Whedonesque : Comments on 19633 : (SPOILER) Buffy Season 8 #24 preview.

Wow, good day for comic stuff. This isn't really enough to get a flavor of how the writing is going to be, but the art looks good. It's Cliff Richards, though, so that's sort of a given. He's not among my favorite artists, but he's so consistent that you just kinda have to admire his work. His style isn't as quirky as Jeanty's or Moline's, but I am glad he's back for the issue.

This--and, even moreso, #25--are the Buffy issues I've been looking forward to. This arc hasn't really lived up to the standard the previous ones set, but the premise of this and "Living Doll" could set the series back on track at last.

patxshand | March 25, 01:53 CET

Hah. That last line on page two has got to just kill Faith.

The One True b!X | March 25, 01:55 CET

Woohoo! Love me some Faith. Wish it was a longer preview. The first Faith arc was my favorite of the series, hands down. Followed by Time of Your Life.

ShanshuBugaboo | March 25, 01:56 CET

Great opening ot the issue I think.

Buffyfantic | March 25, 01:56 CET

Hrrm, is that Giles holding that girl in the last panel? I can't tell.

Anyhoo, looking good. Very much loving the "You're Buffy!" line, and looking forward to some more Faith/Giles.

Jobo | March 25, 01:59 CET

I think that is Giles.

Buffyfantic | March 25, 02:05 CET

Oh, poor Faith!
...
Actually, poor Slayerette! You don't say stuff like that to Faith.

JCapra | March 25, 02:36 CET

Faith has her own thing going with Giles, and she still has to hear exclamations about Buffy. This is going to be an interesting story.

sarahi | March 25, 02:46 CET

I can tell right now this is going to be painful for anybody who knows anything about Germany.

Note the charming and quaint Fachwerkhäuser in the background -- yeah, everybody here lives in those (snicker). The poster behind the girl in the very first panel has "Oktoberfest" in Gothic script. The last panel has an American aluminum garbage can -- German Mülltonnen are large, made out of a heavy brown or black plastic, square, and they don't keep them in the streets. Oh, and there would be a yellow one right next to it for recycling, the gelbe Tonne. Even worse, the writing behind Faith seems to spell "BAKER". Now, what German word, pray, is that supposed to be? A "bakery" is Bäckerei or even Backstube. German doesn't have many words with a k between two vowels, it almost always is ck.

Sigh. Guys, stay in California if you can't afford the research. Buffy has fans all over the planet, and this is an embarrassment. My German friends are going to fall over laughing.

scotws | March 25, 03:02 CET

Scotws, how about that first scene in Beneath You set in Frankfurt, Germany? I doubt that was the epitome of accuracy. Or maybe it was...nah I still doubt that. Or maybe the horrid Latin used both in the TV show and in the comic. This historical accuracy stuff - it never satisfies in the Buffyverse. When did we fans start expecting the story to be held to a higher standard? Because it's always been like this.

[ edited by Emmie on 2009-03-25 03:14 ]

Emmie | March 25, 03:12 CET

Gorram newbie slayers gotta go sayin' the B word.

Craig Oxbrow | March 25, 03:27 CET

Actually, the scene in Frankfurt was pretty good: It showed a modern Germany, not some cuckoo-clock 19th century fantasy world. I can't remember anything that was glaringly wrong like that American garbage can. Giles' German in Gingerbread is as correct as you can reasonably hope for (the German in the book is a joke, but most people won't pause the DVD to read it). The Latin, at least they tried. If I remember, the problem was that they had the lines translated and read over the phone.

Here -- if these two pages are what the rest of the comic is like, then they didn't even try. The buildings look like they are out of a tourist guide. Maybe they are -- maybe the story starts out with an American girl in a tourist trap village in southern Germany, and on the next page they go back to a real, 21st century city. I admit I'm going on little information here. But if this is what it is all like, it's going to be bad.

scotws | March 25, 03:28 CET

Scotws, I get the feeling that Faith and Giles are in a very small town in Germany. That's why they're going to find a sanctuary there where Slayers are hiding. Would it be unreasonable to assume that a "Fachwerkhäuser" would exist in a small German town that time forgot?

As for the rest, it's mostly spelling problems. And actually you missed one: the extremely dilapidated poster doesn't say "Oktoberfest", it says "Octoberfest". ;)

That one page gives the impression of a kinda derelict place. Possibly without the more modern trash cans? Maybe it's Germany's version of Brigadoon?

Emmie | March 25, 03:51 CET

I have no previous knowledge of the plot in this issue, so if you know they are in Germany as a fact, then read no further. If this is not a known fact, is it possible they are in Helen, GA or some similar place? Helen is made up to look like an old German town, but things like a Bakery and an old Octoberfest poster would be spelled in English and there would be american trash cans around. I can't say for sure, but I hazard to guess Helen is appalling to a german, much like (but not as extreme) "South of the Border" (in SC, south of the NC border) is appalling to Mexicans. Well, most Americans I know too.

By the by, I don't seriously think the above is the case, unless there's a really funny joke involved.

And not so much a fan of Cliff Richards. I don't hate his art, but it doesn't quite do it for me, least not for Buffy. Maybe it's because Jeanty's are is so perfect for Buffy.

bobw1o | March 25, 04:13 CET

It's set in Germany, if the solicit info for the TPB is to be believed. And I think it specifically mentions that Faith and Giles are in a small German town. So I think that takes care of the architectural gripes some.

wenxina | March 25, 04:26 CET

But if this is what it is all like, it's going to be bad.

Even if the rest of the plot kicks butt, you still won't enjoy it because they didn't depict the garbage cans correctly? ;)

This probably falls in line with the whole submarine thing in issue 22...I just can't understand dismissing a story over it. But that's just me. I am more into the characters than the background stuff.

ShanshuBugaboo | March 25, 04:38 CET

figured as much. And yeah, this is really small potatoes when it comes to the quality of a thing. It didn't really bother me when Arizona looked nothing like Arizona and a whole lot like Southern California in "True Believer" or how the Southeastern US looked exactly like Southern California in "Drive." Or Buffy related, the absurdity of having a Steadicam and a 4x4 mirrorboard when following someone through their daily life on a reality TV show. In these worlds I accept that these things are true. If that vampire is in Germany, then I can accept that Germany looks like that.

bobw1o | March 25, 04:54 CET

Seriously the story will be bad if they aren't 100% accurate in the German landscape? Seriously? C'mon...

Loving it so far. Particularly the “you’re her, you’re Buffy” oh man what a brilliant line to say to Faith.. NOT! Lol I’m loving they aren’t letting her off the hook with those issues any time soon :D I wasn't big of Cliff Richard's art in his other season eight work as I think it lacks the quirks and charms of Jeanty's drawings, but I'm really digging it in these few panels.

Can't wait for this issue :D

[ edited by vampmogs on 2009-03-25 05:37 ]

vampmogs | March 25, 05:34 CET

Looking good so far. Love that last 'you're Buffy' line. Can't wait to see Faith's reaction!

Shep | March 25, 11:24 CET

What's happened to DH lately? They used to give us half the comic, now we only get 2 pages? IDW used to give us more than that =/

DawnLover90 | March 25, 13:51 CET

From what I remember, DH only ever release 2-3 pages. Same as TFAW.com. Many of the extra preview pages usually come from Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, Comics Continuum, and the like. They'll probably pop up soon enough.

[ edited by wenxina on 2009-03-25 15:58 ]

wenxina | March 25, 14:24 CET

You mean the extra pages aren't officially released? they're just leaked by 3rd parties?

DawnLover90 | March 25, 14:33 CET

Not leaked. The sites are given the go ahead to release longer previews. I remember Dark Horse released a longer #16 preview on their Myspace, though. Or was that Jo Chen's?

patxshand | March 25, 14:57 CET

The #16 preview was 4 pages, right? The second and third pages were a two-page spread of Buffy and Mel falling and duking it out. So not much longer.

wenxina | March 25, 15:52 CET

Reverse what bobw1o said in regards to Richards and Jeanty, that's how I feel. Jeanty's art, while fine, often feels sloppy and reference-like to me, but not all the time. Also, there are instances where some characters simply don't look like themselves at all. Richards, (especially when Dave McCaig was the colorist) long before Season 8 was always so clean and graceful to me. Take a look at the TPBs of Viva Las Buffy or Slayer, Interrupted for example. The likenesses are pretty solid, I think and it has this nice, pop-art, old school sci-fi matinee look to it, as evidenced here in the panel with the dusted vamp. I don't know, I just really love it when Richards comes back to Buffy.

kungfubear | March 25, 17:50 CET

When does this issue come out? (It's not out today, is it?)

Lots of the old BtVS and especially Angel comics completely got Southern California wrong as well. Sometimes even the two series did. Why are there so many houses with basements in Sunnydale? How on earth does an earthquake swallow up an entire building, leaving it intact instead of turning it into a pile of mangled rubble, let alone do it to a church, a mission (which would have had a replica built in its place anyhow), and an opera house? If they can't get Southern California right, I wouldn't expect to see an accurate depiction of Germany.

deanna b | March 25, 19:22 CET

It should be out next week.

Simon | March 25, 19:35 CET

It's a personal peeve of mine; when Americans get other countries wrong, especially when they have Brits and Aussies using the wrong words, it bugs me. Same with the physical trappings.

On the other hand, when foreign writers have Americans using British or European terminology I usually think it's cute. Except the morgue scene in Seven Doors of Death which was just stupid and ridiculous or when Weil and Brecht had a gold rush set along the Alabama coast in Mahaggony which was all kinds of silly.

[ edited by DaddyCatALSO on 2009-03-25 20:19 ]

DaddyCatALSO | March 25, 20:18 CET

The last line on the second page made me LOL, and I rarely LOL even when I type it.

Riker | March 26, 00:38 CET

I like Cliff Richards' work. I'm fascinated by the wind-blown litter one finds in almost every outdoor scene he draws.

Capt. Logic | March 26, 01:18 CET

March 25 2009