He also posted a fantastic rundown of every project he worked on, along with the pitches he wrote. It's absolutely fascinating stuff which you can check out here. But first is the time for interviews, so away we go!
Buffyfest: What is your favorite behind the scene memory since you've been writing for the Whedonverse?
Scott Tipton: Man, there are so many, it’s hard to even narrow it down, Though writing for ANGEL wasn’t the first comics work I ever had published, it was certainly the work that got me noticed, and in a lot of ways I owe my whole career to the square-jawed galoot. I vividly remember being halfway through the script of my first ANGEL project, the SPIKE graphic novel OLD WOUNDS, which was a big 48-page one-shot, and thinking to myself, “Wow. I think I could do this for a living.”Hearing later through the grapevine that James Marsters liked the book wasn’t too bad either.
The best thing about my ANGEL experience was the people I got to work with, no question, whether it was developing story ideas with Chris Ryall, trading scripts with Brian Lynch, or just hanging out together at Comic-Con meeting the readers. And I couldn’t have asked for better collaborators in artists David Messina, Stephen Mooney and Elena Casagrande. People often ask me what my favorite thing is about writing comics, and the answer is easy: it’s getting those pages back from the artist. Seeing them take your words on the page and bring to life exactly what you envisioned (and often improving it) is insanely rewarding.
I remember when I was working on my ANGEL miniseries AULD LANG SYNE with David, driving all over Los Angeles, down to Santa Monica and up mid-Wilshire to the LA County Museum of Art, taking dozens of photos of the scenery to send to him so the book could really have that L.A. feel. Getting to write that snarky back-and-forth repartee between Angel and Spike was a real joy; I never got to do enough of it – so when I got to add a few new scenes to SMILE TIME a couple years later, that was a real treat.
Buffyfest: Which character are you going to miss the most and why?
ST: I get asked this a lot, and my usual answer tends to be Spike, just because he is such a joy to write, and his dialogue and reactions spring so naturally to mind. Sometimes it’s hard to get the voice for Angel right or figure out exactly what Gunn would do, but Spike has always written himself. I just put him in a situation and turn him loose.
Buffyfest: Where do you see Angel in 20 years?
ST: Who can say? I’d like to think it will have stepped out of the BUFFY shadow even more, and gotten the acclaim it always deserved as a more serious and thought-provoking show. And if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll be writing it again…