‘Buffy’ flashback: Dark Horse Presents stories (1998-2000) (Comic book reviews)
In addition to the main “Buffy” series and its miniseries and one-shots, Dark Horse put out several short tales about the Slayer in its early days with the license. The main outlet for these yarns was “Dark Horse Presents,” a monthly black-and-white comic that served as a way to advertise the company’s titles and get
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘Angel: The Hollower’ (1999) and ‘Spike & Dru’ (1999-2000) (Comic book reviews)
Angel’s first “solo” adventure actually came out a few months before his debut as a TV leading man. Although later collected in a trade paperback with the familiar “Angel” logo, the three-issue “Angel: The Hollower” (May-July 1999) debuted under the “Buffy” banner and is set in Season 2, so it’s technically a “Buffy” yarn.
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘Blooded’ (1998) (Book review)
Although “Blooded” (August 1998) is the fourth original young-adult “Buffy” novel, it’s possibly the book that inspired the publisher, Pocket Books, to split the title into adult and young-adult books after this point. Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder, who had previously launched this series with 1997’s “Halloween Rain,” write “Blooded” in the same style as
Giles, Pike star in ‘Buffy: Sins of the Father’ (1999)
‘Buffy’ flashback (Book review): Christopher Golden fascinatingly explores Giles’ relationship with his father, and Pike also pops into this Season 3 yarn.
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘BTVS Classic’ Issues 21-27 (2000) (Comic book reviews)
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic” finds its groove with Issues 21-27 (May-November 2000), ironically a time period when it doesn’t have a regular writer (Andi Watson bowed out in Issue 19, and Fassbender/Pascoe start their run in Issue 28). As I noted in my review of the previous batch, novel writer Christopher Golden didn’t hit a
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘BTVS Classic’ Issues 12-20 (1999-2000) (Comic book reviews)
Issues 12-20 (August 1999-April 2000) of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic” consist mostly of further “Buffy”-lite stylings from main writer Andi Watson. But this batch is also notable for bringing novels writer Christopher Golden and TV show writer Douglas Petrie into the fold.
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘The Origin’ (1999) (Comic book review)
Dark Horse’s “Buffy” comics have been canonical for the past decade, but the first story that is officially part of the canon came out much earlier: “The Origin” (January-March 1999) takes Joss Whedon’s script for the 1992 movie, translates it into a three-issue comic series and gives it the necessary tweaks to fit with the universe and
‘Buffy’ moves to bookshelves for ‘Halloween Rain’ (1997)
‘Buffy’ flashback (Book review): “BTVS” gets its first piece of spinoff fiction. Golden and Holder nicely capture the feel of the show, if not the continuity.
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘Immortal’ (1999) (Book review)
For the “Buffy” series’ first hardcover novel, Pocket Books makes “Immortal” (October 1999) worthy of the format with cleaner copy than what was found in the paperbacks, particularly the previous error-packed entry, “Obsidian Fate.” Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder, the best “Buffy” authors to this point, take the reins for this Season 3 tale of a vampire
‘Buffy’ flashback: ‘The Gatekeeper Trilogy Book 3: Sons of Entropy’ (1999) (Book review)
Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder’s “The Gatekeeper Trilogy Book 3: Sons of Entropy” (May 1999) is so epic that Joyce describes it as “almost an entire month of hell, like nothing else you guys have run into” (page 316). It is actually only a few days, as we know from Oz’s three nights of transforming into a