Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Season Eight #1 is off to the printer, on sale in a matter of weeks, and we’re doing everything we can to get the word out there beyond the comics market, to bring in all the Buffy fans who were left wanting more at the end of Season Seven. I’m writing this quick update from a New York City hotel room the weekend before the big New York convention, where we’re going to be doing one last-ditch effort to get the word out before the book hits the street.

Meanwhile, though, Joss and the team are working way ahead. He’s already turned in the first five issues’ worth of scripts, which puts him off the hook until his next arc—which we’ll be announcing in a few months—and that story should make hardcore Joss fans lose their minds. Georges has his hands full, wrapping up some final corrections on issue #3, working on the variant covers for #2 and #3, and starting up issue #4 with Joss now.

We’ve just committed Paul Lee to draw issue #5, giving Georges an issue off before his arc with Brian K. Vaughan. Paul’s throwing pages back and forth via email with Joss, working out some subtleties in this stand-alone issue, which Joss says is very personally important to him. Paul’s also working on a variant cover for that, while Jo Chen just this minute showed me pencils for her #5 cover, which she’ll be wrapping up around the convention this weekend. Last I heard from Brian Vaughan, he was deep into his first issue (that’d be #6, for those without a scorecard), and pushing up against the page count of twenty-two—this Faith story he’s working on promises to be packed tight. Working with Joss on Buffy is pretty damn exciting, but getting to work with Brian for the first time smells like napalm in the morning. Like victory.

After Brian’s four-issue arc, we’re gearing up to bring in one of the most popular show writers, Drew Goddard. His story involves one of the most popular villains from the TV show, with a focus on Xander, and ... wait for it ... him and the other Scoobies stomping around Tokyo! Dawn should feel right at home.

We’ve got a letters column in Buffy, so make damn sure to write in to let us know what you think when, in just a couple weeks, you get your greedy little hands on Buffy: The Long Way Home Part 1.