Where do I start with the comics?

[punkypower]

Hi everyone!

I'm brand new to Buffy-Boards, the comics, and the show. I always wanted to watch, but I never wanted to jump on in the middle of a series. Luckily, a good friend lent me his collector's edition, and I tore through them in a month (REALLY wish I would have stayed away from boards and spoilers, though! Grr! My own fault.)

Just my luck, the day after I finished "Chosen," TNT started its Angel rotation on Season 1/Epi 1.

Now, I'm ready to delve in the comics. I just wanted to know from the experts what my best bet is? Go for the graphic novels/omnibuses rather than collect the comics? Do I start with the Omnibuses, and then go into Season 8 and so on? Where do After the Fall and Fray and others fit in?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just so excited to get started. Like I told my friend, since I found Buffy, I don't think I'll ever be the same! :Þ

Thanks so much for ANY advice you guys can give me! I look forward to getting to know y'all!

[Lindsey McDonald]

Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but you should know that only Season 8 and After the Fall are considered by pretty much everyone to be canon. That means they are the only ones that actually happened for sure in the Buffyverse. Oh, and Fray too. Forgot about that. So they are a good starting point. With them, you can get the first few Trade Paperbacks, which combine 4-5 issues in one book. That way you can catch up with minimum hassle. Subsequently, you can buy the actual comics as they come out.

The other comics come in varying shades of canonicity. Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires are often considered to be canon, but it's desputable. The rest (like the omnibi) are pretty much side stories that have never been endorsed by Joss (except for The Origin, which is an adaptation of his original screenplay for the movie).

So, basically, it depends on whether you are only interested in what actually happens to the characters, or if you also want to read about other authors' takes on them. I'd say start with Season 8, mix that in with After the Fall, and then if you like them and want more, try out the Tales or the Omnibi. I think Fray can be read at any time, though it is relevant to a recent arc in Season 8. I'm not sure, cause I live in the UK and wait for Trade Paperbacks to read the comics.

I'm sure someone else will come along and explain it much more clearly and accurately in a minute though. That's if they haven't already done it while I was typing this!

[Allycat]

Five by Five explained it all pretty well. But I think that if you're going read the comics, there is a definitely a preferred order. Obviously, it's a subjective order, cause there is no "right way" of reading them, but anyway, my advice would be as follows:

I would start with the canon-stuff, for two reasons:
- they are what officially happened, the others are more like an parallel universe.
- they're the best written, if you don't know if you're into comics, the biggest chance of liking them is to start with the good stuff.

Obviously, you probably want to dig right into season 8 and after the fall, cause you're excited like us about what happens next, BUT season 8 makes some references to three of the other comics, so you might wanna get them first.

Start with Tales of the Vampire (TPB). It's a collection of stories about different vampires through the ages, some of which you will be familiar with (Angel, Spike, Drusilla, Dracula). All the stories have a different styles, so of comics. One story collected herein, "Antique", is set in between Season 7 and Season 8.

After this move onto Fray; it's Joss first foray into comic books. It's about the Slayer that lives four-hundred years in the future. You should get the TPB.

Next, there's Tales of the Slayers. It's the other Tales, only this time with Slayers. You'll see the First Slayer, Fray, and Nikki Wood amongst others.

Finally, onto the long-awaited continuations. Season 8 starts one and a half year after Chosen (that's November 2004), and After the Fall starts three months after Not Fade Away (August 2004), but since the stories aren't going to cross over :( there's no need to read After the Fall first. In fact, Buffy started its run half a year before Angel, so I would start there.

If you want to collect the comics monthly, you should pre-order the Season 8 starting with issue 21 and then get the others in TPB form. Unfortunately, with Angel I can't predict exactly how many issues will be in each TPB, so I can't advise you on where to start with that one, but issue 18 (in which the title changes from After the Fall to Aftermath) will probably be a safe point, although you might want to change sooner.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1: Long Way Home TPB, collects issues 1-5
Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2: No Future For You, TPB, collects issues 6-10
Angel: After the Fall Vol. 1 HC, collects issues 1-5
Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3: Wolves at the Gate, TPB, collects issues 11-15
Angel: After the Fall Vol. 2: First Night HC, collects issues 7-9
Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4: Time of your Life, TPB, collects issues 16-20

By now there will probably be more known about the Angel TPBs. Also, Spike: After the Fall only runs 4 issues and the first two are already out there. I would advise you to wait a little with this one and then get the TPB for that series.

Now, the Origin is the only canon title left. By now you probably will have decided whether you like the comics enough to also delve into the non-canon comics. If you don't want to, you can just buy the Origin (TPB) and be done with it. If you do want to, get the omnibuses, and you'll find that the first one actually includes the Origin. If you like After the Fall, you might also want to pick up Brian Lynch's Spike: Asylum and Spike: Shadow Puppets from publisher IDW.

So, that's what I would do, if I were you, but like I said, it's a pretty subjective order and I'm sure someone else on these boards has a better/different opinion.

[Superstar]

My advice: skip the Tales series altogether.
Only 1 short story has any direct relevance; the Fray story that is an epilogue to the Fray series.
The other stories have no meaning towards Buffy Season 8 or Angel After the Fall.
The Fray short story is even glossed here in a canon watch thread. It's only 6 pages long anyway.

Grab the Buffy trade paperbacks.
When it gets to Time of Your Life (issue#16 or Trade Vol. 4) stop and go read the Fray series as a primer and then the canon watch synopsis.
Then, go back to Buffy.

Angel, go for it. There are no primers for that.

This will save you purchasing 2 Tales trade paperbacks for only 1 story of relevance (saving you about $30 or more for a 6 page story).
I can even summarize those 6 pages of illustrations for you right now: a funky monkey-thing steals the Scythe from Fray with the purpose to lead her across the city to an abandoned building where she finds some Watcher Diaries and a marking on the floor that illustrates the Scythe; Fray begins to read the diaries. There. All glossed. Was that worth $30?

[Allycat]

Superstar, you're forgetting about "Antique" from Tales of the Vampires.

Also, you're missing out on the other stories, which may not have any impact on Season 8/After the Fall, but are still fun to read.

[Superstar]

Superstar, you're forgetting about "Antique" from Tales of the Vampires.
Nope, I didn't forget it. Wish I could though!

I hardly think it's important or even relevant that the point of the story you mention is to re-prove Xander is an exceptionally campy and more than a strongly retarded butt-monkey Renfeld around Drac just to validate a line in season 8 that sometimes when he's around Drac he "gets a little wonky"; and that for some unknown reason he would choose to spend an entire year! with him providing some form of "bond" where suddenly Buffy appears to retrieve him in some of the worst scripted dialog ever put to paper for a Buffy comic (and a very crappy story as well) .

The only reason that story was even passably mentioned (if it can even be called that, such as it was), is because the same writer of "Antique" also scripted "Wolves at the Gate" and wanted to reintroduce Drac into the story using a heavily veiled passing reference to his previous story as the flimsy excuse to do so. It was self-referential masturbation and easily dismissed since the same conclusions can be arrived at from season 5 "Buffy vs Dracula" - namely that Drac is the one who uses that particular magic. Everything else is irrelevant.

So no, I didn't forget it.

The other stories... that's the reader's call as to purchase them or not.
By no means are the Tales series required to understand Season 8 other than the Fray epilogue already glossed.

[nerd4hire]

Actually punkypower, if you want to see what they're talking about, Dark Horse comics has Antique posted at the link below to read online...

Preview :: Dark Horse Comics (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/Previews/11-756?page=1)

That'll save you a couple of bucks.