The Finding of Fray

Okay, so recently, I realized that there was Jossness I’d never experienced before. For some reason, I’d never gotten around to reading Fray, Joss’s Dark Horse comic mini from 2001-2003. I even had the trade. For a long time now. Maybe it was the close of Astonishing that made me think about it, I don’t know, but I realized I was way overdue. So, because I despise comics in print form now, I left the trade alone in my closet and downloaded the issues for hot laptop reading action.

Answer me this. How, after all this time, did I NOT know that Fray was a Buffyverse property?

I had no idea! I got through the first issue and was in full-on holycrappity mode. And then, I think, less than an hour after I finished that issue, I found out the next Buffy Season 8 arc is going to be the (apparently long-awaited, though I didn’t even know enough to be awaitin’) Buffy/Fray crossover. More crap, even holier.

I shot through all eight issues in the mini. Damn! It was really, really good! All this time I’d been thinking it was just some other project of Joss’s, some futuristic thing, self-contained. How did I get through all this ‘Verse living and go to all those panels and hear people whine about wanting more of it AND read Whedonesque semi-regularly and not NOT know this was his future-slayer book?! Like Shakespeare’s Dogberry – I…am an ass!

I seriously dug it. Probably more so because I read them all at once. Apparently, being Joss, he took, like, three years to get eight issues out (what, was he busy writing TV shows or something? Psh! Oh…actually, he was working on three…). I also did this, FYI, before I read Big-Ass Astonishing X-Men – I realized I was totally lost on the plot, so I went back and read the whole arc from “Oops, we’re in space” onward, or from #19 on. Made a HUGE difference when I got to the finale. This comics-once-a-month stuff is tough enough. The way JOSS does it? I’m surprised I remembered who Colossus was.

Running through the whole Fray, I found it so, SO Joss. I could even hear Buffy/Angel ass-kicking (or tear-jerking) music going off at just the right points. It was a little over-the-top in its wacky futurism from time to time, but hey…I dig six-shooters in space, right? And I had no idea how much love from this got carried out the “real” projects. Case in point – the scythe. The freaking scythe from the Buffy TV finale first appeared in Fray?! No kidding? And this also ended up being the first place where Joss ever used the word “rutting” (at least as far as I know. Maybe he talks like that in letters to his Mom. “Yeah, mom, I’ll be home for ruttin’ Christmas!”). I’m ashamed to say I TOTALLY misread what this series was all about. I thought it was just Joss trying comic writing for the first time. I had no how much pure Whedon love was pumped into it. It’s a really great story. Well, no doubt there, sure…but it’s a Buffyverse story, and a damned fine (and, in its own small way, epic) one. I found myself emotionally hooked, and Joss played the aging, dorky violin that is me just perfectly, leading me one way, surprising me when I least expected it. Melaka Fray was a rockin’ character. One I ended up caring for.

And the best part of my ignorance and slowness of clue-having is that now that I’ve just finished totally loving Fray, I find I just have to wait a couple of months to see her 5-year delayed return to comicness. I am so damned ready. And I’m quite excited to see that the same creative team (Joss and Karl Moline, whose art just got better and better with each issue (which happens over three years of your life, I suppose)) will be doing it up. Wow. I knew I was a Joss fan, but I never knew I was a big enough Joss nerd to be totally psyched about a comic character slayer meeting a TV slayer for the first time. Damnit, Joss! I am TRYING to be cool!

By all means, go out and grab that handy trade for yourself. Or, if you want to learn more, you can check out this page from a guy (guess I’m just assuming it’s a guy) who makes me realize I’m not THAT big of a Fray nerd. Take caution – he actually summarizes the whole series in text. Because that’s SO much more exciting than actually reading the comic… Guess that’s a nice community service for people too poor to buy it. Hell, they could just download it. Wait…are you talking to me about .cbr files on a cellular phone? I don’t know you. Prank caller! Prank caller!