Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Lost Summer #1 is written by Casey Gilly and published by BOOM! Studios. Illustrations are by Lauren Knight with ink assists by Lea Caballero. Colours are by Francesco Segala with assists by Floria Martinelli. Letters are by Ed Dukeshire. Main cover art (left) is by Mirka Andolfo.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Lost Summer #1 is available now, in print and on digital, where all good comic books are sold.
Synopsis
Spike is determined to keep the last copy of his embarrassing poetry from being discovered, sending Buffy and the Scooby Gang on a faux-supernatural goose chase to New Orleans to cover his tracks. At an antiques fair, the group is fascinated by The Casquette Girls’ clothes on display. When Dawn utters a wish she most likely should have kept to herself, the gang gains a firsthand account of the sisters’ identities… beyond what they could have imagined. Buffy, The Last Vampire Slayer writer Casey Gilly is joined by Golden Rage artist Lauren Knight, bringing fans a historically fun and frightful one-shot to sink their fangs into!
Review
BOOM! Studios is returning to the television continuity of Buffy The Vampire Slayer this week with a de-facto lost episode. Buffy, The Last Vampire Slayer writer Casey Gilly brings us a story that – possibly – fits nicely between episodes on the long-running television series. It reunites the old gang as we remember them and attempts to recreate of the magick (never understood that spelling) of the OG actors.
For the most part The Last Summer is a great piece of nostalgia. Gilly totally gets what makes these characters tick and does everything required to translate that from screen-to-page. What die-hard fans like myself will struggle with is placing where the one-shot sits within that beloved continuity. Mild spoilers ahead…
Buffy and Spike are clearly romantically entangled. So that’s a tick for season 6. There’s reference to Dawn’s cleptomania. Another season 6 tick which ensures we’re post-Once More With Feeling. Giles is there with no mention of returning to London and Tara is alive. So it seems The Lost Summer takes place somewhere in the middle of season 6. The issue fans may take with this is that it’s during Dawn’s summer break from high school. A period of time normally relegated to happen off screen between seasons. If that were the case then narratively the pieces of The Lost Summer don’t add up.
Pushing that aside, Gilly has crafted a pitch-perfect story. It truly feels like it could have been an episode of the show. The trademark wit and cynicism is all beautifully in-tact and presented with plenty of nuggets of wonderful dialogue. It’s more of a comedic episode, but given the often more melodramatic elements of the comics it’s nice to have a change of pace. It pulls nicely from elements of Spike’s backstory seen across the show and presents it in what feels like a “Doublemeat Palace”, “Gone” type vibe.
The interior artwork does little to replicate the faces of Sarah Michelle Gellar and her cast. Instead Knight and Caballero inject their own unique styles in to the illustration and evoke the sense of familiarity through clothing personality. It seemed at first like an odd choice as the book is stepping back in to the original continuity but I came to appreciate its unique design sensibilities. It’s also hard to argue with allowing the artists creative freedom when the script does so much to remind us of who these characters are.
Verdict
Die-hard Buffy fans may struggle to place The Lost Summer in continuity. But those willing to look part it will find a fun, classic comedy episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer to explore.
⭐⭐⭐
