Joss Whedon Isn’t Getting Rich Writing Comics

If you thought writing comics was anywhere nearly as lucrative as making movies or TV shows, you may be surprised by the answer fretful parent and skilled scribe Joss Whedon gave to Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club's resident comics expert/geek in an unabridged interview posted online yesterday.

When asked about forgoing TV and film for the comic book life, the creator of the Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Firefly TV universes didn't hesitate. "I would like my children to eat solid food, and possibly go to grade school, let alone college, so not so much. I love comics, very much, and I love being alone, but I also love the other part. I love actors, and I love filmed entertainment, and that is not something I plan to turn my back on. The comic world has its own limitations, as everything does. I adore it, I respect it, but it's not going to take over all of me."

Whedon also gets around to explaining why his work for Marvel Comics on X-Men and Runaways is so... astonishingly good. It's all about having freedom. "They are extremely hands-off. It's only if I try to set a toe in the actual Marvel universe. There's a reason that one of my teams is in outer space [X-Men], and the other is in 1907. I didn't want to do a Civil War tie-in."

And, there's a post-Angel comic series in the works, like Buffy, picking up where season 5 ended, and, his online comic, Sugarshock, has just arrived via the return of Dark Horse Presents.