Spike (Darkhorse)

Last month, Dark Horse announced that while plans for a Drusilla-starring spinoff miniseries were being put on hold, two of Buffy’s closest acquaintances were set to fly solo in the insane vampire’s stead. August sees the debuts of two new Buffyverse minis in "Willow" by Jeff Parker and Brian Ching, and "Spike" from the creative team of Victor Gischler and Paul Lee.

"Victor and I have been talking for a little while about doing some books and talking about some creator-owned stuff we could do," Dark Horse editor Scott Allie told CBR in April. "But he also had expressed that he was a fan of the Whedon-verse... [Gischler] has a great voice and a really good understanding of story, and we knew roughly what we wanted to do with Spike, and he felt like the guy for it. He’s been really fun to work with so far."

When it came to assigning the cover art duties, Allie said he was excited to see Jenny Frison return to Spike’s world. "I think this is the first time we’ve had somebody who worked on the IDW books come to work on the Dark Horse books. We at Dark Horse are all big fans of Jenny, and we liked her IDW ’Angel’ covers quite a bit."

Today, CBR presents an exclusive first look at the covers for the first issue of "Spike." The issue’s regular cover is by Frison while Steve Morris of "Angel & Faith" cover fame provides the variant.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SPIKE #1 (of 5)

Victor Gischler (W), Paul Lee (P), Andy Owens (I), Jenny Frison (Cover), and Steve Morris (Variant cover) - On sale Aug 22 - FC, 32 pages - $2.99 - Miniseries

Having fought to regain his soul after falling in love with the Slayer Buffy, the once-terrifying vampire villain Spike has been a bit less fearsome (to humans, at least). On his own adventure, Spike is forced to examine the man he once was, the man he is now, and the man he still hopes to become.

As master of a steampunk ship filled with loyal, oversized alien cockroaches, Spike embarks on a journey to the dark side of the moon, setting into motion an adventure filled with demons, witches, and others who brew new evil in the world without magic!

• Spike visits the dark side!