After so many years, Dark Horse Comics lost the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics license, and Boom Studios started releasing a new series last week, issue # 1

Already, they are driving people crazy with the variant covers on the comic:

1) A Giles cover (500 made) only available to librarians, at the ALA Midwinter event in Washington State last week; so far, I have not seen any surface on ebay or anywhere else

2) Two different "surprise" covers with art by Dan Panosian, 100 of each made, which were secretly sent to comic stores, 1 per store;

3) To top it all off, on the 2 Panosian covers, they made 1 copy of each (so 2 total) signed by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, which are floating around out there, somewhere.

I just read this comic last night. It starts from the beginning, Buffy meets Xander and Willow. Ijust got the basic cover, I don't do all the variant cover stuff, I save that for the card collecting.
Boom also has a new series of Firefly as well, been reading that too.

It's exciting to see the Buffy verse continue in comic form. Though I do think the crazy numbers on the variants puts off all but the most hardcore fans and collectors.

How is the Giles variant only available to librarians...did you mean libraries? I have visions of librarians lined up with their library cards and credentials to 'prove' they're eligible for the variant cover.

Can't help but think the low numbers on variants is a bit gimmicky to entice more interest. I suppose despite retaining a fan base for a show that's been off air 16 years, the youth market it's aimed at isn't all that interested.

There's plenty of new shows which have filled the void (Even when we 'old timers' imagined it never could be).

Plus it has yet to be seen what will become of the original Buffy when the reboot happens. It's already begun with the original 'old' Charmed.

There was a literacy event in Washington State in late Jan, called the ALA Midwinter

The American Library Association

So people who attended got the Buffy comic. 500 made.

I wonder if anyone found the 2 variants signed by Joss Whedon ?

Supposedly only 2 total in existence.

On the ALA Giles cover, about 5 have appeared so far on ebay over the past month, and all have sold in the $ 150-200 range (each)

Supposedly 500 made.

I've read a couple of these now - don't like them that much. The storyline is much different. Cordelia is nice, Anya runs the magic shop, Willow is already gay, Spike is already in town, alone.
There is an established story that has been set by the fantastic TV show. They could embellish on the original story, but by changing it so much they are not improving anything.

Well, I'm glad Willow is happy.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Norton:
There is an established story that has been set by the fantastic TV show. They could embellish on the original story, but by changing it so much they are not improving anything.

This is revisionist history, comic book style.

It's also the same as the way they are trying to twist franchise movies like Halloween. Just stop the storyline at any point, forget about the films done after, pick it up from there and go in any direction. If it is an improvement, even old fans will welcome it, but of course not all will see it as an improvement.

There are 2 reasons why I don't approve of the idea in general. First, they aren't just altering things, they are erasing things already made. Why did I bother to watch all those sequels if they don't mean anything now? Why did I read all those books if the characters are now totally different?

Second, and maybe worse, future fans will be brought up with the new stories, be they better or worse. They could go back 20 years to the original versions, but why should they look at an old TV show or movie when there is a new one? That's how history gets twisted. The real stories get altered and become the new real stories both in fiction and in fact. And future generations with no sense of history believe it as truth.

How many people think they know all about the Revolutionary War because they saw Hamilton the Musical?

Boom Studios has cancelled the new Buffy comic after 3 years and 34 issues.

Wonder if the Buffy's popularity is starting to wane after all of these years ?