Buffy : Season 8

Well, this is only for one comic shop, but according to Brian Hibbs of San Francisco’s Comix Experience, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was his top-selling book of 2008.

To me, this says a lot. Buffy, of course, was a cult-favorite series with a ready-made obsessive fanbase, and Joss Whedon was One Of Us (a comic lover). What could be more natural than Buffy comics, right?

Buffy’s also the type of heroine that us women comics-readers dream of seeing more often. She’s smart, sassy, screwed-up, but in control. We love her because she kicks ass, of course, but also because she makes mistakes, dates the wrong boys, loses her confidence, gets overconfident…you get my drift.

I’d love to see the breakdown, if it were possible, of the buyers of Buffy comics. How many are Buffy fans who just buy the comics because they’re still in mourning for the end of the series? And how many of those buyers slowly start looking around for other comics, and suddenly find themselves hooked?

On the other hand, how many Buffy buyers rolled their eyes at first at the idea of a Buffy comic, but came around because they liked Whedon’s other work, or because Brian K. Vaughan was writing it?

Either way, the fact that Buffy was a top seller proves that there’s a market for good female characters, and a market to bring non-comics fans into the comic shop.

Now, can I get those Twilight comics? I want Jasper backstory written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon, and Alice backstory written by Alisa Kwitney and drawn by Ryan Kelly…