We sat down with Rebekah Isaacs at Long Island’s Ace Comic Con. While many fans know Rebekah’s work across a myriad of comics publishers, fans gush over her work in Dark Horse’s BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER comics! ComicsVerse’s Fabio Castelblanco discussed the Buffyverse with Rebekah in addition to other adaptations Rebekah would love to create art for!

This transcript was edited for clarity.

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ComicsVerse: Hey guys, I’m Fabio, I’m here with Rebekah Isaacs. We are at Ace Comic Con Long Island. You’re watching ComicsVerse.

Rebekah, you are an artist for BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the comics, for several years now. What do you think BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER owes the success for its longevity? Why do you think people are so, like they relate to it so well, after all these years?

Rebekah Isaacs: I think it’s the development of the characters. They’re always changing and I think it was one of the first shows, especially for young people, that did that on televisions, that A, had a really complex and very flawed female protagonist. I mean she’s a strong female character, but she’s a fully fleshed out character, and that was, I think, one of the first big examples of that in television, at least American television, and all the other characters have, they are so real, and they have so much depth and layers to them that keep peeling off and becoming exposed throughout the series. I think that’s probably the biggest draw to it, even today.

And another I think is that, you know one of the main themes of the show is friendship and loyalty and a family, a family that isn’t necessarily related to you, friends that become your family and that’s something that no matter how much visual effects advance and how, you know, silly some of the things in the show might look 20 years in, those kinds of themes will never go out of style and never stop affecting people.

ComicsVerse: Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Also, something I like about the comic is that you’re basing the designs off of actual actors and everything but, something that I appreciate is that they look like comic book versions of those actors, whereas when I was reading the STAR WARS comic, I see them when they have Luke, Leia, and Han, it looks like they took a picture of them and put them in a comic, it just feels very jarring. So how do you go about creating a comical version of these real-life actors?

Rebekah Isaacs: You know, it’s challenging. I still am not sure I’m entirely successful with certain characters. That was something that Joss specifically asked us to do, starting with George’s mission on season eight, he said that he didn’t want Buffy to look like Sarah Michelle Gellar, he wanted Buffy to look like Buffy, so he wanted the essence of the character but not necessarily a photo-realistic likeness of her. And I mean, every artist has a different way of approaching that, for me, I try to just study the faces as much as I could without even drawing them sometimes, just to see what they say, their most prominent feature is, what really makes them stand out.

You know for me, Buffy, her nose is probably her most distinguishing feature, Angel it’s his brow line and his hair, Spike is the cheekbones, and then I just try to get everything around those distinguishing features as generally close as I can but if you have that one or two really, really distinguishing features then they’re generally very recognizable. I personally try not to use photo reference, because I think it makes my drawings look crazy like they look like they’ve been put through a funhouse mirror, I just can’t draw that way unless I trace, you know? So it’s, I try to just sort of get them in my head as much as I can so that I’m drawing from memory as much as possible.

ComicsVerse: Well you do a really good job on that.

Rebekah Isaacs: Thank you.

ComicsVerse: For the last question, is there any series or show that you would like to do a comic book version of?

Rebekah Isaacs: Hmm, that’s a good question. What do I like that hasn’t been? Oh, well, one of my favorite book series ever is the Hyperion series, by I think, it’s Dan Simmons, is the name or maybe it’s Dave Simmons, um I should know if it’s one of my favorites! Dave Simmons, okay. Dan, Dan, yes! I think though, it’s been rumored to be in production with HBO for awhile. So, I might have missed the boat on that but you know, there’s always comic spin-offs of TV shows too so that would be incredible because it’s just, I mean, it’s epic on a scale that makes LORD OF THE RINGS look like a child’s nursery rhyme, so it would be, you could have so much fun designing things for that. I would really enjoy that.

ComicsVerse: That would be awesome if you could do that. Well, thank you so much. Guys, this has been Rebekah Isaacs at Ace Comic Con Long Island. Be sure to check out any of our podcasts, interviews, and articles at ComicsVerse.com! Thank you so much.

Rebekah Isaacs: Thank you!

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