In 'Dr. Horrible'Comics, It's Hammer Time

You know it didn't just end with Dr. Horrible taking his place in the Evil League of Evil - Joss Whedon is dreaming up more, much more for his supervillain, and first and foremost, it's going to be in comics.

"We'd love to do mre Dr. Horrible in any form," he said, "because that's a very rich universe, and it's a comic book universe very specifically."

That's because Dr. Horrible deconstructs superhero stereotypes - the villain is the nice guy, the hero is a jerk, and the girl they want to save they end up destroying by their actions. That's just for starters. The first of the comics, "Be Like Me," was an eight-page webcomic written Joss' brother Zack from the point of view of Dr. Horrible's arch-nesmisis Captain Hammer, and revealed the hero as the corporate tool Horrible always says he is. It'll be included in the bound volume of the My Space Dark Horse Presents collection.

More mini-issues are on the way, revealing more about Hammer as well as other characters. Such as:

"We want to do a Moist comic," Whedon said, referring to Horrible's friend-in-crime, who made it into the Henchman's Union; his ability is do dampen things, as evidenced by his profusive sweating. Not too impressive, but perhaps there's more to him than meets the eye - after all, he at least went out on dates.

"We also want to do a Fake Thomas Jefferson comic," Whedon added. "No one who is in the Evil League of Evil shouldn't be in there, except Fake Thomas Jefferson, who's pointless."

If more comics are to be had on the members of the League, Fury Leika is just begging for one to be called "Woman Scorned." And there's also ruch material to come with the inevitable bumping-of-the-heads between Bad Horse (a take on Whedon's publisher Dark Horse?) and Horrible, considering Bad Horse's philosophy is "go kill someone" and Horrible's is "killing is not elegant or creative."

Given that the League is under the false impression that Horrible has made a kill - giving him credit for a murder he didn't commit - is he going to have to step up his evil game and do it for real? These and other questions are waiting to be answered, but don't except the answers anytime soon - these won't be comics that will be out once a month. The next one is more likely to coincide with the DVD release of the webisodes.

"I'm very happy to say that we all have jobs," Whedon said, "so we're not all sitting around and saying, 'What are we going to do today?' We all have a lot of work - [Dr. Horrible co-writers and brother] Jed [Whedon] and Maurissa [Tancharoen] are working on 'Dollhouse,' Zack is staffed on 'Fringe,' but we all love the universe and Zack did such a great job that we all want to go back there."

Brace Yourself For Some 'Horrible' News - There Will Be More, Much More

Now that Dr. Horrible has been accepted into the Evil League of Evil, what's next. A lot more Horrible and Evil stuff, which we asked Joss Whedon and Dr. Horrible himself, Neil Patrick Harris, to help us decipher.

In the works already? A soundtrack so you can actually sing along to "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," which will be downloadable in "a couple of weeks," Joss said. then a DVD, to be out later this year, which will feature all sorts of nifty extras. Possible sequels. And just when you though it wasn't possible, even more.

The DVD is going to take a little longer just because it's going to feature new songs in the form of a musical commentary. (They call it "Commentary": The Musical.")

JW: "It'll run over the course of the film as actual commentary but will be a full sing-through musical."

NPH: "Will it be charaters singing in character? Or will it be us as performers singing about the creation of the show, Joss?"

JW: It'll be a literal commentary, with us as performers and creators singing about the things we were going through, and all of that made much sillier that it actually was. It is a muscial based on our own opinions. For regular commetaries, you keep the sound on low. This one will have to be off. No competing! When I'm singing, you don't sing! America wants to hear me! They loved me in 'Assassins.'"

Um, Joss, that was Neil they loved. They're also planning a featurette on the aftermath of the release, what with the free streams crashing the server on the first day it was out (because it was getting 200,000 hits an hour), becoming the number one on iTunes, and launching all sorts of fan horri-sodes (My fave is "Dr. Horrible: The Early Years"). "It blowed up real good, as they say," Joss said.

And since a videographer captured the whole process from read-throughs onward, there's all sorts of embarrassing footage to use as extras - such as Joss singing like Captain Hammer and NPH singing like a chipmunk for a sped-up moment that didn't work out.

NPH: "You think someone was filming me doing that horrible green screen thing? I hope not."

JW: "I hope so.

And then the most telling extra - since it sets the stage for possible sequels - an interview with the Evil League of Evil themselves. "I wouldn't call it Part Four, because it's not like we're going to do only a 12-minute sequel to this," Joss said, "but should we continue, the Evil League of Evil will play a major role." Then turning to NPH, "They'll play your role. You're not in it."

NPH: "Why? I sand all right."

JW: "You're good, you're not great. You're the touring company. You're not making Broadway. You're just not ready."

Sounds like the Evil League of Evil might have a vacancy - and wouldn't you know it, they're accepting applications. No, seriously - Whedon and company want folks to submit three-minute videos from potential supervillains and the 10 best will get on the DVD. Will it be hard to get in?

JW: "Not if they know how to kill!"

NPH: "I would encourage people sending in their submission to know that the Evil League of Evil is no joke. It's legitimnately hard-core to get in. I would know."