How Cool is This? Get Your Buffy Fix Now.

I so want the Tarot deck!!

Press release from Dark Horse Comics:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Mystical Parlor Games

MILWAUKIE, OR—Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising and Dark Horse Comics are proud to present two magical products that are sure to provide hours of sleepless slumber parties this fall. Joss Whedon's mythology comes alive with the official Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot Deck and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Conversations with Dead People” Board!

Named for an award-winning episode from Season Seven of the BVS television series—and written by Buffy Season Eight: Wolves at the Gate author Drew Goddard—the Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Conversations with Dead People” Board is a great game for fans, in this world and the next, to communicate with each other about life, death, and other mysteries. In the tradition of the Sunnydale Hellmouth, through which countless entities gained entry, fearless souls can let voices from the other side guide the planchette along the board to spell out the answers to their queries. Folks can channel their inner Willow and hone their witchy skills, providing hours of fun for the whole séance! Accompanying the game board and planchette, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Conversations with Dead People” Board includes an exclusive, comic-style instruction book featuring sequential art by Buffy SeasonEight guest illustrator Paul Lee!

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot Deck was written and conceived by renowned tarot writer Rachel Pollack, author of twelve books on the tarot, including the renowned 78 Degrees of Wisdom. She teams with long-time Buffy artist Paul Lee to create this fully painted 78-card deck, drawing on characters, themes, and legends from all eight seasons of Whedon's masterpiece. This special deck was created by Pollack not merely as a collector's item, but as an actual, working tarot deck: the cards come with a book explaining their divinatory meanings and use. The traditional symbols of the tarot are reinterpreted through the vision of Whedon's Buffy universe.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Conversations with Dead People” Board and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot Deck will both be available in September 2008 and retail at $14.99-$29.99

About Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising

A recognized industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising licenses and markets properties worldwide on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Television and Fox Broadcasting Company, as well as third-party lines. The division is aligned with Twentieth Century Fox Television, one of the top suppliers of prime-time entertainment programming to the broadcast networks.

About Dark Horse Comics

Since 1986, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. In addition to publishing comics from top talent like Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, and comics legend Will Eisner, their highly successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Aliens, Conan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Emily the Strange, Tim Burton, Trigun, and The Incredibles. Today Dark Horse Comics is the third-largest comic-book publisher in the U.S. and is recognized as the world's leading publisher of licensed comics material.

Samurai News From Dark Horse Comics

One of my favorite comic book series is getting extended! See press release below from DH:

Yo Ho Ho, a Samurai’s life for me . . .

Shiro and Yoshiko are like two ships forever taken in different directions by the wind. Their quest to be together has taken them from Japan to China to Paris to Egypt, where their reunions have been fleeting. And yet, they have pledged to belong to only each other, “If not in life, then in death.”

Samurai: Heaven and Earth Volume Three kicks off on the open sea, with star-crossed lovers, samurai Shiro and his love Yoshiko torn from each other’s arms after being reunited at the end of volume two. This time, Shiro crosses the open seas in pursuit of Yoshiko, who has again fallen into the hands of his arch-nemesis, the Spaniard, Don Miguel Ratera Aguilar. The journey takes them to the New World at the dawning of the golden age of piracy. Shiro is now a reluctant crewman on an English privateer during Queen Anne’s War, when colonial powers battled for supremacy in the Caribbean and the Americas. When he hears of a Spanish nobleman with a beautiful Asian woman at his side, Shiro knows his enemy, and his lover, are close at hand.

Shiro must enlist his crewmates in his quest, characters whose origins span both historical and literary pedigrees. Will this marauding, motley crew be just the allies Shiro needs to finally be reunited with his lady-fair, Yoshiko, for once and for all?

“Ever since the idea of Samurai: Heaven and Earth first occurred, this is the story we’ve wanted to tell, the one we’ve been pointing toward. Putting a samurai warrior amidst a crew of Caribbean cutthroats is the most fun you can have in comics, as far as Luke and I are concerned. I’ll gladly walk the plank if this isn’t the best volume yet,” writer Ron Marz said.

Acclaimed creators Ron Marz and Luke Ross reunite for the next volume of their historical epic. Samurai: Heaven and Earth Volume Three, a five-issue limited series, sets sail in spring, 2008. Each issue has a retail price of $2.99.

Buffy 2nd printing

Dark Horse announces second printing of

Buffy: Season 8!

Following the book’s release yesterday, Dark Horse will be going back to print on the much anticipated first issue of Buffy: Season 8. Since the book was announced last summer, Dark Horse has garnered a great deal of attention both in and outside of the comic market. With high profile press coverage, buzz among fans, and excitement from direct market retailers, orders exceeded the initial printing of over 100,000 copies!

“Admittedly, our expectations were already gigantic, but this has surpassed even those” says Dirk Wood, Director of Marketing. “We couldn’t be happier about how this has launched, and have high hopes for upcoming issues.”

“We've done something unique here. We've taken something really popular from the most mainstream of media, television, and we've transplanted it with total authority into comics” says Managing Editor, Scott Allie. “This is Buffy, by Joss, as much as the show ever was. And the sales seem to suggest that people are getting the message.”

The upcoming second printing will feature a full bleed version of the breathtaking Jo Chen cover, with some of the design elements removed for a cleaner, and more stripped down look. This new version will be arriving in stores with an on sale date of March 28, just a week before the release of issue #2. Dark Horse encourages retailers to backorder Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1 with confidence, as orders will be filled in full with the new printing.