Tales of the Vampires - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tales of the Vampires is a five issue American comic book

American comic book

An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...

limited series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

(later collected in a single trade paperback

Trade paperback (comics)

In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...

), published by Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

and set in the Buffyverse

Buffyverse

The Buffyverse, also known as the Whedonverse or Slayerverse , is the shared fictional universe in which the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are set. This term, originally coined by fans of the TV series, has since been used in the titles of published works, and adopted by Joss...

. It comprises an anthology of short stories written by Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...

, Jane Espenson

Jane Espenson

Jane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...

, Ben Edlund

Ben Edlund

Ben Edlund is a comic book artist and writer and television screenwriter. Prior to his involvement in TV, he was best known as the creator of the satirical superhero character The Tick. He is currently an executive producer and staff writer for The CW series Supernatural.-Background:Edlund was...

, and Drew Goddard

Drew Goddard

Drew Goddard is an American film and television screenwriter and producer best known for his collaborations with Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams .Goddard joined the crew of Lost as a freelance writer for the first season in 2004...

. Each story tells the tale of one or more Buffyverse vampires, and the otherwise unrelated collection is strung together by a bridging story written by Whedon

Joss Whedon

.

The anthology is presented as a series of stories told by an ancient vampire to a group of young Watchers. Tales of the Vampires is the tale of that storytelling session and functions as a bridge among the other items in the anthology. The stories in this series are generally considered to be an official part of the Buffyverse canon

Buffyverse canon

The Buffyverse canon consists of materials that are thought to be genuine and those events, characters, settings, etc., that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe established by the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

.

Dark Horse published a new one-shot special based on the Tales of the Vampires concept by Becky Cloonan

Becky Cloonan

Becky Cloonan is an American comic book creator, known for work published by Tokyopop and Vertigo Comics.-Career:...

, Vasilis Lolos, Gabriel Bá

Gabriel Bá

Gabriel Bá is a Brazilian comic book artist best known for his work on The Umbrella Academy and Casanova...

and Fabio Moon

Fábio Moon

Fábio Moon is a Brazilian comic book artist best known for his work on Casanova. He is the twin brother of fellow comic book artist Gabriel Bá.-Career:...

in June 2009. Specifically, this one-shot is a tie-in with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics. The series serves as a canonical continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and follows the events of that show's final televised season. It is produced by Joss Whedon, who wrote the...

storyline following "Harmonic Divergence" in which vampires become very popular with the public at large.

Drawing on Your Nightmares

Halloween one-shot special (September 10, 2003)

Title	Writer	Artist

Dames	Brett Matthews Brett Matthews Brett Matthews is an American writer of comics and TV shows. He was assistant to Joss Whedon on TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. He scripted the Firefly episode Heart of Gold...	Sean Phillips Sean Phillips Sean Phillips is a British comic book artist.He is best known in the American comic book industry for his work on DC Comics' Sleeper, WildC.A.T.s, Batman and Hellblazer.-Career:...
A noirish tale in which a gambling vampire meets his match while scouting casinos in 1930s Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous... , USA, which appeared in one-shot sample Drawing on Your Nightmares.

Issue #1

Published (December 10, 2003) cover by John Totleben

John Totleben

John Totleben is an American illustrator working mostly in comics.-Biography:After studying art at a vocational high school in Erie, Totleben attended The Kubert School for one year...

Title	Writer	Artist

Tales of the Vampires Part I	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Alex Sanchez Alex Sanchez Alex Sánchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys , was selected by the American Library Association , as a “Best Book for Young Adults”. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award... & Derek Fridolfs
At a Victorian Watcher's academy, the instructors are teaching a group of young Watchers about vampires by allowing them to hear tales from a particularly evil vampire captive, Roche.

The Problem with Vampires	Drew Goddard Drew Goddard Drew Goddard is an American film and television screenwriter and producer best known for his collaborations with Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams .Goddard joined the crew of Lost as a freelance writer for the first season in 2004...	Paul Lee
Days before the events of "School Hard School Hard "School Hard" is episode three of season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The story for the episode was conceived by series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon and co-executive producer David Greenwalt, with Greenwalt penning the teleplay. It was directed by John T.... ", we see how Spike and Drusilla leave Prague Prague Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million... amongst chaos. Drusilla has been captured by a human inquisitor and thrown into a Prague jail. The inquisitor proceeds to torture Drusilla in a unique chair built for that purpose in 1478. He hopes Dru will remember the pain forever, serving as a warning to other vampires to stay away from the people of Prague. Drusilla tries to recount the things that make her happy, including little girls lost at the fair and little boys wandering too far from home, so that she can forget the torture. Spike is lying imprinted into the ground under the bridge he was thrown from by a Prague mob that shoved a stake into his chest, inches from his heart, not dusting him so that he can flee and warn other vampires to stay away from Prague. He then moves across the city, finds Drusilla, and dispatches her captor. Spike picks up a damaged Drusilla and carries her out the door, headed for a first showdown with a Slayer in a town with a Hellmouth called Sunnydale Sunnydale Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror... .

Stacy	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Cameron Stewart Cameron Stewart Cameron Stewart is an Eisner Award and Shuster Award-winning and Eagle Award and Harvey Award-nominated Canadian comic book artist who has worked for DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse Comics.-Biography:...
A young teenage vampire named Stacy explains how, whilst human, she was enchanted by the idea of magic. Stacy's tale starts with her explaining that she is different and special because she understands magic. As she tries to explain this to her two friends, Jason and Dwayne, during a Lord of the Rings showing that captivates her, we learn that she remains isolated in her beliefs. After the movie, in her vision of magic she is an elf princess, battling orcs. In reality, she spends time battling her friend Jason's unwanted advances. Stacy again reminds us that most people think her magic is silly, but then surprises us by stating that most people have never been murdered either. We are then taken through Stacy's siring at a party from which she rises up after two days in the bushes. No one found her in all that time. This young girl then becomes connected--"evil, but connected." She finally realizes that the magic lies not with the solitary elves, but with the orc hordes, the monsters. She claims her magic with a band of other vampires.

Issue #2

Published (January 14, 2004) cover by Ben Templesmith

Ben Templesmith

Ben Templesmith is an Australian comic book artist best known for his work in the American comic book industry, most notably the Image Comics series Fell, with writer Warren Ellis, which is credited with pioneering a new format for commercial comics, and IDW's 30 Days of Night with writer Steve...

Title	Writer	Artist

Tales of the Vampires Part II	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Alex Sanchez Alex Sanchez Alex Sánchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys , was selected by the American Library Association , as a “Best Book for Young Adults”. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award... & Derek Fridolfs
Edna, one of the young trainees at the Watcher's academy begins to voice her suspicions about Roche's motivation for telling his tales.

Spot the Vampire	Jane Espenson Jane Espenson Jane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...	Scott Morse Scott Morse Scott Morse is an American animator, filmmaker, and comic book artist/writer.Much of Morse's published work consists of stand-alone graphic novels, although he is perhaps best known for his epic series Soulwind, a story serialised in a sequence of graphic novels, which was nominated for both the...
Spot the Vampire is a poem punctuated. The artwork is influenced by 1950s style children's magazine games and New Yorker magazines. The story is simply a single frame from a 1950's-looking department store on Christmas shopping day. The reader is then invited to look at each person in the frame to discover which is the vampire.

Jack	Brett Matthews Brett Matthews Brett Matthews is an American writer of comics and TV shows. He was assistant to Joss Whedon on TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. He scripted the Firefly episode Heart of Gold...	Vatche Mavlian
The story opens up in late 1888 London with another crime being reported to police Superintendent Mallory. Inspector Whitcomb is on Jack's case but holds a secret of his own.

Issue #3

Published (February 11, 2004) cover by Eric Powell

Eric Powell (comics)

Eric Powell is a comic book writer and self-taught artist living in Lebanon, Tennessee who is best known as the creator of The Goon.-Biography:...

Title	Writer	Artist

Tales of the Vampires Part III	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Alex Sanchez Alex Sanchez Alex Sánchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys , was selected by the American Library Association , as a “Best Book for Young Adults”. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award... & Derek Fridolfs
Edna, one of the young trainees at the Watcher's academy uses her suspicions to provoke a violent reaction from Roche.

Father	Jane Espenson Jane Espenson Jane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...	Jason Alexander
The tale of a long relationship between a vampire and his human son told over the lifespan of the latter.

Antique	Drew Goddard Drew Goddard Drew Goddard is an American film and television screenwriter and producer best known for his collaborations with Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams .Goddard joined the crew of Lost as a freelance writer for the first season in 2004...	Ben Stenbeck
Buffy Buffy Summers Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name... , Kira, and another scythe-activated Slayer break into the stronghold of the legendary vampire, Vlad Dracula, in an effort to rescue Buffy's comrade, Xander Xander Harris Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as in numerous items in the series Expanded Universe, such as comic books, tie-in novels and video games... who had been placed in a trance to serve as Dracula's manservant. After a brief battle, Dracula finally reluctantly agrees to release Xander from the trance and return him to Buffy. This story marks the first appearance of Buffy and Xander following Chosen Chosen (Buffy episode) "Chosen" is the series finale of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It serves as the 22nd episode of the seventh season, and the 144th episode overall. The episode was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon and originally aired on UPN on May 20, 2003... , the final episode of the television series.

Issue #4

Published (March 17, 2004) cover by Ben Edlund

Ben Edlund

Title	Writer	Artist

Tales of the Vampires Part IV	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Alex Sanchez Alex Sanchez Alex Sánchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys , was selected by the American Library Association , as a “Best Book for Young Adults”. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award... & Derek Fridolfs
Roche finally reveals his origins.

Dust Bowl	Jane Espenson Jane Espenson Jane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...	Jeff Parker Jeff Parker (cartoonist) Jeff Parker is a Portland, Oregon-based writer and comic book artist. He is a member of Periscope Studio, formerly Mercury Studio.-Biography:Parker's earliest work in comics was Solitaire, published by Malibu Comics...
Joe Cooper is trying to work a barren field that rain hasn't touched as the 1933 Dust Bowl Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936... approaches. He is soon 'turned' into a vampire, but must face this new experience by himself.

Taking Care of Business	Ben Edlund Ben Edlund Ben Edlund is a comic book artist and writer and television screenwriter. Prior to his involvement in TV, he was best known as the creator of the satirical superhero character The Tick. He is currently an executive producer and staff writer for The CW series Supernatural.-Background:Edlund was...	Ben Edlund Ben Edlund Ben Edlund is a comic book artist and writer and television screenwriter. Prior to his involvement in TV, he was best known as the creator of the satirical superhero character The Tick. He is currently an executive producer and staff writer for The CW series Supernatural.-Background:Edlund was... & Derek Fridolfs
A vampire from the 15th century who was formerly an inquisitor has become maddened over the centuries and believes that the clergy should be killed because they are too 'certain' that God exists and that God prefers doubt. He thinks that he is an agent of God - until one night when he is buying candy at a gas station in San Gabriel. A confrontation of minds ensues between the vampire and a dog-collared man who claims to be God.

Issue #5

Published (April 28, 2004) cover by Ben Edlund

Ben Edlund

Title	Writer	Artist

Tales of the Vampires Part V	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Alex Sanchez Alex Sanchez Alex Sánchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys , was selected by the American Library Association , as a “Best Book for Young Adults”. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award... & Derek Fridolfs
Edna reveals Roche's sire as their plan reaches its conclusion.

Some Like it Hot	Sam Loeb Sam Loeb Sam Loeb, born Joseph Loeb IV, was the son of comic book writer Jeph Loeb.His first and only completely written work was Tales of the Vampires: Some Like it Hot for Dark Horse Comics which was drawn by Tim Sale....	Tim Sale Tim Sale (artist) Tim Sale is an American Eisner Award-winning comic book artist. He is primarily known for his collaborations with writer Jeph Loeb.-Early life:...
A vampire seeks fun in the sun through some unusual surgery.

Numb	Brett Matthews Brett Matthews Brett Matthews is an American writer of comics and TV shows. He was assistant to Joss Whedon on TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. He scripted the Firefly episode Heart of Gold...	Cliff Richards Cliff Richards Cliff Richards is a comic book artist.-Biography:Richards is best known as the penciller of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer monthly series from Dark Horse Comics, as well as the artist on the Buffy limited series, Haunted...
Fleshes out some brief events that happened to Angel, as he controls his evil side during "Amends Amends (Buffy episode) "Amends" is episode 10 of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:It's Christmas in Sunnydale and Angel is haunted with dreams of the people he murdered over the years as Angelus. When Buffy starts getting dragged into his memory-nightmares, experiencing Angel's... ".

Tales of the Vampires Part VI	Joss Whedon Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...	Alex Sanchez Alex Sanchez Alex Sánchez is a Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys , was selected by the American Library Association , as a “Best Book for Young Adults”. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award... & Derek Fridolfs
Edna is revealed to be Edna Fairweather, the grandmother of Rupert Giles Rupert Giles Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure... , as she is rescued by the Watchers but curses them for their incompetence.

Drawing on Your Nightmares

Issue #1

Issue #2

Issue #3

Issue #4

Issue #5

See also