Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8
Library Edition, Volume 1 HC
Script by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils by Georges Jeanty, Paul Lee, Cliff Richards
Inks by Andy Owens
Colors by Dave Stewart, Michelle Madsen
Cover by Jo Chen
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 30, 2012
Cover Price: $29.99

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was, and is, one of the most enduring popular cult television shows to ever hit the airwaves. Fan conventions routinely feature the stars of the show, as well as panel discussions. Legions of followers all over the world adore the Buffyverse and when it went off the air, we all thought that was it. But much to the joy of Buffy fans everywhere, creator Joss Whedon teamed up with Dark Horse Comics in 2007 to produce the continuation of the events of the television series.

When the first few issues came out, viewers of the TV show who weren’t also comic book fans and weren’t accustomed to the shift in format weren’t sure if the experience would translate for them from screen to book (usually it’s the other way around, with comic books getting big and sometimes small screen adaptations), but the one thing every fan wanted to know was what would happen next. Due to constraints, television plotlines usually can’t afford to veer off in all sorts of different directions the way comics do, and it takes whole seasons to properly go through one storyline. But with comics, the potential for several plotlines multiplies, and this can sometimes cause the reader to feel lost, but this isn’t the case with Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Volume 1, a hardcover edition that collects the first two arcs of Season 8 (there are eight volumes in total) along with two stand-alone stories together. This is 304 pages of awesomeness that makes the ultimate gift for any die-hard Buffy fan, particularly if they never got around to reading the single issues.

Dollhouse, Vol. 1: Epitaphs
Written by Andrew Chambliss, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon
Pencils by Cliff Richards
Inks by Andy Owens, Cliff Richards
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Nate Piekos
Cover Art by Phil Noto
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 11, 2012
Cover Price: $18.99

Dollhouse, Vol. 1: Epitaphs is the trade paperback that collects the first five volumes of the post-apocalyptic follow up to Joss Whedon’s short-lived Fox series.

For the unfamiliar, Dollhouse was about the secretive Rossum Corporation, who serviced a high-class clientele by providing them with male and female escorts who would be anybody (and do anything) they’d want. To achieve this, they leveraged a technology allowing them to wipe the minds of their escort “actives” and imprint custom personalities to suit the client. After each mission, the actives would get back a docile blank personality and have no memory of their escort mission.

Criminal Macabre: Die, Die My Darling
Story by Steve Niles
Art by Christopher Mitten
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Nate Piekos of Blambot
Cover by Fiona Staples
Designed by David Nestelle
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 04, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

Criminal Macabre: Die, Die, My Darling finds its anti-hero, Cal McDonald, adjusting to life after life. To being undead in other words. How is he taking the transition? He’s disgruntled, sure, but whatever, he seems to be disgruntled about a lot of other things, too.

Since 1990 writer Steve Niles, who you should know from the 30 Days of Night books/film (and if you don’t that’s your loss) has been doing his own take on the Paranormal Sleuth sub-genre in both comics and prose. Specifically, by Sleuth I mean the hard living, solving-crime-in-a-drunken-have type, and by Paranormal I’m talking about a casual slathering of vampires and werewolves. You like John Constantine? Give this a try.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #2
Based on the television series created by Joss Whedon
Script by Andrew Chambliss
Pencils by Georges Jeanty
Inks by Dexter Vines
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Cover by Steve Morris
Alternate Cover by Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines, J.D. Mettler
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 12, 2011
Cover Price: $2.99

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #2 starts off with dead bodies, credit demons (no, really), and a big dose of cold, hard reality for Buffy. Add to that some creatures of the night doing a little breaking and entering and you have the makings of a good BTVS story!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9 #1
Written by Joss Whedon
Pencils by Georges Jeanty
Inks by Dexter Vines
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 14, 2011
Cover Price: $2.99

When I was given the chance to review Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #1 a week or so ago, I was so excited. I am a huge fan of the Buffy-verse and am always excited when a new issue of this comic drops. Then I realized I needed a refresher on the last season, so the reading began… I’m happy to say that I finally finished rereading it and it helped put this first issue of Season 9 in perspective.

Immediately, the reader is thrown into the story and like many issues of the last series, this one really reads like a television program, with lots of flashbacks and memories, switching of scenes, and so on. The premise of this issue is to reunite the characters after the end of last season. Just like the show, it starts off with sort of a shaky start on what’s going on and proceeds to fill in some of the blanks, so to speak.