The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1) [Paperback]

Joss Whedon (Author), Georges Jeanty (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2010

Since the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers - newly legion - have gotten organized and are kicking some serious undead butt. But not everything's fun and firearms, as an old enemy reappears and Dawn experiences some serious growing pains. Meanwhile, one of the "Buffy" decoy slayers is going through major pain of her own. Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series. The bestselling and critically acclaimed issues #1-5 are collected here for the first time, as are their covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The newest incarnation of the Buffy comic, written by series creator Whedon, is effectively the new season of the TV series. It plunges right into the show's dense cosmology and doesn't bother to explain anything to neophytes. Regulars will love it, however. The Long Way Home establishes the season 8 status quo: demon-killing heroine Buffy Summers is now commanding an army of hundreds of Slayers (and her little sister, Dawn, has been turned into a giant by Whedon's favorite transformative force, sex). Still, there's some creepy unfinished business from the TV show to deal with, and the U.S. Army is coming after her, too. A shorter story, The Chain, concerns the bittersweet, truncated life of a Buffy look-alike sent underground as a decoy for the forces of evil. Jeanty, Owens and Lee's artwork, understandably, is in a very straightforward mainstream-comics style—the characters look as much as possible like the TV actors—although they manage a few interpretive flourishes, like a Cubist witch seen by one character in a fantasy sequence. The real draw, of course, is Whedon's writing. His dialogue is as snappy as ever, and his plots are hypercompressed and telegraphic. (Nov.)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics (December 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593078226
• ISBN-13: 978-1593078225
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Dark Horse
  • #90 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Horror

More About the Author

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon (born June 23, 1964), is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, occasional composer and actor, and founder of Mutant Enemy Productions. He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Angel (1999-2004), and Firefly (2002), which have also seen popular comic book adaptations, published by Dark Horse Comics and IDW.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like the sweetest hit for an ex-smoker, November 2, 2007

By 

Melissa Meade (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1) (Paperback)

I must admit that as a Buffy fan who hasn't read a comic since age 7 I was a skeptic...but a skeptic in serious withdrawal willing to slurp down just about any Buffy chum Joss flung my way (sorry fan-fictors but there's Payless and then there's Prada). This volume seriously delivers. I read it twice in 24 hours, once quickly to get the major points (who's back, who's bad, who's bedding who), and then again slowly to savor the dialogue and story line. It comes off as basically a two-hour, two-dimensional Buffy movie in what would naturally be a trilogy of films (ahh, only in my and James Marster's dreams I'm afraid). Artwork really pops, transitions are smooth and cinematic, and the trademark Buffy-speech humor is dead-on. Sure there are a few small holes in the storyline (like where a certain character mysteriously recovers from grotesque disfiguring brain surgery w/out a single panel's explanation). Ok, that's a big hole. And yes there are baby slayers with bad Euro trash accents to ignore. But let's chock it up to suspension of disbelief and ooh! look at Buffy she still has her shiny red axe thingy! This volume probably would be meaningless to anyone who had not watched all 7 seasons and memorized the lyrics to Once More with Feeling when they couldn't get a date to the prom, but who cares about them! Losers!

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fanboy's dream come true, November 15, 2007

By 

trashcanman (Hanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1) (Paperback)

Nobody loves his fans more than Joss Whedon. This is a man who once said he'd rather make something that 100 people NEED to see then something 1000 people WANT to see and the man works tirelessly and continuously to bring us the very best in sci-fi/horror/fantasy entertainment. So yeah, I'm a fan. "Buffy: Season 8" shoved off in spite of worthless television politics and Sarah Michelle Gellar's refusal to play the character (until her bank account bottoms out, anyway) by switching mediums entirely and making the official leap to the printed page. The transistion has been exemplary.

"The Long Way Home" picks up some time after the end of the 7th season. Buffy Summers is leading an army of awakened slayers in surgical strikes against demons worldwide. Instantly, the reader is greeted with a feeling of complete comfort in the old "Buffyverse"; the dialogue is so spot on you will hear the original actor's voices in your head as you read. Sly references to past events abound: Xander, still sporting his eyepatch, fancys himself a Nick Fury-type commander and fills the pages with geeky references, Dawn is suffering some very literal growing pains, Andrew makes us question his sexuality and continues pontificating at length about "Star Wars", etc; hardcore fans will not be let down. Villains with scores to settle return, including at least one you seriously never expected to see again. Each returning character is given the coolest possible introduction to the comic medium and if it possible to cheer while reading a book, you will.

The art is more than a little bit endearing, stylish, and cool. And the covers! Good God, the covers! Each month I spend what seems like minutes on end admiring the jaw-dropping artwork that greets me before I can even turn a single page. I will boldly declare the cover art of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8" to be the best of any comic I've ever seen. Long may it continue.

The story is something much more epic than anyting that could realistically be portrayed on a television budget. The settings are varied and as cool as they come, the battles are large in scale, and the cast is expanded leading the series to become more of an ensemble than ever. Misleads (usually romantic) that make you gasp are dangled in front of your eyes and then expertly diverted in a way that will make you smile about being had. Well done, Mr. Whedon. The creatures are no longer limited to men in costumes and low-budget CG, the demons are large in size, and others are just odd, such as an underground colony of slug monsters and fairies. This adds yet more depth and possiblities to the story.

Issues #1-4 chronicle the actual "Long Way Home" arc, while #5 is an excellent self-contained story about a slayer chosen to serve as one of Buffy's several doubles. It is arguably the strongest issue in spite of the fact that Buffy isn't even in it and the supporting cast only make token appearances. It's a real testament to Joss Wheson's great storytelling skills. And did I forget to mention the excellent humor that peppers each issue? Well, I guess that goes without saying, doesn't it?

Even if you have never read a comic in your life, this is a great time to begin. "Buffy: Season 8" is off to a fantastic start and if you missed
the boat, thank God for trade paperbacks. If you are already a comic fan then you know what the potential here is and you can rest assured that the hype is warranted. Next stop: "Angel: Season 6".

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Season 8 is a hit in print, December 9, 2007

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1) (Paperback)

Have you wondered what Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles have been up to since Sunnydale imploded? Joss Whedon has the answers. Have you pondered the effect on the world of the sudden existence of countless powerful young women with Slayer powers? Joss knows, and he's willing to share. Has it occurred to you that someone -- or something -- might have survived in the rubble of Sunnydale? You might be surprised by that one.

Did you think it was kind of lame when we learned in "Angel" that Buffy was off bopping in Italy with the powerful Immortal? She wasn't. Whedon handily explains that away -- without messing up the continuity even a bit.

"The Long Way Home" is the first story arc of the new series, and it takes us to the Scottish castle where Buffy hangs her hat as leader of a Slayer commando unit, where Xander acts as a new Watcher and ops coordinator, where Willow takes care of both mystical and technical affairs, and where Dawn -- still kind of whiny, damn it -- parks her very, very, very large sneakers.

Without giving too much away, I'll say that Buffy is hit with a magical assassination attempt and the American military takes an unfriendly view of the Slayer army, which strikes where and when it sees fit without respect to international boundaries. And, to round out the book, there's the very touching and well-imagined stand-alone tale about a very special Slayer with a very unique assignment.

I was pretty sure that nothing would fill the large Buffy-shaped hole in my heart. I'm not sure a new comic series is as good as a new TV series or a string of big-budget films (hint, hint), but it does a far better job than I could have expected. With Joss at the helm, you know the story is good and the specific voices of his beloved characters sound exactly as they should. The art, by Georges Jeanty, falls just short of photorealism; it's beautiful stuff, well drawn and fluid, and the characters are instantly recognizable as the actors who portrayed them.

Buffy the Comic Book has been hit-or-miss over the years. This new incarnation is a bullseye. I can only hope the creative team, led by Whedon, can maintain this outstanding level of quality.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(net) editor