by Randy Lander

TALES OF THE VAMPIRES #1 Recommended (7/10) Dark Horse Comics "Tales of the Vampires" Writer: Joss Whedon Pencils: Alex Sanchez Inks: Derek Fridolfs Colors: Michelle Madsen "The Problem With Vampires" Writer: Drew Goddard Artist: Paul Lee Colors: Michelle Madsen "Stacy" Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: Cameron Stewart Color Assists: Chip Zdarsky Letters: Annie Parkhouse Editor: Scott Allie Price: $2.99 US/$4.99 CAN I'm not the die-hard Buffy and Angel fan I used to be, down to some disappointments with the last few years of both series, but I'm still a pretty big fan of Angel and plan to pick up all the Buffy DVD sets, so I'm not what you can call a casual fan either. At any rate, Joss Whedon is one of those creators who has earned a lot of credit with me, and his rare failures (like Alien: Resurrection) don't stick in my mind anywhere near as much as his many successes (like Firefly). So when I hear that Whedon is shepherding (and mostly writing) a new mini-series set in the Buffy universe, I'm there. The results, at least on this first issue, are not as strong as I would have hoped for, and certainly not as impressive as Tales of the Slayers or Fray, but it's an intriguing glance into the vampires as characters themselves rather than Slayer foes, and both of Whedon's stories stand out as typically good work from him. The serial anthology format makes the whole thing feel a bit slight, but there's certainly plenty to like here, and at the very least, fans of Whedon's TV work should definitely seek it out. Tales of the Vampires opens with a framing story of sorts, as we see the in-continuity reason why all these stories are popping up. It's a nice look at the darker side of the Watcher's Council, something that Whedon and company used to great effect on some of the stronger episodes of Buffy. It's very short, only a few pages, but Whedon establishes plenty of atmosphere and character even in such a short space, and artists Alex Sanchez, Derek Fridolfs and Michelle Madsen do an excellent job on the artwork, with some stylized but realistic children and a nice moody setting for these tales to be told in. The book then leads into the weakest story of the issue, the one not written by Joss Whedon but by Drew Goddard, who has written some of my least favorite episodes of both Buffy and Angel. He's handicapped here (for me, at least) because he's telling a story of Spike and Dru, and though I loved the early incarnations of these characters, there's a tendency of late to portray them as more heroic or noble, even if only through their love of each other, that I just can't stand. "The Problem With Vampires" is exactly that sort of thing, where we're meant to sympathize with Spike and Dru because they love each other, despite the fact that they're butchers of the highest order, just because their captor is obviously a bit on the sadistic side as well. It's an obvious story, reinforcing the weird love story that has defined Spike and Dru from the beginning, but it's also one that might go over better with the Spike fans than it did with me. On the art side, "The Problem With Vampires" is pretty strong, as I've come to expect from Paul Lee. Indeed, Lee does the same exceptionally realistic faces and well-realized backgrounds as I've come to expect from him, his likenesses of Spike and Dru are dead-on and the expressions of pain and ecstasy on Dru's face speak volumes. The last story is the one I was looking forward to, as it features Cameron Stewart, one of my absolute favorite artists going right now. The good news is, it's gorgeous to look at, even though I missed the more subtle colors of Matt Hollingsworth or Lee Loughridge (and had been hoping for Dave Stewart) over Stewart and Chip Zdarsky's more straightforward approach. In addition, Whedon tells a very entertaining story of a girl who translates her fascination with fantasy and disdain for her friends into a new role as a vampire, and it's a great example of the kind of thing I was hoping for in this series, treating vampires as monsters but not uninteresting or one-dimensional ones. The bad news is, like the first Whedon story, it's kind of short, weighing in at only six pages. It definitely gets the job done even at that length, but since the longest story in the book is also the weakest, it sort of dilutes my enthusiasm for the book as a whole. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.