No, I'm not talking about Law & Order or Saturday Night Live. I'm talking about TV shows that make such an impact that their universe lives on in some way after the series has ended (and no, reruns don't count). Sometimes, this is done on screen, in the form of spin-off shows or movies, or now even straight-to-video releases such as Babylon 5: The Lost Tales or the upcoming Stargate: Ark of Truth (which is due to be released Tuesday, March 11th). This can also be done in print, as the vast library of Star Trek novels can attest. But, for those who love to actually “see” their favorite characters in action, many TV shows have found their way to the world of comic books.

Usually, with both novels and comics, the stories are not considered canon, and the original creators have little to do with these stories. However, last year, one creator decided that he had more stories to tell, and that is now happening with official continuations of two popular TV shows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and  Angel. Joss Whedon has coupled with the two comic publishers that had previously acquired the rights to publish comics based on these shows, and he is co-writing what is the “next season” of both of these shows.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight hit comic shops last March, and is published by Dark Horse Comics. So far, 11 issues have been released, with Joss himself writing 7 of them. Taking the writing duties on the other 4, doing a story arc featuring Faith, is Brian K. Vaughan. Naturally, the issues written by Joss capture the voices of the characters perfectly, and I believe that Brian did a fine job with that also. The dialogue is great, and you get all the little jokes, slang, and cultural references that were so great in the original series. Season Eight  picks up shortly after the events in the last episode of the series, with Buffy and crew dealing with the aftermath of releasing the power of the Slayer to all the potentials. We see all the gang, well mostly. Buffy and Dawn still have sister issues; Xander is adjusting to being the only man at HQ, as Andrew and Giles are at other locations with other charges; Xander is now serving as Buffy's Watcher; and Willow is still expanding her wiccan ways and skirting the dark magicks at times. Faith appears in a story arc that features her and Giles and sets them going in a somewhat different direction from the others. There are a few other characters from Buffy's past that appear, and there is a “big bad” that seems to be employed by the government for the purpose of killing Buffy and ending their operations. But I've said enough, and don't want to spoil things completely for those of you who will want to run out and get all these issues right after reading this :)

As with any comic, the artwork is important. The primary penciler so far has been Georges Jeanty, with Paul Lee doing the honors on one issue. I like the artwork, even though it is not as “realistic” as some other comics. Their faces may not look like a photo of the actors, but you can always tell who they are, and surprisingly, that does not happen with all “licensed” comics. I think that Georges' style captures the fantasy aspect of the universe,  giving a touch of “cartoon” quality, but staying realistic enough that you can imagine each issue as it is intended to be, an episode of the TV show. Paul did a good job on his issue also, and together they are helping to make this a wonderful book. As with many comic books these days, there are sometimes multiple covers. Georges has done some of the covers, with some done by Jo Chen, and one by Jon Foster. Georges uses the same style on the covers as he does with the interiors, while Jo and Jon take a bit more of a realistic approach, their covers being similar to reproductions of photos. They all do a great job of capturing both the characters and the action.

IDW  Publishing brings us Angel After The Fall, again with Joss leading the team. The actual scripting for the issues is being written by Brian Lynch, who is creating the plotting with Joss. Brian is doing a wonderful job with his writing, also capturing the voices of the characters very nicely. The first issue (4 have been released so far) picks up approximately a month after the series finale, and appears that Wolfram and Hart has sent Los Angeles to, well, let's just call it the “bad place”. We don't know exactly what happened in the alley, or how things have gotten to where they are in this issue, but editor Chris Ryall assures the readers that we will be finding out what happened between the alley and the first issue. Some of the crew are back, but I will not say which ones, as I don't want to give too much away. I also will say that not all of the crew are on the same page, so to speak.

The interior artwork is illustrated by Franco Urru, and he does a great job. As with Buffy, it is not a realistic approach, but one that is appropriate for this comic. He captures the characters and action nicely, and  you get a feeling of what it would look like on the TV. The multiple covers are done by Franco, Tony Harris, and Andrew Robinson, at least so far. Franco's of course are in the style of the interiors. Tony is a bit more realistic, but not entirely, and I like his style. Much as I hate to be negative, I don't feel that Andrew's work fits this comic. He uses a brushed, somewhat unfinished style and his depiction of Angel simply does not look anything like him in my opinion. It is nice work, but I do not like the use of that style here.

Joss Whedon is a wonderful creative talent, and as a fan, I am very glad that he decided to lend his talents to these comic series. I like the concept of furthering the story, where we learn what happened to the characters and their world after each series ended. Now, I have read some of the previous Buffy and Angel (and Spike) comics, which had other stories set in the universe, and I have enjoyed them (if you like Spike, check out Spike: Shadow Puppets from IDW). But, like most fans, I have always wanted to know what came next. The one thing I do regret is that while they seem to be able to have cross-comic references, as of yet, the characters have not appeared in each other's stories. I am unclear on if this is a choice, or if because the books come from different publishers. Either way, I hope they work it out so that they can have some sort of formal cross-over. With Joss working on both series, I would think it would something that could be arranged. Until then, I'll keep reading and enjoying both Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight  and Angel After The Fall. If you're a fan (and I'm guessing if you read this far, you probably are), I recommend heading to your local comic shop. If they don't have the back issues (and you'll want to get them all), try the websites for the publishers (www.darkhorse.com for Buffy and www.idwpublishing.com for Angel) and you should be able to order the issues. There is also a graphic novel collecting issues 1-5 of the Buffy series, including pictures in the back of the main covers.

Long live the Buffy/Angel universe!