Jo Chen’s cover art for Issue 6 of Joss Whedon’s ‘Buffy Season 8′ is now online at Comic Art Community, and Faith has never looked better!

This is a Brian Vaughn issue, the first one of this series not to be written by Joss himself, so it will be interesting to see what Vaughn does with this.

Click through to see the full size image.

Hercules The Strong over at the Ain’t It Cool news site has posted his review for the fourth issue of Joss Whedon’s Buffy Season 8 comics, the review is full of spoilers so beware clicking through!In brief? He likes it!

clipped from www.aintitcool.com Herc’s Seen Episode 8.4 Of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!! I’ve been a bad bad Hercules. Issue four of Dark Horse’s new “Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight” series has been on the stands since Wednesday, but all sorts of last-minute stuff – mounting piles of pilots and Galactica and Jericho and Veronica – kept me out of the comic-book stores until a few hours ago. But I’ve now read and digested the wonderful “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” 8.4, which successfully concludes writer/mastermind Joss Whedon’s excellent initial “season-eight” arc.

Over at Fractal Matter they have an excellent interview with Brian Lynch looking at his work on the ‘Spike’ comic series and talking about the upcoming “Angel:Season 6″, let’s hope that this project is as big a success as the “Buffy comics.

Click through for the full article.

clipped from fractalmatter.com With his latest comic, Spike: Shadow Puppets due out in June (and reviewed here already!) Fractal Matter caught up for a chat with Mr Brian Lynch to discuss all that is vampire related… FM: With the success of the Buffy: Season 8 comic book, what are you looking forward to most with bringing Angel: Season 6 to fruition?BL:Holding the book in my hands and realizing I had input on the future of my favorite characters. No bullcrap, Angel was my favorite show of all time. To be asked to be part of it’s future, in any medium, by Joss Whedon himself? Dream come true. I’m also looking forward to hearing people’s reactions. I think what we have planned is gonna knock people down, steal their wallets, pick them up, dust them off, fix their hair, give them a hoagie and a ride to the nearest carnival, accompany them on the tilt-a-whirl, hold their hair when they get sick, and pay for cab fare home. It’s THAT much fun.

The New York Times has an article entitled “Adopting the Hollywood Model for Comic Books, Producers and All” looking at how the comic-book industry that is taking ideas from the ‘Business’ part of Show-Business and adapting the way Hollywood does its work.

Obviously a prime example of this is Joss Whedon and his position as executive producer on the new “Buffy – Season 8″ comic books, so they have a mini interview with him and several others from the comic industry.

Click through for the full article.

clipped from www.nytimes.com “I had an idea for an eighth season and I knew they wanted to start the comic,” said Mr. Whedon, who created Buffy “I knew there wasn’t going to be another venue for it, so I started to work,” he said. The series was originally planned for about 24 issues, but will now be closer to 40 or 50. Mr. Whedon is writing the opening story line, while other writers will step in for smaller story arcs, but everyone will be working toward an already planned ending. “They all have my sort of manifesto, which I update constantly,” Mr. Whedon said. “And I’ll sit down with the writers so that I can fold their stories into the bigger picture.” This control over the series’s overall vision is why he is billed as executive producer. “It’s a nonexistent title in comics, but it best fits what I’m doing,” he said. “Everyone goes through me. It doesn’t take as many people, but it sometimes comes as down to the wire to produce a comic as it does a TV show every week.”

Yup, you read that right, over at Newsarama Joss Whedon interviews Bryan Hitch, who co-created the Marvel Ultimates 2 comic book series with Mark Millar.

Joss gets his geek on for a very interesting comic book talk, it’s well worth a read if you are a comic book fan, or just a fan of Mr Whedon and want to see inside his head a little more.

Click through for the full interview.

clipped from www.newsarama.com BRYAN HITCH & JOSS WHEDON – ONE-ON-ONE Part 1 With the long-awaited (and discussed) finale of Marvel’s Ultimates 2 finally hitting comic shops last Wednesday, Newsarama thought a in-depth discussion with series artist and co-creator Bryan Hitch was in order. But with a highly influential series nearly six years in the making coming to an end, we also thought the occasion deserved a special touch, and when we heard Buffy creator and Astonishing X-Men writer Joss Whedon was itching to talk Hitch, we knew we had our appropriate exit interview…

Studio 360 have posted a podcast interview with Joss Whedon, they take a look at the end of the Buffy TV series and its resurrection in the comic book format.

Joss also talks about the benefits of working in this new format and the reaction of some of the series actors to their characters new lease of life.

clipped from studio360.org Buffy Returns Four years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, creator Joss Whedon has resurrected his cult hit TV series in a very surprising fashion: as a comic book. Produced by Eric Molinsky. Dark Horse Comics website

As the first story arc “The Long Way Home” draws to a close next month we look forward to the first stand-alone issue of Buffy Season 8, “The Chain”, the last issue directly from Joss Whedon for now.

The information at Dark Horse Comics says in part:

Buffy’s new position as leader and figurehead of the world’s five hundred most powerful women has made her a bigger target than ever before. “The Chain” tells the story of one of the decoy “Buffy” Slayers, a tale personally important to series creator Joss Whedon. Guest artist Paul Lee (Conan, Tales of the Vampires) pencils the first standalone issue of Season Eight.

Cover art below from Jo Chen, Georges Jeanty and Paul Lee.

Over at Wizard Universe they are spoiling us with spoilers galore about some of the upcoming story lines in Joss Whedon’s “Buffy: Season 8″.

They take a look at the success of the series so far and reveal some of the characters and plot points we can expect to see covered over the next three issues.

Click through for their full coverage.

clipped from www.wizarduniverse.com SUMMER PREVIEW: BUFFY–SEASON 8 Sink your teeth into some tasty teasers from Joss Whedon’s first arc that’ll have you salivating at the vampire slayer’s best season EVER! By Andy Serwin Posted May 6, 2007��9:25 AM In the comic book equivalent of TV’s Nielsen ratings, Buffy the Vampire Season 8 made an “American Idol”-sized splash. Moving over 100,000 copies in initial orders of March’s issue #1, good enough for a spot in the Diamond Top 10 and necessitating a second printing, Dark Horse has staked its claim on a bona fide hit with Buffy Season 8.

As part of this years “Can’t Stop The Serenity” charity events, Devin Pike over at their website has posted an article letting all us Joss Whedon fans know that they have a special offer from artist Jo Chen, she’s offering a print of her cover of ‘Serenity: Those Left Behind’ # 2 (the Kaylee issue), signed by the herself, Joss Whedon and Jewel Staite.

The cover will be auctioned off on eBay, but if you want to find the link to the auction you will need to sign up as a “friend” on their MySpace page.

Good luck!

clipped from cantstoptheserenity.com   A Good Time To Be A Friend Posted by Devin Pike under Shiny! � Jo is an amazing artist. You’ve undoubtedly seen her work on the covers of comics ‘Buffy: Season 8,’ ‘Runaways,’ and ‘Serenity.’ Her work captures the essence of the characters she draws, not just mimicking their features.So, when Jo asked how she could help raise more money for the CSTS coffers, we were gleeful. Gleeful, I tell you!So, she’s offering a print of her cover of ‘Serenity’ Issue Two (Kaylee), signed by the artist (natch), along with Joss Whedon and Jewel Staite.

Over at Ain’t It Cool News Hercules has reviewed issue #3 of Joss Whedon’s new Buffy comic series, also known as Season 8. Check it out if you dare, spoilers everywhere!

Also released today was Mr Whedon’s comics Astonishing X-Men #21 and Runaways #26, so head on down to your local comic store.

clipped from www.aintitcool.com   Herc’s Seen BUFFY 8.3!! I am – Hercules!! BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 8.3 FAQ BEWARE SPOILERS!! What’s it called? “The Long Way Home, Part III.” Who’s responsible? Script is credited to “Buffy” mastermind Joss Whedon.