DARK HORSE #11-16

PLOT

A routine vampire patrol gets out of control when Buffy and the gang are lead into a house occupied by a ghost.  But all is not as it seems, especially when the house comes alive! (and that's as complicated as things get)

ART

It's Hector Gomez, what did you expect?  Despite Willow having her "powers" she still gets her season 2 hairdo - it seems Gomez is just as observant as Willow's mother.  Thankfully this is the last piece of Gomez Buffy work, EVER!!!!  He's now going on to draw the covers for Jade Warriors, about a stripper turned assassin.  How nice...

WRITING

Give the size of the story I wasn't really expecting much, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised.  The first few parts were extremely good, but the end seemed a little too rushed for my liking.  Perhaps next time we could get a longer run - perhaps 10 strips?

OVERALL

A nice break from the long stories the monthly series has adopted, but nowhere near the best Buffy appearance, especially with Gomez drawing it.  But that doesn't mean this series was a complete load of rubbish - in fact, out of all the strips featured in Dark Horse Extra there were two excellent ones - Hellboy and Spyboy.

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Writer: CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN

Pencils: HECTOR GOMEZ

Reivewer: RICHARD MORGAN

ART RATING: 4/10

WRITING RATING: 8/10

OVERALL RATING: 6/10

Hellboy finds a dead body, which looks to be the victim of a vampire.  On investigation Hellboy finds more than he bargained for, when he is transported to the Lair of Vampires - and he's dinner!

STORY

Since Mignola writes and draws the strips it's only fair to give him one mark, especially since the story is not exactly heavy on words.  The art is much like that of the Spike & Dru comics, so if you like those you will no doubt like this too.  As for the story, it also involves vampires, and Hellboy thinks he can solve the problem easily enough, only to find himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he falls into the vampires' lair - now I have to pick up the next issue to see if he escapes.

Reviewer: RICHARD MORGAN

OVERALL RATING: 10/10

Spyboy and his female companion Bombshell arrive at the San Diego Comic Con, to investigate the death of comic dealers due to a poison in the ink and those plastic covers - thank God Forbidden Planet don't supply plastic covers free!

ART

Mhan does his close-up shots of all the characters involved excellently, but when they fade into the background they miss key features - hopefully this will be corrected when the monthly series debuts.

WRITING

I'm biased.  I read Peter David's Supergirl, Young Justice and Star Trek: New Frontiers and regard his episode of Crusade as the only good episode.

That's why this gets 5/5, and the fact that it's extremely funny.  This is definitely a series to look out for when it debuts later this October.

OVERALL

How a comic strip should be done.  Hector Gomez and Chris Golden pay attention.

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Reviewer: RICHARD MORGAN

ART RATING: 8/10

WRITING RATING: 10/10

OVERALL RATING: 8/10