Nice job on the slaying, congradulations! Look forward to getting my hands on a copy.
Chris

 

It might be my fault. I bought copies for some friends as well as my customary one.

Congratulations. Those are incredibly strong figures.

 

Long time B.T.V.S. watcher, first time comic book buyer. Great job guys! Keep them coming.

 

Joss'c comic is wonderful. I'm not surprised it ran out. And the comic book store owner I spoke to said he had 10 people waiting for him to open yesterday so they could grab the comic.
 

I don't know what makes me happier. That you are listening to Tom Waits or that Buffy #1 kicked so much butt. I'll be sure to call to make sure the new copies are in before I drive the 30+ miles to my nearest comic store. Congrats!
 

It suprised me, i really enjoyed it.
 

I hope I get my subscription copy soon!  I can't wait!!!!
 

I went shortly after the Graham Cracker Comics store (downtown Chicago) opened and they had two huge stacks. When my friend went later they only had a couple alternative cover copies left. When I went at 6pm (shortly before they closed) they seemed to be down to 5 alternative cover copies and NO Chen covers.

Other people have told me (since I run a podcast) that they went and their comic book stores are sold out.

 

Thanks for bringing Buffy back. The first issue was amazing, can't wait for more. You rock!!
 

Buffy issue one kicked ass the art is amazing and this is someone who has no knowledge of comics at all cant wait for the rest of the season to continue.

 

Not surprised, but still ... wow.  And I must echo other's comments that I've not been this up for a comic in a looooong time.  Excellent read!  Thanks!
 

I reserved my copy a week in advanced. I think I will do the same for #2 since most places are sold out within hours. Loved the first issue and now am dying to get my hands on #2.

 

We ordered pretty heavy and have about 30 copies left at the Comics Dungeon in Seattle. We also were one of the stores that was lucky enough to win the contest and win 10 copies of the sketch cover. You might give the shop a call if you're interested, I'm not sure of the price of the sketch cover. 206-545-8373
 

Whoot! I bought my copy from Comix Experience (I live in SF)! I can't remember the name of the guy that works there either, but he was super nice and really funny. I will tell him that you gave him a shout out next month when I go to get the second issue!
 

I have Buffy Season 8 #1 yesterday at the comic shop .  so Buffy Season 8 #1 go back to press on a 2nd printing arrive to the comic shop  next 2 weeks ! You guys  will see a new cover for Buffy Season 8 #1 yet !!!!!!

 

And we here at ALTERNIVERSE may not have copies left by this weekend (where did they all go)? Yup - it's reorder time! Interesting take so far for those of you who haven't read it yet (and if you haven't a copy, where have you been hiding). Thanks for another great book - AJ OUT!
 

  You know I've never seen an episode of Buffy,but I bought this comic cause Georges is going to be at a comic show I am going to and I have to tell you I'm definatley along for the ride with this one. Good job to all.
 

Been a long time Buffy watcher (since the original movie back in the early 90s...aww...Kristy Swanson). Anyways, I have been talking about this book since it was first announced, and mentioned it to my comic guy every time I went in the store. They only ordered five copies but even though my name is at the end of the alphabet (which was a pain in school but at least you knew role call was almost over then), he made sure to pull my folder first because, and I quote, "Nate made sure to pull your folder first because he knew you'd kick his ass if you didn't get this Buffy comic." So true, so true...even though he's three times my feminine size. Anyways, they sold out in twenty minutes of opening, and I still got my copy, so I'm extremely happy.

Congrats on the huge sell. It surprises me none!

 

Congrats!  Looking forward to the next printing.
 

I have never ever bought a comic book.  My friends who do, are keeping an eye out for the second batch of Buffy!  How dare you make me want a comic and make me wait! :)

Congrats on turning me!

Ready to buy her first comic book ever,

Cory

 

My friends own a comic book shop out here in southern california in downtown long beach called the comic book guys. I haven't bought a comic since i was 17 im 27 now and im a massive buffy fan. I run buffy tabeltop every tuesday with them and about 2 months ago i told them to hold my copy when it came it and that copy went directly to there place to hold for me. I payed a week in advance and made sure i got my copy and i will do the same for every copy to come out. They also had sold every copy and had to get more from another vendor to just have some in stock and that was selling out.
 

awesome job! it was the first comic i've bought in 12 years.
damn that age of apocalypse!
 

So Friggin Awesome guys!!!! Thank y'all soooo much. I got mine a week late cuz my local store sold out in 2 hours. Next Time screw it I'll get a doc note to miss my exam! Lexi Toronto Canada.
 

Waits and alcohol... a daring and dangerous combination indeed

 

yes, yes! cheers to joss! i bought two copies. both for me. =]
 

I wanted to let you guys know that you got a new customer in me out of it, and I was checking out some of your other books while I was looking up Buffy, and they look pretty cool too, so I will probably check them out as well. Keep up the great work!
 

Between the Buffy series and Frank Miller's work, Dark Horse has converted me to a comics fan and a very devoted Dark Horse fan. Thanks for the great offerings!
 

Thanks for the advise on the website, I have looked it over and it is a great website!

ponitac67b@yahoo.com

 

I also am a long time Buffy fan, 1st time comic book buyer.  Love it love it love it!
 

I had a lot of high hopes for the new Buffy comic until I picked up the first issue. If Joss Whedon's name wasn't listed in the credits, I would have thought that this was some bad comic book writer's interpretation of the show.
 
The main problem is that season 8 starts at too great a leap from the end of the TV show. The series ended with Buffy & Willow using a magic axe to activate all the potential slayers in the world. The season finale arrayed a dozen of those slayers to defeat the big evil, and close the Hellmouth it was coming from and, in the process, turning the town of Sunnydale into a giant crater. The last image of the show has the heroes staring at the sinkhole and wondering what the future holds for them. The town Buffy lived in, for the last seven years, is gone. Her last real job was working at a fast food joint where she made barely enough money to keep the home she inherited from her mother. She'd been saddled with collecting and protecting potential slayers, from around the world, who now were suddenly as powerful as her. The mystical nexus, from which the show's various creatures sprung from, had been closed. Basically, one chapter of Buffy's life was over, but there was a whole new world before her.

The comic book starts with Buffy rappelling from a helicopter, with other slayers, and dispatching some demons while talking with Xander back in some high tech command and control center that seems to be the hub of some kind of slayer secret agency. Willow and Giles don't make appearances. Dawn barely appears, but apparently dated a demon that turned her into a giant. Xander is running a giant slayer spy outfit. I'm completely lost. This comic didn't have the dynamics that were the heart of the series.

This first issue made a number of bad moves. Obviously, there's too big a gap between the end of season 8 and this effort. The whole Scooby gang (as the series fondly called the core group of friends: Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, and Dawn) needed to be in the first issue. The show started as a monster of the week affair but eventually, as with all good shows, became about the characters. Kicking off the comic series without the gang together took away the feel and tone that the series' fans love. The entire amount of interaction between the Scoobies is a 1-page conversation with Xander and a double-page spread with Dawn, who's whining like the kid she was two years before the series ended.

The format of a monthly comic doesn't lend itself to representing a TV series. Comics used to tell anywhere from one to three stories per issue. Comics have gotten flashier and panels have increased in size so that less information is imparted per page than used to be the case. Comics, in the 60s, averaged 6-7 panels per page whereas the Buffy comic averages around 4-5. The format ought to size each issue as being equivalent to an hour scripted show. Otherwise, it's like watching twenty minutes of a show and then waiting a month for the commercial break to be over.

The most jarring element for me is simply the jump from season 7 to the comic book season 8. We've gone from a Buffy that could barely cope, or make ends meet, to somebody with massive resources and running a slayer corporation of 500 super-strong girls. I wasn't too thrilled with seeing the US military being played as a villain again. That's already been done before on the television show.

For me, the most interesting story would have been going back to the Sunnydale crater, at the end of the seventh season, and start the new series from there. The most interesting aspect of the end of the TV series was turning every potential slayer into real ones around the world. With the comic telling us that there are 1800 super-powered girls, that presents a massive change to the world. The character, Faith, has already shown that some of these girls are going to be bad, so some will probably be villains. The various societies around the world are going to treat the discovery of super-powered girls in different fashions ranging from tolerance to fear to goddess worship to being hunted as demons (imagine the reception a mystically enhanced girl in a Taliban village would receive).

All these slayers are discovering their powers for the first time and Buffy is homeless and probably has no access to what little money she had and has no ready means to find these girls and bring them to whatever she's going to call home. The Watcher's Council was decimated by an explosion in season 7, so it's not clear whether they would be able to help. Buffy has no place to live and has no resources to find the new slayers. Yet, she is responsible for the birth of their powers and will bear a heavy responsibility for what happens to them or to others that they hurt.

What are the odds that the various vampire and demon societies in the world are going to just sit back and wait for 1800 slayers to join forces and become the most powerful army the world has ever known--and with a mission to destroy them? When the world only had one slayer, demons in other areas of the world didn't have to be concerned about that slayer's activities. With a slayer in every corner of the world, vampires and demons can no longer sit back. They'd be massing themselves against lone slayers to kill them before they were trained or organized. These adversaries will have more resources to go after these slayers than Buffy has to save them.

Governments around the world are going to be taking a hard look at now having to deal with dozens of super strong women in their midst. Those governments are more likely to be rounding up those slayers, than Buffy, because they are in their countries and have the home court advantage. Wide arrays of possibilities exist from recruiting slayers, to helping them adjust, to imprisoning them, to exterminating them before they can become a danger. All those options make me more annoyed that the US military is being picked to play the villain again. The timeline, with the military seemingly just starting to investigate what's happening, as if it's only been maybe a month since Sunnydale was wiped out, doesn't fit right with the years it would have taken for Buffy to be where the comic started.

Between demons actively hunting new slayers, and governments stepping in to understand them, I'm hard pressed to imagine that Buffy has somehow brought 500 of them together under her control.

There's so much that could have been explored with the comic starting where the series ended. I'm sure the comic will have answers for these things. There just seems to be so many plot possibilities, and angst to put the original characters, and new characters, through, if the story started with the end of the show.

Instead, Buffy's running a well-oiled corporation of slayers and her problems, in the first issue, are being called Ma'am and a colossal whiny sister. There were a lot more dramatic things to explore at the end of the TV series than there are in this comic. I know that there will be more events happening. Joss Whedon isn't a writer that works in clichés and does a good job of turning around most plots. Everybody involved in the comic had 24 pages to make me want to buy more and didn't succeed. If I hear enough good things about the comic, maybe I'll pick it up when it's collected in book form.

I'm not trying to give the impression that I think the comic is awful. It didn't measure up to my high expectations and the format of the comic is breaking up a series episode in a fashion that makes it hard for me to get involved in the plot. Maybe current comic book audiences are used to that, but it's been a decade or so since I've picked one up and it's not something that I'm comfortable with. The art's nice, but it's a little disconcerting having representations that only sort of resemble the actors. I didn't get into the dialogue, but figure the fault is in my reading rather than the person who created, guided and wrote some of the most memorable episodes of the TV series. This may turn out to be a great series and I hope it does.