Juliet Landau Sinks her Fangs into 'Angel'

Best known as Drusilla, the bad-ass vampire who made Buffy’s life miserable on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Juliet Landau is revisiting her former character — this time in comic book form via a two-issue story arc that she wrote for IDW’s Angel comics. Debuting in Angel No. 24, which hits comic book stores Wednesday, Aug. 5, Landau took a break between projects to discuss Angel and why it’s important to have women involved in writing comics.

SheWired: What’s your two-issue Angel story about?

JL: Basically, I can only talk about Issue 1, but it’s a two-issue arc and I got the idea when (editor) Chris Ryall and (co-scripter) Brian Lynch approached me about doing it and it sort of popped into my head. Basically Drusilla is in an institution; Issue 1 is the set-up and then a lot happens in Issue 2, but the premise is a little bit of chaos vs. order. Dru represents chaos and the institution believes that they’re the “order.” But she is a character who cannot be reigned in.

SW: Any plans to go beyond the two-issue arc?

JL: At this point, it’s just the two but I really enjoyed doing this, so there definitely is a possibility. I’ve had some other people come and talk to me about stuff, so there definitely is a possibility that I would do more.

SW: Is this the first comic that you’ve written?

JL: Yeah, it definitely is. It was so much fun to do. I just spoke with Chris and Brian and I was in the editing room … and immediately the story just popped and came flowing. So I wrote it into script form and sent it to them, and they absolutely loved it. So we went ahead with it and we embarked on this process, which was a ton of work but was really creative.

SW: Why do you think it’s important to have women involved in the writing process for comics?

JL: One of the things that I think people related to with Drusilla is that she’s such a multidimensional character, which is important for a woman; it’s also so important for (a woman’s) voice and that audience to be heard — and for that expression. One of the things that was sort of fun for me in this, was very often in Buffy or in Angel I was teamed up with someone — I was with Spike or I was with Julie, which was a really wonderful combination — but it was exciting to figure out how this character would fend for herself and what she does when she’s on her own.

SW: Why do you think it’s important to have comics revolving around strong women?

JL: I feel like it’s important to have strong female lead characters in all mediums and I think comics follows suit in that there are so many stories that are really important that need to be told.

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SW: With the emergence of Twilight and True Blood, why do you think that the vampire genre has exploded recently?

JL: I think with vampires it’s the universal theme of eternal life, which everybody would like, and staying young forever and there’s such a sensuality to vampires. I think it’s those elements that people really respond to and have always responded to.

SW: With the two-issue Angel arc and the re-emergence of the vampire genre, do you think we could see more of Drusilla in the near future?

JL: I don’t know, I mean she’s definitely such a textured, dimensional character that there’s a lot more that could happen with her, so possibly.

SW: Would you be open to writing a spinoff Drusilla comic?

JL: Oh yeah, I would be open to it; I really enjoyed the whole process including working with the artists. I worked a lot with (Angel artist) Franco Urru on all the internal art (for Angel No. 24) and sent him something like 1,200 references that I pulled … that was labeled for which panel and which sequence that I had in mind. It was pretty incredible to see it come to fruition; you have it in your brain and then you see it come to life.

SW: In addition to the Angel comics, what else are you working on?

JL: In the animated Green Lantern: First Flight project, I play a character named Labella. It was a really, really fun character. She’s a very different character than those I have voiced before; she sounds very different than I do. … I just wrapped an adorable kids movie called Monster Mutt, which was created and produced by four-time Oscar winner Drac Studios (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). I play the slinky blonde Russian baddie in it. It’s been really fun.

For those in the Greater Los Angeles area, Juliet Landau will be signing issues of Angel No. 24 on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 6-8 p.m. at Golden Apple Comics, 7018 Melrose Ave. (323) 658-6047; www.GoldenAppleComics.com.

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