, wasn’t it Spike’s curse to begin with that Halfrek was still following up on? Or did I grossly misinterpret that? Because it’s not really mentioned later on.
As for continuity (yeah it was Buffy’s birthday, not Dawn’s, but that’s just a tiny slip) apart from Halfrek being alive I don’t see how this could take place any other point than in Angel Season 5. Spike is in LA. There is no point in between Buffy S6 and Angel S5 that Spike was, or could have been in LA. Spike’s comment that he’s basically just ‘annoying someone’ in LA pretty much coincides with that since that’s all he was doing first half of Angel S5: annoying Angel.
So, personally I just choose to say Halfrek survived. I never liked her dying anyway. Maybe D’Hoffryn changed his mind or just used some fireworks to make his point to Anya. Or something. Far fetched? Maybe but, really no more than the “Spike sorta went to LA sometime during Buffy S7.” Just not buying that.
As for the art….eh. Almost every other shot is clearly a tracing from a picture. Photo referencing is one thing, but this just kinda….eh. And the inking is very, very basic. It has a bit of a feel of fan art in places. Note the early pages where Spike and Halfrek are facing off. Spike changes height twice there.
The backgrounds are either very skimpy or just photoshopped-in pictures of streets. Do artists really get away with that? And even Spike’s hair is usually just an outline with picture-fragments of James Marsters’ hair pasted in. Come on now people. I appreciate the attempts to get likeness (especially since Dark Horse often didn’t give a frag about it in the Buffy/Angel comics) but still. Feels a little cheap. It rests mainly on the colorist’s attempts to make something of it. But then I’ve noticed that a lot more in comics lately.
Overall I liked the book. The cover effects were nice and classy, and I’d love to see PAD do more Whedonverse stories but I hope with some more sophisticated art.
There’s absolutely NOTHINGI can add to the many learned posts above – except my personal opinion, which is that I liked the book a lot and would like to see more PAD on Whedon action – but at a saner price point.
>
That was just Halfrek’s excuse for killing that one ancestor. The curse is explained nearer the end of the book as starting way back when one of them raped some child on his 30th birthday.
The one thing that bugged me was the guy falling through the open window. From the outside of the building it didn’t look like there was a window like that. Also, it seems quite unbelievable that there would be a window that big that could be open with all those orphans on that floor. There would be better safety procedures. Of course, the explanataion is that Halfrek is lying when she says she had nothing to do with it.
Neil
One amazing book. Far better than Angel:The Curse, IDW’s other Angel book. Fernando Goni’s art was awesome, and the book really did feel special. Can’t wait for Fallen Angel to read a similar format.
Amazing. I know PAD probably won’t return to do another, but this was the best thing I’ve read in 3 months.
SAM-EL
To the comment way up there.It was more than just a look between the two of them.
When Halley saw Spike for the first time on Buffy her face soften for just as second and she said in a happy tone of voice which sounded like Cecilly “William?” The look of shock on Spike’s face was priceless. Peter used that as part of his mental springboard to create the story.
Coincidentaly enough, I got Buffy Season 7 for my birthday a few weeks ago, so I read the Spike one-shot right between watching some of hte earlier episodes of that season. So I noticed a lot of things that I probably would have missed otherwise.
Now, before I go on, I must say that I really enjoyed the comic and htought it was quite funny and also thought-provoking.
Having said that… I’m prety sure that this is supposed to happen during Angel Season 5, since Spike is in LA anoying Angel, AND he has the company car 8(with tinted windows).
That means that Halfred must have survived her Death in Buffy Season 7, which is good news, since she’s a great character.
As for the Billy Idol line… well, I just finished reading hte comic, when I put on the 8th eppisode of Season 7 and there it is!
A bouncer says something along the lines of Spike being a Billy Idol wanna-be, and Buffy starts to say how Billy actually swiped his look from spike, before thinking hte better of it.
So either Peter forgot about that joke and just rememebred it subconscoiusly, or he was jsut homaging it. Either way, I just found it interesting.
I had always expected that that one guy at the party, the one who said that he’d rather have a railroad spike driven through his skull than hear any more of William’s poetry; I always thought that he got to…let’s say… make the comparison on a much more directly informed level. So I’ve got to be disappointed with Hallie being made the one who kills him…
Having said that… I’m prety sure that this is supposed to happen during Angel Season 5, since Spike is in LA anoying Angel, AND he has the company car 8(with tinted windows).
Actually, Lenny says the windows are “painted,” and Spike had a car with painted windows as early as season 2. The “annoying someone” comment does seem to indicate Angel season 5, though…
I still prefer to think of it as taking place late in Buffy’s sixth season, after Buffy’s birthday but before Spike gets his soul. When exactly he found time to take a trip to L.A. is anyone’s guess.
Very good. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Spike: it was fine. I was worried that it was an “issue resolved” plot (a vampire having his own inner demons to deal with as he has a soul is good basis for character). The comedic tone was fine, although the o’henry ending of the guy falling out the window kinda left me cool. Over all, fine issue. It was a good issue to explain the Whedon re-hiring of character actors.
“although the o’henry ending of the guy falling out the window kinda left me cool”
As mentioned above, I couldn’t believe he could have fallen out of that window (or that there was such a window to fall out of). It just didn’t make any sense. With all those orphans there, if there had been a broken window it would have been boarded up or something. I would have prefered seeing him get hit by a bus or an ambulance. Still, overall it was a fun book.
Neil
I enjoyed it – the characterisation was spot on, it was a good story, and the ending caught me by surprise. As for the artwork, I was struck by how well Spike resembled the actor on TV; I’ve seen the comments above about photo tracing, and I don’t know enough about the subject to assess it, but I thought it worked well, whatever it was. The only minor niggle I had with it was that I didn’t like the cinema advertising the “Buffy and Angel movie” – it was too obtrusive for an in joke.
As for when it was set, I assumed that it was early in Angel season 5, based on Spike’s comment about hanging around to annoy Angel (presumably post-ghost phase). However, other people have made valid points about why that can’t be the case, so I’m not sure when it was. Depending on whether Spike had a soul and/or chip at the time, his actions do get cast in quite a different light, so I think this is a situation where the GN would have benefitted from a footnote at the start. PAD, could you help us out here?
Good review at Chud.com. Got 4 out of 5 vikings.
http://chud.com/thor/4174
(SPOILERS, in case you’re [for some reason] reading this thread without reading the book)
As a huge BtVS and Angel fan, and big PAD fan, I saved this for last out of this week’s purchases, and I wasn’t disappointed. Very nice work! The capture of Spkie’s “voice” – and Halfrek’s, too – was excellent, some very nice jokes – liked all the variations on her name – and the denounment – nice! Spike finally got to tell someone that SHE was beneath HIM! Yeah! (BTW, BigCheese, I’m quite sure that the – nice – Billy Idol bit was a deliberate play off of that Buffy season 7 remark.) And I’m part of the camp which was quite impressed with the art, too. My wife – also a big BtVS/Angel fan, but not a comics reader – read this immmediately upon my showing it to her, and within a few pages said “Honey – you’ve gotta read this!” So, there’s two positive reviews here.
As for when this tale takes place, I think I came across the smoking gun as I first read it … the non-smoking gun. That is to say, the gag gun from Harmony – which I think is the final piece which locks this into Angel season five. Harm was long gone from “Blondie Bear’s” life by Buffy season six; it’s only in Angel five when she would’ve had the opportunity, and inclination, for this. Which does leave us the question of – how can Halfrek still be around? If this is just a continuity error, Mutant Enemy should’ve caught it, you would think. Perhaps Hallie did survive the “Selfless” episode; or maybe she time-traveled ahead to make sure this curse – tied to her origin – was fulfilled? “From beneath you it devours” did have a lot of the demons crossing their “t”s and such, we were told; maybe she decided she’d better make sure that this curse – important to her and set on a known, fixed date in the near-future – was perpetuated, in case “beneath you” changed (or ended) everything.
Anyway – thank you for the good read! LKW
D’oh!
At first I wasn’t buying the idea that Hallie could have somehow returned from the dead…until I remembered that after letting Anya take back her final act of vengeance and lose her powers (again), D’Hoffryn reneged and began sending assassins after her in subsequent episodes.
It seems reasonable to think that in light of this change of heart, he could also have found a way to resurrect Hallie.
In which case yes, I would definitely place this issue in the fifth season of Angel.
Spike doesn’t specifically mention Angel, so he’s not as tied down to “Angel” season 5 as everyone thinks. There’s also no mention of his soul.
I definitely got the impression that Spike was “just visiting” LA. There is plenty of time between episodes of Buffy where Spike could have driven to LA looking for some amusement. Especially if he still has the chip in his head. A vampire that can’t bite has to go to more extreme measures for his amusement.
Maybe he’s bragging to Angel about his new “relationship” with Buffy. Anything to cheese off the guy with the nancy-boy hair gel.
My store finally got the issue yesterday. I liked it. Wasn’t crazy about the price, but decided to take the risk, based on PAD’s quality of work.
I think PAD did a great job of getting both Halfrek’s and Spike’s voices right. And the window scene was great. Pure slapstick.
Or would that be splatstick?
Rick