I just have to tell the world how much I LOVE the new season of Buffy. At the moment I'm paying dearly for that love at the moment, since I've ordered the first two issues from US and that's costly. Now I'm starting to get them through a friend of mine who has a pull list at the local comics store. So the costs are coming down to half. Anyway, I just got the issue 2 today and that's what prompted me to write. I just had to sit down and read it first even though I was dying of hunger. And of course I can't eat while reading my Buffy comics, since I might accidentally get some food on them and then the world as we know it would end.

The picture on this post is from the first issue and the best panel I've ever seen in comics. It's not exactly a power walk, but something similar. And I'm a fan of power walks. Well, the power drop just hasn't the ring to it... I was a bit worried of the art style, since I don't always like the way comics and especially women in comics are drawn, but after reading a few interviews with Joss Whedon where he said that he carefully picked the artist who wouldn't draw Buffy with inflatable breasts, I started to breathe again. And when I saw what Georges Jeanty had done I was relieved that I could trust Joss Whedon's judgement.

I was annoyed when I read one of the letters in the back of issue 2, though. One reader basically said that if Tara doesn't come back and get back together with Willow, she will stop reading the comics altogether. I really didn't like the tone of that mail. I mean, even though I might have some preferences where I would like to see the story go, I wouldn't dream of telling Joss Whedon and the other writers how to do their job. And I noticed while watching the tv series that even though the turn of events was sometimes not what I would've liked the story as a whole usually was better for it. As Joss Whedon said somewhere (my mind is failing where I heard it) you shouldn't give the audience what it wants, but what it needs. And I need season 8! In my opinion there's nothing to complain about. But then I might be biased since Joss Whedon is my master...

I found some old comics at my parents's place. There were these old comics about Indians (this might not be a correct term, but in Finnish it's definitely not insulting and is not meant in any offending way here) that I used to love as a kid. The comics were called Hopeanuoli (Silver Arrow), which was the name of one of the main characters a young chief of the Kiowa tribe. A little search int he wikipedia tells me that the comics were published in Finland from 1976-1985, so it ended around the time I learned to read. I remember reading these first when we were visiting some friends of our parents's who had two sons that were few years older. Then I found them in the local second-hand book store. Now I actually learned that the comic was created by Belgian guy called Frank Sels. Not much about the comics can be found in the internet. The site with most information is a Danish fan site. So, if you can read Danish, go ahead.

Why am I writing about this? Well, I really used to love this comic. I always thought the Indian culture was very fascinating and I guess this romanticized my image about it a bit further. Now when I actually read couple of the old issues, there wasn't that much in there. I loved the little mountain lion cub that was running around and the strong female character Kuunsäde (Moon Beam), who was so not featured enough. I think even as a kid I was more drawn to the historical facts about Indians and their livestyle and what happened to them when the white men came. And even though I won't be spending a lot of time going over these magazines, I'm glad I found them and got reminded how much they were a part of my life one time. I'm feeling very nostalgic at the moment...

To get the blog thing going, I thought I would start with a review of a recent Buffy comic that I read. Unlike all things Joss Whedon that I usually enjoy, this wasn't up there with all the great stuff. I read it few weeks ago and the almost same review, and maybe some other opinions can be found here.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Viva Las Buffy

published by Dark Horse Comic in july 2003
Writers: Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza
Penciller: Cliff Richards
Inker: Will Conrad
Colorists: Dave McCaig & Liza Gonzales
Letterer: Clem Robins
Cover art: Paul Lee & Brian Horton

Ok, come on. I really didn't like this story. It was about Buffy before she came to Sunnydale, but in the world where Dawn exists. And Pike is there. The problem is that in the movie Pike was cool and in this he just whines and gets in the way. I really liked Pike in the movie, and maybe also because of this I really didn't like the story.

Also I don't think the story fits with the tv-series storyline. I mean, in the beginning of 1st season of Buffy, Angel wasn't really the one to fight and protect Buffy. Even in the end of the season he let Buffy face the master by herself. So it's really not believable that he's fighting very actively to protect her before this.

Also, Buffy was a lot more insecure in the beginning and it would be funny that just few months before she's totally confident fighting vampires. And Buffy has been all about that slayer can have it all: the job and personal life, so it's not really believable that she breaks up with Pike because of her duty as a slayer. Especially since she had "retired" when she came to Sunnydale.

And then come on: who really lets a 15-year-old to work in a casino? And what's with Giles and the watchers's council? I was under the impression that he didn't know Gwendolyn Post or Wesley personally. He thoroughly checked Wesley's background when he came to Sunnydale. If he had known him, he wouldn't had had to.

Besides the insipid and utterly stupid plot the writers were trying poorly to imitate the language of the tv series. The art wasn't too bad, but nothing extraordinary either. So I think that this was basically ripping off the fame of Buffy. Doesn't really make me crave for more Buffy that is not written by Mutant Enemy writers.

I'm watching Buffy again... I just finished the season 4 again and the last episode of that season Restless got me into blogging mode, hence the new blog. I don't think the season 4 was my favorite of all, but Restless was great. I just love the cheese man. My favorite quote is:

I wear the cheese, it does not wear me.

So, that got me thinking of a new blog about all things popular culture. I've also recently found the world of podcasts and got reintroduced to the world of comics, that is a lot wider that I thought. Also the reintroduction to comics is because of Joss Whedon and his new series of Buffy, season 8.

So, let's go wear some cheese!