Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Georges Jeanty, artist of the first arc of Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, told The Continuum that all systems are go for the book’s scheduled March launch.

"I’ve finished the first issue," Jeanty told The Continuum on Sunday at the Motor City Comic-Con in Novi, Mich. "I hope to finish everything by December."

Jeanty said he’s enjoyed working with writer and Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who hand-picked him for the project, which picks up from the end of the television series.

"He’s a full-script kind of guy. Everything is there," Jeanty said. "But I will talk to him about specifics. He’s very, very giving."

Jeanty was originally concerned in dealing with likenesses, but he said that’s working out well.

"I’ve got Sarah Michelle Gellar down pretty well and I’ve got Xander (Nicholas Brendon) down," Jeanty said. "Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) is presently the one that’s giving me some trouble. She has such a pretty face and is so simply beautiful. There’s not a distinctive characteristic like an eyepatch or like with Sarah Michelle Gellar, her nose."

Dark Horse’s new Buffy comics will be released in a series of mini-series. The March launch will coincide with the 10th anniversary of the television show’s debut.

Jeanty’s recent WildStorm project, The American Way, will be collected in a trade paperback in February. Perhaps one of the higher-profile artists never to sign an exclusive with Marvel Comics or DC Comics, Jeanty is uncertain what his next project will be.

"There might be more Buffy, I’m not sure," he said.