I am – Hercules!!
Last month Dark Horse Comics auctioned off five seats to an intimate six-seat Comic-Con dinner with “Buffy”/”Firefly” mastermind Joss Whedon to benefit Equality Now. It was held July 27 in a private dining room of San Diego’s Greystone Steakhouse. Each winning bidder paid more for this meal than I ever paid for a car: $11,100 $11,000 $10,410 $10,200 $9,400 The winners were: * Suzanne Brockmann, famous romance novelist from Boston; * Ed Gaffney, writer and Suzanne’s husband; * Karen, a lyricist from Boston; * Paul, a computer guy from Silicon Valley; and * Radha, occupation undisclosed, also from Silicon Valley. On Tuesday Brockmann posted a terrific and terrifically lengthy blow-by-blow on the dinner and how she came to be there. Interestingly, at least three of the five winners have been Whedon fans only since 2002. Suzanne and Ed first came aboard with “Firefly.” Karen didn’t know Joss from a hellmouth in the ground before two years ago. From Suzanne’s report:

Out of all of us, [Karen] discovered Joss most recently. I thought Ed and I would win that prize, but her first encounter with The Man was when she went to see Serenity when it played in movie theaters. Interestingly, she went because a friend of a friend (I think that's what she said) did the score. So she went to listen to the music. She loved the movie so much, she went back to see it thirteen days in a row.

Wow. And Karen didn’t even know who Book and Wash were before she saw the movie. Thirteen times. The first third of Suzanne’s piece talks about how she only first turned to “Buffy” (on DVD) after Fox gave her beloved “Firefly” the axe. Apparently “Buffy” and “Angel” subsequently kind of ruined all other TV for her.

We watched Buffy and Angel in broadcast order, in amazement and awe. And then, when it was over, we didn't watch anything at all for a few months, because nothing could come close. We finally found Veronica Mars, which was awesome before it stopped being awesome (First season is terrific -- another DVD collection on my keeper shelf). And we found Lost. Which was okay. But finally, just a few months ago, Ed and [best friends] Bill and Jodie and I all looked at each other, and one of us was brave enough to say, "Uh, guys? Anyone want to, like, you know, just... quit watching all that other crap that we've been trying, and watch Buffy again from the beginning?"

I can relate. (Though Whedon just recommended the superb “Battlestar Galactica” to Suzanne, so she’s going to give that a shot now.) Suzanne Brockmann has seen almost 50 of her novels published over the past dozen years or so, and generally strikes me as a pretty cool girl. Find all of her Joss Report here.

Blade Runner: Ultimate!!

$97.99 For 30 Discs!! Angel: Special Collector’s Editon!!