Online program ‘The Guild’ to debut in comic book series
WORD BALLOONS

BY MATTHEW PRICE Comments 0
Published: October 2, 2009

Rather than spending her spare time playing online video games, actor/writer Felicia Day decided it would be more productive to write about them. Thus began "The Guild,” the popular online program now in its third season.

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"Around the time I started writing ‘The Guild,’ I was very bored with what I was doing,” Day said in a recent phone interview. "I’m not necessarily your typical Hollywood girl. And I worked enough to keep the bills paid, but not enough to keep me occupied every day.”

She funneled that energy into "The Guild,” based on her experiences with online role-playing games. "The Guild” features the interactions of a group of gamers.

"If I make fun of the characters, it’s only because I’ve lived that or been that myself,” Day said. "So, hopefully there’s an authenticity to it because I am a gamer.”

Day, who plays Codex in "The Guild,” was in the cast of Joss Whedon’s Web series "Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” The series, which starred Neil Patrick Harris as a singing supervillain, recently won an Emmy.

"It gave a huge boost to online content in general, as well as to ‘The Guild,’” Day said.

"The Guild” soon will make its debut in yet another medium. A comic-book series, to be written by Day and published by Dark Horse Comics, is in the works.

"I like to write very verbosely, so I have to be a lot more Spartan with the words, and also think more visually,” Day said. One thing the comic book will do that the Web show does not is visit the in-game world of "The Guild.”

"We are going to go in the game world. That was one of the reasons that I wanted to do it,” Day said. "Because I could kind of invent this fantasy world that the characters were living in.”

Meanwhile, the Web series continues. Wil Wheaton is a guest star on Season 3 of the series, and Seasons 1 and 2 recently were released on DVD.

"I think that’s a really cool story of empowerment and how you don’t have to wait for permission to make your art and be able to get your creation out there,” Day said. "I just love the idea of opening the door for other people, and also doing things outside the system. Because I’ve lived in the system for a while, and it can be very frustrating for someone who wants to create.”