Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Seven seasons is a good run for a television show, but for fans of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, it’s just left them wanting more. In what is being referred to as the eighth season, Dark Horse’s new Buffy comic series continues what the television series started. Overseeing this new series is creator and principal writer Joss Whedon, who will write several of the story arcs and act as show runner, supervising an all-star list of writers. Dark Horse reports shipping more than 100,000 copies of the first issue, and DH publicist Jeremy Atkins told PWCW that fan response has been "better than expected, and trust me, we had ‘great expectations’ to begin with!" The first issue shipped last week and has already sold out, with a second printing on the way.

"The series-or season-will run between 20 and 30 issues," said Whedon. "I’ll be writing the beginning story arc, the series finale and some others in-between. I’ve got former writers from the show and some comic book heavyweights, so I’m lucky. The series will have an overriding giant story arc, and the other writers’ story arcs will act as episodes that fit into the larger puzzle."

Time hasn’t stopped in the four years Buffy has been off the air, and this new comic series picks up 18 months after the last TV episode, as Buffy Summer’s pack of slayers have expanded their ranks and become a fighting force numbering over 500 strong. But following the destruction of Sunnydale and the slayer’s expansion, the U.S. government has taken notice of the group and labeled them a terrorist organization-one that must be stopped.

While Buffy’s name is the one in the title, fans know that this is far from a solo series. Boasting an ensemble cast now known as the Scooby Gang, the familiar names of Xander, Willow, Dawn, Giles and others are ones fans inevitably ask for next when talking about the revived series. "Oh, they’re here," said Whedon. “Some, like Dawn and Xander, are reintroduced early on, while others will be slowly brought in over time. Everyone deserves a great entrance, but by the end of the first story -arc, you’ll have an idea where most everyone is now."

The situation around two of Buffy’s most famous former lovers, the vampires Angel and Spike,will be handled differently. Since the comic book licenses for those two characters are owned by IDW Publishing, not Dark Horse, they will be used sparingly. "I can use them, but I’m trying to limit it, because I don’t want to interfere with the great work IDW is doing on them."

Whedon’s all-star cast of writers will begin with a story arc starting in issue #6 with Brian K. Vaughn, comic writer of Y: The Last Man and a writer on TV’s Lost. Future writers for the series include New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer, comics writer Jeph Loeb and former Buffy TV writers Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg and Steven DeKnight.

The gang is all back and the only obvious difference is the change in medium from television to comics. Whedon is glad to be able to continue it with what the new medium offers. "With comic books, you’ve got an ultimate budget and a broader spectrum of choices for the stories to go," he said. "We worked really hard on the Buffy [TV] series, but we didn’t have a lot of money to make Buffy. Now that we’re in comics, we have a mandate to do it right and do it bigger. Buffy’s still Buffy, but here we can really cut loose."