by Mike Favila, Editor

When I first heard of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I just couldn’t shake how silly it all sounded. Buffy. Vampire.  Slayer.  My friends said that it was the best TV show they’d seen since the X-Files, but I just couldn’t get over the title.  In spite of that, I bought the first season on Amazon anyway, and decided to put it on while I was doing other tasks.  Needless to say, I’ve been hooked ever since.

It’s obvious that Amy Pascale has the same fever.  In the intro to her book, Joss Whedon: The Biography, she details how watching Buffy gave her the courage to move through a difficult personal situation.  When she writes about the auteur, it’s not with the distance and perspective of a hardened journalist examining their subject dispassionately.  Rather, Pascale writes from the perspective of a fan and as an early member of the Whedon community, and is not afraid to express her opinion.

In one chapter, she notes that stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt was fired from Buffy.  Soon after, he posted on the official message board The Bronze, named after the rock club in the show where the Scooby Gang (Buffy’s supportive friends) would hang out, airing his disputes against Whedon and star Sarah Michelle Gellar.  When Whedon and coproducer David Greenwalt make counter arguments and statements on the board, everything descends into chaos.  Though there is a vague bit of hero worship throughout the biography, Pascale notes that this seemed to have taken Whedon down a notch and made him seem just as petty and human as the rest of his audience.

While such behind the scenes stories are certainly interesting, readers looking for a straightforward and isolated chronology of Joss Whedon may get more than they bargained for.  At first, I was a little thrown off by the familiarity she shows towards Whedon.  I was almost looking for the dispassionate nature of the usual biography.  However, I got used to the tone and was just absorbed with all the cool stories she found out about the making of the Buffyverse, especially the drama behind the first season of Angel.  I ended up putting on my Buffy DVDs while reading along with her book.  Though it’s been a while, reading Joss Whedon: The Biography reminded me how well those early seasons hold up.

That being said, I think Amy Pascale did a great job making the biography accessible to people that may have heard of Joss Whedon before, but haven’t been fully introduced to his whole body of work.  I don’t know how much interest the sections about Goners would be to a casual Avenger watcher, but the book has been organized well enough for a more casual fan to skip around and read about the topics that they are interested in.   Nathan Fillion provides the Foreword to the book, and heaps ample praise on the man that changed his career and life.   There’s also a nice little photos section, allowing you to get a glimpse of Joss before he rose to prominence.

As a longtime fan, Joss Whedon: The Biography was a very satisfying read.  I had been familiar with most of his projects to varying degrees through Whedonesque.com, but Pascale’s enthusiasm for the work just oozes out, and you can’t help but feel like you’re an insider privy to industry secrets.  I also loved knowing his motivations behind some of his most famous creations.  I know that Joss Whedon still has a lot of tv and movies to create, but I enjoyed reading about what he’s done to this point.

Rating: ComicsOnline gives Joss Whedon: The Biography 4 out of 5 Gentlemen.