Why I Love Joss Whedon

So, as many people know, I love Joss Whedon. Mastermind and writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and writer of Toy Story (betcha didn't know that), Joss has had my eternal devotion for as long as I can remember. Actually, only since 6th grade. But still. That is a long time. So why am I blathering on and on about it now? Well, that would be because my love has blossomed anew. After years (years) of nothing from the man himself, we are suddenly being gifted with not one but TWO projects in the next year. And one of them is of an internet-premiere variety: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. *GASP* It is another musical! And it is about a guy who wants to be a supervillain. How much cooler could it get, I ask you? Well, being the geek I am, I immediately added the project to my friends on Myspace, and also became a fan on Facebook. And through myspace, I (and countless other fans) got a message from the man himself, which I will now reproduce in its entirety to share the hilarity and the enthusiasm for the Dr. Horrible project:

"Dear Friends,

At last the time has come to reveal to you our Master Plan. BEWARE! Those with weak hearts should log off lest they be terrified by the twisted genius of our schemes! Also pregnant women and the elderly should consider reading only certain sentences. Do not mix with other blogs (BLOGGER'S NOTE: OOPS). Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this blog. You must be this tall to read.

'Kay?

It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, "It's Show Business - not Show Friends"? Well now it's Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.)

ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" will be streamed, LIVE (that part's not true), FREE (sadly, that part is), right on drhorrible.com, in mid-July.

Specifically:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up on Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up on Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom -that's still playing. Like, everywhere.)

And now to answer a few Frequently (soon to be) Asked Questions:

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kinds and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap -but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

2) What happens when it goes away? Does it go to a happy farm for always like Fluffy did when mommy was crying and the neighbor kept washing his fender?

No, Dr horrible will live on. We intend to make it available for download soon after it's published. This would be for a nominal fee, which we're hoping people will embrace instead of getting all piratey. We have big dreams, people, and one of them is paying our crew.

And somewhat later, we will put the complete short epic out on DVD -with the finest and bravest extras in all the land. We'll go into greater detail about that at Comiccon, but we're changing the face of Show Friendliness a second time with that crazy DVD.

3) Joss, you are so kind, and generous, and your forehead is like, huge, like SCARY, like I think I can see Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint hanging off it... what can WE do to help this musical extravaganza?

What you always do peeps! What you're already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs... let people know who wouldn't ordinarily know. It wouldn't hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community- comunitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving that we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome good will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It's time for dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen.

Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I'm a little afraid of you.

4) Joss, do you ever answer a question simply or coherently?

Shledzguohn?

There'll be more questions, and more long, long answer, but for now I'm just excited that we're actually making this happen. We (and a lot of other people -- gushing to comence soon) worked very hard on the show and we hope/think you guys will be pleased. Until July 15, I remain, your truly -j. of the firm j, j, m & z."

Is it any wonder that I love this man? So yeah, this blog entry is to fulfill my obligation to #3 on the (soon to be) FAQ. There will probably be pandemonium and more entries -reviews of the thing and the like- as July 15th comes nearer. And in case you think my gushing about this is simply due to a Joss-induced fever, here's a Matt Roush review for you to read.

Joss is back! Woot!

And don't forget to check out Dollhouse, coming to FOX... ...at some point in time. Until then, watch the trailer.