Behind the Scenes

"Actually with both Buffy and Angel we've started projects before there was a style guide available. So we really had to give it the look, obviously, with the approval from Fox. We created the look and they gave us the okay to move forward." The similarity of the two shows, creates challenge to keep things fresh and fun. After all you’re dealing with vampires and demons and the angst of saving humanity. It's not your normal

Cordy in research mode -
it's Demons, Demons, Demons!

television show! "Well, it's fun because there's a lot more to work with - if you did a trading card set just based on, well, you probably just couldn't do it on a sit-com for example. But this has different bad guys, there are colorful characters, there's funny dialogue. There's enough going on to provide a lot of material you can use. It makes it a more interesting trading card and more interesting to work on."

"Editorially, I work with several writers." The writer for both Buffy and Angel is Meloney Chadwick who is located in another extremity of the country in Oregon. Split apart as much as the CityofAngel staff I wondered if Martha considered her team to be very Buffy-aware. "Yeah, they have to be. (laugh) Well, for the particular writer I'm talking about she's very much a fan. Even if she wasn't working on the project she'd be watching it every week." Martha adds, "Meloney, in a previous life, was an editor at Dark Horse." It's a small world, it seems that everyone has touched upon Dark Horse at one point in their career. "It seems that way. She does a lot of free-lance work in the area but she's also a big Buffy and Angel fan so that was a natural." Martha continues about where the conceptual ideas stem from. "We'll sit there and brainstorm. Usually by then we've watched all the episodes or filled in with the episodes we haven't watched by reading the scripts. At that point we're pretty far along. We start brainstorming what it was about that particular season that was interesting or that could be a Sub-set, that we could get into a little bit deeper. That's how we start formulating our check list and what the feel of that set's going to be."

"As soon as we
knew that there
was going to be
an Angel spin-off
we told them we
wanted to be
there!"

With three seasons of Buffy trading cards and their success under the contented belt of Inkworks they were easily looking at a fourth line. Then there came the brooding vampire with a soul and the word that there would be an Angel line of cards was not far behind. "As soon as we knew that was going to be an Angel spin-off we told them we wanted to be there. That was a natural for us again. We knew we had that one pretty early on so in fact we previewed Angel trading cards in our Buffy Season 3 card set that came out last September." You had no competition against you as to if you would get that contract or not? "I'm not sure," she replied, "In this instance, the licensor was probably pretty comfortable that we knew the property and that we knew how to develop it and how to get it out the door. They probably had a good confidence level that we could do it, so I don't know if they considered anybody else or not."

We got an e-mail from a fan up in Ontario looking for the Buffy Reflections cards. These were the Special Edition of Buffy’s High School years that came out prior to the forth-coming Season IV cards. We tried to track down a suppliers for the fan but Martha informed us, "They're probably already sold out. We were sold out a month before the release of the product. We just had a limited run on it. As all our products, we've sold out on every Buffy product, Buffy's been very good to us." She goes on to give a small overview of what made this series so special. "It was a higher

Wesley, the Rogue Demon Hunter,
poised and ready for action.

end set, so the per-pack price is higher than our normal set. It's printed on canvas card stock. There were less packs in a box, more to try to keep the box price down and the box was a special box. It was designed to look like a book. There was a lot of special things about it that raised the price a little bit but made it a really nice premium set. But because of the higher price we didn't want to make a ton of it and with the Angel and Buffy Season 4 coming down the pike we wanted to make sure that our distributers and retailers did very well with it and that everyone continues to be excited about the property. Buffy fans continue to be very loyal."

And they will continue to be as long as there are quality products such as Inkworks offers their fans. So what better way to stand on the verge of a new Angel season than with the arrival of the new trading cards. Okay, loaded question time, is Martha an Angel fan? "Ah yeah!" she laughs "And actually, with children, I am more likely to have to tape Buffy and able to watch Angel because of the later time slot." There you have it!

The CityofAngel Council would like to thank Martha Modlin for adding us to her busy schedule and being a part of this so of the fun feature! Plus, VIP Kudos to Andy Modlin for the dozens of e-mails and the generosity of Inkworks, Inc. on the contribution and participation in the "Bring Angel into the Light" Contest. If you would like more information about Angel:Season One Trading Cards or other Inkworks products, send an email to Inkwks@aol.com.

If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Behind the Scenes' feature, we would love to hear from you. (except about that fishing analogy, where the Hellmouth did that come from?!) Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com