The Slayer's Return - A look at the Comic Book continuation and Review of Season 10 Issue 1

When Buffy The Vampire Slayer left the airwaves back in 2003, many were left heartbroken as many geeks are when a beloved tv show gets cancelled or runs it's course.  In the case of Buffy, the story seemed somewhat complete with the complete destruction of Sunnydale. This wasn't of course the end of the story of these characters and for one more year we got a few glimpses into the new world order of the Slayer line with the continuation of the spin off series Angel.

It wasn't long of course until Buffy returned in full canonical glory. albeit in a new format, with the 2007 release of the Season 8 comic book with Joss Whedon himself back at the helm. Having ventured into the Comic Book format during the run of the TV show with many non-canon stories, The Buffyverse did briefly have a canonical stint in this format with the futuristic spin off mini series Fray about a Slayer in a less than perfect future version of earth. It was in the Fray mini series that the Slayer Scythe featured in Season 7 of the TV show first made it's appearance. How do we know the world of Fray is canonical? Well that's easy because midway through Season 8 fans of the mini series are treated to a Buffy/Fray crossover story arc which does not disappoint.
 
Season 8 took us on a wild overtly fantastical ride where the extent of the writers imagination was no longer limited to what the television show's budget could stretch to producing believably. This of course  got many fans excited about the new possibilities for storylines but did admittedly aim a little too big on occasion such as giant mystical deities and let's not forget the giant Mecha Godzilla/Dawn hybrid - whilst the latter was an amusing homage to the Japanese Kaiju/Mecha cinematic culture the giant deities were perhaps a step too far! Season 8's 40 issue run (plus 3 one shot releases) ended in 2011 with Season 9 following shortly after and this time everything came back to basics after the writers also felt Season  8 had gotten a little far from the core Buffy style and had taken the opportunity granted by the destructive climax of the Season 8 Finale to shake things up rather dramatically once again.

Season 9 separated the gang and had everyone off solving their own problems, including the introduction of the Angel & Faith comic book into the mix as well as 2 mini series runs for both Spike and Willow. These were all written with the intent that the fans could read as many or as little as they liked of the books released under the Season 9 banner and not lose out if they chose to focus on only one release as key elements that were relevant to the overall story line were always summarised where necessary when something had happened in another book that you may not have been following.

Overall both Season 8 and 9 were both fantastically enjoyable reads for the fans of the show who wanted to continue with the characters storylines and don't detract from the TV show at all, however that said, both 8 and 9 always felt like a seperate entity being in a new format and had having just re-watched the tv series yet again from the beginning in it's entirety it's clear some aspects of the show didn't always translate to the new format quite so well.

This last week saw the long awaited release of Season 10 and without giving anything away, the first issue had me laughing out loud many times as I read it and was very pleased to discover it had truly captured the missing spark of the TV series that was occasionally lacking since the format change.

With pop culture references, jokes and characteristic snarkyness being totally on point throughout the issue as well as a few surprise returns of familiar faces, I had a smile on my face from start to finish of issue one and was left excited and very optimistic for the future of the Comic Book Buffyverse. Season 10 looks like it's going to be a fun ride!
 
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If you haven't yet read any of the comic book continuation of the Buffyverse you can find trade paperback collections of both Season 8 and 9 at your local Comic Book store, large chain book stores and online retailers and you should be able to catch up by the time the first trade paperback of Season 10 becomes available if not sooner!

New to the comic book format? not sure if you'll like the change in style? well there's even a solution to help ease you across to the new format. The first 19 issues of Season 8 were also made into what is known as Motion Comics, artwork from the comic books is taken and converted into a video format, occasionally animating some elements and adding an audio track with voice actors performing the roles of the characters. Sadly no more than the first 19 have been produced at this time but the ones that have been made are available to purchase on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download and are a great way to get through the first half of Season 8 very quickly!

How to celebrate a life: The Musical

I've told you the story of how I grew up in a home where each day was welcomed with a song, where a mother who was so full of love and light, would wake me with a smile on her face and a song quite literally in her heart as she warbled out some little song so delightfully sweet she could have been mistaken for a Disney princess... on happy pills!

Days were filled with old black and white films starring the beautiful Marilyn Monroe singing her little heart out about diamonds, or the colourful and tropical South Pacific, or her favourite The Sound of Music! This love of a world where stories were told with a song was shared and encouraged in me and as I grew up during the great Disney renaissance where they once again returned to their roots and started making and releasing new films based on the old traditions and styles of the classics like Snow White and Cinderella, I was thrown into a world where musicals were once again relevant to the younger generations like myself.

I didn't grow up in a wealthy family so I wasn't one of those kids who had every single Disney movie on VHS, in part because back then they did that annoying retail trick of "buy it now before it goes back in the Disney vault" all so they could re-release it every now and then at full price instead of ever having to sell it for a low price! So being from a lower income family my Mum never fell for their annoying marketing ploy, but she did always buy me a plentiful supply of blank VHS tapes as part of birthdays or christmas so that I could record my own from the television, and as the early stage geek that I was... I actually preferred that, it was fun to record them and label them myself!

So being actively encouraged to enjoy all things musical it's little wonder that now as an adult, I never grew out of it, I still watch Disney movies and sing along with the songs, at least a third if not more of my iTunes music library is made up of original cast recordings from stage musicals, Disney films, movie adaptations of stage musicals and yes... far too many songs by the cast of Glee! and I'm not even remotely ashamed of that.

I was given a gift growing up, the ability to see the world as she did, a world where heartache and despair often drowns out the important things in life, a world where people don't always share their feelings with each other, a world where people don't always have the words to share how they feel even if they want to. What's the gift in that? I know that sounds like a strange thing to say, but these are all things that musicals excel at sharing or explaining with the world! If everyone lived life like a musical, things would be a lot simpler, a lot more honest and things would probably get done faster and more happy endings might even happen!

This is why I start the day with music, or use music to share my feelings when I need help doing so, this is why I celebrate my Mum's memory and life with music on every day that was a part of her life, the day she died, the day she gave birth to me, the day she was married, and most importantly today, the day she was born.

11th November, a day where I could easily be heartbroken and mourn, but I choose to smile through my sadness and let music bring us closer together just like it would in a musical.

So today, I ask of you one little favour, live, dance, sing and share your favourite songs from any and all musicals with the world, with strangers and with people that you love. Maybe even leave little post it notes with lines from your favourite songs in strange places for people to find. Use your imagination and let the world be just that little bit brighter today, because that's what she would do!

I love you Mum, thank you for letting me be a part of your world.

How a VHS Tape made the world a better place today!

Before my Mum died I happened to buy my first digital camera and I happened to record a short 13 second video of her sitting on the couch and waving her arms around as she did a little dance for the camera. She doesn’t say anything and she doesn’t look very well either as she’s just started a second round of chemotherapy to try to fight of the cancer which had come back, but I treasure that video with all of my heart as it was the only thing I had to remember her by that showed her alive and moving. Photographs are wonderful, but you get so much more of a person from even a tiny little short 13 second video clip.

As I’ve spoken about before, my Dad died a little more than a year later and in that time I had gotten a much better camera because I realised how important it was to take photos of things you wanted to remember. Unfortunately my Dad was the kind of person who would just make a silly face or hide behind a newspaper the minute you pointed a camera at him, so I never got a video of him before he died and that upset me.  But I figured there was nothing I could do about it, just like I couldn’t change the fact that Mum never said a word in the one I was so very lucky to have of her, so I spent the last 7 years only ever seeing them move about or talk to me in my dreams, and getting upset by the fact that the sound of their voices had started to fade from my waking memory.

That all changed today.

I have been working on clearing out the attic for a while now, getting rid of all sorts of clutter that has been saved for one overly sentimental reason or another. Mum was always the one who could take a Zen like frame of mind and periodically decluttered the whole house when I was out at school or university. She took charge of the problem that was my Dad’s hoarding tendencies, the fact he couldn’t throw away anything that might be useful some day, and that problem doubled when I came along and inherited his hoarding gene filling the house up with even more knick knacks and trinkets with sentimental value, assorted geekery collectables or craft supplies. Things squirreled away from holidays over the years, things that whilst dreadful or tacky I just couldn’t bring myself to part with. Especially true after their deaths and I was left as the heir and protector of all that remained of the lives of these two people who were no longer here to protect it themselves.

For seven years so many boxes have lain unopened, their contents a mystery and now that I am at a place in my life where I am less dependent on the past and able to begin to move forwards, letting go of many of these boxes and their once precious contents.

Today I got to a box which contained a few stray VHS tapes, one an old cartoon compilation tape I got for Christmas when I was probably only 6 or 7 and a video we bought on holiday in Gran Canaria when I was about 13 or 14 years old.  I took one look at the tapes and very nearly just threw them both into the bin, there was nothing of value there, just some childish cartoons and a video which triggered one thought “oh god not that awful video".

You see, that second video was part of a tour my parents and I did, where we went out to a banana plantation, followed by a local alcohol distillery of some sort out on a ranch in the islands sand dunes where the tour ended with a trek through the sand dunes on camels. The tour promoters filmed the whole camel trek and then charged us extra money for their poorly shot and incredibly poorly edited video of the whole thing. Both my parents and I thought this video was dreadful and watched it only the once and yet it ended up being protected all this time thanks to my Dad and I hoarding away things with even the slightest bit of sentimental value.

I have never been so grateful for this shared trait and that dreadful video until today, because seconds before I put the tape into the bin I realised that this awful thing had been hiding a wonderful gift all these years.

Video footage of both my parents

I jumped down from the attic faster than I have ever moved in my life, and for the next 30 minutes I sat in front of my television crying catching little fleeting glimpses of my parents here and there.  5 seconds here, 10 seconds there, another 5 here but this time they were smiling, 5 more and I was watching them laughing… all the while listening to the cheesiest music playing over the footage with no other sounds.

I hadn’t been so happy or grateful for such a long time, I had cried so many tears of joy I didn’t know how I still had any tears left to come out.

Then as the video was nearing the end, the most unexpected thing happened. The cameraman walked right up to my Mum as she was getting off the camel and she was suddenly right there in the middle of the frame, practically looking right into the camera and started to talk.

Just three little words, that’s all, nothing spectacular, but way more than I could have ever dreamed of hearing again in my lifetime.

It has been 7 years and 25 days since I lost my Mum, probably another week or more on top of that since I last heard her beautiful voice and today, when I had long since given up hope of ever hearing her voice again she spoke to me and told me…

“That was brilliant”

and it was.

Depression, friends and coping mechanisms

Depression and anxiety are a large part of my life and have been since I lost my parents, but this blog isn't about the cause, this is about living with it and what it means for me in what I do and say or just general coping mechanisms I use that you may or may not have noticed me doing if you know me in real life.

I think this might turn into a blog of multiple parts, so I'm only going focus on a few areas here in this first one. How depression effects me, my friendships and social life, and some of my coping mechanisms which may or may not interfere with that. Hopefully it will help others with depression understand their own feelings too.

Having a depression that has a cause, my loss and subsequent problems caused by both the loss and the depression itself. I am constantly in a state of flux, never quite sure how I'll feel when I wake up or what song playing on a shop radio might set me off. Some days I'm good and feel like I can do anything, these are the days where you might see me being creative or going on an adventure with friends. But some days everything will have gone to hell before I even wake up, my dreams have always been very vivid and for the most part quite lucid leaving me feeling very intense emotions as I wake from them. Sometimes I'm lucky and I wake with a sense of peace from the dream, where I'll have maybe seen my parents in a happy situation, but more often than not it'll be a distressing situation, a bad memory or I'll have started with a nice happy dream and have lost them again by the end of it – or sometimes the worse option is it'll feel so real that it's waking that steals them away from me all over again and the day is just left feeling empty.

So the day can start any number of ways, and it can change swiftly throughout the day too – and whilst that is true for everyone it's especially true for people like me who have problems with depression. But what do you do with the days that are bad, I hide, I distract myself to keep the negative thoughts at a distance. I deliberately lose myself in a fantasy world, doing things I cannot avoid on auto pilot. I welcome outside influences that can take me away from my world for even a little while, I long for them, but they don't always come because in hiding myself away from the world to avoid my own pain I have alienated myself from friends. I have unintentionally distanced myself from the very people who keep me afloat in a sea of negativity. I have lost lifelines and lights of hope and I feel like an outsider staring in at a life fading away. In hiding myself away from pain, I’ve inadvertently caused myself and others more and I'm hoping that realising this is a step towards fixing things and towards healing myself too.

Some days I'm very defensive, take every little thing to heart and end up saying things I regret. I say things I regret a lot, my emotions are very near the surface at the best of times, but when I'm having a down day they are completely on the surface and friends and family often take the brunt of those emotions, then the anxiety kicks in and I stress out about whether they were really offended or if they understood why it happened. 

I've always had trouble meeting new people and coping with new situations, anxiety has always been a part of my life, but more so since the depression first hit. I started getting panic attacks and some of my friends have witnessed some of them, but not the worst ones. I try not to talk about them, maybe out of embarrassment maybe just because thinking about them makes that horrible tight feeling rise up in my chest again. Thankfully I haven't had any really bad ones for a long time now, but they still happen and even writing about them just now is making my chest feel tight. It's almost a conditioned response now, it makes me run and hide from whatever makes those feelings kick in. This is one reason I make excuses about not being able to do things or go places, fear. Not the there's a dinosaur chasing me and I really don't want to get eaten kind of fear, but just as powerful because it's not a dinosaur, but it is a monster. For me the anxiety and depression have become intertwined, each causing the other to be stronger or scarier and that itself is enough to cause the fear without any other outside influence.

Depression isn't something that you can just cure and it's gone like a disease, it's like that analogy of bullying with the crumpled up piece of paper, you can unroll the paper and flatten it out but it'll never be the same again, it'll always be damaged. Alcoholism is a pretty close analogy too, you can stop drinking but you'll never stop being an alcoholic.

So to my friends reading this, please don't think that just because I haven't seen you for a while or tried to make plans with you that I don't care, or that I've forgotten about you, I’m still here and I still care, I might just be stuck in a dark place hoping someone will help me find my way out again, hoping that you might know where to look.

Apocalypse... maybe?

What if the world really did end on the 21^st December 2012 and our consciousness was simply transferred to one of our other bodies in a multiverse system?

The Mayan Apocalypse was, as apocalypse's go, pretty pathetic... at least to our perception, and we've all had fun joking about it failing and us still being here or using photoshop to make pretend fire and brimstone all across the globe. I too took great delight in taking two beloved fictional characters who are known for saving the world a lot into a work of photoshop fun to imply that they saved the world together. I mean what geek doesn't want to see The Doctor teaming up with Buffy the vampire slayer...

But all joking aside and back to my original point, what if the world really did end yesterday and we just don't think it did because of a perception complexity we just cannot fathom. Multiverse theory works on the theory that every possible option or outcome does happen splitting off to form an infinite number of possible universes because everything has to stay in balance so to simplify it if something can be “on” there has to be an option for “off” in existence, or “up” must be paired with “down” etc. These multiverses don't necessarily all last as not all options are viable in life, so it is possible that once a multiverse has reached it's end it recombines with the last universe it split from where the option chosen was successful.

So how does this effect us on a perceptual level, well consider the possibility that our consciousness is connected across the multiverses on some level and when a universe fails the consciousness is recombined with it's last split point just like the rest of the universe. Now assuming in this situation that this was true and a perfectly benign recombination led to absolutely nothing noticeable to your perception you probably wouldn't even know this system was happening... but what about the abnormal recombinations such as universes that got out of sync with each other for some reason leading to one getting further ahead before it failed, what then? Well one option could be an explanation for moments of Deja Vu or perceived Precognitive abilities, a glitch in the recombination of memories would be inevitable if there were memories in existence for one universe than hadn't happened yet in the other – potentially leading to a moment of Deja Vu and in effect giving the person an instantaneous glimpse of at least one possible outcome of their actions for the duration of the time overlap or in some cases simply a feeling of familiarity when they themselves walk that same/similar path for the first time in their native universe.

So what about a huge multiverse ending event that was of apocalyptic proportions, would that be noticeable? Would we ever have even the slightest idea that it had happened at all?

Well that would be entirely dependent on the type of apocalypse...

Instantaneous vaporisation of Earth and all it's inhabitants – unlikely, even if the universe was drastically out of sync an instantaneous destruction on this scale would presumably be over before we even noticed it began so it's memory would be non-existent and therefore non-transferable.

Slow fire and brimstone, lightning storms, fireballs or meteors falling from the sky, hell even good old zombie apocalypse – probably, memories of this type would surely be existent in at least some if not all people as people would die at different times as would the multiverse they inhabit personally.

So what can we take from this analysis of apocalypse's and multiverse theory... well unless anyone reports disturbing memories or moments of Deja Vu... I think we can safely assume our multiverse counterparts were instantaneously vaporised and felt no pain!

Of course we'll never know for sure and this is all just the vaguely scientific rambling of someone with absolutely no professional training in the field of physics...but hopefully it entertained you if nothing else, so until next time - If the apocalypse comes, beep me

Reqiescat in Pace

Death is a hard thing to deal with in any format and one thing I have always had an issue with even since I was a little child is the commonly used phrase Rest in Peace. I know you are probably wondering what on earth could be wrong with such a nice sentiment, well nothing as such but let me explain. The phrase itself isn't the problem, it's the abbreviation RIP that bothers me and always has. Now I know originally when it was first put into common usage it was simply because at the time gravestone carvers charged by the letter and the original phrase in Latin was "Reqiescat in Pace" and that's a lot of letters to have to pay for and so it became common to abbreviate it. In that situation, yes that makes sense and whilst it still bothers me I can allow it it's place in history.

However, it's more the modern usage which bothers me. Particularly in letters, cards and more recently thanks to the internet social media. As someone who has lost both parents at a young age, i've had more than a few cards and letters of condolences, and even these have had RIP emblazoned all over the card or the handwritten message inside. If you care enough to go to the effort of sending a card or letter in the first place shouldn't you care enough to take that few seconds of extra effort to use the whole words and not an abbreviation, this is after all in memory of someone you supposedly cared about or at the very least someone important to the person you are sending the card to.

But it doesn't stop there, when a celebrity dies or some tragic accident happens and is all over the news so many people are quick to post "RIP *insertnamehere*" as a status update on facebook or twitter and to me this a bit callous and almost insincere - yet again i'm forced to question do people not care enough to take a few extra seconds to type out the full words for the person/people they felt compelled enough to write the status for in the first place?

I understand that some people will be at a loss for words at a time of loss and grieving and will resort to a common phrase so they have something kind to say but I mean come on, it's three very short words and it's not as if i'm asking people to know or even bother to write out the original Latin phrase, but please for the love of all that is good in the world don't abbreviate a message of condolence - especially not to the person who is grieving.

I personally try to write something new and personal for each and every situation where possible, I feel it is my duty as someone remembering the person/people who have passed, to be as respectful as possible and that my words of kindness are one of the last things I will ever be able to do for them and that makes them very important, especially to the person who has to read them and take comfort from them.

I had letters written inside cards from people who Mum worked with, telling me how much they loved her and sharing personal stories and memories with me to give me an extra memory of my own to remember her by and others simply telling me how kind she was. These are the words that people need you to say at a time of sadness, not a lazy abbreviation that fades into the background with all the other identical ones.

Perhaps people are simply unaware of how insincere it truly is because it has become such a mainstream thing to say, perhaps many of these people don't yet understand the pain of loss and the comfort gained from kind thought out words.

Perhaps the world truly doesn't see things as I see them and have shared with you in this blog. But I do, and I will always try to give the fallen a heartfelt and sincere farewell and if I can't find words of my own to do them justice then I will seek help from a great author, poet or perhaps somebody I knew inspired the person who has died.

I shall never abbreviate a final farewell

Good Luck Mr. President

I haven't written anything about the US Presidential Election and I've tried to refrain from discussing it because much of the world is sick of hearing about it, particularly those who are intelligent and do not discriminate based on gender, race, religion or sexual orientation - because we didn't need much convincing to know that only one of the candidates shared our values.

Despite this I find myself forced to write something now, the day of the election following a discussion with an American friend earlier today and after hearing part of a news bulletin regarding the election predictions, and both of these disturbed me greatly.

The first thing which disturbed me greatly was the fact that a news bulletin informed me this morning that this Presidential Election opinion polls are calling this a very close election and that President Obama is only slightly ahead in the race. The very fact that this statement was even uttered disturbs me, as a well educated and open minded individual I like many people globally have been horrified at the offensive and archaic comments that have been said by Mitt Romney during the lead up to this election. I have also spent many days laughing at his latest ridiculous comment, but I'm not laughing any more. I knew there was a large proportion of the US population that shared his ridiculously outdated and offensive viewpoints but I thought there had been enough media coverage of his many cringe worthy foot in mouth opinions for more intelligent and open minded people to make them see that the best option for this election was to vote for President Obama (even if he wasn't the party they would normally vote for).  Once again I have been caught off guard and failed to follow my number one rule to never underestimate the stupidity of the general public and after hearing this announcement on the news this morning it would seem this rule applies particularly well to the American population at voting time.

During the discussion about the election with my friend, I was told more about how things were run in the southern state, those most likely to vote for the republican candidate. As my friend continued to tell me how these states ran their way of life the more speechless and angry I became and I felt like I had been transported in back in time to a time where racial segregation was common place. From what my friend told me many of these states get around laws against racial segregation by changing the boundaries of school districts every year to ensure the neighbourhoods with a majority population of black families purely to allow the formation of "black schools" and "white schools". Surely I can't be the only person to be furiously outraged by this information. Why are they even getting away with this? now obviously I do not know all the details here since I've only just heard about the continued existence of these offensive practices, but surely if this kind of information is known as "common practice" to someone who grew up in the south then surely there must be truth in what he told me - and that absolutely disgusts me beyond belief.


So why have I combined these into one blog, well that is simply because It has been pointed out to me that the majority of these southern state republican voters will simply be voting for Romney for one or more of the following reasons:

1. He's not black
2. He's not in support of gender equality
3. He's not in support of LGBT equality
4. All of the above but lets admit it it's mostly because he's not a black man!

What do I think the should be done about this, well frankly I think we should play these offensive racist, homophobic southerners at their own game and use their own disgusting tactics against them...

If they can move the boundaries of school districts to allow the continued segregation of black people, I say we move the boundaries of the US to segregate them out of the country and allow a more open minded and inclusive US to flourish and once again allow it to become the land of the free.


Sadly as a UK citizen I cannot vote in this election, but I can make my voice heard at least to a few so consider this my vote for the re-election of President Obama. You are a good man and America needs you, even if some of them don't believe it. You sir have my utmost respect and I truly hope you win today and are granted the opportunity to continue to make a difference in this world.

Good Luck Mr. President