Buffy the Enamel Slayer

Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer figured out a long time ago that the show is dead, never to return. There's an outside chance that Sarah Michelle Gellar will someday come to terms with her Shatneresque relationship with the character, but by that time she'll be more concerned with osteoporosis, menopause and a conflicting offer to star in a revival of Murder, She Wrote.

Until then, fans will have to content themselves with the Dark Horse "Season 8" comic series, as well as a new series of drinks from Jones Soda featuring characters from the show. The bottles feature art from the great Georges Jeanty, who's made a few appearances at G33K4L1F3 since we launched earlier this year.

Head on over to the Jones website to check out flavors like Willow's Green Apple Witch's Brew and Buffy's Blue Bubblegum.

Pop Art: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by artist Casey Jones.
Casey drew this for me at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find on Free Comic Book Day in 2006. While I claim I'm not all that interested in vampires, my collection of Blade sketches suggests otherwise. As does this sketch of Barnabas Collins, also drawn by Casey Jones back in 1994.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Animated

Here's a teaser reel for a proposed cartoon based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The animation is surprisingly not terrible, but also has that Bruce Timm vibe that every cartoon after Batman: The Animated Series seemed to rely upon.

I'm also a little confused about where the producers thought this show would air, because it violates just about every ridiculous standard of "childrens television" within this three-minute clip. But it's also not sleazy enough for HBO, either.

Still, it's an interesting relic of a show that almost-was.

Buffy Summers is 30?

I've been re-watching the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this week and noticed an interesting detail. According to her records Buffy would turn 30 this year. If she were, like, real.

If that doesn't make you feel old, the rest of Season 1 ought to do the trick. The episode I Robot, You Jane is a delightfully anachronistic look back at the Internet before anybody really knew what the hell it was. It also includes a lot of annoying "type talking." You know, when people read aloud the words they are typing on the screen, even though there's nobody there to hear them. (See also: Jumping Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg.)

Buffy's relationship to the Internet doesn't get much better in later years. The show took frequent writing shortcuts by letting Willow (or whoever) pull pretty much any page from any newspaper off the web with a couple of key strokes. But I digress.

Season 1 is an interesting display of improvisation as Joss Whedon and crew figured out exactly what kind of show they were making. It's one of the best displays of "editing in motion" I've ever seen on television. Some pretty brave decisions were made to jettison characters and story arcs (The Annointed, anyone?) that were most probably dead ends, in favor of exploring new ground. The first few shows were shaky, at least in retrospect, but by the end of the season it's quickly becoming the show people fell in love with. The dialogue isn't quite up to snuff and the characters still lack the layers they developed in the second season ... but from where I am the real show is at least in sight.

UPDATE: A few episodes after I Robot, You Jane, Buffy's birthday seems to have moved ahead a year to 1981. I understand it eventually falls all the way back to 1979 at one point before returning to 1981 at a later date.