‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 8 Comes to an End

Buffy the Vampire Slayer stopped airing new episodes on TV way back in 2003 when season 7 ended, but fans are still able to turn to the comics to read up on their favorite characters in season 8 – but now even that is coming to an end.

It's been a long and crazy road for our beloved vampire slayer Buffy, and another chapter of her adventures comes to an end this month when issue #40 of Dark Horse Comics' "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight" hits shelves.

Timed perfectly to coincide with a big day in Buffy’s  life, the release date for the final issue of the comic's current season was recently changed to January 19 — Buffy's 30th birthday. The new issue has be written by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, with art by series regular Georges Jeanty.

But don’t worry fans, while some sites are saying that that this is the “final issue” in the Buffy comic, they are wrong, this is only the final issue in season 8. According to Joss Whedon himself, there will in fact be a season 9. So more Buffy to come!

But that’s not all – while fans wait for the final issue, they have the recently released “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales” to enjoy.

From the official press release:

“Before Season Eight, Joss Whedon brought generations of Slayers and vampires to comics with the help of his acclaimed TV writing team and some of the best artists to ever grace the comics page. Now all those stories, plus selected stories from Season Eight, are collected in one deluxe hardcover with a new cover by Jo Chen.

Joss writes multiple tales: a somber vamp tale, drawn by Cameron Stewart; the story of the first Slayer, drawn by Leinil Yu; and more.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales also reprints for the first time new Season Eight stories written by novelist Jackie Kessler (Hell's Belles) and award-winning cartoonist Becky Cloonan (Demo), featuring vampires living in the public eye, killing Slayers and killing each other.”

From the sounds of it, this new comic book mixes the old Tales of the Slayers comic (there are also Tales of the Slayers books) with the new comics. I never checked out the Tales comic, but those old books kicked ass, they gave you a look at many of the Slayers that came long before Buffy – loved them!

What do you guys think? Do you plan on picking up issue #40 and/or Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales?

- Moonlight