This year Buffy Summers, one of the greatest characters in the history of sci-fi and fantasy television and the #1 kick-ass heroine of all time in any medium celebrates a major benchmark as the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer turns twenty. Dark Horse Comics–publisher of the Buffy comic books and related characters from the series including titles featuring Angel, Spike, and Faith–announced this past week that a new trade edition of its Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The High School Years monthly series is available for pre-order, and an adult coloring book for the series was released last week.
The television series was groundbreaking, its first episode airing March 10, 1997, on The WB. With high school and college as a backdrop, the incomparable showrunner Joss Whedon was able to address racism, identity, bullying, guilt, death, first love, and heartbreak using demons as metaphors. Never before on television had a teenage girl been empowered like Buffy, with smart writing, lovable characters, fun monster-of-the-week episodes, action-packed choreographed battles, and emotional and dramatic arcs that continued over seven years from 1997 to 2003. Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, would go on to inspire other great shows with smart, strong, and empowered young women, including Veronica Mars and iZombie.
It’s a subject of debate among Buffy fans, but some of the best episodes and story arcs of the series can be found in the first seasons of the series. Dark Horse’s new collected edition of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The High School Years, titled Parental Parasite, taps into fans’ nostalgia, taking readers back to the first season of the series, when Buffy’s mom starts to want more “quality time” just as Buffy must secretly fend of monsters as part of her nightly slaying duties.
Dark Horse has taken Buffy all the way into four seasons of stories beyond the finale of the TV series. Check out a cover gallery after the cut, and links to hardcover and trade editions of Seasons 8, 9, 10, and 11.
movie (reviewed last week 
. We’re reviewed several franchise tie-ins and this new novel is among the best. All that you think you’d need, the familiar characters, setting, and mood are here, but the most important is that inner monologue of Veronica. Who better to scribe the next story, the immediate aftermath of the events of the movie, and Veronica’s voice than Thomas?
felt like falling into another episode (except ten years on, the drinking, sex, and swearing has all grown up… and somehow feels a little uncomfortable now). The whole gang is back–Mars (Kristen Bell) and father Keith (Enrico Colantoni, Galaxy Quest), ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring, Ringer), hacker pal Mac (Tina Majorino, Andre, Corrina, Corrina), biker pal Weevil (Francis Capra), sweet socialite Gia Woodman (Krysten Ritter), even our favorite disgraced deputy, Leo (Max Greenfield, now in New Girl). A couple of lively new additions, including Gaby Hoffman (Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck), and Jerry O’Connell (Sliders, Stand by Me) as Sheriff Dan Lamb (brother of slain series sheriff, and Mr. Mars’s archrival, Don Lamb) round out the cast.
