Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My stake in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Comics

Natasha Larry liked my first guest post so much (Thanks Tasha!) I've decided to do another :) I'll try to make this a weekly thing, though anything could come up (like I'm going to be in an amateur movie where I play a Star Fleet officer and help people speak Klingon :-).

Shameless plug: My book The Newfoundland Vampire will be on in April 2012 and Tasha’s books (the second one I’ve read and highly recommend) are out now.

Enough promotion though. So like lots of people I am a huge fan of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It is one of the only things I liked Sarah Michelle Gellar in (aside from a couple of movies, I haven't seen the newer show she did) and one of Joss Whedon’s best (and most successful) TV shows. Also like most people I was sad to see it end and delighted when Joss began doing Buffy: Season 8 in comic book format.

I thought the concept of a teen-age/adult vampire slayer was a clever one and of course her having a thing for vampires is a great twist.

The neat thing about the comics is Joss (or whomever does the writing) can do anything they want. There’s no worry about getting the actors, money, special effects or any of the other traditional show/movie constraints.

To be honest I haven’t read all the comics, I only just finished Volume 4 but I think I’ve read enough to comment on them.

Volume 1: excellent story. Great to have the whole gang back, super-sized Dawn was a nice twist. Xander is funny as always.

Volume 2: Very interesting story. I always loved the Faith character, a flawed slayer who screwed up but still has the powers. Giles recruits her to do the kind of work Buffy won’t.

Volume 3: My favorite (so far). How can you not love Xander being buddies with Dracula? Even though the Count doesn’t have a soul he sure has style! (and unique powers). Like any vampire fan I've always been a huge fan of the Count (he's in my book in a rather unique way =) and I was happy to see that Buffy hadn't really killed him during the show. To top this volume off it off Dawn gets in a fight with a super-sized robot version of herself, in Japan! A hilarious tribute to the Godzilla movies and a treat for any Buffy/anime/Godzilla fan.

Volume 4: Very good story. I have always admired Joss’ ability to make up new languages for a story (he did a great job of this for an episode of “Dollhouse” and of course everyone in “Firefly” had a unique way of speaking.) The future slayer time bubble twist was cool and I liked how we all got to travel back with Buffy to her high school days in the final dream chapter.

I’ve heard rumors of this series getting crappy but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m along for the ride Joss, someday I’ll have to catch up with Angel and Firefly comics as well.

Talk to you all next week and feel free to check out my own blog where I do lots of movie/book reviews.

4 comments:

Penumbra Publishing said...

Hi Charles, are the comics digital or in print or both?

Charles O'Keefe said...

Hi Pat :) They are in both formats, I'll have to examine future purchases to see which one is cheaper. Though I must admit reading comics on an iPod is not ideal.

Natasha Larry said...

Yay! Another great blog post. Sorry I haven't been around lately. =) Technical and real life difficulties! =)

P.S. I love me some Buffy.

Charles O'Keefe said...

Thanks Tasha I'm so glad you're doing better (and like my post). I've already got in idea for next week's installment :-) I love Buffy too, season 9 comics are out, I have lots of catching up to do :)