Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Scott Allie, Editor - A GREAT YEAR - Updated 12/13/2007

This has obviously been the best of times for those of us involved with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The debut of Season Eight was met with more success than expected, and we expected a lot. The first issue saw a total of six printings, including variant covers and continuous sellouts. While it was a very special thing for Buffy fans to see the continuation of the Slayer’s story, it was made even more special, of course, by having Joss write it himself. In every marketing meeting from the beginning, we knew that the tagline that could not be beat was Joss Whedon Writes Season Eight. What more needed to be said? How could the book get better than that?

So it was a relief to get as great a writer as Brian K. Vaughan to follow Joss’s run, and a relief when sales stayed strong after we’d switched writers. Readers were happy with Brian’s run, some even saying it was better than Joss’s. We marked the end of the year with the release of the collection of the first five issues of Season Eight, which has enjoyed the same huge sales as that first issue back in March. To celebrate, we’ve released a special hardcover edition of Season Eight Volume 1, a limited run sent out as gifts to the retailers who helped make this such a great year for us. Hunt those hardcovers down, Buffy fans—these are going to be the ultimate Buffy collector’s item.

But it’s 2008 that’s really going to blow your minds.

Joss comes back with a powerful pair of issues. In #10, he puts Buffy and Willow through the emotional wringer—as usual—foreshadowing worse times ahead for the girls, and revealing the pain and guilt one of them has carried around for years. If you’ve ever cried over an episode of Buffy—and I know a lot of you have—we might just get you with this comic book. Then in issue #11, Buffy has her first confrontation with Twilight, the major villain for Season Eight, maybe the Biggest Bad of them all.

Following Joss, Drew Goddard—one of the best writers from the Buffy TV series, who’s gone on to major success with Alias and now Lost—takes the reins for a few months, in a story that will frankly blow your minds. The exact nature of this mind explosion must be kept under wraps for now, a situation Drew is used to from his experience on Lost, which of course packs loads of secrets. But he also wrote JJ Abrams’s upcoming hush-hush project, known as Cloverfield . What we can tell you about Drew’s Buffy run is that we see the return of a major villain, made more major by this story, and we see some Japanese vampires unlike any group of vamps ever seen in Sunnydale. For those of you complaining that Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s new incarnation has been sadly lacking in vampires, we’ve been saving up. And the surprises we have following Drew’s run . . . well, we aim to please.

To further ensure the delight of Joss fans all the world over, we’ve got the return of Serenity to the comics stands. A new three-issue series, Better Days, launches this winter, reuniting Joss with his team from the first Serenity series—as of this writing, Will Conrad is finishing up the second issue, and Joss and Brett Matthews just finished the final script. We’re also releasing a pair of Serenity lunch boxes, one featuring the cast and the ship, and the other featuring a reference only the most devout Serenity fans will get—Fruity Oaty Bars. But the latest news—we’ll be following up Better Days with the first flashback Serenity comic-book series, A Shepherd’s Tale, revealing the origins of the mysterious character Book, played by Ron Glass in the series and film. We hope to get the first issue out by the end of 2008—I’ll be happy not to wait another three years between Serenity projects.

So thank you, readers, who’ve supported us so strongly this year. We’re trying to do right by you with the best comics we can create, trying to live up to the standards of those great TV series. And we have some other related projects cooking that we’re not ready to announce yet. As you should know by now, Season Eight will last a glorious forty issues, so we’ll be around until at least the middle of 2010. Continue to let us know how we’re doing in the Buffy lettercol, care of Scotta@darkhorse.com.

Peace,

Scott Allie