Here's the Dark Horse preview for #28, which shows the cover & the first two pages. The Jo Chen cover is lovely as usual. I might buy this one, though I've long since stopped following it out of, well, boredom.

Today's new icon is a quick crop from Jo Chen's cover for issue #24 of the Buffy season 8 comics. This issue is a one-shot story following Giles & Faith after "No Future For You". No idea what happens in it. I have long since given up my subscription to the comic, but I pre-ordered this one. Just for that cover. Oh my. And the good news is, Jeanty isn't ruining it with his pencils this time! And thus I found the right icon for today's story.

I am so dedicated to research for these stories that I also bought a bottle of Germain-Robin alambic brandy. The spelling of the word freaks me out, but it's apparently right. Amazing stuff. So incredibly smooth. I might give up whisk(e)y for it. Except it would ruin me. Except hey, not: since I can only drink about one eyedropper-full at a time, one bottle is going to last me years.

( Near-future projects... )

PS: Now I'm off to leave comments on all the drunk!Giles stories posted today. You might enjoy them too! Drunken Giles masterlist over thisaway.

Hmm. Whedon might have succeeded in retaining my subscription. I'd been about to cancel it out of sheer boredom. I might yet.

( Major comics spoilers within... )

( Potentially spoilery for the comics... )

And while I'm on the topic, is there some place other than TFAW to get preorders from? Because I am thinking they suck.

( Buffy issue 6... )
( Very brief writing project witter... )

Today's BPAL is Shadwell, named for the Good Omens character. (Proceeds from the sale of Good Omens scents go to charity. Orangutans and comic book legal defense.) Roll-ups, mildewed raincoat, sweet tea, and condensed milk. Liked by all who sniffed my wrists today.

Random link for today: JetPens: Japanese pens and pencils online store. Oh dear. Oh dearie dear. Though they don't carry Copic, and for the last several months I've been nuts about the Copic Multiliner SP. (UK link)

And in closing, I think the phrase "automat of death" ought to be used more often than it is. Thank you, and good night.

Look at this smokin' cover for the Buffy comic #7. Giles at last.

Iconmakers, please fire up Photoshop.

ETA: higher resolution image on this page.

I was just reading ruuger's remarkably sensible thoughts on the comics and canon, and had my own additional idea about this.

The Buffy comics aren't the same status as the television show because... they're not the television show. They have reached only a fraction of the show's audience. I can assume safely that all of my readers have watched the show. I can't assume they've read the comics. In fact, I can be sure that most of them haven't. So I can't take knowledge of "The Long Way Home" for granted the way I can take knowledge of "Band Candy" for granted.

Canon is our shared knowledge. It is the structure upon which I hang my stories. It is what I do not have to explain to my readers, and what baffles me when I read stories in fandoms I know nothing about. I'm not particularly tied down by canon; I don't feel any need to write stories that stay within it. But I do want to know that my readers share it with me.

So bing, right there I've got a reason not to treat the Buffy comics as canon when I write.

As ruuger says, I might be more enthusiastic if the comics were great, or telling a great story. Instead they're kinda comic-booky, and not in that awesome literate Sandman way. The cover art is nice; the inside art is the usual letdown. The story hasn't yet won me. Eh. It might, in which case I'll pitch it to you all as something you should read. But even then, I can't assume you will.

Anyway, I'm into ruuger's conclusion: So in short: some people like the comics, some don't, Joss says they're canon but it really has nothing to do with anything unless you're writing a thesis, and could we just go back to writing fic.

And maybe I'll write some Giles/Spike to demonstrate my agreement.